In a video, Matt Nelson said he would set himself ablaze "to stop supplying Israel with the money and weapons it uses to imprison and murder innocent Palestinians" and "to pressure Israel to end the genocide in Gaza."
Q — outside an Israeli — or outside the Israel Embassy. Was the President aware of his death? Did he have any sort of response to it?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Yes, the President is aware. And we can — I can say that it is — obviously, is a — it’s a horrible tragedy, and our thoughts are with the family of the servicemember at — during this — I could — we can’t even imagine this hor- — horrible, difficult time.
Just thoughts and prayers. No acknowledgement of his reasons why, no policy change, just more weapons sent for Israel's genocide
People are "brave" enough to put a shotgun in their mouth and pull the trigger too. That's not worthy of respect, it's the symptom of a disease. And we'll all rest the same way, since the afterlife is a bronze-age fairy tale.
Be Careful Americans! If Israel causes you to Kill Yourself that's a Kill for them and we ALWAYS Punish Israel's Murdering of Americans with MORE BOMBS!
What really sucks is that this poor person's cause will be scooped up and used by groups trying to sow division, and don't actually give a flying fuck about the genocide. If you want to engage with accounts using him as a bludgeon, look through their history first. If it's legit, fair enough. If it's obviously a political account, point out what they are doing and block em.
This person went as far as they did for their belief. The least he deserves is not being used by fake bullshitters and bot nets. If you can't agree with that, you're disgusting.
If your elected leaders are using your tax dollars to send guns and tanks and bombs to Israel then THEY are responsible for the resulting carnage, not YOU. And your time would be better spent electing better leaders instead of setting yourself on fire.
If your elected leaders are using your tax dollars to send guns and tanks and bombs to Israel then THEY are responsible for the resulting carnage, not YOU. And your time would be better spent electing better leaders instead of setting yourself on fire.
Yeah, but it kinda breaks down at the "electing better leaders" part, since we don't have an anti-genocide candidate in either major party.
Very few policies are determined by party platforms at election times. There were no pro-civil-rights-movement candidates from the major parties back in the 1960s either. Events drove them, and those events didn't just randomly happen. There were decades of organizing, recruiting, training, planning, and hard debate that went into them, and people laid their lives on the line in furtherance of actual goals, not empty gestures.
Similarly, neither major party opposed the Vietnam war, or either of the Iraq wars, or the invasion of Afghanistan, or gay rights. That's all just an excuse for inaction. Public opinion can be changed, even if it sometimes happens too late. But if you're not willing to get out in the streets, nothing will happen at all.
Electoral politics ends with the presidency. It doesn't start there. Bernie worked for progressive causes for decades before running in 2016. He worked his way up from mayor to Congress to Senate. His near miss in the primary in 2020 pulled Biden to the left on several issues.
If you want to end support for Israel, and I agree we should end support for Israel, even if they stop the war tomorrow. Then you should be writing letters, going to county Democratic meetings and finding candidates to run for state legislature that share your beliefs.
What kind of argument is this? "We gotta keep supporting genocide, or there will be more genocide"
You aren't paying attention if you don't think this situation is horrendously bad and the people supporting it are monsters.
Anyway, here's a picture of a US supplied bomb that killed 45 people at a refugee camp in Rafah.
Yes the US is supplying precision strike weapons, you know what Israel will do if they no longer have precision strike weapons? The answer is not give up and go home. It has been almost a year since the war started and casualties are at 40k. For a heavily populated urban environment that's actually quite low because Israel uses precision strike weapons.
The US is the only country that has even a chance of bringing Israel to the table for ceasefire talks. There is literally no one else they will listen to. If the US withdraws support, that goes away.
If the US withdraws support, Iran invades. They've been pretty clear on that point, and a full scale war will only lead to vastly increased numbers of civilian deaths.
These things should not have to be pointed out. I get that people feel helpless, but the genocide doesn't stop if the US withdraws support. It only gets worse.
Here’s a hint, all indications are that it would make things much, much worse.
It absolutely would, and Israel knows that too. So if there were a real threat of "take it down a notch or US support stops" I'm guessing that might influence Israel. But there is no such threat, they will continue to receive our unconditional support no matter what, and so it will continue until Netanyahu gets tired.
There have been more casualties in Ukraine this year than in Gaza.
People are just being told it's a genocide to upset them and to make them feel a sense of urgency to do something now. And probably to get Hamas some more money so they can drag this conflict out longer (which results in more casualties).
People are being fed a constant stream of images and stories to keep them angry without a moment to think. Now it's starting to feel like people want there to be a genocide to prove their accusations were right.
There have been more casualties in Ukraine this year than in Gaza.
Ukraine's population is 36M. Gaza's, a bit over 2M. So comparing rates rather than absolute numbers might be less bad.
But it's also a bad idea to get into contests about which catastrophe is worse, when both are appalling crimes against humanity committed by imperialist/colonialist nationalist aggressors.
And what's happening in Sudan is even larger-scale.
It's a genocide. They are taking their sweet time about it. It will take a few generations rather than a few years or weeks or months, but the end goal is clear, no more Palestinians in Palestine. it's been a genocide since the 2 state solution was abandoned.
I'm not trying to be a dick, just pragmatic. This is the only story I could find on this matter, and I'm guessing very few people are aware that this even happened. I'm just saying I'd think long and hard for an angle that would lead to maximum results if I was ready to die..
Killing yourself to tell draw attention to something absolutely everyone is aware or seems stupid. If anything this just draws attention to some dude killing himself in a gruesome way.
So instead of possibly doing something to directly help Palestinians that might be misunderstood after his death, he sets himself on fire? Because optics? No way anyone could ever misunderstand that 🙄
It accomplishes nothing at all. Makes no sense to do it over actual direct action if you plan to die anyway.
Big oof. Don't they know that self-immolation only really works for stuff that the general public doesn't know about?
It doesn't really work for stuff that most are aware of and have opinions on. It just makes him look like an mentally ill suicide victim. Not exactly someone to listen to on foreign policy
Anyone who blames themselves for something they have absolutely no say in or control over, to the degree they are willing to set themselves on fire over it, is mentally ill.