“We are all culpable,” Matt Nelson said before lighting himself on fire. This is the third such incident in a year.
For those who want to know why, what purpose, this article addresses it in the hero’s own words.
Suicide ideation is never good. There are always better alternatives than taking your own life.
This isn’t suicide in the sense that the word “suicide” implies. It was a deliberate political statement. Calling it suicide misrepresents and diminishes the intent behind Matt Nelson’s actions
People make plenty of excuses for why they kill themselves. Plenty of scared and lonely people have complete manifestos on why they are actually winning by ending their own lives.
The end result is still someone killed themselves and left a hole in the lives of everyone who cared about them. And it should not be celebrated.
Suicidal people seek painless and quick ways to die. This is the opposite because it isn’t suicide. It’s a revolutionary act.
That said? I also don’t think we should be killing ourselves to protest this war. It isn’t we who deserve to die for this genocide.
It’s not a revolutionary act, it’s suicide. He killed himself. And it changed nothing.
There are always better alternatives than taking your own life.
You are not entitled to me choosing to live just because you emotionally prefer that outcome.
When someone takes the time to die for you to listen, you listen. Not belittlement.
So if someone set themselves on fire to protest immigration or against gay rights you’d say ‘let’s sir down and work out how to ban homosexuality because it’s obviously a valid issue if someone killed themselves over it’
Of course not, how would you respond if 50 kkk members killed themselves to protest in favor of segregation? Or if a Facebook group full of flat earthers burned themselves to protest? Would that make their cause valid?
I have a strong desire to go to Gaza to support people there. That would be a kind of suicide, like suicide by cop, but instead suicide by regular bombing of areas designated by the military force doing the bombing as a zone that they wouldn’t bomb and I knew that when I went to that area.
Sadly, me being killed as a non-Palestinian by a military force which is killing indiscriminately would change nothing. It is apparent that many people think it is okay for a military force to kill indiscriminately. No number of deaths of Western people would be shocking, because ‘they shouldn’t be there’. Where is ‘there’? A place where Palestinians are trapped, in order to be killed. The infrahumanisation of Palestinians has been there from the very start, it was assumed from the conception of the opinion, and from the conception of the children.
OK… But setting yourself on fire in a country on the other side of the world is better how?
If you’re willing to give up your life to help Palestinians, then actually help them. It’s pretty simple.
If you feel so strongly about it - do it. The likelihood of you being killed is pretty low compared to the amount of people you’d actually help by helping distribute food, etc. If it’s too far away, then you can always start small - volunteer at your local food pantry, soup kitchen, etc.
Exactly. All this person has accomplished is making those opposed to genocide seem like extremists while taking someone away from all the people who care about him.
And it should not need to be pointed out why calling him a “hero” and cheering for his death is maybe the wrong takeaway from this.
