#i think there can be political power in suicide like bushnell's

[librarycards]

I’ve seen a lot of discourse about Aaron Bushnell and madness, with reactionary genocidaires saying it is madness, and leftists saying it is not madness but principled protest. In my mind I am thinking about madness and sanity under empire, thinking I am surely mad and wondering why anyone is trying to be sane. If you have the capacity, can you share your thoughts on the madness of this moment, or point to others who have shared those thoughts?

you have very much captured the spirit of what i think! there's that common aphorism that goes something like, 'if this world is sane, then of course i'm mad' etc. etc., while i think this doesn't fully capture the specific genealogy and politic of Madness as contemporary scholar-activists understand it, it does provide a quick & effective explanation of Aaron's (z"l) decision to make the ultimate sacrifice in support of Palestinian liberation.

it isn't useful to understand his choices as solely Mad (in terms of an embrace of opacity and nonsensicality/illegibility - in fact, quite the opposite, he took pains to be explicit and serious as to his reasoning and methodology so that u.s. media discourse would struggle to obfuscate it [even though they still are]).

however, it *is* useful to use a Mad conceptual framework for some elements of Aaron's choice, and as a means of understanding pathologized forms of protest –– not only suicide, but med strike, hunger strike, etc. these forms of protest, as many have said, are designed to distress onlookers. they are designed to push against the bounds of the common[/]sensical, to gift us with possible alternatives to, you know, getting a police permit and marching in circles, AND, to the complacent, grease the stopped-up gears of their own imaginations. because Aaron did what is, in many ways (even to those of us who have attempted suicide before) unimaginable: he died. we have not yet died. he died yelling "Free Palestine." he died, and lived his last moments with a degree of moral turpitude, courage, and singleminded commitment to a cause that few will ever achieve, and yet one that –– as Aaron himself acknowledged Palestinians must muster every day.

here is where Madness comes in: Aaron acted as a linker of worlds: between that which many usamericans, and many others who have never undergone military siege/genocide, find exists outside the realm of the imaginable. a world that many would prefer to pretend does not, can not, could not exist. a world from which hegemonic media would have "us" (white americans/others in the ~western world~) believe could never exist, not least because our own military hegemons (with Aaron, until the other day, as one of their sentient weapons) protect "democracy" –– that is, the supposed exceptionality/exemption of the "(white) u.s. citizen" from terror, from sociopolitical Madness, from the absolute violence of settler colonialism. Aaron, in short, brought that unimaginable violence home. he forced us to reckon with the brutal truth of martyrdom, here. as someone on here mentioned, he used his status as an airman in what is perhaps the most effective weaponization of privilege i have ever seen. he killed a soldier, and that soldier was himself.

of course media is leaping and will continue to leap on this as evidence of extremism, of dangerous insanity, etc. etc. in radical movements. always has been. read The Protest Psychosis. the idea of insanity has been used by basically every state power to justify disposal, because it's convenient: by claiming one is insane, you also claim all of their appeals to reason are the result of their insanity. this is called anasognosia. it's a cute little trick. it isn't new. the best way to approach this is to maintain two things: one, that Aaron's choice was rational given a clearsighted understanding of the scale of genocide that's currently taking place. AND, to question those –– leftists included! pro-pal folks included! –– who uncritically cite 'mental illness' as the reason for Aaron's suicide.

this is not because Aaron wasn't what some would call "mentally ill" –– i don't know him, i do not live in his head. the point is, it does not matter if he was diagnosed with anything or not. it does not matter if he was already suicidal or not. it does not matter if he had tried to kill himself before. none of it fucking matters, and attempts to reduce this act to the result of a mad(dened) mind is to distract from the political project he pursued. he performed a politically Mad act, to which his imagined internal pathology was irrelevant. he broke consensus reality, even if only for a moment. he linked worlds. Palestinians felt it. that is what matters.

so, how did he connect worlds? he did something Mad. it is useful to understand suicide as a Mad act, so long as we are careful not to fall into the pathologizing traps that exclude suicidal people as interlocutors outright. he showed many of us, activists included, what we could be doing - the lengths to which it is possible to go in support of liberation. he did not, and i am not, encourage/ing everyone else to kill themselves. self-immolation is effective, in many ways, because so few people do it. we need to stay alive to continue the fight. however, Aaron tore the fabric of the reasonable, the possible, and the legal (consider the pigs who approached his burning body with guns) to disrupt a collective consciousness that would rather move on, equivocate, forget, tune-out. that is Mad. Madness is necessary in our movements, all of them.

#ask #anonymous #palestine #madness #settler colonialism #colonialism

[ftmtftm]

Former Anon current cryptid here to say: Oh my god thank you so much for reblogging somewhat negatively about bushnell's impact on suicidal folks I was like "where is the caution??? where are people saying that this might get people to put themselves in danger??" like. thank you for giving me examples of people saying "hey we should be careful" (especially with the depressed leftist thought trap I'm like. always in the bear trap teeth of!!! it's important to remember that it's not the solution!!)

Of course. It's something I feel extremely strongly about because of my situation with my dad, so my feelings about Bushnell are very muddled with my own grief and anger, but the underlying feeling is something I've always felt even before my dad took his life.

I do also think I'm in a very unique position to criticize Bushnell's actions as an anarchist who was raised by an anarchist who killed himself because of that grief and anger too though, yk?

Because realistically? The biggest crater caused by Bushnell's death will not be in the government. It will not be in the public. It will be in the lives of his widow and his children. I know. I've been there with my own family.

I simply don't think there is anything rhetorically positive to be gained from the death of a man who has left behind a young, widowed, single mother of two babies to take care of under the age of 3 for the sake of a political cause that will not be impacted by his death in the slightest.

Not to mention, the social contagion of suicide is very real and - this is just a personal feeling as someone who has dealt with suicidality/the direct impact of suicide - but I truly think that the people who don't think about that haven't fully unpacked their own suicidality. I think that it just feeds suicidal fantasy in indirect ways. If you die for the cause it's not suicide, it's martyrdom. And that sucks.

I'm very of the mind that people who treat suicide as valid political action are dangerous, especially in leftist movements where you are dealing with vulnerable populations who are already at higher risks of suicidality. Praising suicide as a positive, viable, or powerful political action is actively dangerous. It's literally what leads to people like my dad.

It destroys people and families and we should be doing better as anarchists and leftists to combat the idea that suicide can be a powerful statement when it is absolutely not.

#asks #yes-an-rpg-guy #aaron bushnell #suicide / #parent death /

[canmom]

arguing about whether Aaron Bushnell was mentally ill or not is besides the point. I'm mentally ill, chances are you're mentally ill too, but we're still part of the world and have to make our way in it. that world is crazymaking by nature; true, "sane" people do not generally set themselves on fire but anyone who manages to be "sane" in this world is not someone i trust very much.

the impulse towards a grand gesture of self sacrifice is something I've felt many times even before the current horrors. the logic to it is quite simple. you take as the premises: the legal means of objecting to the current world order (in this case, a genocide with your government's support) are inadequate to effect meaningful change. you know the lives of Palestinians are valued very little, but you suppose your life as a citizen, white person, in this case member of the military etc, might be valued more. you think, Palestinians are risking their lives daily to try to save people in Gaza, shouldn't I do the same?

i think it is important, if you're going to persuade people that it's worth trying to live rather than die, to actually face up to that impulse and not write it off as a mysterious crazy person thing.

there is some inkling of truth that our society, news media etc. cares more about a white man and military pilot than, say, a Palestinian person doing the same thing. but only so much. it's newsworthy because it's novel. it does not mean the US government will actually change their policy even slightly. the script is very easy: it is tragic, mental illness, if only they could have gotten help, etc etc. the actual political content of the gesture can be carefully ignored.

(and on some level they must take this approach: they don't want to expose 'kill yourself' as a lever to move them. it's the same for us - if some terf self immolated over the lack of bathroom genital inspections, I'm not about to suddenly detrans. the suicide of an enemy is easily treated as laughable.)

why would it seem tempting to think suicide or suicide by cop is especially significant and powerful? the logic of religious sacrifice is that the thing sacrificed must be valuable to you. the more you are willing to display your commitment, the greater the reward - the value of the sacrifice is transferred to the thing it's sacrificed to. a similar logic is suggested whenever we are told about all the soldiers who died in wars for our nation. in fiction, we are given hundreds of stories of heroic deaths, and told again and again that the really important things are worth putting your life on the line for.

so it is a tempting pattern of thought to assume that this logic applies equally to political action - the more severe the sacrifice or risk, the greater the results that can be achieved. but riskier political action is not more effective political action. you can die or go to prison and accomplish absolutely nothing by it.

this is probably obvious, so why still the impulse? the main thing a self sacrifice reaches for is relief to the sense of guilt, shame and complicity - it is a symbolic move of making a decisive break. this is imo extremely understandable - both the world at large and the current situation generate feelings of guilt and complicity constantly. we are told frequently of horrible things that we benefit from, done in our name. something feels grotesque in watching Americans or Britons having a good time without a care while, half a world away, American and British missiles are rained on a defenseless civilian population. so by burning everything you have on a big decisive gesture, it may seem you can prove once and for all that you are not like that.

unfortunately it's not that easy. people who watch and feel wretched and suicidal are not changing the situation any more than people who shut it out.

if it can be viewed as a strategy, a public suicide simply aims to shame the enemy into changing their behaviour, and shame the public into action, by making a big show of what you're willing to sacrifice. however, states and capital have absolutely no shame, and the general public will only follow the display of martyrdom so far as it's a novelty. you might inspire a few copycat suicides. but it's not generative.

if we actually want to win, and change the way the world works, then the members of our movement are not pawns to be sacrificed. the toolkit of the anarchist movement used to include methods of anonymity like the black bloc, and protective tactics like dearresting comrades. these have severe limits, and can often devolve into radical spectacle with no more significance than football. however, in the present era, in the wake of shitshows like Extinction Rebellion, it is sadly much more common for actions to end in intentional arrest. being willing to risk arrest may be necessary for effective direct actions, since very few are legal, but the aim must always be to get away with it. in a simple battle of attrition the state will always win.

this goes even harder when death is on the line. if someone is in a desperate state of mind, placing little value in their own life, they may be tempted to prove their commitment to the cause by dying for it. this is every time an absolute failure of our movement - both to not provide a better avenue for action, and to fail to notice the person's situation and provide them support and space to recover from the constant psychic assaults of this era.

what use is a cause fertilised by the bodies of everyone who ever gives a shit?

anarchists, leftists, whatever - we are all in a pathetic position currently, and have been for decades. essentially a sideshow. nobody cares what we think and we can't force them to care. in a situation of desperation, desperate measures become tempting. but it doesn't make them actually effective, and i still believe that is what matters.

it may be that you cannot substantially change the course of events in Gaza. while groups like Palestine Action have done admirable work in interfering with the Israeli arms industry, i don't have any vision for how to bring forward a halt to the genocide in Palestine in the near term. everyone is desperate for something that they can concretely do about it.

but there is no balance where you can sacrifice yourself to save >1 Palestinians. there is no trade to be made. if you die, you just die.

don't die futilely.

#palestine #suicide #this is addressed to me as much as anyone.

[featheredpheonix]

Very dispassionate and clinical poli sci/conflict theory thoughts on a dark and emotionally charged topic here, regarding the tragic death of Aaron Bushnell: Others have pointed out the self-immolation, regardless of our feelings regarding the act, have on a quantitative level been not very successful at actually bringing about the political aims of those who carry out such acts. I agree with the evidence, it speaks for itself; however, I also think Aaron Bushnell's death appears somewhat distinct from previous case studies. The aspect of Aaron Bushnell's self-immolation that I do think is worth pointing out as somewhat unique to other self-immolation cases, is that he was a member of the organization (i.e. the US Armed Forces/U.S Government) whose behavior he was seeking to change, whereas most previous cases were appealing to either indifferent but powerful third parties, or their opponents themselves. The US climate scientist who immolated himself on the SCOTUS building plaza back in April 2022 wasn't a judge or a worker in the fossil fuel industry, for example. If your political opponents literally set themselves on fire, one would predict just carrying on carrying on, as has been the case in other self-immolation cases. That has not yet been demonstrated as the case when its 'your own' performing public and ghastly suicides - least of which because it evokes all the actions they could have taken as alternatives that most people would not.

In Bushnell's case, his self-immolation invokes the specter of a great many alternative actions he could have performed. Dying as painfully and as publicly as he did, by his own hand, suggests he did not fear punishment or sanction - how much damage could a cyber-defense analyst like Bushnell do if his principles convinced him he needed to undermine US support of the occupation in Gaza via sabotage, espionage, etc., indifferent to the personal peril involved? It arguably adds an entirely new dimension to the political calculus surrounding Gaza: how long can we support the siege if it creates the risk of another Aaron Bushnell? Especially if the next Bushnell is not content with only harming themself, and wishes to strike out against Americans or Israelis as well.

#aaron bushnell #i/p conflict #hopefully this strikes the right balance of discussing bushnell's death charitably without delving into valorization or hero worship #I think the latter subsets are questionable at the best of times #and so best refrained from in discussing the martyrdom of a real breathing person #might delete later idk

[coolspork]

Dude, you celebrated Aaron Bushnell’s suicide. You’re clearly not connected to your Judaism in any way if you can’t even comprehend the basic idea of Pikuach Nefesh. I hope you grow and learn not to celebrate people killing themselves

Sincerely, a former (yay!) suicidal Jew who actually cares about human life

Hi. I am glad to hear you are no longer suicidal, it's not a good place to be, I know from personal experience.

On to your main point. I don't feel that I am in any way "celebrating" the death of Aaron Bushnell, at least not in any positive light surrounding the fact that he died. I think what he did was horrifying and I think that's the point. Preservation of human life is an incredibly important thing to be mindful of especially during a war, and I truly believe that was something he was fully aware of. I didn't know him personally, I guess I can never say with absolute certainty why he did it, but with all the available evidence I feel confident in saying that his goal WAS to preserve human lives. I grew up surrounded by US military culture and service members and I understand the significance of an American soldier in an American uniform doing something like that while making those statements. I understand that his life was lost and that that in and of itself is a fucking tragedy, but I think the impact he has had will save more lives in the bigger picture.

The US military and police have incredibly close ties with the IDF to the point that I *know* non-jewish, non-israeli, antisemitic people here in America who have personally worked and trained with the IDF and support them uncritically. The US military is one of our government's "greatest" assets (much sarcasm) when it comes to political power and the culture surrounding the military is extremely strong. If attitudes about what's happening in Gaza were to shift within those spheres it would bring incredible change to a movement with the interest in protecting human life.

Self immolation has been used as a form of protest before. Aaron Bushnell's is not unique, it is just the most recent and named case. A woman who self-immolated in Georgia has been in critical condition since December and I truly hope she survives. It is something that has occured on record for thousands of years. I don't hold the belief that this is a practice to be encouraged or advocated for, I think it is a very jarring wake up call, especially in the society we live in today. I think the fact that you and I are so absolutely horrified at the thought of it *is the point*. He was a white male US service member. People who were refusing to acknowledge lives lost in Gaza were forced to name him because of his privileged position AS a white male US service member. I think that what he did was an incredibly brave and selfless sacrifice and that to try and bury his actions is disrespectful to that sacrifice. No one should have to go to such extremes to get their government's attention.

The fact that this is horrifying, especially to those that put a lot of value in pikuach nefesh and similar values in other cultures is the fucking point. I cannot save that man, what happened has already happened. The only thing I, as a random person on the internet, can do is use the momentum his sacrifice created to try to save more lives in the coming months by putting pressure on the military industrial complex that he publicly refused to support.

What he did was horrifying, and that is the fucking point.

Edit: I know this is an extremely controversial topic and people have a variety of reasons to agree or disagree with his actions. I don't expect everyone to support what he did, but I at least would hope you could see why he did it

#free palestine #aaron bushnell #goyim don't derail