On Sunday, an active-duty Air Force member set himself on fire in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C. to protest the war in Gaza. This has unlocked all of the worst of the Internet, namely people who have decided that apparently this member of the Air Force, a disturbed anarchist, was some sort of hero.
That has some bad implications for politics, for morality, and for virtue.
Aaron Bushnell was 25-years-old and a disturbed anarchist. How do we know that he was an anarchist?
Because he said so.
This should raise some serious questions about how we actually screen for the American military. The simple fact of the matter is that the standards for the American military have been dropping pretty radically. This guy was an IT specialist. He’d been in the military for several years — and he was an active anarchist.
The military has been targeting so-called white supremacy in the military. If you’re a conservative in the military and you’re open about it, that may call into question your loyalty to the U.S. military.
But apparently, you can be a radical anarchist publicly, and that has no implications whatsoever for your military service. Apparently, you can also be a disturbed person because it turns out you have to be disturbed to set yourself on fire in front of the Israeli embassy to protest a non-existent genocide, which is what this person did.
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According to The Washington Post:
Less than two weeks before Aaron Bushnell walked toward the gates of the Israeli Embassy on Sunday, he and a friend talked by phone about their shared identities as anarchists and what kinds of risks and sacrifices were needed to be effective.
Bushnell, 25, mentioned nothing violent or self-sacrificial, the friend said.
Then on Sunday, Bushnell texted that friend, who described the exchange on the condition of anonymity to protect his safety.
“I hope you’ll understand. I love you,” Bushnell wrote in a message reviewed by The Washington Post. “This doesn’t even make sense, but I feel like I’m going to miss you.”
He sent the friend a copy of his will on Sunday. In it, he gave his cat to his neighbor and a fridge full of root beers to the friend.
Twelve minutes later, Bushnell, who was a senior airman in the U.S. Air Force, doused himself with a liquid and set himself on fire. He had posted a video online saying he did not want to be “complicit in genocide.” He shouted “Free Palestine” as he burned.
Secret Service officers extinguished the blaze. Bushnell died seven hours later at a hospital.
What’s amazing about all of this is that we know his past. He was apparently raised on a cult religious compound and fell out of that cult. And then he immediately went into the military and started associating with radical anarchist groups.
The Washington Post continues with the story, reporting:
Lupe Barboza, 32, said she met Bushnell in San Antonio in 2022 at an event for a socialist organization. She said they bonded over their politics and started working together to deliver clothing and food to people experiencing homelessness.
“He was outraged, and he knew that no one who is in charge is listening to the protesters out there every week,” Barboza said. “He knows that he has privilege as a White man and a member of the military.”
In fact, in the public statement that he released to the media before committing suicide by burning himself to death, Bushnell included his pronouns in his suicide notes. The final Facebook post of Bushnell states, “Many of us like to ask ourselves, What would I do if I was alive during slavery or the Jim Crow South? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide? The answer is, you’re doing it. Right now,” over a huge anarchist symbol.
This person was a far leftist — not just a far leftist, but a disturbed far leftist; there are many people who are far-Left who do not set themselves on fire. And when he says in his final note that he was “complicit in genocide,” the question would be exactly how, considering the United States Air Force is not even involved in the war in the Gaza Strip.
Not only that, there is not a genocide in the Gaza Strip. That has become commonplace for morons in the media to suggest the targeted operation by the Israelis in the Gaza Strip that has killed, according to the Israelis, upwards of 10,000 members of Hamas who are hiding among civilians, is somehow an example of a genocide.
That is definitionally wrong. Israel has complete air superiority over the Gaza Strip. If Israel wished to kill hundreds of thousands of people, Israel certainly has the air power to do so, but they have not done that. In fact, I know multiple members of the military who’ve been injured in Israel going door-to-door in order to prevent civilian casualties in highly populated areas in which terrorists are extremely popular.
But the Left has decided this person is not a disturbed anarchist. Rather, they have deemed this person a hero. Many people on the Left have decided he is a hero for foolishly and tragically killing himself in the most horrific way possible, predicated on a complete lie that actually helps a genocidal terrorist group.
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There is a tendency among radicals in politics to suggest that radical acts suddenly become good — if you agree with the motivation that is really just overzealousness. When people riot and set things on fire, that’s really an overzealous commitment to the cause.
That’s the language you’re hearing here. It sounds like, “Well, Aaron Bushnell may have been overzealous, but he was speaking on behalf of a good cause.”
That, of course, suggests what people like this are doing is actually quite virtuous because they’re so overzealous and they’re so passionate that they have to do this terrible thing, which, of course, incentivizes other people who are disturbed to do terrible things.
That is not good. That is very bad. In any coherent and cohesive society, you don’t want to incentivize people to engage in terrible acts or praise people for participating in terrible acts.
Victimizing yourself is not insurance against being called foolish. It is foolish to burn yourself alive on behalf of a cause that is terrible. It is foolish and bad. There are two problems here. One, the act is horrible for his family, horrible for his friends, and obviously horrible for him. That’s awful and tragic. And the celebration of people who are mentally ill doing this sort of stuff is awful.
Two, there’s this tendency among people who are defenders of what happened in this situation to suggest that if you point out Aaron Bushnell happened to be wrong on the merits, this is somehow being disrespectful to Bushnell or not acknowledging the tragedy of his death.
Self-victimization is, indeed, a tragedy. But it does not relieve you of the moral culpability for engaging in a bad act on behalf of a terrible cause.
Let us be clear: When it comes to the Gaza Strip, Israel is engaged in an attempt to extirpate an actual horrific terror group that committed the worst terrorist atrocity against Jews since World War II.