I mean I get where you’re coming from and I like the spirit of what you’re saying, but how do you fix the campaign finance system when everyone with the power to fix that currently benefits from it? How do you expand voting access, when the people who should be doing that are actually doing the opposite? How do you fix the media, when it’s owned by the billionaires that want to control what you see and hear? And on and on and on.

I don’t want to be the doom and gloom guy, or the both sides guy or whatever the fuck. But honestly, what part of our democracy has been working lately? Do you feel represented?

I think all Americans can agree that we want housing that’s affordable, education that isn’t a death prison for our children, medical care that won’t turn us into indentured servants, and an economy that actually reflects the realities of the people and not the fucking stocks owned mostly by billionaires. I think it would be hard to find anyone of either side of the aisle that doesn’t agree. And yet, here we are.

Just curious, but was any of those suicides you arrived to a case of self immolation? I get giving up on life, but I can just off the top of my head think of 5 ways to off myself that would be much less painful and take less effort.

Setting yourself on fire kinda has a history of being the most extreme form of protest. This guy clearly did it because he believed that he needed to wake people up to the reality of the world he found himself in. But yes, he was probably also depressed. I don’t blame him. The conclusion he came to is goddamn depressing for all of us. Unless you’re a billionaire.

Crazy? Probably. I mean mental health is this country has been fucked for awhile.

But setting yourself on fire takes some goddamn resolve. He’s clearly trying to get out this message that was so important to him. The saddest part of this whole thing was believing that we wouldn’t be jaded enough to just scoff and change the channel.

Sure it sounds crazy, but goddamn have I been feeling like this whole country has been conned lately. Inflation keeps going up, we keep getting poorer, and the billionaires keep making record profits. Like what the actual fuck? This guy may not have gotten everything right, but the idea that we’ve been conned out of the America Dream by a kleptocracy (the billionaires) that actually rules this country and have been taught by media that we’re helpless in making any real change absolutely rings true.

He posted online to explain his reasoning for this action: https://open.substack.com/pub/theponzipapers/p/i-have-set-myself-on-fire-outside?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

This soup looks amazing!!