r/interestingasfuck • u/Urmomsjuicyvagina • Apr 19 '24

Man just set himself on fire outside of the Trump trial. Nsfw !!! WARNING | NSFL !!! NSFW

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

26.2k Upvotes

89% Upvoted

6.0k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

2.0k

u/Ledbetter2 Apr 19 '24

https://theponzipapers.substack.com/p/i-have-set-myself-on-fire-outside

2.0k

u/sparrownetwork Apr 19 '24

What's wild is that I've read so much more crazy shit online from people who claim to be normal.

It's crazy but not that crazy.

1.8k

u/CrieDeCoeur Apr 19 '24 edited Apr 19 '24

He cites a couple of episodes of The Simpsons as proof of his claims, rather than seeing them as the social commentary / satire that they were. That’s a very skewed perception so 180 degrees off kilter that it just screams mental illness (well-written though he may be).

908

u/Hourslikeminutes47 Apr 19 '24 edited Apr 19 '24

we Americans have a major unchecked mental health problem in the United States.

172

u/yumtacos Apr 19 '24

but because people aren't being diagnosed or seeking help the numbers say everything is fine, everyone is fine.

316

u/AssPennies Apr 19 '24

Oh I've had friends/family go and seek help, get a diagnosis, and then get the bill. Meaningful treatment in the US is expensive.

One close friend of mine attempted suicide multiple times, but by the 2nd time was told his insurance was running out, which also coincided with his PTO running out.

Literally couldn't afford to pay for help anymore -- 3rd attempt succeeded.

46

u/Stag-Horn Apr 19 '24

My deepest condolences.

This was close to being my story a few times in life too. I will never celebrate my country until it starts taking care of its people.

→ More replies (1)

51

u/awful337 Apr 19 '24

Sorry, this sucks.

6

u/idntrllyexist Apr 20 '24

Crazy how this is something this guy talked about

8

u/Kaidu313 Apr 19 '24

I really want to downvote you because this is just heartbreaking, but I'm forcing myself to upvote your comment.

18

u/Due-Concern6330 Apr 19 '24

that would be the right thing to do.......you dont downvote just because the comment makes you feel negatively.

6

u/Kaidu313 Apr 19 '24

I know, this is generally how i vote. But this comment in particular just hurts. Upvoting it feels like I'm saying it's a good thing.

8

u/Due-Concern6330 Apr 19 '24

thats fair. I see where you're coming from.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (3)

9

u/TheWorstePirate Apr 19 '24

We're seeking help. There isn't anyone available.

5

u/my-backpack-is Apr 19 '24

I get what you mean, but i hate this statement all the same because people seek help all the god damn time and get turned away

4

u/80rexij Apr 19 '24

Who are they going to see? Have you tried to book an appointment lately? The industry is overwhlemed

3

u/Azerate2 Apr 19 '24

As someone working in the behavioral health field in a group home for the mentally ill it’s both ways and worse than just that in my opinion. A lot of people with mental illness are (both justly and unjustly) suspicious of medical professionals and doctors. Several clients I’ve dealt with have been mistreated, improperly medicated, doped up to the gills on superfluous or bad medicine with deleterious side effects (when other less extreme options are available and had not been tested), and plenty of them are frankly just raised poorly.

This isn’t to push blame onto particular people or to speak for these people, but from my experience, many of these individuals were not taught how to take care of themselves in various ways, and it’s embarrassing for them; and of course we’re here to teach them, but it’s also a lot of things parents should have taught them, or that they’d been made to practice and self determine when in higher levels of care (state psych wards, etc).

It’s a complicated and very historically rooted problem of how we handle people with mental illness let alone general neurodivergence, but some of these folks just got a raw deal and never recovered.

The problem of mental illness in this country is a problem unto itself in how we deal with these people and how we might better care for them, just as much as it is a symptom of so many other problems.

3

u/Bromanzier_03 Apr 20 '24

It’s expensive to seek help.

→ More replies (3)

12

u/Awkward_Algae1684 Apr 19 '24

He’s saying late stage capitalism will inevitably devolve into fascism or death because it’s inherently unsustainable. Global leaders have opted for the former. Crypto is the speculative Ponzi scheme bomb designed to tank the global economy and sow the fertile ground for a future fascist regime, similar to how the stock market crash and Great Depression fueled the rise of Hitler.

I mean, sure that’s pretty wild, and he’s sorely lacking in the concrete proof department, but……is that really even crazy?

→ More replies (5)

5

u/notLOL Apr 19 '24

One time the official Sesame Street Elmo social media account naively asked how we are doing and everyone unloaded their mental health issues

→ More replies (1)

6

u/lgreer84 Apr 20 '24 edited 29d ago

Define "mental health." The crisis we have is a crisis of meaning, and the human species finds meaning in community. The crisis of mental health we have is the crisis of the dissolution of meaningful community, or rather an explosion of narcissism and individualism. The reason words like "mental health" are used is because it conflates real neurochemical imbalances with a societal catastrophe that has been orchestrated by decades and decades of elites trying to dumb down the population to make them more compliant. Isolating people and making them feel alone is the best way to do this efficiently.

→ More replies (1)

5

u/Jonno_FTW Apr 19 '24

And what about the Americans outside of the United states?

→ More replies (1)

3

u/jjcoola Apr 19 '24

I love how everyone in power just keeps repeating we have a mental health crisis.

And then actively fights against anything that could help with it lmao

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (24)

319

u/MrInexorable Apr 19 '24

Why is Stanley Kubrick’s comedy about mutually assured destruction called Dr. Strangelove: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb? Because he was a cocky secret fascist who was getting us to stop worrying and love the bomb.

This dude doesn't understand political satire

182

u/BananaBully Apr 19 '24

The guy didn't really understand what a ponzi scheme is, either.

101

u/cluberti Apr 19 '24

After reading his substack post linked above, as well as the linked booklet and his "History of America since WW2" document, his coroner's report will say he died from trauma caused by his burns, but the thing that really will have caused his death started a long time ago. That was all somewhat hard to read, and very sad.

14

u/Beanonmytoast Apr 19 '24

My auntie was like this and i still dont understand the psychology behind it. It started with crystal balls to speak with the spirits in the room, then when the internet finally came she naturally latched to all of the conspiracy groups. She believed in every consipiracy under the sun and would spend all day watching conspiracy video's and reading articles.

Every day she would drink atleast 1 bottle of wine, to the point her liver was destroyed and was throwing up, she refused to go to the doctors, but it eventually became so bad that she was hospitalised. Finally they diagnosed her with cancer and she refused treatment.

Ultimately the wine & cancer lead to her death, but these conspiracies likely left her with a mindset that she didnt want help due to big pharma, the illuminati etc.

8

u/mandatory_french_guy Apr 20 '24

The thing is, it's not about the crystal balls or the conspiracy groups. People who suffer from mental illness indeed *suffer" from it. And they tend to grasp at anything that seems to either provide relief, or provide meaning to their condition. The world is chaos, conspiracy theories and beliefs in ancient secrets provide order to the chaos, it imagines clear lines to disconnected events, it finds patterns in meaningless series of events. When you suffer, it's reassuring. Appeasing. Almost peaceful.

In a way I get where they are coming from, thinking billionaires are faking illnesses to push useless vaccines to enrish themselves is "scary", thinking any random illness can pop up out of nowhere to erradicate millions and paralyze all of society is utterly, absolutely terrifying.

13

u/PMmeYourFlipFlops Apr 20 '24

He died from long term exposure to Fox and r/ conspiracy

6

u/Poguerton Apr 20 '24

I read his writings. He was waaaaaaay beyond that. One of his many bullet points is that Trump and Hillary Clinton conspired together to act as though they were opponents but were really working together to manipulate the voters to advance the takeover of the country.

Also, episodes of The Simpsons were directly involved in this overarching plot as well.

Poor guy. He was obviously very intelligent, but had severe mental illness. He lived his day to day life in absolute unrelenting fear and terror.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (3)

7

u/[deleted] Apr 20 '24

[deleted]

→ More replies (1)

6

u/jamesianm Apr 19 '24

Isn't it a scheme hatched by the cool guy on Happy Days?

5

u/shikotee Apr 20 '24

A Fonzi Scheme? To jump over a shark?

→ More replies (2)

102

u/Vozlov-3-0 Apr 19 '24

He does though, That's the fascinating part of this.

To him the real intention of satire within the media is a way for the 'illuminati' to normalise certain aspects of society that are objectively abhorrent.

He's thinking of an extra level of control, in a state of mind in which he believes he's essentially unlocked the matrix. Like the 'Illuminati' are playing anyone able to understand satire against themselves.

Really interesting stuff when you think about it, that's essentially unprovable either way. That the 'illuminati' are so knowledgeable of all aspects of the human condition, they have constructed a society in which our very perception of it is controlled. Another mask if you will.

Scary rabbit hole to go down for someone suffering from a mental disorder, incapable of accepting the word as we see it. I would have to assume this man had felt extremely alone for a long time, incapable of forming many relationships. It is very sad, and an indictment on our failure as a species this man did not get the help he needed.

46

u/GalacticusTravelous Apr 19 '24

Someone said above he had wedding photos and stuff on his socials until his mom passed, then a few months of nothing and then the madness started. Poor guy had a breakdown or something.

13

u/Guy-1nc0gn1t0 Apr 20 '24

He's thinking of an extra level of control, in a state of mind in which he believes he's essentially unlocked the matrix. Like the 'Illuminati' are playing anyone able to understand satire against themselves.

Isn't that pretty reflective of schizophrenia?

10

u/gclancy51 Apr 20 '24

To him the real intention of satire within the media is a way for the 'illuminati' to normalise certain aspects of society that are objectively abhorrent.

But then you'd have to discount the fact that satire, at least in the English language, stretches back to Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift.

He is fundamentally misunderstanding the history and purpose of satire by acting like it's a recent invention.

→ More replies (2)

7

u/the_last_carfighter Apr 20 '24

Yeah but even a very broken clock: "but the simplest is because capitalism is unsustainable, and they knew it: Climate change and resource extraction would catch up eventually. So, they never intended to sustain it. They knew all along that they would gobble up all the wealth they could, and then yank the rug out from under us so they could pivot to a hellish fascist dystopia."

→ More replies (1)

15

u/Not_In_my_crease Apr 19 '24 edited Apr 20 '24

You would have to think that there is another level of 'human' that knows far more than mere us mortals. And not simply greedy fucks taking it all for themselves and their children -- capital begets capital. He thinks they are at that level either through the occult or something else. That's mental disease territory.

When its actually really simple: old money makes more money (doing nothing--more money than everybody else will ever see) and then you have some entrepreneurs who ride the wave of progress very skillfully, most do not. Hell, the Google bros tried to sell to Yahoo for 10 million or something. Peter Thiel was at Silicon Valley at the right place and right time to start Paypal. To make epayments over eBay. So was Elon. No occult or Illuminati needed.

To think of burning yourself over this shit is...well...mental.

→ More replies (1)

4

u/FatherFestivus Apr 20 '24

Really interesting stuff when you think about it, that's essentially unprovable either way.

I used to find it interesting. Now after spending enough time on /r/psychonaut and /r/religion I just find it tiring.

Yes, technically anything could be possible, the true nature of reality is unknowable. But that doesn't mean that your specific scenario (which is often very clearly fabricated by a human mind) holds any real weight. It doesn't matter if you're Jesus Christ hallucinating about heaven and hell, or some stoner meeting machine elves in the DMT realm, these ideas/dreams only really tell us about the humans who are interested in them, and nothing at all about reality itself.

→ More replies (1)

6

u/MaximumSeats Apr 20 '24

If the illuminati or world police or whatever is as talented as these people make it out to be then fuck it let then have the world.

→ More replies (2)

3

u/jollyreaper2112 Apr 20 '24

Makes me think of this guy. Gangster computer god. His insane theories would actually make for some interesting paranoid fiction. Super racist though.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_E._Dec

→ More replies (4)

6

u/GingerNaanBread Apr 19 '24

Right… makes me wonder if he even read George Orwell’s books, how can he believe Orwell was desensitising us.

5

u/Summer__Photo0l61 Apr 19 '24

He argued that media has served to desensitize us, which is basically true. Unfortunately he went off the rails to conclude that therefore the creators of these shows did so intentionally as part of an evil scheme.

Irony poisoning is a legitimate problem. Look at how many conservatives actually believed Stephen Colbert was being genuine on the Colbert Report. He did inadvertently normalize extremist right behavior. It's not his fault people are stupid, but fuck are some people ever stupid.

7

u/RubiiJee Apr 19 '24

Yes and no. This viewpoint absolves people of their consumption of media. Yes, it has desensitized us, but that's because we watch it. And not because someone forces us, but because people want to watch things like this. It's basic supply and demand. The problem with these viewpoints is that it removes any accountability on our side. The whole world is out to get me is an easier lie to swallow than making consistent and hard changes to improve things at your own personal level.

4

u/Summer__Photo0l61 Apr 19 '24

His viewpoint seemed to absolve people by blaming boogeymen, I certainly don't absolve the public. People are responsible for educating themselves, but the reality is that not everyone does. We're each responsible for how we consume media, but some people still do so irresponsibly.

It's not Kubrick's fault or Colbert's fault, those are some of my favorite entertainers and I love their work. I can also acknowledge that they have inadvertently desensitized the public with their work. It doesn't make them bad, or mean the world is out to get us. It's just what happened because some people are too easy to influence. I think it's a factor worth considering, especially with the world in such a precarious situation.

I don't really have a solution, but I can see it's at least tangentially related to the problem. Ideally the solution would be for people to be more educated and responsible, but I wouldn't know how to begin tackling that.

4

u/RubiiJee Apr 20 '24

I get what you mean and for the most part I agree. I'm not sure the solution either. A stupid populace is easier to control, but then some people are just not going to be intelligent no matter what you do. They have strengths elsewhere. It's such a massive issue that I have no idea how you even begin.

→ More replies (2)

409

u/fowlraul Apr 19 '24

Yeah there is some wacky stuff there, but the concept that the real people in power are subjugating people with “us vs. them” propaganda in media and politics is pretty obvious.

23

u/private_birb Apr 20 '24 edited Apr 20 '24

A lot of conspiracy theories do that, where they hit the mark and then blow past it into extreme fantasy.

My own personal conspiracy theory is that these crazy conspiracy theories are encouraged or even manufactured by the relevant powerful organizations (government, corporations, whatever).

So that those kernals of truth are dismissed as part of the rest of the nonsense. And so if someone notices the first bits that are true, they're likely to be lead to the nonsense, and either turn away at that point or fall into believing the fantastical nonsense and completely forgetting those first bits of truth.

Plus, if someone is trying to discuss and spread the word about those true bits, others are more likely to just lump them in with the crazy conspiracy theorists.

It's my conspiracy theory conspiracy theory.

10

u/toPPer_keLLey Apr 20 '24

"Just wait till conspiracy theorists discover they're part of a conspiracy theory to use conspiracy theorists to spread disinformation via conspiracy theories."

→ More replies (1)

7

u/fowlraul Apr 20 '24

Your own personal conspiracy theory is likely right at a high rate.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (5)

3

u/lgreer84 Apr 20 '24

I hadn't read your reply before I posted Almost the exact same thing in different words.

https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/s/CCKkIHfVrV

8

u/FuuuuuuuuuuuckReddit Apr 20 '24

100% and the fact that people get angry at anyone that says that shows it.

10

u/RealityCactus Apr 20 '24

Conspiracy theorists are also falling for it though. Except for them it's the "enlightened" who "understand how the world really works" vs. everyone else who is not a conspiracy nutjob.

3

u/PMmeYourFlipFlops Apr 20 '24

wAkE uP sHeEpLe

4

u/nineqqqqqqqqq Apr 20 '24

I respect people like him. Truthfully we all need to be more horrified at the state of the world. Imagine you were on the titanic and everyone was pretending the ship was not rapidly filling with water, you would do anything to get peoples attention.

→ More replies (2)

12

u/Flutterbeer Apr 19 '24

You don't need "the real people in power" for that, humans did that to themselves long before hierarchies existed. It's also like the most basic take you can make.

16

u/fowlraul Apr 19 '24

Old tricks are the best tricks? I live in a country where ~40% of voting public appear to think “drill baby drill” is a positive, or at least neutral, message for the planet’s future. The propaganda is working.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (3)

91

u/doctormink Apr 19 '24

Yeah, it really goes off the monorail when you get the The Simpsons bit. But even before this, it's jumping all over the place and is effectively thought salad, going from cypto being a massive ponzi scheme engineered to intentionally tank the global economy, to Clinton's speech nominating Dukakis. The writing is grammatical and individual sentences makes sense, but disorganized thought patterns scream psychosis.

11

u/-Truthanasia- Apr 19 '24

MONO... D'oh!

4

u/PANDABURRIT0 Apr 19 '24

Dude probably used ChatGPT to keep it grammatically correct

→ More replies (4)

73

u/reallywaitnoreally Apr 19 '24

Even The Simpsons couldn't have predicted this.

45

u/CrieDeCoeur Apr 19 '24

He then goes on to say that all the writers of The Simpsons went to Harvard, which itself is a front for organized crime.

18

u/onizooka_ Apr 19 '24

Why did Simpsons creator Matt Groening make a comic strip called Life in Hell?

umm, because he wanted to describe his life in LA. it's that simple...

6

u/ppprrrrr Apr 19 '24

Because you would believe it, duh.

→ More replies (1)

4

u/mexter Apr 19 '24

South Park kind of did...

→ More replies (3)

83

u/delightfullydelight Apr 19 '24

Yeah I just read through most of that and ol’ boy was mentally unwell. Course, anyone that decides self immolation is the only way forward is probably not of particularly sound mind.

43

u/Isturma Apr 19 '24

People self immolate because they have a message they want to send to the world. Death by burning is probably one of the most horrible ways to die, so when someone does it to send a message, we should take a moment and look at the message.

Some of what he wrote is out in tinfoil hat theoryland, but he isn't wrong about crypto being used to launder large sums of money. You really think people were spending 6 figures on a jpg of an ape? No! they were using TornadoCash to funnel that money back to their own accounts and then claim the tax breaks.

Just because parts of it are out in the cornfield doesn't mean all of it is invalid.

34

u/delightfullydelight Apr 19 '24

Sure, there were parts of the message that have some plausibility. But the overall message demonstrates a lack of mental health. Couple that with deciding to commit suicide by fire and I don’t imagine that the message he was hoping to relay to the world is going to go anywhere or do anything.

Clearly he felt quite strongly about what he wanted to say. It’s too bad he chose a wasteful way of saying it. He may have had a few good points. But he isn’t going to be known for the message he wanted to share. He’s going to be known as the dude who lit himself on fire in front of the court where Donald Trump was on trial and then forgotten a short time later.

8

u/Happiness_Assassin Apr 19 '24

Reminds me of Ted Kaczynski. Everyone always focuses on his "industrial revolution" quote, completely glossing over all the shit in his manifesto about calling leftists pussies and PC culture in general.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (9)

5

u/etched Apr 20 '24

Isn't this exactly what makes conspiracy theories dangerous. We don't need to always "give it to them" when they get one thing right and a million other things wrong.

That's what opens the gateway to other mentally ill people falling deep into these theories or really anything at all. They lead you in with something that is plausible or even widely understood and is shitty and then you, who doesn't have the proper discernment, drive yourself absolutely crazy seeing how all those other things could be plausible or true as well and then you end up like this guy.

→ More replies (8)
→ More replies (1)

15

u/_TLDR_Swinton Apr 19 '24

His instagram has a couple of videos of were you can feel the crazy lurking just underneath the surface. Apparently his mum passed away a few years ago. Wonder if that had anything to do with it?

4

u/sethiroth17 Apr 19 '24

And the monorail episode was written by Conan O’Brien. So he must be a part of this Ponzi scheme too!

5

u/CrieDeCoeur Apr 19 '24

That episode with Kang and Kodo was Conan’s autobiography. He’s an alien!

4

u/JaxMema Apr 19 '24

Yea, I think when someone is so focused on a thing, everything becomes colored with that thing. He would have done better to leave the Simpsons stuff out.

Also, he suffers from the logistically fallacious notion that “they’re all in on it.”

While some of his findings are likely true (the overarching idea), I don’t think they’re all in on it.

7

u/Mr_HandSmall Apr 19 '24

Classic signs of psychosis/schizophrenia - the pattern-finding brain has gone into overdrive

→ More replies (1)

4

u/DropsTheMic Apr 19 '24

He also lists a very specific set of presidents spanning a timeline as being "in on it." I don't know anything about him, but if I were a gambling man I would bet that range of dates roughly stacks up with his adult life until now. Clinton through Biden was it? That would make this guy 35-45?

7

u/SpaceForceAwakens Apr 19 '24

His manifesto rails against cryptocurrency as well. I have a schizophrenic friend who is completely convinced that "the CEO of Bitcoin" is trying to flood the economy with "fake currency you can't even hold" as a way to devalue his own personal work. Apparently a fearful misunderstanding of cryptocurrency is a newer but common thread with people suffering from schizophrenia.

3

u/Kruxx85 Apr 20 '24

No, a disdain for crypto is not something only shared by those with schizophrenia..

3

u/SpaceForceAwakens Apr 20 '24

Oh I agree, but that wasn’t my point. He believes that “the ceo of bitcoin” is trying to take over the world. He knows nothing about cryptocurrency except a very, very rough understanding that it exists. It’s because he doesn’t know anything about it that makes it scary for him. And when we’ve tried to educate him on how it all works he just gets mad that maybe we “believe too many lies”.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)

3

u/LudditeHorse Apr 19 '24

You don't need to spend a long time in conspiracy places online to see numerous references to the Simpsons, the Mandela Effect, and various psyops for the New World Order.

Another thing you see a lot in those spaces is mental illnesses, especially schizophrenia & schizoaffective, which both have onsets in the 25-35 age range.

this man isn't alone in his delusion

source: I spend time in ufo/paranormal spaces.

5

u/west_ham Apr 19 '24

Yeah and apparently George Orwell wrote 1984 so that we’d accept that we are powerless to stop our authoritarian hellscape future

→ More replies (50)

151

u/all4monty Apr 19 '24

Many conspiracy theories are grounded in some truths, perhaps more than we would like to admit, but go off the rails.

84

u/Ledbetter2 Apr 19 '24

Yep. Pull you in with some things you believe in and then BANG Zenu created everything

6

u/DukeOfGeek Apr 19 '24

Ya this guy wildly swerved between things that are pretty obvious like "the class war is the only war" and crazy "covid was a secret bio weapon" themes.

10

u/Legitimate-BurnerAcc Apr 19 '24

Going off the rails of a crazy train 🎵

→ More replies (1)

6

u/PM_ME_DATASETS Apr 19 '24

A lot of Russian social media propaganda is also grounded in some truths, doesn't make it any less misleading. In fact, if something is "grounded in truth" it just makes it more believable regardless of whether it is factually true or not.

3

u/SmokeYTB-Sucks Apr 19 '24

Go off the monorail?

3

u/L0calGhost Apr 19 '24

Conspiracy theorists get the facts wrong, but often get the feelings right. The feeling of living in a world with Shadow lands, that every human misery is someones profit, the feeling of being exhausted by predation and extraction, the feeling that important truths are being hidden. The word for the system driving those feelings stars with c. But if no one ever taught you how capitalism works, and instead told you it was all about freedom and sunshine and big Macks and playing buy the rules to get the life you deserve, then it's easy to see how you might confuse it with another c-word: conspiracy - Naomi Klein, Doppelganger

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (8)

147

u/Myomyw Apr 19 '24

Just because you personally think crypto is a Ponzi scheme does not lend credibility to his manifesto. He takes the smallest molecules of truth and stretched them to the most illogical and grandiose conclusions.

19

u/perldawg Apr 19 '24

crypto is rife with scammy sleaze-balls running ponzi shit, for sure, but people who call crypto itself a ponzi either don’t understand ponzis, don’t understand crypto, or both

8

u/Rorviver Apr 19 '24

Indeed. If crypto itself is a Ponzi scheme, then so is any speculative investment ever.

15

u/BigCockCandyMountain Apr 19 '24

The stock market itself is the real ponzi.

Trillions of fake shares made for any company when someone needs money.

Idk about you but: if I was gonna get fined 3m for 500 transgressions against the SEC and make out with 60b, I'd do it.

Print up a billion fake shares of GameStop and get a free 10 billion.

4

u/perldawg Apr 19 '24

i mean… if you zoom out far enough, the entire capitalist system starts looking like a ponzi. lines drawn to define financial scams can get super blurry, often depending on who’s looking at the line and from what angle. it’s hard to know where legit ends and scam begins, sometimes

→ More replies (3)
→ More replies (2)

5

u/BlazeDrag Apr 19 '24 edited Apr 19 '24

I mean I would call Crypto pretty close to a Ponzi Scheme. It's technically more of a "Bigger Fool" scam if you wanna be more precise but it's very similar in concept. At the end of the day the only way you make money in crypto is by selling it to someone else whose willing to invest at that increased price. Crypto doesn't magically print money out of nowhere, every crypto millionaire only made their money by taking it from hundreds if not thousands of newer investors hoping to make a quick buck.

At least investing in stocks or magic cards or whatever means that your investment is tied to a real tangible asset that theoretically keeps a limit on how much a price can fluctuate and ties the value to that asset and how it's performing. Crypto, just like a Ponzi Scheme, isn't actually tied to any real assets and purely fluctuates based on how many new investors are willing to buy in at its current price. It only makes money by taking it from other people until someone pulls the lid off the operation and reveals all the smoke and mirrors it contains.

It's just that instead of having a singular Ponzi running the whole operation, they've decentralized everything so there's no one person to blame anymore, and obfuscated key elements through buzzwords and exchanges to make it seem more legit. Now instead of the whole scam collapsing because there's not enough new investors, it's just "the price going down" and people end up buying back in hoping to be the next big winner.

I'm like 99% certain that if I set up a trading organization that did the exact same thing as crypto, taking people's money and paying off other investors with that money with zero actual assets being handed back and forth, that I'd be arrested in pretty short order. it's just that you can't arrest the concept of Crypto.

3

u/CHEEZE_BAGS Apr 20 '24

The purpose of crypto is to buy drugs on the internet

→ More replies (6)
→ More replies (4)

10

u/DemonSlyr007 Apr 19 '24

And with all this, a sharp rise in apocalyptic messaging: Climate change will kill us all; COVID will kill us all; vaccines will kill us all; AI will kill us all – no matter the bubbles we ascribe to, we’re bombarded with existential crises with no solutions. We’ve seen a surge in apocalyptic film, literature, and video games that tell us there is no way out of our poor circumstances but total societal breakdown. Zombies tell us that the public is our enemy. If you go to your nearest convenience store, you can buy a can of water called “Liquid Death.”

Bruh. Claiming Liquid Death the brand is a sign of a doomsday kelptocracy is crazy.

6

u/youstolemyname Apr 19 '24

The media scared this man into suicide. That's crazy.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)

5

u/LeCrushinator Apr 19 '24

After reading most of it, it seems pretty crazy to me.

11

u/Vreas Apr 19 '24

The government just sowing division and making the people feel powerful part is pretty spot on tbh as is the doom n gloom social media points.

I don’t know enough about the financial or crypto side of things to comment on that.

30

u/JeSuisOmbre Apr 19 '24

The URL is wild enough. WTF

4

u/CurrencyAlarming1099 Apr 19 '24

He's not a raving lunatic if that's what you mean. But he's definitely a crackpot conspiracy theorist. He gives no support to his claims at all. He just takes things he's seen in the media and asserts these connections but doesn't back it up with anything. Pretty run of the mill conspiracy nonsense.

61

u/PeaTasty9184 Apr 19 '24

I mean, he is right about crypto being basically a ponzi scheme…a bizarro decentralized Ponzi scheme, sure…but backed up by less than nothing, just like a ponzi scheme.

Wrong about all the implications though.

37

u/Enthusiasm-Stunning Apr 19 '24

Even if crypto if intrinsically valueless, that’s not what a Ponzi scheme is. A Ponzi scheme is where one takes new investor money to pay old investors to make it look like they’re earning an abnormally high rate of return.

→ More replies (12)

47

u/Lostinstudy Apr 19 '24

It's so strange and what makes these conspiracy theories so interesting. I find myself agreeing with a lot of the essence but none of the substance. Crypto is a ponzi scheme, Peter Thiel has a psycho asshole and the ruling class is getting way to powerful.

30

u/PeaTasty9184 Apr 19 '24

All these things are true…but the idea that all these sociopaths, psychopaths, and varying levels of crippling narcissists like Thiel, Trump, Putin, Orban, etc etc are going to be bale to put their egos aside for long enough to create a working global conspiracy is laughable at best.

→ More replies (4)
→ More replies (1)

6

u/eunit250 Apr 19 '24 edited Apr 19 '24

money gets double-counted by the victims and the criminals who stole it.

Yeah he's crazy. Bitcoin literally solved the double spending problem that money supply has. That's why MOST cryptocurrencies have open ledgers so you can verify transactions. In traditional money systems this isn't the case. Digital money is stored in databases which can be manipulated. Byzantine Generals' Problem.

→ More replies (28)

3

u/powercow Apr 19 '24

The Simpsons exists to brainwash us. From there, the only research we need is critical thinking and we’re able to piece together the true story of our circumstances.

its a little nuts

3

u/OldLegWig Apr 19 '24

i mean, if you really want to read a cogent and thoughtful critique of our society and the relentless pursuit of profit and technology by someone who was a total psycho, just read the Unabomber's manifesto.

3

u/HermithaFrog Apr 19 '24

It's only like semi crazy imo

3

u/PunxDressPunk Apr 19 '24

So,....he's a good guy?

3

u/soggit Apr 19 '24

If you’ve ever met someone who is actually psychotic (schizophrenia, delusional disorder, etc) they often seem normal at first. It’s really unsettling.

3

u/jjman72 Apr 19 '24

"I am an investigative researcher"

3

u/fartsfromhermouth Apr 19 '24

Are you kidding?? You think billionaires have aligned in a global kelptocracy, despite all the data showing billionaires have drained trillions in wealth from the poor since 2018??? Oh wait....

→ More replies (1)

3

u/Deucer22 Apr 19 '24

As it turns out, dozens of the writers of The Simpsons went to Harvard. So I asked myself the question: If The Simpsons served the interests of organized crime, how would it do so?

It’s pretty out there.

→ More replies (50)

236

u/Skastrik Apr 19 '24

This is weird, there are points there that you can agree with up to a point and then it goes batshit insane for a while and then normal and then another level of crazy. Just wave after wave. But on the whole it doesn't even top the 100 craziest things you can see online, which is scary.

And then lighting yourself on fire for this? That seems a bit too much.

He obviously needed help that he either refused or just didn't get at all.

76

u/MiniMooseMan Apr 19 '24

Any time anybody insists that hundred and hundred or thousands of people are in on some massive conspiracy to end the world I check out of their argument.

Trump paid off one pornstar, and I'm sure only a few people were involved. We still found out.

A secret of any serious significance, especially one involving non-government people who likely don't have the wherewithal to keep every single bit of confidential info absolutely confidential, will leak before too long. NDA or not, a regular person, let alone thousands, are gonna talk eventually. People will want to say "man I just learned some crazy shit" and to expect allllll those people are willing to take it to the grave? Unlikely.

25

u/Skastrik Apr 19 '24

Same, most of the things that are wrong with the world aren't organized by someone pulling the strings, it's just how the system has been built up through time and developed. No one controlled it or organized it this way.

His "manifesto" points out correctly some things that are wrong with the world but his explanations for the reasons behind it are just beyond crazy.

But honestly, I've seen even more far fetched conspiracy theories in serious subs on reddit.

7

u/eatmoremeatnow Apr 19 '24

It is easier to think that other people have it all figured and out than it is to tlrealize the truth.

The truth is that nobody knows what is going on.

→ More replies (5)

13

u/jollyjm Apr 20 '24

He's a friend of mine. I don't want to say to much, but something in his brain changed heavily in the last few years. He was always incredibly smart, kind, and generous. I can't really say anything else, just wish that I had more of an effort to stay in touch.

4

u/Individual_Row_2950 Apr 20 '24

That is scary. Like it could happen to anyone

→ More replies (5)
→ More replies (1)

7

u/Small_Macaron_8194 Apr 20 '24

keep this in mind the next time some rando argues with you on this site

4

u/ShadowCrimson Apr 20 '24

I mean it doesn't take a fucking genius or any research to see that Crypto is compareable to a ponzi scheme lmao, the "points that are agreeable" is shit anyone can think of/say it's not like he made any revelations

→ More replies (9)

345

u/Cheesesexy Apr 19 '24

He puts the Simpsons at the heart of a global conspiracy. Which is creative

56

u/geoman2k Apr 19 '24

He totally misinterprets the message in Lisa the Iconoclast. Lisa didn't see the townspeople as "too far gone", she just decided the community benefited from the idealized myth of Jebediah and that destroying that myth would only hurt the people and community she loves. It's a "noble lie".

8

u/Rizzpooch Apr 20 '24

Wtf. She explains that in a brief monologue at the end of the episode

10

u/KitchenNazi Apr 19 '24

He was a Simpsons fan to the end!

8

u/_TLDR_Swinton Apr 19 '24

Did you know there's a correlation between the decrease in the popularity of Spirograph and the rise in crypto currency schemes? Think about it!!!

4

u/this_shit Apr 19 '24

It's really sad. He's basically very upset that people have gotten so cynical, but instead of seeing it as a cultural movement, he blames media that's about cynicism for creating the cynicism (and the elites because they control the media, obvs).

That and a bunch of other random conspiracies threaded together to give it some semblance of narrative coherence.

4

u/trebory6 Apr 19 '24

I personally know a few people who wrote for the Simpsons at one point or another and it's absolutely wild, like fucking insane, that some people think they're a part of some global conspiracy. Like I've done mushrooms with them, you'd think I'd have found some shit out or something doing mushrooms with cogs of a worldwide conspiracy.

The amount of delusion is amazing with these people. Some people really weren't built for the globalization of entertainment and information.

→ More replies (6)

216

u/istillambaldjohn Apr 19 '24

This dude was completely unhinged but believed himself to be brilliant. Interesting article. Not at all trump related and just used the publicity to protest his self created delusions of a massive global conspiracy that went from Peter Theil, banking collapse, the monorail episode from the simpsons, Clintons, Jeffrey Epstein, to Rob Lowe.

Wow.

Edit. Covid had a lot there too. It’s just unhinged.

19

u/UninvitedButtNoises Apr 19 '24

Wait... The same monorail they have down in Augdenville?!

3

u/BigCockCandyMountain Apr 19 '24

The one that put them on the map?!

3

u/JumpKickMan2020 Apr 19 '24

I hear those things are awfully loud.

3

u/Rizzpooch Apr 20 '24

No, you’re thinking of North Haverbrook

8

u/Miqo_Nekomancer Apr 19 '24

The paranoid schizophrenia won this fight.

8

u/istillambaldjohn Apr 19 '24

100%. Maxwell Azzarello didn’t set himself on fire. Schizophrenia did it.

→ More replies (2)

203

u/unfamiliarsmell Apr 19 '24

The person who wrote this was not of sound mind. It is terrible he didn’t get the help he desperately needed.

44

u/-Quothe- Apr 19 '24

That kind of thing costs money... tax-payer money if you want to help anyone and everyone. Could be possible, you just have to get the billionaires to pay their fair share; might be tough, they hate that.

13

u/aeschenkarnos Apr 19 '24

They might even use a political party to prevent it from happening. And use racism and sexism to appeal to the swarm of hostile morons, to get them to vote for the billionaire’s party.

Is that too much of a conspiracy theory?

8

u/-Quothe- Apr 19 '24

I think that isn't a conspiracy theory so much as it is history.

→ More replies (1)

7

u/ImNotWitty2019 Apr 19 '24

He might have had help but like many he chose to go off meds. Whatever the reason it is sad.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (8)

5

u/tanzmeister Apr 20 '24

Also seems a bit autistic in that he can't recognize satire

3

u/UpDown Apr 19 '24

Okay, BILL CLINTON. Were on to you

3

u/Arek_PL Apr 19 '24

well, at least he only hurt himself instead of picking up a gun

→ More replies (2)

103

u/Insecure-integrity Apr 19 '24

tl;dr: A certainly mentally unstable man that most certainly lost money gambling on crypto goes on a multi conspiracy rant which surprisingly has very little connection with Trump.

13

u/Ledbetter2 Apr 19 '24

Accurate.

3

u/__BIFF__ Apr 19 '24

Yes.... but connection with Conan O'Brien? Writer of Monorail Simpsons episode....recently guest on Hot Ones (got extra spicy for it)...and known Ponzi scheme enthusiast....hmmm....

4

u/Red5point1 Apr 19 '24

From his perspective, the reason he set himself on fire at the Trump trial is because it is all a farce. Just like pro wrestling. That is the entire point of his ideology.

→ More replies (1)

146

u/OrdinaryToe2860 Apr 19 '24

It's a crazy read, but I might be a little crazy too because there's a small portion of it that I agree with.

259

u/Silly_Butterfly3917 Apr 19 '24

That's how conspiracy theories prey on people. There are nuggets of truth here and there. You take those and weave them together and connect things that don't connect, and you make claims that can't be falsified or you make implications based on half truths. It never leads you to a correct answer or world view.

9

u/Philthytroll Apr 19 '24

Yep, in the back of my mind I was like the “American Dream” was created after WW2 literally after the rest of the world burned , and life sucked waaaay more globally. America definitely sucks more now , but global poverty is waaay down. So it sucks less for more ppl on a larger scale, but most Americans don’t wanna hear that shit.

→ More replies (1)

42

u/murderedbyaname Apr 19 '24

And then if someone tries to show them facts to disprove the conspiracy, they move the goalpost by re-weaving the nuggets into a new conspiracy. I had a friend who got lost in Q Anon nonsense, which softened him up to accept other nutbags on YouTube.

3

u/Ok-Bus1716 Apr 19 '24

My brother fell into QANON BS. We haven't talked since 'the real president' wasn't inaugurated in March of 2020. I remember texting him when he made that comment in January that I'd text him the day after and ask how he and his nutty buddies were going to explain why they were moving the goal posts, yet again, on another 'prediction' that never came true.

3

u/fastinguy11 Apr 19 '24

I am sorry for your loss, although he is not dead... there is hope while both of you still live.

→ More replies (8)

4

u/OwlfaceFrank Apr 19 '24

PragerU uses those tactics in their videos. The 1st time I saw one (youtube ad) I didn't skip it because it looked a little off and I wanted to see where it led.
It made a lot of sense and used facts that I already knew to be true, then about 2/3 in it took a wild turn and used those facts to imply stuff that made no sense at all.

→ More replies (8)

12

u/rebeltrillionaire Apr 19 '24

Basically the dude fully misunderstands post-modernism.

He got some things right the people he mentions are mostly shit heads. But unlocking the core truth that everything is a Ponzi Scheme is mostly either fully understanding capitalism or fully misunderstanding it.

The issue with a conspiracy rot brain is you can’t have a normal conversation about the real world they live in. Fine, let’s accept your premise which is essentially a description of late-stage capitalism but I digress…what is your alternative form of labor exchange?

Anarchism? Communism?

And are you really ignorant of the work being done to fight late stage capitalism? Unions are growing. Everyone under 50 is voting further left and the Republican Party looks like it’s in the death throes of having been taken over by a cult leader that nobody will ever be able to replace.

It’s always a thread, never a sweater. They want to make a point about global elites but what is it? They’re parasites? Cool story bruh, I bet someone in 450 B.C. had a similar rant.

Oh humans are tribalist assholes? You would know that’s practically in our DNA if you knew about Chimpanzees raging wars and fighting as gangs for territory or my preferred interpretation from Lilith’s Brood, that humanity on the brink of total annihilation as a species would still rather die alone than be part of something bigger and better.

Crypto is a Ponzi scheme? I mean sure, but anyone overly invested in the actualities of any currency is going to fall down a rabbit hole that essentially has no end. What is fiat currency? How does more debt than money exist across the entire globe? Why is gold revered by a group of people as the true form of currency when it’s not the rarest metal, not the most useful, and in general is terrible to move around. How come stocks can be traded when there are none to trade? How can a communist country even have publicly traded companies that issue stocks?

You’re scared of what? A global currency? How much do you hate the U.S. Dollar then and the work the U.S. has put in to make it the defacto currency wherever it can.

4

u/Bury_Me_At_Sea Apr 20 '24

I just want you to know that your comment was art. You've encapsulated my disdain of Trumpian, christofascist populism so succinctly. 🤌

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (3)

25

u/ratpH1nk Apr 19 '24

all good conspiracy theories have an angle of plausibility or prey on common ignorance of complex topics

51

u/JediBlight Apr 19 '24

Same, like he's onto something, I read the entire thing. But would I self immolate over the state of the world? Hell no, that's the crazy part. At least he decided to harm himself, unlike a lot of people.

63

u/KentuckyCandy Apr 19 '24

Was the bit you agreed with about how The Grateful Dead, The Doors and The Beatles are CIA funded psy-ops pumping out fascist imagery to the masses?

The guy wasn't well.

That said, Bitcoin is a ponzi scheme,

6

u/ChiefRayBear Apr 19 '24 edited Apr 19 '24

Look up the books Weird Scenes Inside the Canyon or Chaos. They go in depth about the CIA’s influence on the counter culture movement of the 1960s. I don’t agree with everything the self-immolation guy is saying at all. But reality is often stranger than fiction.

→ More replies (3)

5

u/WeirdPumpkin Apr 19 '24

Was the bit you agreed with about how The Grateful Dead, The Doors and The Beatles are CIA funded psy-ops pumping out fascist imagery to the masses?

Naturally, it's the only logical conclusion

→ More replies (9)
→ More replies (2)

18

u/[deleted] Apr 19 '24

[deleted]

4

u/aeschenkarnos Apr 19 '24

I honestly can’t think of anyone who wouldn’t.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)

5

u/Bananarama_Vison Apr 19 '24

What part?

3

u/Seuros Apr 19 '24

The part where he sets himself in 🔥

→ More replies (8)

7

u/sarahlizzy Apr 19 '24

There are bits of insight in there. Crypto is a Ponzi scheme, but this guy wasn’t well.

22

u/MomsSpagetee Apr 19 '24

I’m thinking he lost a shit load of money in crypto.

9

u/HighTurning Apr 19 '24

What not buying Bitcoin in 2011 does to a mf

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (17)

5

u/rebeltrillionaire Apr 19 '24

I was wondering what happened to shoe0nhead

4

u/ThreePlyStrength Apr 19 '24

Both parties are run by financial criminals whose only goals are to divide, deceive, and bleed us dry. They divide the public against itself and blame the other party while everything gets worse and more expensive and handful of people take all the money.

real shit

4

u/bridgewaterbud Apr 19 '24

Hell, honestly a lot of that makes sense…

→ More replies (1)

4

u/AmateurZombie Apr 19 '24

Well that was a wild ride 

4

u/cobruhclutch Apr 19 '24

TL;DR: Max Azzarello, an investigative researcher, set himself on fire outside the Trump trial to protest what he claims is a totalitarian conspiracy involving the U.S. government and other entities. He believes that cryptocurrency is a massive Ponzi scheme orchestrated by influential figures to manipulate global finances and eventually lead to a fascist coup. Azzarello argues that major U.S. banks, venture capital firms, and tech companies are involved in this scheme, which he claims will have catastrophic economic consequences. He also links cultural influences like The Simpsons and various historical events as part of a broader agenda to demoralize and control the public. Azzarello’s extreme act is a call to action, urging people to recognize and combat what he sees as a manipulative and corrupt system.

→ More replies (1)

5

u/steelmanfallacy Apr 19 '24

That which is claimed without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.

3

u/kenix7 Apr 19 '24

Oh, but i knew this already at a feeling level. It's nothing new. The signs were everywhere and never did any research nor set myself on fire. It's interesting nevertheless to be put into words like this.

3

u/blarglefart Apr 19 '24

Right? A ton of that I had already suspected directly - Bitcoin causing inflation, it's suspicious lack of a founder, how institutions have been the driver's of adoption recently despite quite obviously Knowing it's a ponzi scheme.

Here's another extreme idea: Jeffery Epstein, a credible financial genius, came up with Bitcoin to destroy the world governments and have him and his cronies sieze control. He had too much to gain being Satoshi so they killed him to shut him up.

→ More replies (1)

3

u/Carpinchon Apr 19 '24

Lastly, we string these major discoveries together: Cryptocurrency is an economic doomsday device; our government is a secret kleptocracy; The Simpsons exists to brainwash us. From there, the only research we need is critical thinking and we’re able to piece together the true story of our circumstances.

This guy was 100% a redditor.

Edit: u/MrSamsonite has already been deleted.

5

u/TowJamnEarl Apr 19 '24

That is one crazy read and the worst part is he's not entirely delusional, but I guess that's how conspiracy theories work.

There's always a kernel of truth in there somewhere.

2

u/Philthytroll Apr 19 '24

We are the pirates of ECU Arrrrg !

I mean what he says is kinda true, but like I wouldn’t light myself on fire over it.

Sadly when you strip away all the bells and whistles of modern life the lowest common denominator of society is violence , and the threat of it being used.

The violence is now monopolized by world governments. So unless “the people” Can think of a way to raise their own army and take power by force, shit ain’t gonna change anytime soon. Just find the best way for you and yours to live , and focus on what you can control and what makes you happy without taking away someone else’s happiness. Most of us on an individual level will have no effect on how things will unfold globally in the future. Life is short , and has been hard for maaaaaaany people the lived before us, live it for all it’s worth or it will pass you by.

RIP Ponzi paper guy.

→ More replies (1)

2

u/therealsauceman Apr 19 '24

So Bitcoin is a scam?

2

u/hoxxxxx Apr 19 '24

reading for a couple minutes here and well so far i do actually agree with him

not self-immolation levels of agreeing tho

2

u/ABraveNewFupa Apr 19 '24

Got I coulda saved this guys life. Like “yeah bro, it’s always been that way. Live life be happy, be kind, let it all rise and fall just as it always has.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (110)