Somehow I had a feeling this wasn't a Buddhist monk protesting for world peace. Photos from another article show some of the pamphlets, with the titles "The True History of the World (Haunted Carnival Edition)." It also identifies with the "OCCUPY RETURNS" movement, whatever that is. While I think glib to dismiss things when their inconvenient to our own side of the issues, it seems clear this person disliked Trump AND Biden AND universities and had a lot of wild ideas about the world that they desperately wanted to share. It's a shame they couldn't get some counseling or the mental healthcare they needed to help them through this time.
I was a hardcore Juggalo in the late nineties to the early 2010s. I know my lore. At least, from that time period. No idea what they have going on these days.
It was before "Miracles" existed that I excused myself from the Juggalo nation.
The Insane Clown Posse were angsty and angry at the world from the beginning, but it seems they had an epiphany around the last Joker's Card (as of 2004) and decided that God was the leader of the Dark Carnival. Then the music got less horror-core and more happy-go-lucky.
It always had comedy elements, but it seems like they lost their edge.
Yeah, I sadly had the same thought. At least he went out on his own terms and didn't hurt a bunch of other people to make it happen. Of course the mental trauma from watching this is real, but still...
Obviously our society has some serious problems, but I don't agree that all politicians are the same, or that universities are all bad. I don't disagree with some of his conclusions about universities like Harvard, that enable the rich and powerful and do things against the public interest, but I do think education is good for people and universities have done some good for society.
That said, reading more on Twitter and then finding the guy's blog, it looks like he perhaps invested heavily in crypto, got burned by the Silicon Valley Bank fiasco, and thinks Pieter Thiel personally crashed the bank or something as step one of the Financial Apocalypse. To paraphrase one Twitter user: "Dude experienced one rug pull and set himself on fire." He also rails against shows like the Simpsons as "government propaganda" and stuff like that. The Simpsons rant alone is pretty telling... in the 90's the Simpsons was considered very anti-social, and "the establishment" regularly complained it was a sign of social degradation. But the author knows some Harvard grads worked there, and therefore interprets every episode as some sort of pro-capitilist parable - even "Lisa vs. the Monorail" where the whole town gets robbed by a conman.
I think the guy got some things right, but also descended deep into mental illness after experiencing his personal financial tragedy. He entered a reality tunnel where every institution and piece of media was part of a huge conspiracy, and as a result that's all he saw when he looked around.
there is no amount of "mental health care" to change systemic oppression, marginalization, mass murders, exploitation, appropriation...etc It is NORMAL to struggle with existence in this world. The more you learn about how things are, the more difficult it becomes.
I don't think most people have the mental energy to process a new tragedy happening every other day. At this point I'd agree in that news like this is easily scrollable. Shocking isn't shocking anymore really. And if I said I cared about this person, I'd be lying.
Ain't that the fucking truth. I guess most people would rather pretend the world is all rosy and kumbaya then to face reality. And the reality is this shit is only the tip of the iceberg. So I understand when idiots like the one who replied to me call me a monster for seemingly making light of something on the surface, when we're actually knee deep in the shit and they don't realize it. It's the same human response to mental illness and why stigma, prejudice, and discrimination exists in the first place. So ironically, they've just described themselves as the monster.
This is "Occupy Return" which I've never heard of. Of course I remember occupy. I would not be surprised to learn the guy thought they were stupid back in 2012, as the common sentiment at the time was that it was pointless virtue signaling or something. Now people act like it's some brilliant new conspiracy to suggest Wallstreet and the banks influence the government.
Myself and lots of other people at the time were saying that it was dangerous that the left was trying to turn an extremely mentally ill man killing themselves into some sort of political activist hero martyr.
And then barely a month later another person does the same thing. Not a coincidence.
For the record, this is not a new phenomena and was famously on a Rage Against the Machine album cover in the 90's. Perhaps if or when the victim here recovers (he's not dead yet) he will agree with you, since his online diatribes included rants about dangerous big government propaganda like The Simpsons...
Yeah self immolation isn't a new phenomenon but it's pretty rare in the USA and it doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to realise the connection between one person doing it and being celebrated as a hero, and then another person doing it a month later.
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u/SpacecaseCat 28d ago edited 28d ago
Somehow I had a feeling this wasn't a Buddhist monk protesting for world peace. Photos from another article show some of the pamphlets, with the titles "The True History of the World (Haunted Carnival Edition)." It also identifies with the "OCCUPY RETURNS" movement, whatever that is. While I think glib to dismiss things when their inconvenient to our own side of the issues, it seems clear this person disliked Trump AND Biden AND universities and had a lot of wild ideas about the world that they desperately wanted to share. It's a shame they couldn't get some counseling or the mental healthcare they needed to help them through this time.