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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
Tl;dr nutso crypto conspiracy bro
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.
That's the mission of the people who are trying to tear apart our democracy: make people think the whole system is broken and beyond repair.
That's where all these people arguing against voting for Biden and Democratic majorities are coming from. They don't actually think the two parties are the same (or they wouldn't if they were honest about them). But they sure as heck think America would be better if not everyone could participate in it's governance.
So it's up to us to work on defending the democratic power we have and work on repairing and improving our democracy. That means completely redesigning the campaign finance system. That means expanding voting access. That means expanding the Article 3 courts from top to bottom. We need to fix our media. Break up monopolies and oligopolies. On and on.
We can make our democracy better if we work together to fix it.
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.
Well just for one example, Joe Biden has been aggressively using the powers he has via the department of education to cancel outstanding student loan balances that were completely legal and very profitable for usurious loan servicing companies.
No Republican would do that.
He and the Democrats leveraged their control of Congress in 2021 and 2022 to pass legislation that is going to do more to reduce our contribution to climate change than ever before. Not enough, but way more than any Republican would do.
I feel like that means our democracy is sort of working.
In so called "blue" states, they're expanding voting access.
I agree that campaign contributions are a serious challenge, but for example Bernie and Elizabeth Warren have done great things without contributions from billionaires.
We can do this, but we need to stand up in the face of fear and push as hard as we can. The only thing to fear is fear itself!
Vote Save America can help leverage donations to the most effective campaigns possible for progressive causes.
https://votesaveamerica.com/
You can't fix something you never had.
And the republicans are the enablers of that con.
Democrats haven't really done anything to stop it. It's a ratchet where the GOP makes things worse and the Dems prevent things from ever getting better
They do more than you.
.
Most braindead take.
Learn to read into a metaphor ffs.
Huh.
He had me until the Simpsons connection.
Stuck between mental illness, stupid fucking crypto bro type of sorts or both.
Either way, loaded with pop culture references and dumb as hell.
Here's the main point of what he's saying:
So he isn't for cryptocurrency but saying it's a scam to rob society. It is indeed a conspiracy but conspiracies turn out to be true all the time. Epstein's pedo ring and America's gun and drug running to fund despots all started as conspiracy theories.
Settings yourself on fire doesn't mean you're right but it shows enough resolve that you could at least read the text before misrepresenting him. He's clearly not a crypto bro.
At least his idea bout Bitcoin and cryptocurrency being mostly a Ponzi scheme are on point.
Where there's smoke there's fire I guess.
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.
I worked crisis intervention for a few years. I have arrived to probably a dozen or so suicides. About a half dozen left these huge manifestos.
Every. Single. One. Got thrown away, 2 had family members toss it in front of me. Turns out your loved ones do not often want to read the crazy shit you killed yourself over, especially when it ultimately changed nothing. One individual had 1000+ pages written, the family wanted nothing to do with it.
I'm not pro-suicide for anything. Most of these people are just depressed. It's not resolve when you're giving up on life.
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.