{"id":255825,"date":"2024-02-26T12:00:46","date_gmt":"2024-02-26T12:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=255825"},"modified":"2024-02-26T04:59:16","modified_gmt":"2024-02-26T04:59:16","slug":"the-most-american-thing-that-has-ever-happened","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2024\/02\/the-most-american-thing-that-has-ever-happened\/","title":{"rendered":"The Most American Thing That Has Ever Happened"},"content":{"rendered":"

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22 Feb 2024<\/em> – A man set himself on fire<\/a> outside the Israeli embassy in Washington today. He said he did it in protest of the genocide in Gaza.<\/p>\n

Independent journalist Talia Jane reports<\/a> that she was able to obtain footage of the incident, which the unnamed man apparently recorded himself. Jane reports that the man said he is \u201can active duty member of the U.S. Air Force\u201d and that he \u201cwill no longer be complicit in genocide.\u201d After igniting he repeatedly yelled \u201cFree Palestine.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Jane, a police officer showed up pointing a gun at the man\u2019s burning body; I guess that\u2019s just what American cops do when they aren\u2019t sure what to do. Someone who was actually trying to save the man reportedly yelled \u201cI don\u2019t need guns, I need fire extinguishers!\u201d<\/p>\n

This just might be the most American thing I have ever heard of. It\u2019s more American than the fake bald eagle cries<\/a> they put in Hollywood movies. It\u2019s more American than monster trucks and mass shootings. You simply cannot fit more America into a single incident than a man dying a horrifying death in protest of war crimes while a first responder screams at cops to stop pointing their guns at him and go get fire extinguishers. If you were to pick a single moment in history to sum up the essence and expression of the US empire, that would be it.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/taliaotg\/status\/1761839190487278038<\/p>\n

The New York Times reports<\/a> that the man \u201cwas taken to a nearby hospital with life-threatening injuries and remains in critical condition.\u201d A spokesman for the US Air Force has reportedly confirmed<\/a> that the man is an active duty member.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m about to engage in an extreme act of protest,\u201d the man reportedly recorded himself saying<\/a> before the incident. \u201cBut compared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonizers, it\u2019s not extreme at all. This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal.\u201d<\/p>\n

The nameless protestor is correct. People in Gaza are being burned alive, are suffocating to death under collapsed buildings, are having operations and amputations without anesthesia, are starving to death, are watching their loved ones die in front of them, are experiencing suffering of a degree that very few of us here in the west can even imagine. And our ruling class is absolutely attempting to normalize this for us.<\/p>\n

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I just watched a video of a little girl vomit animal-feed. And then die. If you don't care about that I have nothing further to say to you. #Gaza<\/a><\/p>\n

— George Galloway MP (@georgegalloway) February 24, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n