How Many More Queer Kids Are Gonna Die Before People Give A Shit? What Are We Supposed To Do. Nex Benedict

How many more queer kids are gonna die before people give a shit? What are we supposed to do. Nex Benedict did fucking nothing wrong and they had their head bashed against the fucking floor. They just wanted to go home that day.

Kevin Stitt is a fucking murderer.

Chaya Raichik is a fucking murderer.

Ryan Walters is a fucking murderer.

Margaret Coates is a fucking murderer.

please consider how you engage with aaron bushnell's death. you may react to it as you will, but it's crucial to remember that his death was specifically a call to action. it was not meant solely to shock but to draw attention to a vast moral hypocrisy: that to many, a soldier dying in a campaign backed by the U.S. government is noble, even if the soldier kills innocents to do so, even if the cause is morally bankrupt--but this? this is insanity. a man taking his own life, on his own terms, in an attempt to help others while hurting nobody else, is somehow less rational and more horrifying than the mass killing of civilians.

of course aaron's death was horrific. but as he said beforehand, it is realistically no more horrific than what's happening in gaza. if we can't stomach this, then why can we stomach children being bombed? thousands being starved? for all that self immolation is, it brings death in a matter of minutes. it is a fraction of the amount of pain, fear, and grief that people in gaza are experiencing. it's just that we are able to quantify it. and this tiny, quantifiable sliver of horror is still so unbelievably awful. how can anyone bear to think about anything else when this horror is happening a millionfold in palestine? this is the question aaron bushnell was asking. and he wanted you to face it, head-on, watching him burn to death.

I've been seeing people make fanart. minimalist graphics to sell on t-shirts. to commodify his death, to mythologize it not a day afterwards, is not only in poor taste but a hindrance to his message. the answer is not commodification, nor is it defeatism, nor is it rejoicing in his death. if you want to honor aaron's legacy, take action. channel your horror and your outrage into making a material change. this wasn't about him. this was about palestine. remember that it was always about palestine.

So many thoughts on Aaron Bushnell

1. Even he acknowledges his sacrifice doesn’t compare to the suffering of Palestinians and so we mustn’t treat his action as worth more of a statement than those killed and/or fighting

2. By making his connection to the military a focus, he forces opponents to tread carefully for fear of disrespecting an institution that America holds above all others. Insult to his service would piss off even those who disagree with his actions

3. Despite his military path, his community involvement and protection and service rivals that of keyboard activists who wish to discredit him

4. Damn near every screenshot of his final facebook post by non-anarchist leftists and non-leftists crops out the circle A banner for his twitch. Even in death leftists who don’t like anarchism will remove the reference to it to suit their specific brand of leftism and claim his action as part of a larger “left”

5. You do not have to agree with the method to comprehend the action. It IS horrific, that is the point. If one horror does not shock you into action, another might. One that happens to a most (symbolically) coveted category of American

6. The military is highly worshipped in the US and yet it is an extremely predatory body. What circumstances led to his enlistment? Does his community good offset his role? Does his death? Can his death reignite the conversation for allowing servicemembers a way out? What do we do with “leftist” vets? How do we reconcile their positions past and present?

7. If this act horrifies you above anything else you’ve seen out of Palestine, why? What’s special about him? What’s unworthy about Palestinians to you? While you debate his sanity and his politics and his humanity, where are yours?

Pinterest is heavily suppressing Palestinian content. The white spaces are deleted pins.