The Patriot Post® · Grotesque Suicide Is Not Martyrdom for Faith

U.S. Airman Aaron Bushnell set himself on fire Sunday outside Israel’s embassy in Washington, DC, to protest what he called the “genocide” of the Palestinians, yelling “Free Palestine” while he burned. Law enforcement extinguished the fire and rushed him to the hospital, but he died seven hours later. Our first thought was that self-immolation is a horrific way to die, and we feel sorrow that an obviously mentally disturbed 25-year-old man would do it. As the days passed, our next thought was, What the bleep is wrong with leftists?

You see, left-wing loons from Cornel West to Time magazine made observations about Bushnell’s death that we can hardly believe sane people would utter. We’ll start with Time because it had to be the most mind-blowing.

“Bushnell’s action is part of a long and controversial history of self-immolation as political protest,” began the news magazine’s story, written by Solcryé Burga and Simmone Shah. A few paragraphs later, the duo tells us that “the practice of self-immolation dates back centuries” before offering this doozy: “Self-immolation was also seen as a sacrificial act committed by Christian devotees who chose to be burned alive when they were being persecuted for their religion by Roman emperor Diocletian around 300 A.D.”

That historically ignorant and libelous claim is still up on Time’s website. The article’s “reliable” source is a 2012 article in The New Yorker, which related false propaganda about a fire allegedly set by Christians around 300 AD. By our publishing time, the “fact-checkers” at PolitiFact, Lead Stories, Washington Post, Snopes, FactCheck.org, and Reuters were all still too busy chasing Donald Trump to care about correcting Time’s falsehood. Of course, checking leftist lies isn’t how “fact-checking” works in any case.

Christians were burned at the stake for their faith by the pagan Romans. Tragically, in later centuries, the church burned people considered heretics, though especially post-Reformation these were often the most genuine of Christians. Regardless, they did not “choose to be burned alive.” These Christians held so steadfastly to their faith that even an excruciating death did not dissuade them.

There’s a big difference between the murder of a martyr and suicide.

Imagine, for a moment, if a media outlet — even one far short of Time’s prestige — said that blacks in the late 19th century “chose to be lynched.” The fact-checkers would have the long knives out.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the end of leftist insanity on this gruesome death.

“Let us never forget the extraordinary courage and commitment of brother Aaron Bushnell who died for truth and justice!” tweeted Cornel West, professor emeritus at Princeton University and independent presidential candidate. “Let us rededicate ourselves to genuine solidarity with Palestinians undergoing genocidal attacks in real time!”

Green Party candidate Jill Stein added to the disgrace. “Rest in power Aaron Bushnell,” Stein wrote. “‘I will no longer be complicit in genocide. Free Palestine!’” she quoted Bushnell as saying before adding, “May his sacrifice deepen our commitment to stop genocide now.”

Other leftists objected to Stein’s comment. Bushnell can’t “rest in power,” they said … because he’s not black.

Back to the question of genocide, the only ones committing it were the Iran-backed Hamas jihadis who slaughtered 1,200 innocent Israelis on October 7. Israel’s military has responded by killing tens of thousands of Hamas military personnel, and American leftists are beside themselves.

Various other leftists celebrated Bushnell as a hero, as did Hamas. In a statement Tuesday, Hamas said, “The heroic pilot Aaron Bushnell will remain immortal in the memory of our Palestinian people and the free people of the world, and a symbol of the spirit of global human solidarity with our people and their just cause.”

A decade ago, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said, “We love death like our enemies love life.” After October’s massacre, Hamas official Ali Baraka said, “The thing any Palestinian desires the most is to be martyred for the sake of Allah.”

Hamas fighters hide in hospitals and schools while Haniyeh and Baraka live in luxury elsewhere. Sadly, Bushnell still bought their lies.

As an aside, what’s the matter with so many American Jews, who themselves are radical leftists essentially allied with people who want to wipe them off the face of the planet?

What do we know about Bushnell other than his declared motive? Police reported a man in “mental distress” outside the embassy, and mainstream media articles often end with information about the national suicide hotline. That, too, makes some leftists angry because he died in a self-proclaimed protest of atrocities, not because of his own inner demons.

The Washington Post tells us he grew up on a “religious compound” in Massachusetts that was “called the Community of Jesus.” The Post quotes a former member saying, “A lot of us that got out are very much into social justice, trying to defend those who don’t or can’t defend themselves because that is what we went through.” Bushnell was also reportedly a self-described anarchist, which is typically a left-wing phenomenon. Indeed, the socialists and communists are celebrating their fellow traveler.

That leads us to a question: The military conducted a big operation to root out all the white supremacists supposedly infesting the ranks. All the while, Bushnell was becoming a radicalized leftist.

Aaron Bushnell was deceived and is now being lionized by liars and killers. His “protest” was no more noble than the Black Lives Matter and antifa riots that plagued American cities and cost American lives. And his grotesque suicide is certainly not as laudable as the Christians who were murdered for their steadfast faith.