So, Kyle Kulinski put out a video today saying Glenn Beck "pissed on the grave" of Aaron Bushnell for basically saying that he was mentally ill. Apparently Kyle things self immolation is some sort of super brave thing when Glenn Beck points out (rightly, it might add) that this was mental illness and celebrating this sort of thing is pushing a culture of death. I don't agree with Glenn beck on much, if anything at all, but this is his broken clock moment. So let's savor that.
I already went into how Bushnell was radicalized. I understand this process well, both from experience, and education, and I think my take on him being one step from literal suicide bombers is on point. I don't NECESSARILY think he was mentally ill (although I would say he may have been to some extent), but he is, in fact, radicalized.
First my experience. So...I used to be a fundie Christian. And, as you guys know, I am strongly opposed to organized religion, and especially extremism. I believe extremism makes people out of touch with reality and that can make them do questionable things, and I encourage people to have as much of a reality based worldview as possible, so they don't do extreme and stupid crap. But when I was christian, I went to this Christian school. In retrospect, some of the things I learned there came off as crazy "Jesus camp" type stuff. Basically, in religious class, we would occasionally watch videos. There was a strong "missionary culture" in the church the school was based around, and they would show us videos of people going to third world countries and "preaching the gospel" to the natives there. And uh...sometimes missionaries are targets of terrorist attacks, or wrongdoers who want to take americans hostage to extort the government for their return. Ya know, that sort of thing. Basically, bad things sometimes happen to missionaries who preach the gospel sometimes. But...they generally believe that no matter what, you don't betray the gospel. Like, the Bible has this martyrdom culture in it. A lot of early christians preached the gospel and met gruesome ends as a result of it, being killed by people who wanted them to renounce their views or whatever. We were basically taught, in this school, that if it came down to it (and it should be noted IF it came down to it, obviously they werent just encourage people to suicide themselves for Jesus), that it is better to die than to renounce Jesus.
Just...think about that for a second. Basically, you are to die for your beliefs, if push comes to shove. It is better for you to die and stay true to Jesus and Christianity, than it is to lie and live. Just...think about it, take all of the time you need. Because even back then, that set off alarm bells with me. I am to DIE, for my beliefs? If a gun is pointed in my face and I'm told to renounce the gospel or die, I'm supposed to take a bullet? Even being relatively fully committed to my views at the time, I kind of felt like that was a big ask, and I never was particularly comfortable with it. And thankfully, after leaving that school, I quickly moderated my beliefs and eventually renounced them through logical means. I stopped believing that stuff because I no longer found it to be true. And it actually was a big milestone in being the person I am today, and why I have this blog, and why I can now tell you guys about this. Because to me, let's be honest, this is CRAZY. NO, you shouldn't generally die for your beliefs. And you especially shouldn't commit suicide for your beliefs. But....religious and political radicalization can make you do insane things, and there is pressure when you're in those kinds of belief systems to do it. I've kinda come to realize there isn't much difference between a Christian who dies for the gospel and one of those "72 virgins" suicide bombers. Both are sacrificing their lives for a "greater good" as they see it within the confines of a religiously extremist worldview. And it should be emphasized, these are extreme worldviews with extreme ideologies. The only real difference is because the christian has more peaceful beliefs, they generally don't take anyone else out with them. Their beliefs are slightly better, being based in nonviolence, whereas a radical islamist's generally isn't. And that's how I view Aaron Bushnell too, as a political extremist who bought into some really toxic ideology and decided to do this as a protest statement, and to also "piss on his grave", sorry, but not sorry, but he wasted his life. He really did. Dude had a future ahead of him, apparently he had a family too, and he just threw it away, and for what? Nothing.
Now...as I said, I also have the views I have because I also understand this stuff academically. When I was in college, given my political science/criminology/sociology background, I took a class on terrorism. I learned all about terrorism, including why people do that stuff, and again, it's radicalization. Often times people are raised from a young age, kinda like I was as a christian in a way in that christian school, to value a certain ideology or set of ideas above one's life, and because these peoples' moral compasses are so messed up, they'll sacrifice their lives in service of whatever cause their believe in. Now, given we were talking terrorism and criminal acts, what i learned in christian school didn't apply, nor would what happened to aaron bushnell, suicide bombers and the like will try to take people out with them, but we actually did learn a bit about the Israel-gaza conflict quite a bit, and it did shift me to the center on this issue. But yes, we learned about palestinian suicide bombers and why they do what they do. And we did learn about how these conflicts arent as one sided as we think they are and how from their perspective, they think they're in the right. And maybe, just maybe, our actions in the west contribute to the radicalization process. So don't think I dont understand gaza's perspective, I just dont really sympathize with it, because I'm a westerner who has western sympathies toward things. I kinda realize that regardless of your beliefs, this kind of radicalization is not okay, that these behaviors are dangerous, and push comes to shove, if you're dealing with a truly radical enemy that wants you dead and won't listen to reason, well...maybe you DO have to shoot first and ask questions later.
Of course, that was the point of such education, to give me an understanding of the other side, but then to pull me back to reality and say, yeah, regardless of what your opinions are this crap isn't ok, radicalization is not okay, and it's counterproductive to civil society. My education actually is a huge reason why I'm able to just stay liberal through all of these different tides from the left and the right over the course of my life. I have a dedication to civil society, rule of law, and nonviolent means of political change above all else. I don't think violence is okay in the overwhelming majority of situations, and think people are getting way too extreme in recent years, and it scares me, because those liberal values our society is built upon are being lost, both by the MAGA movement on the right, and the radical left. And Aaron Bushnell was a radical leftist, he was an extremist, and he sacrificed himself because of that. We shouldn't valorize that, or reward that, or honor that, but see it as a sign of how politically extreme things are getting and how dangerous that is. The best thing I have to say about him in this context is at least he had the good sense to not take anyone else out with him. But we should not romanticize this guy, or celebrate this guy, and it is completely deranged to me that some do. That form of protest may be acceptable in the most dire of situations, like if you yourself are oppressed, and probably gonna die or face significant mistreatment, so you engage in some extreme form of nonviolent protest to make a point. But NORMALLY? Under NORMAL circumstances? yeah no, this stuff is never ok, we shouldn't celebrate it, we shouldn't reward it, we shouldnt create a culture that says this stuff is okay. We SHOULD value human life, and teach people that regardless of what our views are, we can all come together and discuss them relatively civilly without coming to blows, or doing weird crap like this. And I actually think Glenn Beck is right that the left in celebrating this is creating a "culture of death" that should be highly discouraged by society as a whole.
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