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A man named Max Azzarello lit himself on fire at the Trump trial. He died a horrible death. He wasn’t dying for the cause of either president; he hated them both. He held a sign that said “Trump and Biden are in cahoots and they’re about to fascist coup us.” He was probably mentally ill, but his action was also motivated by ideology — an ideology that is shared by many relatively normal people.
The man’s manifesto was released, and just as he hoped, it resonated with people, or at least with some people on Twitter. I’m talking about his paper booklet as opposed to his Substack manifesto — the latter explains his ideas a bit more and includes some truly unhinged connections to “The Simpsons.” The man himself was a communist, but his message was sufficiently vague and universal that even many who would self-describe as conservatives saw their own thoughts reflected in it. Truly, the distinction between left and right is often inapplicable, and instead many are united in the ideology of paranoia.
The manifesto’s author laid out the last century’s history as he saw it. He didn’t think the fascists were truly defeated in World War II — instead, he thought they maintained “vast networks” which continue to control Western states. In this way, his beliefs were a mirror of what the fascists themselves believed. My opinion: Our governments are full of conspiracies, sure (almost none of which are fascist conspiracies), but no unified will controls the government, and the government doesn’t control society. There’s no group you can wipe out to make the world perfect. Sorry.
He cited a few examples of fascist media, including Stanley Kubrick’s “A Clockwork Orange.” He interpreted this movie’s message to be saying, “If you’re flooded with ultra-violent media, you will become a better person.” This is part of a section on fascist psychological terrorism. Yet what was the point of his self-immolation if not to create an ultraviolent spectacle that turns us into better people?
The doomsday clock is a tool of the fascists, he explained, because apocalyptic prophecy is a way to control minds. Yet he also criticized Kubrick for telling people to “stop worrying and love the bomb.” The manifesto’s author apparently took this line literally. So were people supposed to worry about the apocalypse or not? And don’t communists predict that the contradictions inherent in capitalism will bring what about is — for all intents and purposes — an apocalypse?
As he saw it, all past terrorism was a hoax of the hidden fascists, but his terrorism was a true expression. (I say it’s terrorism: It’s a public murder meant to traumatize onlookers to a political end.) He brought up the Manson family and said that they were a (fascist) CIA operation to discredit the hippies. Doubtless, those with similar beliefs to this man will discredit his own terrorism as a federal agency false flag. In this way, the revolutionaries can disown the ineffective pain of their previous attempts.
It’s strange that this happened twice in such quick succession. In February, Aaron Bushnell set himself on fire in protest of the war in Gaza. People were just as oddly sympathetic to this other terrorist. “He was a U.S. soldier who just wanted peace” — this was a lot of the initial reaction. Because self-immolation only involves your own death, people just feel sorry. Conservatives remembered to be upset when they learned that he was actually a very ordinary form of communist. Your standard American communist would agree with his internet statements. Your standard young progressive might agree with very charitable readings of his internet statements. Yet his familiar ideology — he was an anarcho-communist, which is a fairly common ideology among terminally online young people — led him to kill himself in a truly horrible way. These ideas can become deadly serious if you take them seriously.
When you say things like “Eat the rich,” and think nothing of the disgusting nature of this phrase, it is because of the great influence of the paranoid. Are you one of the revolutionaries? Do you bare your teeth at simple joy? Do you hope that the world will become worse and worse until everything is enveloped in the shadow? Do you hope for a cleansing wave of violence? Oh, you don’t literally support murder? Then stop saying you do. There are better ways of advocating economic policies than advocating murder, even if you mean it metaphorically. Sometimes, revolution isn’t a far-off possibility — with a critical mass of terrorism, the system really can collapse.
Revolution has been tried — many times. The revolutionaries always believe basically the same thing. Go on, read the doctrines of any of history’s villains; you’ll probably agree with them 90 percent of the time. However, the revolution never fixes anything. It doesn’t knock clarity into anyone’s heads. It just kills people, and after a few years, the flawed world struggles on, this time with another scar.
If you read his manifesto and think, “Huh, this is kind of reasonable,” let this be a wake up call. This man went up in flames. Meanwhile, the happy people are living — laughing with their friends, falling in love, walking on sunlit streets and smiling at the little plants which grow through the cracks in the sidewalk. What was ever wrong with “Live, Laugh, Love,” anyways? Do you really want to knock these people from their pedestals, destroy their homes — destroy your own home and never return? Think twice before you agree with ideologies that advocate destruction.