If he makes it, he is going to be infinitely full of regret with the consequences he’ll have to live with.
Why would you think that people who have the courage to act on their principles would regret it?
The amount of self determination it must take to smell the gasoline and still strike the match makes me think that the people who do this are capable of living with the consequences of their actions.
I think someone who has the self determination to go ahead with this expects to not survive. Doing it and unexpectedly surviving and having to live a likely painful rest of your life is different.
I think you might not know very much about the pain of third degree burns.
I don’t think it’s realistic to assume you understand the mental state of someone who’s already proved they are capable of setting themselves on fire to make a point.
I think what will hurt worse is that the genocide is still talking place and his sacrifice didn’t move the needle as much as he would have expected.
Every sacrafice slowly moves the public opinion needle. There is never a single instance people can point to that instantly changed everyone’s mind.
That said, after Aaron Bushnell I doubt self immolation is going to make much of an impact anymore. Direct action such as blocking highways and israeli arms factories are much more effective now.
I support Palestine, but self harm isn’t the answer. Protesting in this way doesn’t help anyone.
In Matt Nelson’s words:
“My name is Matt Nelson and I’m about to engage in an extreme act of protest,” he said in a video first uploaded to YouTube on Wednesday. “We are all culpable in the ongoing genocide in Gaza.”
“We are slaves to capitalism and the military-industrial complex. Most of us are too apathetic to care,” Nelson continued. “The protest I’m about to engage in is a call to our government to stop supplying Israel with the money and weapons it uses to imprison and murder innocent Palestinians, to pressure Israel to end the genocide in Gaza, and to support the [International Criminal Court] indictment of [Israeli Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu and other members of the Israeli government.”
“A democracy is supposed to serve the will of the people, not the interests of the wealthy,” he added. “Take the power back. Free Palestine.”
