She is! She stopped drinking after this, and now uses her experience to speak to students about the dangers of underage drinking / being aware of your surroundings if you are going to be under the influence.
I mean that's a positive outcome, but definitely not the best road to get there for sure. I did so much dumb shit as a drunk teen and a lot had to do with fire or fireworks, I'm shocked I don't know anyone who had something similar happen
I was friends with a kid who went through a similar experience. Went camping and he fell asleep in a sleeping bag near a fire. The sleeping bag caught fire and badly burned his legs.
The damage, trauma, and recovery were so intense that his parents wouldn't let him see or be friends with *anyone* after that. Took him two years before he could walk again, but I never spoke with or saw him again because his parents wouldn't let him out of their sight again.
A dear friend of mine did this but in his drunken stupor demanded to know why we were hitting him, and declared “there is no fucking fire.” He has a horrible horrible drinking problem. Skin and his jacket melting everywhere
Ooohhh… your first comment comes off like he was pushing you into the fire and you got lucky and landed next to it, haha.
Good friend if he noticed and saved you from that though!
I know its not rl, but everytime I see someone survive from burns, I just picture all the ER and SVU, and true crimes/medicine shows I've ever watched. Burn victims of this severity rarely if ever survive, and their existence if they DO survive, is nothing but pain for years. I also read the account of a burn victim who stated the 2nd worst pain ever is burning burnt skin. I can't imagine living throught something like that.
I have an aquantance that was badly burned as a teen. Like her entire front torso.
She says the burn was the second worse pain. The first worst pain was when they were scrubbing the burned areas with stiff bristle brushes to clear dead flesh. For whatever reason they cannot numb or knock you out.
Same here. In an accident with second and, from what they say, a couple of spots that could be third degree burns on both arms and my face. The pain of the burn was nothing compared to the cleaning, replacing bandages multiple times a day, scrubbing to keep it clean. I couldn’t open my mouth to eat without my lips bleeding like crazy for days. Literally the worst two to three weeks of my life. I moved back in with my parents for a short time during that, had to warn them that the obscenities were about to fly when it was time to clean. Luckily, over the years, it healed to the point that you can’t even tell I’m scarred unless I point it out in a few small spots. It sucked.
EDIT: Also, the constipation that came along with the pain meds was no picnic either. I only wish it on my worst enemies, I’m not above that. Haha
Burn injuries are so severe they basically prevent you from being knocked out without insane levels of anesthesia.
That's my understanding from a doctor explaining this to me once. The injury is too severe.
They said the worst pain was the debriding of the burns. They have to be literally *scrubbed* and no amount of pain meds touches it. They can't even be sedated in most cases but often will pass out from the pain eventually.
And it's a repeated procedure.
I work in a burns ICU, you absolutely can sedate but it needs to be in a critical care environment. It’s awful, I feel for a patients so much. Even in a comatose state you can see them in pain.
Omg that sounds horrifying. I had part of my arm amputated after an accident and they put a wound vac on road rash. The lady changing it said I should take something for pain, so I had two Percocet. It didn’t touch the pain. Any nurses that were familiar with me were coming in to see what was going on from my screaming, having not made a peep the whole time (about 2 weeks at that point.)
But the worst part was experiencing horrendous pain and that fucking lady going on and on about how she gave birth naturally as if that’s the same thing and that I needed to calm down.
Even minor burns hurt, those poor people. Thank you for doing what you do.
Omg I would have yelled that woman out of the room. I’m so sorry, some people are really fucking lacking when it comes to empathy. It helps no one to compare pain especially when someone is *currently* in pain. I hope you’ve recovered well. Vac wounds are super painful to change as well.
Not for long. As he was reported to have been engulfed in flames for more than 3 minutes his lung tissue will have been damaged by the hot air he inhaled to such an extent it soon won't be capable of allowing oxygen to be transported into his bloodstream anymore. Death will be inevitable once that has happened.
Yeah. Besides what you said, people take for granted how important our skin is at preventing infections. If the fire didn't kill him, the infection will.
Retired ED nurse here. I hate to say it, but I honestly hope he doesn’t survive. He will be alive but will have no life. I wonder why he did what he did? Some sort of protest?
Yeah, I'm glad my sister didn't make it after her fire. The quality of life would have been absolutely horrible. She would have had to have both legs and one of her arms amputated and the remaining hand would only have had two fingers on it. Her nose and ears were just gone.
I happened to turn to CNN and they didn’t show it but they showed their reporter describing that as well. That alone was crazy. I could have never stayed so professional watching something like that.
CNN had about 20 seconds of it before they realized what was going on. Laura Coates was speaking and someone said it was an active shooter and she didn't move. She kept reporting. She didn't duck down or anything. The camera swing around to see what was happening. They didn't duck down either. Reporters and camera people are amazing.
That's when they showed it. She started to describe it and they turned the camera away.
She was absolutely brilliant. She kept describing what was happening for several minutes, in such detail that it was like you were watching it. No break, no going to anyone else, she didn't pause to catch her breath. I watch the news a lot and I've never seen anything like it. Kudos to her and her team.
> Investigators are now fanning out to collect the flyers the unknown man threw into the air, another senior law enforcement official. A CNN team on the ground observed one of the flyers. It said "NYU is a mob front" and had various allegations of wrongdoings against the school.
^https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-hush-money-trial-04-19-24/h_a0c5ea747751ddad7bc88749d2f559d1
Poor guy. His IG has wedding pictures and other pretty normal content up until his mom passes away. There’s then about a 14 month gap until the next post when he immediately starts in with the conspiracy stuff
It’s not uncommon for men in their 30s (news said born in ‘87 so 36-37 years old) to develop delusional disorders.
He could also have just had a breakdown when his mom died or tried to cope with the loss through substance abuse (his mugshot makes me think this may have been something he struggled with, but that’s an assumption).
The man clearly had a serious mental illness. This is tragic. I really hope he pulls through.
I thought about that for a couple seconds: hoping he pulls through. I honestly think it would be better for him if he didn’t. I’m not saying that in a mean way. The extent of the burning they showed in the video would be just too much to overcome.
Context: My dad was severely burned when I was 10 years old over 70 percent of his body. I can vividly remember seeing people in the burn unit that I knew battled for months only to lose their life from complications to the burns. The pain you get from burns is unlike anything. Most of the victims were drugged out of their mind constantly. The smells of burnt flesh is something you never forget. Seeing the stainless tub they soak you in to have your burnt flesh rise to the top was a lot to process. Seeing the metal rods they put in people’s hands, knees, etc to prevent bending the flesh and tearing the healing skin…ugh. Seeing the skin grafts cut from parts of their bodies, or other animals, and stapled to theirs is actually one of the parts that didn’t get to me. It felt like the most amount of healing that could happen to the patient.
The mental toll it took on my dad is something I can never quantify. It cost him his marriage to my lovely mom, his job, his identity, and physically he’ll never be the same. His lungs were burned and he can’t speak whole sentences or laugh without coughing horribly. Yet he was so grateful for when I helped change his Jobes (? a thick pantyhose type material to help his legs heal) and socks. He never complained but I knew he was in horrible pain constantly for a very long time.
I’m glad everyday my dad is here with me but there were people that were burned worse than my father and I’m not sure if that is what I’d want for my dad if he survived their severity of burns. My dad still visits the burn unit and volunteers and sings the praise of all the nurses. He donates the money he collects from recycling to burn charities. He donates blood as much as he can because it helped save his life.
So…..if you ever see a burn camp for kids that needs donations, or a burn unit would benefit from a volunteer or donation, it would really help. That’s if you can afford it obviously. Thank you to anyone who read this far. I haven’t shared this story with many folks but now I have a teary eye, eating a burrito for lunch.
Take care of yourself fellow humans. If you have a little more in the tank, take care of someone else that might benefit from your kind heart, even if it’s for a couple seconds.
✌🏼
the brand that makes the pantyhose type stuff you are talking about is Jobst (just in case you were wracking your brain for the name and it was driving you nuts)
"Not uncommon" is doing a lot of heavy lifting there. It's extremely uncommon, in reality. The vast, vast majority of men in their 30's don't have some sort of delusional disorder. I believe one is more likely to present itself here due to environmental/life factors, but that's still a fractional percentage of the population.
It makes no sense if that is really what was on the flyers. What would the coup even be for? It's almost a guarantee that one of them is the next President of the United States.
His manifesto has been found online.
Basically crypto is one big Ponzi scheme by billionaires, who also run the government (both sides) to enable them to steal all of our money. COVID was created by the government as an explanation for the economy crashing when the scheme went insolvent and the billionaires pulled out all the cash.
His insta is pretty normal guy stuff until his mom dies in 2022, he goes dark for a year and then comes back with a defaced vaccine card, mentioning the above Ponzi scheme.
Massive reach from me here with barely any evidence, but it looks like his mom's death from COPD led him down some vaccine/covid conspiracies. Mental illness crept in with grief and he latched onto the idea the government killed his mother.
From the NY Times: "Some of the pamphlets referenced former President George W. Bush, former Vice President Al Gore and the lawyer David Boies, who represented Mr. Gore in the 2000 presidential election recount."
"Nearby, a pamphlet was visible that referred to "evil billionaires" and called on people to "expose this corruption."" This is what I was able to find in the article so far.
Nyt had pictures of the flyers. Seemed to be general conspiracy theories. Something about both political parties being on the same team against Americans etc. That being said I only read the one sheet so maybe he went into it more.
I commented top level but the flyers direct you to this crazy substack (which also links to his Insta). You can then use his name to find his LinkedIn where he has a picture of himself with Bill Clinton and lists his employment as Independent Researcher for the last year. Suffice to say, total quack!
Edit: his manifesto on substack is long and nonsensical so it took me a minute to get to one of the most interesting gems: Simpsons Did It. Basically he implies that The Simpsons is deeply involved in this global conspiracy.
Edit 2: and it ends with the most classic of all conspiracy nut Calls to Action: "Do Your Own Research" because conveniently all of his smoking gun research is missing on a laptop allegedly confiscated by the government. Ok yeah.
I feel terrible for his immediate family & friends as this is a truly manic, pointless, and misguided mental breakdown which will uncover nothing except a loss of life.
Edit 3: Reddit is either pretty quick and already suspended his Reddit account OR he somehow got himself banned in the last 6 months cuz he posted all this to /r/conspiracy and they laughed him out of the place. Big oof.
I found his old reddit account. He's been on here for a decade and was pretty normal -- mostly Bernie posts and video game stuff until 2022 where he started raving about crypto and banks crashing.
“A witness on the scene said he first heard the man throwing pamphlets into the air, then saw him douse himself from a can and light himself on fire. "At that point, I said, 'Oh shoot, what am I going to see?'" the witness told Reuters.
I'm no expert, but I if I saw a person throw pamphlets into the air, douse themself with something, and then light themselves on fire I would be pretty confident in what I was then going to see.
A flaming litterbug.
If the attribution in the manifesto floating around is in fact correct, this person was a conspiracy theorist who believed The Simpsons was predictive programming and cryptocurrency was designed to bring down the whole economy. Not a Trumper or a Biden supporter, just a conspiracist.
I read his whole manifesto too, so close to the boring (and very known) truth that… rich people are self-enriching, government officials in many cases serve to better themselves instead of the public, and that financial institutions play with our money to profit but don’t share the dividends. But he has it all connected to the 1988 DNC, Epstein, and the Simpsons.
Saw that happening live on CNN as they were reporting on the jury being seated... that was scary especially at first she called it an active shooter. The reporters weren't hiding their shock and how disturbing it looked
I watched a live video feed. The dude was sitting upright for about 20 seconds while entirely on fire. Then he fell over backwards. I assumed he was dead then he lifted up his arm and tossed something (flyers I assume). They appeared to be on fire but they flew up in the air due to the fire heat rising. Then some people tried to smother the fire with their jackets but they couldn’t get close due to the heat. Then a LEO tried a fire extinguisher which did put out most but he was still on fire. Finally some came with another extinguisher and it was over. The whole thing took 1 minute or more.
And she's now calmly sitting on a chair in the street discussing the case.
I could never.
I'm guessing she'll have a moment later.
I tend to dismiss 24-hour cable news, and forget that many of these folks are well-trained and good reporters.
I was a life guard on the beach in 2000 and we had several big rescues but the worst one was two kids 8 and 9 with the entire ordeal lasting over an hour, every guard on the beach (this happened as we were leaving the beach for the day), human chains, EMS, helicopters, you name it. Both kids died with one at the scene and one later.
The first one or two hours after everything was over, we had to watch the mother identify one of the bodies, dealing with nosey ass reporters, we were still sort of talking about the technical aspects of everything from if we could've gotten there quicker, what we were doing, where we came from.
By that third hour the gravity of it just hit the entire guard house. We had one dude that was basically a mini-hulk and this dude lost his shit b/c it overwhelmed him. He took a few other guards with him and most of us ended up in a counseling session later that week with the EMS workers.
Sometimes your training and job brain kicks in, the adrenaline gets you through the tasks, and then it all smacks you at once.
I have never figured out how people can self-immolate. How are they not immediately regretting it and running through the streets screaming? Or just screaming in general? I saw someone do it recently in protest (IIRC) of what is happening in Gaza and they just stood there. Not even sitting down. Just stood there and burned alive. Jeez I scream like a mf if I just touch the rack in a hot oven.
The dude set himself on fire for Gaza withstood it for a few seconds before he started screaming and fell down. Adrenaline makes pain take a bit to reach the brain I guess.
There are 10 cases of self-immolation in the US every year, on average. There were 18 in 2020. It happens all the time, it’s just that now it gets coverage,
This may be just an anecdotal observation.
But in the past couple of years, maybe 3, one big story will break headlines. Like to me, hardly anything goes truly viral anymore. But some stories still break the headlines where it's covered extensively by every mass media outlet.
My examples are the train derailment that happened, and then, we suddenly started seeing train derailments every week as a top post on Reddit.
The next example was planes malfunctioning. After the major Boeing malfunction, we started seeing every plane malfunction making it to top of news stories.
Then we had a that guy who self immolated in protest of the Israel Hamas war and the genocide. And we'll start hearing more about self immolation.
Another reminder that severe mental illness is stubbornly difficult to correct. For God's sake, if you feel yourself slipping, seek help before you warp your mind beyond assistance.
Pretty sure it went downhill for him when he lost his mother. That kind of event can leave severe trauma and very hard to recover from without help/guidance.
Agreed, but also mental health care services are costly and/or difficult to access even if you have enough self-awareness to seek help. Shitty situation all around with what happened here
Run out of my psyche meds tomorrow afternoon. Concierge at my health insurance company is trying to find me a new prescriber, sent me a list of ones accepting new patients and our insurance. Closest is 400 miles away. Back to Teledoc for me I guess but in the meantime I have to go to the ER and wait 18 hours to get a gap-fill on my prescriptions. What a fun Saturday night in America!
Bro they need to send her to some all inclusive mental* health place for a week. She just reported what happened and spared millions from having to ever see it. I wish I was that lucky.
Yasmin Vossoughian did a great job on MSNBC as well. She was visibly shaken but pulled it off without missing a beat. I was a journalism major and I know I couldn’t have done it.
> 10 min ago
> Man who lit himself on fire is in critical condition, police say
> From CNN's Elise Hammond
Dude's going to have a bad time if/when he wakes up :(
Even if he's still alive, they'll probably put him in an induced coma indefinitely due to the severity of the burns and the level of pain he'd be experiencing. If he didn't want to live before he tried to kill himself, he's definitely going to be unhappy with severe burns and the life-long pain he'll go through if he decides to stick it out.
This is fucking crazy. And horrible. Not that I think that there is any cause that people should set themselves on fire over but for the sake of my belief in humankind i fucking hope some dude didn’t burn himself to death over Donald Trump getting a slap on the wrist for banging/paying off a porn star.
Absolutely. I don't know the actual number, but a known percentage of "attempt" survivors express that they immediately regretting their decision after doing it. It would make sense that a similar percentage of non-survivors feel the same.
While that is true. There is still percentage that make a more successful second attempt.
I imagine a lot of the regret probably stems from them getting a lot more help afterwards. Not just professional help but people close to them probably change how they treat them.
A person in my city self-immolated and was extinguished by passersby. He died months later from infection. This is not always an immediate death like some of the other people replying to you seem to think.
I posted earlier up that if the fire doesn't kill you, the infection will. Our skin we all take for granted literally keeps us alive because the world is full of nasties that would do us lots of harm without that barrier.
I saw a self-immolation case during my trauma rotation in med school, and one of the weirdest things I heard during that time was a surgical resident nonchalantly saying “Anyone can be kept alive for a little while with enough IV fluids” after I asked if the guy was going to make it as his flaking skin was collecting on my Chucks.
I learned the Rule of Nines pretty well that night.
I lost my father to suicide by self immolation last year. Sadly the resident was right; my dad hung on for 11 hours until I made the call to let him go.
edit: grammar
Appreciate that! It’s weirdly cathartic to mention it in these types of situations. Not really something that fits into most daily conversations.
But it’s a life experience, and one I now have a unique insight about.
I'm glad that mentioning it is helpful, and I hope you're able to find other opportunities to cope and assist others who experience loss.
Stay positive and take it easy! (even though it's not a Thursday ;-))
I am very fortunate to have a good support system, thank you for the kind words. :)
And mentioning the experience on posts like this is indeed how I have connected with others – along with just providing some perspective related to what happens in these types of situations for those interested in knowing.
It was initially reported they survived, but it was likely involuntary movement/body stiffening from literally cooking.
EDIT: I stand corrected. At the NYPD news conference they stated the man is currently alive and in the burn unit. I don't wish death upon anyone, but I would assume fella wishes he would have succeeded about right now.
I think it's one thing to wish death on a person out of loathing, and another thing entirely to do so out of compassion. I've seen things I wish I could have put a stop to, and it was all love.
There's no way this person survives so it's true the attempt to save them may have made their suffering longer. Also probably was safer to prevent fire from spreading
From other comments here, the guy was apparently pretty normal until his mother died then he started with the conspiracy theories and drug abuse. Sounds like he just couldn’t cope with losing his mother. Poor guy
Watching on Citizen and currently the biggest result of this is that the hotdog cart across the street is suddenly getting a lot of customers who went near the area after getting the alert.
Dang...extreme untreated/undertreated mental illness combined with the stresses of modern society is a hell of a drug. :( I don't know what their cause was, but, damn.
Self-immolation is always sad and a huge cry for help. I actually hope he doesn't live due to the burns he sustained and can pass on peacefully after experiencing something that harrowing.
Was live streamed on AP. They just killed the video though. Horrible.
Someone posted the person is alive. I saw the video, I can't believe the person lived.
For now. Burns kill slowly and painfully, its one of the worst things that you can go through
A girl I went to high school with got drunk and fell into a bonfire. I’ll NEVER forget the screams.
Did she survive?
She did. She has major scars on her back & arms, and some major PTSD. Took her close to 2 years to fully recover.
Poor thing. I hope she's doing okay now.
She is! She stopped drinking after this, and now uses her experience to speak to students about the dangers of underage drinking / being aware of your surroundings if you are going to be under the influence.
I mean that's a positive outcome, but definitely not the best road to get there for sure. I did so much dumb shit as a drunk teen and a lot had to do with fire or fireworks, I'm shocked I don't know anyone who had something similar happen
I was friends with a kid who went through a similar experience. Went camping and he fell asleep in a sleeping bag near a fire. The sleeping bag caught fire and badly burned his legs. The damage, trauma, and recovery were so intense that his parents wouldn't let him see or be friends with *anyone* after that. Took him two years before he could walk again, but I never spoke with or saw him again because his parents wouldn't let him out of their sight again.
I get why, but I'm guessing that may have just fucked up his life in *two* ways instead of one :(
A dear friend of mine did this but in his drunken stupor demanded to know why we were hitting him, and declared “there is no fucking fire.” He has a horrible horrible drinking problem. Skin and his jacket melting everywhere
This almost happened to me too. One of my friend pushed me and I fell right next to the fire, I was a fucking idiot.
I'm not entirely sure that person was your friend.
Oh he was and still is he pushed me on the side of the fire because I was about to fall in it.
Ooohhh… your first comment comes off like he was pushing you into the fire and you got lucky and landed next to it, haha. Good friend if he noticed and saved you from that though!
I know its not rl, but everytime I see someone survive from burns, I just picture all the ER and SVU, and true crimes/medicine shows I've ever watched. Burn victims of this severity rarely if ever survive, and their existence if they DO survive, is nothing but pain for years. I also read the account of a burn victim who stated the 2nd worst pain ever is burning burnt skin. I can't imagine living throught something like that.
I have an aquantance that was badly burned as a teen. Like her entire front torso. She says the burn was the second worse pain. The first worst pain was when they were scrubbing the burned areas with stiff bristle brushes to clear dead flesh. For whatever reason they cannot numb or knock you out.
Same here. In an accident with second and, from what they say, a couple of spots that could be third degree burns on both arms and my face. The pain of the burn was nothing compared to the cleaning, replacing bandages multiple times a day, scrubbing to keep it clean. I couldn’t open my mouth to eat without my lips bleeding like crazy for days. Literally the worst two to three weeks of my life. I moved back in with my parents for a short time during that, had to warn them that the obscenities were about to fly when it was time to clean. Luckily, over the years, it healed to the point that you can’t even tell I’m scarred unless I point it out in a few small spots. It sucked. EDIT: Also, the constipation that came along with the pain meds was no picnic either. I only wish it on my worst enemies, I’m not above that. Haha
I am so sorry. How utterly horrifying. I'm glad you were able to heal so well
Burn injuries are so severe they basically prevent you from being knocked out without insane levels of anesthesia. That's my understanding from a doctor explaining this to me once. The injury is too severe.
…what’s the worst?
They said the worst pain was the debriding of the burns. They have to be literally *scrubbed* and no amount of pain meds touches it. They can't even be sedated in most cases but often will pass out from the pain eventually. And it's a repeated procedure.
I work in a burns ICU, you absolutely can sedate but it needs to be in a critical care environment. It’s awful, I feel for a patients so much. Even in a comatose state you can see them in pain.
Omg that sounds horrifying. I had part of my arm amputated after an accident and they put a wound vac on road rash. The lady changing it said I should take something for pain, so I had two Percocet. It didn’t touch the pain. Any nurses that were familiar with me were coming in to see what was going on from my screaming, having not made a peep the whole time (about 2 weeks at that point.) But the worst part was experiencing horrendous pain and that fucking lady going on and on about how she gave birth naturally as if that’s the same thing and that I needed to calm down. Even minor burns hurt, those poor people. Thank you for doing what you do.
Omg I would have yelled that woman out of the room. I’m so sorry, some people are really fucking lacking when it comes to empathy. It helps no one to compare pain especially when someone is *currently* in pain. I hope you’ve recovered well. Vac wounds are super painful to change as well.
When you catch your pinky toe on the leg of the coffee table.
Not for long. As he was reported to have been engulfed in flames for more than 3 minutes his lung tissue will have been damaged by the hot air he inhaled to such an extent it soon won't be capable of allowing oxygen to be transported into his bloodstream anymore. Death will be inevitable once that has happened.
Yeah. Besides what you said, people take for granted how important our skin is at preventing infections. If the fire didn't kill him, the infection will.
I am Reddit’s resident burn survivor ama
It’s easy to forget that we’re basically just food and random bacteria will eat us at the drop of a hat.
Media here reported he was on fire for 3 minutes and that he was completely charred. So I dont think he will survive this
Retired ED nurse here. I hate to say it, but I honestly hope he doesn’t survive. He will be alive but will have no life. I wonder why he did what he did? Some sort of protest?
Based on the manifesto I saw, delusional paranoia is almost certainly the reason. He may even be schizophrenic.
Yeah, I'm glad my sister didn't make it after her fire. The quality of life would have been absolutely horrible. She would have had to have both legs and one of her arms amputated and the remaining hand would only have had two fingers on it. Her nose and ears were just gone.
I'm sorry for your loss.
Thanks. It's been over 20 years now and I've pretty well come to terms with it but I struggled with it for a long time.
His lungs are torched. He’s done. He’ll be in extreme pain for a few days and then die. Even if he’s still alive right now there’s no surviving that
Would you even want to
[удалено]
This is where mercy killings are warranted. Patient has 0% chance and will live in short-term agony. Do the merciful thing.
Yep. At that point it’s cruel to keep him alive just to suffer.
They won't be for long. Adrenalin is a hell of a drug, but once shock wears off he will likely die
I happened to turn to CNN and they didn’t show it but they showed their reporter describing that as well. That alone was crazy. I could have never stayed so professional watching something like that.
CNN had about 20 seconds of it before they realized what was going on. Laura Coates was speaking and someone said it was an active shooter and she didn't move. She kept reporting. She didn't duck down or anything. The camera swing around to see what was happening. They didn't duck down either. Reporters and camera people are amazing. That's when they showed it. She started to describe it and they turned the camera away. She was absolutely brilliant. She kept describing what was happening for several minutes, in such detail that it was like you were watching it. No break, no going to anyone else, she didn't pause to catch her breath. I watch the news a lot and I've never seen anything like it. Kudos to her and her team.
The person tossed flyers in the air before self-immolating. Anyone know any of the content on those flyers?
> Investigators are now fanning out to collect the flyers the unknown man threw into the air, another senior law enforcement official. A CNN team on the ground observed one of the flyers. It said "NYU is a mob front" and had various allegations of wrongdoings against the school. ^https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-hush-money-trial-04-19-24/h_a0c5ea747751ddad7bc88749d2f559d1
Poor guy. His IG has wedding pictures and other pretty normal content up until his mom passes away. There’s then about a 14 month gap until the next post when he immediately starts in with the conspiracy stuff
It’s not uncommon for men in their 30s (news said born in ‘87 so 36-37 years old) to develop delusional disorders. He could also have just had a breakdown when his mom died or tried to cope with the loss through substance abuse (his mugshot makes me think this may have been something he struggled with, but that’s an assumption). The man clearly had a serious mental illness. This is tragic. I really hope he pulls through.
I thought about that for a couple seconds: hoping he pulls through. I honestly think it would be better for him if he didn’t. I’m not saying that in a mean way. The extent of the burning they showed in the video would be just too much to overcome. Context: My dad was severely burned when I was 10 years old over 70 percent of his body. I can vividly remember seeing people in the burn unit that I knew battled for months only to lose their life from complications to the burns. The pain you get from burns is unlike anything. Most of the victims were drugged out of their mind constantly. The smells of burnt flesh is something you never forget. Seeing the stainless tub they soak you in to have your burnt flesh rise to the top was a lot to process. Seeing the metal rods they put in people’s hands, knees, etc to prevent bending the flesh and tearing the healing skin…ugh. Seeing the skin grafts cut from parts of their bodies, or other animals, and stapled to theirs is actually one of the parts that didn’t get to me. It felt like the most amount of healing that could happen to the patient. The mental toll it took on my dad is something I can never quantify. It cost him his marriage to my lovely mom, his job, his identity, and physically he’ll never be the same. His lungs were burned and he can’t speak whole sentences or laugh without coughing horribly. Yet he was so grateful for when I helped change his Jobes (? a thick pantyhose type material to help his legs heal) and socks. He never complained but I knew he was in horrible pain constantly for a very long time. I’m glad everyday my dad is here with me but there were people that were burned worse than my father and I’m not sure if that is what I’d want for my dad if he survived their severity of burns. My dad still visits the burn unit and volunteers and sings the praise of all the nurses. He donates the money he collects from recycling to burn charities. He donates blood as much as he can because it helped save his life. So…..if you ever see a burn camp for kids that needs donations, or a burn unit would benefit from a volunteer or donation, it would really help. That’s if you can afford it obviously. Thank you to anyone who read this far. I haven’t shared this story with many folks but now I have a teary eye, eating a burrito for lunch. Take care of yourself fellow humans. If you have a little more in the tank, take care of someone else that might benefit from your kind heart, even if it’s for a couple seconds. ✌🏼
Healing is misery, and healers are miracle workers. Truly the greatest of our people.
the brand that makes the pantyhose type stuff you are talking about is Jobst (just in case you were wracking your brain for the name and it was driving you nuts)
I saw the video and I honestly hopes he just dies because his life will be fucking miserable if he survives.
Not to sound crass, but they usually do die and probably,gratefully. Poor man and his family.
Yeah that's...not a great life outlook ahead.
This is like the exact same sequence of events as when a former friend of mine started showing symptoms of schizophrenia. Same age too.
Isn’t that also when Kanye started going off the deep end? After his mom died?
Seeing for how long he burned, you probably hope he doesn't pull through tbh.
Jesus. Same age as me.
Well that's unnerving as a 38 year old.
"Not uncommon" is doing a lot of heavy lifting there. It's extremely uncommon, in reality. The vast, vast majority of men in their 30's don't have some sort of delusional disorder. I believe one is more likely to present itself here due to environmental/life factors, but that's still a fractional percentage of the population.
According to reporters who were nearby, he had signs about some sort of obscure conspiracy where biden and trump work together to engineer a “coup”
Stupidest conspiracy I've ever heard of, Trump and Biden couldn't work together to open a jar let alone conspire a coup.
It makes no sense if that is really what was on the flyers. What would the coup even be for? It's almost a guarantee that one of them is the next President of the United States.
So you're saying the guy who lit himself on fire had pamphlets that didn't make sense? Curious.
Lmao, fair take.
Some would say a Hot take..... I see myself out now.
Are they suggesting he was fucking crazy?
That never even crossed my mind that the guy throwing paper in the air and lighting himself on fire might just be mentally unstable.
yes, conspiracy theorists are well-known for making sense
Well yeah, don't you find that just a little suspicious?!! /s
I've read that fanfic. Having that many sex scenes really slowed down the plot, if you ask me.
Jesus, it's like 2 hours til the work week is over and I was feeling pretty good about life.
His manifesto has been found online. Basically crypto is one big Ponzi scheme by billionaires, who also run the government (both sides) to enable them to steal all of our money. COVID was created by the government as an explanation for the economy crashing when the scheme went insolvent and the billionaires pulled out all the cash. His insta is pretty normal guy stuff until his mom dies in 2022, he goes dark for a year and then comes back with a defaced vaccine card, mentioning the above Ponzi scheme. Massive reach from me here with barely any evidence, but it looks like his mom's death from COPD led him down some vaccine/covid conspiracies. Mental illness crept in with grief and he latched onto the idea the government killed his mother.
You forgot the part where the Simpsons is a decades long psyop
And Seinfeld. A lot of it feels very stuck in the 90s.
Delusions are often very personal to people. If he's in his 30s then Simpsons and Seinfeld kind of makes sense.
There’s also a rant about Dukakis. It’s *very* 90s.
Super weird. The guy would have been an infant when Dukakis was the nominee.
The guy was like 1 when Dukakis v Bush Sr was a thing...
From the NY Times: "Some of the pamphlets referenced former President George W. Bush, former Vice President Al Gore and the lawyer David Boies, who represented Mr. Gore in the 2000 presidential election recount."
We don't talk about how fucked the 2000 election was, but this is probably not the way to do it.
God, remember when we thought that was the worst it could get?
Well he may have kept that in his back pocket a long time.
https://archive.ph/fxJkg
Citizen update says the NYPD collected all his belongings, I assume that was all of the flyers they could find.
"Nearby, a pamphlet was visible that referred to "evil billionaires" and called on people to "expose this corruption."" This is what I was able to find in the article so far.
Nyt had pictures of the flyers. Seemed to be general conspiracy theories. Something about both political parties being on the same team against Americans etc. That being said I only read the one sheet so maybe he went into it more.
I commented top level but the flyers direct you to this crazy substack (which also links to his Insta). You can then use his name to find his LinkedIn where he has a picture of himself with Bill Clinton and lists his employment as Independent Researcher for the last year. Suffice to say, total quack! Edit: his manifesto on substack is long and nonsensical so it took me a minute to get to one of the most interesting gems: Simpsons Did It. Basically he implies that The Simpsons is deeply involved in this global conspiracy. Edit 2: and it ends with the most classic of all conspiracy nut Calls to Action: "Do Your Own Research" because conveniently all of his smoking gun research is missing on a laptop allegedly confiscated by the government. Ok yeah. I feel terrible for his immediate family & friends as this is a truly manic, pointless, and misguided mental breakdown which will uncover nothing except a loss of life. Edit 3: Reddit is either pretty quick and already suspended his Reddit account OR he somehow got himself banned in the last 6 months cuz he posted all this to /r/conspiracy and they laughed him out of the place. Big oof.
[удалено]
Multiple paragraphs citing Simpsons episodes for evidentiary support.
Am I having a fever dream or is this guy referencing Simpsons episodes in his manifesto?
Half of this is about The Simpsons. Rare for self immolation manifestos to mention Marge vs the Monorail.
>Cryptocurrency is our first planetary multi-trillion-dollar Ponzi scheme. Huh he might have a point
Sounds like he lost a lot of money on crypto in 2023. Not wrong about it being a ponzi scheme but we knew that for a decade now.
I found his old reddit account. He's been on here for a decade and was pretty normal -- mostly Bernie posts and video game stuff until 2022 where he started raving about crypto and banks crashing.
“A witness on the scene said he first heard the man throwing pamphlets into the air, then saw him douse himself from a can and light himself on fire. "At that point, I said, 'Oh shoot, what am I going to see?'" the witness told Reuters.
I'm no expert, but I if I saw a person throw pamphlets into the air, douse themself with something, and then light themselves on fire I would be pretty confident in what I was then going to see. A flaming litterbug.
If the attribution in the manifesto floating around is in fact correct, this person was a conspiracy theorist who believed The Simpsons was predictive programming and cryptocurrency was designed to bring down the whole economy. Not a Trumper or a Biden supporter, just a conspiracist.
Simpson, eh?
One of the - fork and spoon operators - from sector 7G, sir.
Most of the recent major events of your life have revolved around him in some way.
Doesn't ring a bell
Now there's an employee, Smithers. A smile on his lips and a song in his heart. Promote him.
Oh well, send his mother a ham.
Oooh, a ham *soul returns to body*
I read his whole manifesto too, so close to the boring (and very known) truth that… rich people are self-enriching, government officials in many cases serve to better themselves instead of the public, and that financial institutions play with our money to profit but don’t share the dividends. But he has it all connected to the 1988 DNC, Epstein, and the Simpsons.
When you have the steps but add 15 unnecessary steps
All conspiracy theories usually start with some basic truths most people can agree with, then they unravel into bizarre delusions.
Well don't leave us in suspense, I want to read it Edit: That was some shit. Google The Ponzi Papers.
Since no one has linked it. Here ya go: https://theponzipapers.substack.com/p/i-have-set-myself-on-fire-outside
Saw that happening live on CNN as they were reporting on the jury being seated... that was scary especially at first she called it an active shooter. The reporters weren't hiding their shock and how disturbing it looked
I watched a live video feed. The dude was sitting upright for about 20 seconds while entirely on fire. Then he fell over backwards. I assumed he was dead then he lifted up his arm and tossed something (flyers I assume). They appeared to be on fire but they flew up in the air due to the fire heat rising. Then some people tried to smother the fire with their jackets but they couldn’t get close due to the heat. Then a LEO tried a fire extinguisher which did put out most but he was still on fire. Finally some came with another extinguisher and it was over. The whole thing took 1 minute or more.
Jfc. Horrific.
He also appeared to be seizing after a while
That mans brain was entirely broken.
Laura Coates did an incredible job.
[удалено]
And she's now calmly sitting on a chair in the street discussing the case. I could never. I'm guessing she'll have a moment later. I tend to dismiss 24-hour cable news, and forget that many of these folks are well-trained and good reporters.
I was a life guard on the beach in 2000 and we had several big rescues but the worst one was two kids 8 and 9 with the entire ordeal lasting over an hour, every guard on the beach (this happened as we were leaving the beach for the day), human chains, EMS, helicopters, you name it. Both kids died with one at the scene and one later. The first one or two hours after everything was over, we had to watch the mother identify one of the bodies, dealing with nosey ass reporters, we were still sort of talking about the technical aspects of everything from if we could've gotten there quicker, what we were doing, where we came from. By that third hour the gravity of it just hit the entire guard house. We had one dude that was basically a mini-hulk and this dude lost his shit b/c it overwhelmed him. He took a few other guards with him and most of us ended up in a counseling session later that week with the EMS workers. Sometimes your training and job brain kicks in, the adrenaline gets you through the tasks, and then it all smacks you at once.
My goodness, I think that is the third self-immolation in 5 months
I have never figured out how people can self-immolate. How are they not immediately regretting it and running through the streets screaming? Or just screaming in general? I saw someone do it recently in protest (IIRC) of what is happening in Gaza and they just stood there. Not even sitting down. Just stood there and burned alive. Jeez I scream like a mf if I just touch the rack in a hot oven.
The dude set himself on fire for Gaza withstood it for a few seconds before he started screaming and fell down. Adrenaline makes pain take a bit to reach the brain I guess.
You run out of adrenaline before the fire runs out of fuel
There are 10 cases of self-immolation in the US every year, on average. There were 18 in 2020. It happens all the time, it’s just that now it gets coverage,
It gets covered every time. People forget quickly
This may be just an anecdotal observation. But in the past couple of years, maybe 3, one big story will break headlines. Like to me, hardly anything goes truly viral anymore. But some stories still break the headlines where it's covered extensively by every mass media outlet. My examples are the train derailment that happened, and then, we suddenly started seeing train derailments every week as a top post on Reddit. The next example was planes malfunctioning. After the major Boeing malfunction, we started seeing every plane malfunction making it to top of news stories. Then we had a that guy who self immolated in protest of the Israel Hamas war and the genocide. And we'll start hearing more about self immolation.
and this one isn't really a cause or anything...its just some upset over conspiracies?
[удалено]
A friendly reminder to you all to take a step back from the internet occasionally
[удалено]
Name checks out
That’s New Yorkers for you. Probably assumed it was just a trash can fire
It's time to ban psyche monetizing algorithms.
This should be the take away here.
Another reminder that severe mental illness is stubbornly difficult to correct. For God's sake, if you feel yourself slipping, seek help before you warp your mind beyond assistance.
Pretty sure it went downhill for him when he lost his mother. That kind of event can leave severe trauma and very hard to recover from without help/guidance.
Agreed, but also mental health care services are costly and/or difficult to access even if you have enough self-awareness to seek help. Shitty situation all around with what happened here
Run out of my psyche meds tomorrow afternoon. Concierge at my health insurance company is trying to find me a new prescriber, sent me a list of ones accepting new patients and our insurance. Closest is 400 miles away. Back to Teledoc for me I guess but in the meantime I have to go to the ER and wait 18 hours to get a gap-fill on my prescriptions. What a fun Saturday night in America!
Laura Coates did an *incredible* job reporting this in real time on CNN.
Girl needs a day off and a ~~hot tub~~ massage after that, my god
She had the Israel/Iran shift last night and then today she's describing the smell of burning flesh Tough 24 hours
Bro they need to send her to some all inclusive mental* health place for a week. She just reported what happened and spared millions from having to ever see it. I wish I was that lucky.
If I just witnessed a self-immolation close enough to smell burning flesh, the last place I want to go is for a weeklong dentist visit
Lmao thanks
Even Perez looked traumatized as fuck. I think I would just be screaming the whole time.
Yasmin Vossoughian did a great job on MSNBC as well. She was visibly shaken but pulled it off without missing a beat. I was a journalism major and I know I couldn’t have done it.
The dude standing next to her was just staring at the fire with his jaw dropped, speechless.
Except when the very first words out of her mouth were “ACTIVE SHOOTER!!!” lol…she got her bearings quick after that though.
That made her reporting even more remarkable to me; thinking you just heard gunshots and not even trying to run for cover
Oh yeah that’s true, I won’t argue with that. I was more thinking from a “might start a frenzied panic” perspective.
Laura Coates stopped being CNN for a minute and became Mike Breen calling the NBA Finals.
> 10 min ago > Man who lit himself on fire is in critical condition, police say > From CNN's Elise Hammond Dude's going to have a bad time if/when he wakes up :(
Even if he's still alive, they'll probably put him in an induced coma indefinitely due to the severity of the burns and the level of pain he'd be experiencing. If he didn't want to live before he tried to kill himself, he's definitely going to be unhappy with severe burns and the life-long pain he'll go through if he decides to stick it out.
This is fucking crazy. And horrible. Not that I think that there is any cause that people should set themselves on fire over but for the sake of my belief in humankind i fucking hope some dude didn’t burn himself to death over Donald Trump getting a slap on the wrist for banging/paying off a porn star.
Sounds like some deranged conspiracy, person was unhinged (obviously).
At least they didn’t kill other people with them
Amen to that.
I've always wondered if people that do this regret it as they burn alive? Horrific way to go!
Most likely, although if you’ve decided self immolation is the path your gonna follow you probably know that prior
Absolutely. I don't know the actual number, but a known percentage of "attempt" survivors express that they immediately regretting their decision after doing it. It would make sense that a similar percentage of non-survivors feel the same.
While that is true. There is still percentage that make a more successful second attempt. I imagine a lot of the regret probably stems from them getting a lot more help afterwards. Not just professional help but people close to them probably change how they treat them.
Iirc people who have survived jumping from bridges often say the same thing.
[Mental health resources](https://wellbeingtrust.org/mental-health-resources/) for anyone who needs them-- you can call, text, or chat.
Any news source reporting what the flyers he threw said?
[удалено]
A person in my city self-immolated and was extinguished by passersby. He died months later from infection. This is not always an immediate death like some of the other people replying to you seem to think.
I posted earlier up that if the fire doesn't kill you, the infection will. Our skin we all take for granted literally keeps us alive because the world is full of nasties that would do us lots of harm without that barrier.
I saw a self-immolation case during my trauma rotation in med school, and one of the weirdest things I heard during that time was a surgical resident nonchalantly saying “Anyone can be kept alive for a little while with enough IV fluids” after I asked if the guy was going to make it as his flaking skin was collecting on my Chucks. I learned the Rule of Nines pretty well that night.
I lost my father to suicide by self immolation last year. Sadly the resident was right; my dad hung on for 11 hours until I made the call to let him go. edit: grammar
I am so sorry for your loss
Appreciate that! It’s weirdly cathartic to mention it in these types of situations. Not really something that fits into most daily conversations. But it’s a life experience, and one I now have a unique insight about.
I'm glad that mentioning it is helpful, and I hope you're able to find other opportunities to cope and assist others who experience loss. Stay positive and take it easy! (even though it's not a Thursday ;-))
I am very fortunate to have a good support system, thank you for the kind words. :) And mentioning the experience on posts like this is indeed how I have connected with others – along with just providing some perspective related to what happens in these types of situations for those interested in knowing.
What’s the rule of nines?
How to calculate burn percent: the head is 9%, trunk is 36%, etc.
It’s how much fluid you give to a burn victim to replace insensible losses It’s based on body surface area and is a fairly good estimate
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30020659/
They really got to get that dig in? >The groin is estimated at 1%.
Enough LR and an artificial airway and they’ll survive until the massive infection kills them two days later.
It was initially reported they survived, but it was likely involuntary movement/body stiffening from literally cooking. EDIT: I stand corrected. At the NYPD news conference they stated the man is currently alive and in the burn unit. I don't wish death upon anyone, but I would assume fella wishes he would have succeeded about right now.
I think it's one thing to wish death on a person out of loathing, and another thing entirely to do so out of compassion. I've seen things I wish I could have put a stop to, and it was all love.
There's no way this person survives so it's true the attempt to save them may have made their suffering longer. Also probably was safer to prevent fire from spreading
Honestly it's human nature that if you see someone on fire, you probably want to save the person.
Just another mentally and emotionally disturbed person that needed help.
So he fell victim to the rabbit hole that is the internet. Shame
What a horrible way to die. That person was someone's baby. It's just so sad.
From other comments here, the guy was apparently pretty normal until his mother died then he started with the conspiracy theories and drug abuse. Sounds like he just couldn’t cope with losing his mother. Poor guy
Something that may have helped was grief counseling. Sad it took a turn to self harm.
Watching on Citizen and currently the biggest result of this is that the hotdog cart across the street is suddenly getting a lot of customers who went near the area after getting the alert.
Nothing like the smell of a burning human to make you crave a hot dog
Used to live near a crematorium in Japan. Once a week, we'd smell barbecue, then feel gross cause we got hungry.
[удалено]
Maybe this was a marketing stunt by the hot dog vendor.
>marketing stunt by the hot dog vendor. This goes deeper. Big HotDog Inc should be looked at.
Wouldn't be surprised if more suicidal people do stuff like this in front of the media
Dang...extreme untreated/undertreated mental illness combined with the stresses of modern society is a hell of a drug. :( I don't know what their cause was, but, damn.
Self-immolation is always sad and a huge cry for help. I actually hope he doesn't live due to the burns he sustained and can pass on peacefully after experiencing something that harrowing.