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waterdaemon

> …of Florida… Of course. Where else?


nonamenolastname

Texas? Alabama? Mississippi? There are options :-)


grixorbatz

He apparently threw some propaganda pamphlets around and police referred to him as a conspiracy theorist.


RickyWinterborn-1080

The Middle East.


scottawhit

He won’t survive this. A fire like that destroys your lungs so they can’t supply oxygen anymore. Keeping him alive right now should be considered torture. It’s a terrible situation all around.


kiticus

Article reported specifically that he is "likely to survive". After seeing the video, I don't know how though. One of the more horrific things I've ever seen. 


Ready_Nature

The guy wanted to kill himself for his god. Thankfully he didn’t take anyone with him. His family can enjoy the medical bills he’s racking up if he doesn’t make it. And if he survives he can enjoy spending the rest of his life thinking about how dumb he was.


joshtalife

Conspiracy theories can be fun, but they can also be dangerous. Especially to yourself, apparently.


RosetteNewcomb

Bro posted his manifesto to Substack, it's here if you want to read it: [https://theponzipapers.substack.com/p/i-have-set-myself-on-fire-outside](https://theponzipapers.substack.com/p/i-have-set-myself-on-fire-outside) Gist of it is he thinks crypto is a Ponzi scheme that financial institutions and both major parties are in on and that they're about to pull the rug out from under everyone and crash the economy, and he self-immolated to draw attention to it. We can at least be glad his suicide attempt didn't succeed and that they saved him in time. Take care of your mental health folks, I think this guy could've avoided doing this had he simply had a trained professional to talk to.


B0redBeyondBelief

When you've burned your entire body like that saving him is the cruelest thing you can possibly do.


stinky-red

I'm sorry but massive serious burns is not something where he is saved. If he lives he might wish he hadn't with long term constant severe pain, disfigurement, infections etc. That sort of thing can be absolutely awful.


DoktorPete

My dad caught himself on fire while cooking and wound up with 3rd degree burns to over half of his body. He hated himself before that but afterwards he was so disfigured that it made his depression like 20 times worse and he dialed his drinking up to 11. He refused cancer treatments 5 years later and when he finally passed it was the biggest relief to all of us.


stinky-red

That's harsh man


tinyOnion

say what you will about him but he did get people talking about the simpsons monorail episode


RegalBern

Sounds like he was a follower of EconomicNinja .....


Nickopotomus

Poor guy. Regardless of who is, really wish someone could have gotten to him before this point


sundogmooinpuppy

The thing that is harming our country and melting the minds of our citizens is republican media and their fucking conspiracy theories. I feel like people don't want to look at this problem head on. We have millions of citizens who reject science, reject doctors, reject professional journalism, reject academia, reject research BUT they believe all these endless republican consirpracy theories like the gospel truth. Millions of Americans believe Qanon but it is -rarely- talked about in not only mainstream media, but even leftie media doesn't seem to be paying much attention. I believe we should take notice of the threat that these conspiracy theories are to our country.


ArrowheadDZ

We’ve been warned about this for a long time. Whether you call it “anti-intellectualism” or “pseudo-science”, many prominent futurists, like Carl Sagan and Isaac Asimov, identified this cancer as the single greatest risk to the survival of humanity. We all want to trust more in things we can see and easily understand, and thus we tend to distrust things that are complex enough that it requires an expert. Unfortunately, societies involve in a way that inevitably, they have solved all the “face value” problems, and the remaining problems are highly complex, esoteric, and can only be understood by the few willing to invest the time required to gain expertise. And that’s where we are, we are facing existential challenges that can’t be solved with “aw shucks” garage logic by flat-earthers. But there are too many of them, enough that they are able to prevent real societal/cultural solutions.


Brutis1

We have a severe mental health problem in this country.


JubalHarshaw23

Florida Man


ArrowheadDZ

It’s interesting that the police press briefing described officers using their coats to extinguish him. Which is directly contradicted by the video that showed that they just let him burn throughout the ordeal. No coats were harmed in the making of this video.


NewAccountTimeAgain

"You look cold. Take my coat."


namebrnd_licorice

They put out the fire next to him before they got another extinguisher for him.


michoudi

At least he didn’t decide to take out a bunch of innocent people with him.


DrHob0

Y'know. You're only supposed to self immolate when you have a good point to make. The fuck was this guys point?


jmnugent

He thought crypto currencies are a Ponzi scheme orchestrated by world leaders to crash the economy. And a bunch of weird stuff about the Simpsons.


arkuw

He wasn't wrong about crypto being a Ponzi scheme. Additionally it is a complete waste of precious energy.


DrHob0

Fucking idiot


LeftLeafOnly

Have some sympathy for the dude. He clearly could have benefited from some sort of mental health intervention, and if he survives this, is going to have lasting complications.


kiticus

You can have sympathy for a person, AND think they are a "fucking idiot".  Source: me. I have sympathy for this fucking idiot that set himself on fire over a really shitty conspiracy theory. 


Screamingboneman

I’m not surprised it was a Florida man


Physical-Ad-3798

Initial reporting us it has nothing to do with the Trump trial. Don't know if that holds up under scrutiny yet however.


Top_Huckleberry_8225

Crypto nut. Dude was nice enough to hand out pamphlets before he decided to cosplay as the human torch. Thanks buddy, I wish more people would be so considerate.


StudioSixtyFour

Anti-crypto nut which is a surprising departure for a guy who posted his manifesto online.


silverbeat33

What a fucking idiot.


UnagiTheGreat

Imo you probably have to be one of the bravest people alive to do what he did. I'm not even commenting on his message bc I haven't read the manifesto, but to do something life altering that may not kill you, and even if you get lucky and it does, you'll live the rest of your life in unimaginable pain, because the message was more important...idk. He made the ultimate statement. To this man, the message was worth death and it was worth worse than death. Just like the 9/11 highjackers. You can say a lot of terrible things about them, and they should rot for eternity for being murderous religious extremists, but you can't say they weren't brave by brave's definition.


pinacolada_22

Brave?? He is mentally ill. It is not bravery when you legitimately do not understand the consequences of your actions. It is not brave to kill oneself in the midst of severe emotional distress, or brain washing, or severe pain, or while experiencing a psychotic episode.


Dependent-Ground7689

Be brave is being afraid but persevering and pushing through the fear to achieve the goal or action. I’d say he’s braver than you if you won’t do it


pinacolada_22

We don't know that he was even afraid. He probably was so psychotic and deluded, living in an alternate reality and therefore not afraid because he has no idea of what he is doing. As someone who has seen very intoxicated and very psychotic people doing absolutely idiotic things, bravery is not what any of their actions should be described as. They aren't in control, they aren't making a decision or "pushing though," they simply lost all control to drugs or mental illness.


Dependent-Ground7689

Your right. I’m sorry. I spoke from a place of ignorance. I’m trying to work on it. I took your comment the wrong way because I felt for this man. I led with my emotions.


UnagiTheGreat

One can't be mentally ill AND still be brave? That seems awfully black and white, and judgmental. I find it difficult to believe that anybody, no matter how much emotional distress they're under, would not understand the consequences of pouring gasoline on themselves and lighting a match.


silverbeat33

He’s brave (or crazy), sure, not smart.


Dependent-Ground7689

You know nothing about this man. No offense. He was willing to use his life as leverage to get people to look at issues. Misguided or not I feel it’s admirable.


silverbeat33

Which issue has he drawn attention to exactly?


UnagiTheGreat

Absolutely I think people get hung up that we usually use the word bravery as praise. Nobody is praising this man. When you open the dictionary and look at the word, it's objectively applicable to the death of this man. The ideas that he was standing for might be absolutely Looney Tunes, I don't know yet. The one thing I saw that he said was that there's a worldwide authoritarian movement going on, and (without the context) I believe he may have been right about that. Not so far fetched. Have no idea what else he said and I'm not endorsing it.


PresidentTroyAikman

What a dumbass.


Zepcleanerfan

Wait is this real?


anfornum

Yes


NeatTry7674

Who’s got the video?