@Gitananda said in #1:
> I note that people who have the conviction to go through with this sort of thing have the strength of will to calmly chant their message instead of screaming bloody murder even though being burned alive is the most tortuous form of death. However, I still can not support this form of protest - no matter how noble the cause.
>
> ref:
www.npr.org/2024/02/27/1233985097/self-immolation-political-protesters-history-aaron-bushnellIt definitely grabs people's attention, but whether that act convinces anyone of the immorality of the action they are protesting against really is another question entirely. Like with Gaza I think the public have always been a little bit concerned about Israel's excessive use of force as well as the effects of the blockade, and whether those could really be considered a justifiable response. There are people who argue yes it is, considering the number of civilians killed during WWII in Dresden, Germany or Japan were considerably higher but no one really considered those to be "genocides" or some equivalent form of mass murder. Israel might argue they are similarly engaging in a war with Hamas and civilian casualties are a necessary side effect.
On my part I do find both sides to have persuasive arguments. But overall I think Hamas is generally so weak that I don't think its really necessary to go to war as Israel did. It was really Israel's fault that they left a wide open gap in their security for Hamas to penetrate, than that Hamas performed some incredible strategic victory over Israel. So do they really need to destroy apartment building after apartment building, just to protect Israel from 4-5 rockets that may damage a few cars in parking lots? Its just completely disproportional.
But anyway...those arguments aside, I think overall I agree that people shouldn't be swayed by these acts of emotion. Because if you change your opinion because some random person sets themself on fire, what does that say about your principles, your moral values? All of sudden, you have concern about the deaths of millions because one person set themself on fire? All the moral calculus involved in determining whether the cause of a war is just doesn't matter, because you feel sad for one person? Its just a horribly irrational decision in my view. We should not let ourselves be persuaded by these acts of protest because its such a profoundly illogical way to react to *anything*.
Like what if a person sets themselves on fire to protest capitalism? Or housing prices? Or climate change? Should that mean we should take radical action in each of those cases just because of the shock value? It makes no logical sense at all. We should have good reasons for adopting specific public policies, and similarly good arguments for why we should or should not support a war. Its ironic these people brand themselves as heroes, to me they are the most selfish people on the planet - they think that their actions should single-handedly determine the policy of entire nations, not the votes or interests of the people who make up those nations.
