Manifesto of the Trump Trial self-immolation guy
Echo chambers — all of them — are the real evil in the world.
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By now you’ve probably heard the pretty horrifying news that a guy set himself on fire outside the courthouse in Manhattan where one of Trump’s criminal trials is underway. Max Azzarello died later that night in the hospital. As he did this in an area cordoned off for supporters of Donald Trump, many assumed that his act was in protest of the criminal proceedings, perceived to be fraudulent in the eyes of many of Trump’s most ardent followers.
The truth was very different.
Earlier in the day, Azzarello published his manifesto on Substack. Turns out his reasoning had little to do with Trump or the election or anything really political at all. He was an adherent of a variation on one of the basic far-ranging conspiracy theories — that many governments, companies, and elite figures are planning a fascist totalitarian takeover of the entire world, implanting cryptocurrency to defraud and bankrupt all of us. His act of self-immolation was to raise awareness of this impending doom and a call to action for all of us to fight back.
Some of his arguments almost range into schizophrenia. One of his themes, which receives a disproportionate share of his attention, is the animated TV show The Simpsons. He believes the show is a part of this giant scheme. The show depicts a family he considers dysfunctional, a community full of dysfunctional characters, and evil mega corporations and overlords who consistently succeed with their evil plans. Azzarello believed The Simpsons was there to normalize this kind of world, a psy-op to get people to accept their own impotence and overlord control.
He states that many of The Simpsons writers went to Harvard, which he considers a major front for organized crime. Harvard grooms people to do things like create investment banks and cryptocurrencies. He believed the banks were all designed to eventually fail, robbing you and me of our assets, and forcing us to accept this new world order. The new kleptocracy — as he called it — would transcend political parties and national borders.
Most likely, Azzarello was obsessed with consuming online content that promoted these ideas. He became angry enough about it that he eventually set himself on fire at a place where he believed there would be maximum news coverage. To say that’s an inauspicious end would be an understatement.
This is the danger of echo chambers. It doesn’t matter if you are left wing or right wing or no wing — Azzarello believed he had insight superior to that of all tribes — if you feed yourself only news from sources that stroke your preferences, participate only in groups of like-minded individuals, if you speak or act based on an “us vs. them” division in the world — you may be getting gradually radicalized in the way Azzarello was.
For him, such an end may have been only a matter of time, and it was probably becoming that way for a while. But think if he’d stepped outside his echo chamber six months ago. Joined a community Meetup group. Played in a pickleball league. Bought a mountain bike and went riding with a group. Did anything with people who did not share his Global Fraud delusion, and enjoyed himself. I bet he’d be alive today if anything of those things had happened.
Stay out of echo chambers. They’re all bad. They are the real global evil.
Interesting advice: not to seek out opposite *political* views (if I may characterize them as such) but to go do normal recreational activities in the physical world with actual, live people. I like it. I'm going to go for a walk with a friend right now.
I guess he wanted to drain the swamp......something Trump singularly failed to do....🤔