Nobody bothered to look at the pamphlets I suppose.
CNN reporters on the scene observed one of the flyers, which said “NYU is a mob front” and “had various allegations of wrongdoings against the school.”
Despite the balance of probability being a disgruntled mentally ill former student, an outsider pro'ly 'otta look into that.
So this had nothing to do with Trump it sounds like.
There's a huge amount of press there, so that's the place to go if you want to get the attention.
Sorta, he lists Trump and Kushner as major players in the crypto scheme he is saying is about to destroy the economy
Other than the fact that he attracts crazies like months to a flame, it doesn't sound like it.
Here's an image of one of the pamphlets.
Yeah. Other have posted the links as well, but if you search on the title text you quickly come across this guy's substack and the actual manifesto.
The sad thing is that he seems to have started off as a fairly legit investigative researcher, or was trying to become one, but fell off the rails somewhere along the line.
I had to stop reading the manifesto when he alleged that covid was created by the government, but when he starts off with "an apocalyptic fascist world coup" is in the making, I'm not entirely certain he's wrong: even the most broken of clocks is right twice a day. Whether by design or by accident, we are on the brink of WWIII and total environmental collapse. For him to assert a conspiracy is not nearly as crazy as many will want to insist in days to come, not least because both fascism and apocalypse are nearer now than they have ever been in our lifetimes. What's so crazy about believing that some sociopaths in power looked at that and thought, hmm, we can make some coin here, and then did so?
I'm just sorry he had enough faith in humanity left to think that his self-immolation would change a goddamn thing, or even make anyone question the road we are collectively headed down. And I mean that. To write as he did and act as he did, his world was full of suffering -- and if he lives, it will be 100 times worse, and still not have accomplished what he would have wanted, or even come close. His life was, in itself, worth far more than the fiery altar he threw it upon today.
EDITED for spellin
He posted online to explain his reasoning for this action: https://open.substack.com/pub/theponzipapers/p/i-have-set-myself-on-fire-outside?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Tl;dr nutso crypto conspiracy bro
Sure it sounds crazy, but goddamn have I been feeling like this whole country has been conned lately. Inflation keeps going up, we keep getting poorer, and the billionaires keep making record profits. Like what the actual fuck? This guy may not have gotten everything right, but the idea that we’ve been conned out of the America Dream by a kleptocracy (the billionaires) that actually rules this country and have been taught by media that we’re helpless in making any real change absolutely rings true.
That's the mission of the people who are trying to tear apart our democracy: make people think the whole system is broken and beyond repair.
That's where all these people arguing against voting for Biden and Democratic majorities are coming from. They don't actually think the two parties are the same (or they wouldn't if they were honest about them). But they sure as heck think America would be better if not everyone could participate in it's governance.
So it's up to us to work on defending the democratic power we have and work on repairing and improving our democracy. That means completely redesigning the campaign finance system. That means expanding voting access. That means expanding the Article 3 courts from top to bottom. We need to fix our media. Break up monopolies and oligopolies. On and on.
We can make our democracy better if we work together to fix it.
I mean I get where you're coming from and I like the spirit of what you're saying, but how do you fix the campaign finance system when everyone with the power to fix that currently benefits from it? How do you expand voting access, when the people who should be doing that are actually doing the opposite? How do you fix the media, when it's owned by the billionaires that want to control what you see and hear? And on and on and on.
I don't want to be the doom and gloom guy, or the both sides guy or whatever the fuck. But honestly, what part of our democracy has been working lately? Do you feel represented?
I think all Americans can agree that we want housing that's affordable, education that isn't a death prison for our children, medical care that won't turn us into indentured servants, and an economy that actually reflects the realities of the people and not the fucking stocks owned mostly by billionaires. I think it would be hard to find anyone of either side of the aisle that doesn't agree. And yet, here we are.
And the republicans are the enablers of that con.
Democrats haven't really done anything to stop it. It's a ratchet where the GOP makes things worse and the Dems prevent things from ever getting better
Cryptocurrency is our first planetary multi-trillion-dollar Ponzi scheme.
This actually makes a lot of sense if you've followed crypto for over a decade and look at the markets.
Ycombinator is where a lot of the technology that takes advantage of us begins. I think it's a stretch to say Bitcoin started as a conspiracy, but I would definitely believe that everything that followed could be the result of bad actors pulling the strings.
The strangest thing in crypto is how uniform the value of currencies are over time. They all go up at the same time. They all go down at the same time. And they do this with near-identical amounts.
This can only mean that it's the same people who are invested in multiple currencies.
Seeing how massive companies like "Red Bull" got popular paying influential people to shill their products, it wouldn't surprise me in the least that some investors are paying people to make and shill cryptocurrencies.
To my friends and family, witnesses and first responders, I deeply apologize for inflicting this pain upon you.
Huh.
He had me until the Simpsons connection.
That's weird, I was reading expecting to see some kind of simpson's quote or reference like they predicted 9/11. Instead, he mentions how "dozens of the writers of The Simpsons went to Harvard."
I think Simpsons is very interesting because so many people get the wrong things from it. A lot of people don't view Simpsons as satire (which it is); they view it as an excuse for their behavior. It's ok to be a lazy, ignorant, alcoholic because that's what Homer is. He still loves his family, right? And that makes it okay. (not)
I typed this out before reading further, and I'm glad he mentioned the Monorail episode because it's exactly what came to mind. However, that episode was clear satire. It doesn't make sense for the audience to think giving in to a conman is the correct thing to do, but that is what has happened to a lot of cities across the US.
It's weird because I think Simpsons has had the effect that he's talking about, it's just I'm torn on whether or not it was the real intention of the artists.
If it was, that's absolutely mind-boggling illuminati shit. I don't think it goes that deep, though.
Couldn't get this working in archive.org so here's a different article without the paywall. https://abcnews.go.com/US/man-apparently-sets-fire-courthouse-trump-trial/story?id=109433903
Should've used a gift link, my bad:
Thanks!
My wife actually knew the guy from college. They were friends and she said that he was normal then. The last time they talked was back in 2019 when he had went to a baseball game in Florida and my wife wished she was there (we actually made it down there in 2022). The last thing he posted on social media before all of his, um, research was about his mom dying and we wonder if that might have triggered something. My wife was worried about him because he wasn't getting help and she worried that he would do something crazy, which was a worry that wasn't unfounded.
Should we expect a TempleOS 2.0 if he survives?
Was it Trump?
manifesto that crypto is a ponzi scheme and the world is run by kleptocrats
uh yeah dude did you think we didn't know that??
Found this, dunno if it’s legit but sounds like a plausible motivation from someone with some screws loose
It's always sad when someone who clearly cares so much gives up or resorts to irrational methods to fight against what he perceived as an insurmountable threat.
The world has always been run by self-interested bastards who will gladly sacrifice thousands and millions of people to enrich themselves. This is nothing new to anyone who has studied any history.
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