Pointing a gun at a man who’s burning alive would seem about as good a metaphor as any to describe how the U.S. is responding to the crises that Buckel and Bushnell said drove them to end their lives in the ways that they did. U.S. military aid flows freely to Israel as it continues its war on Palestine; our government has also opted to cut off support to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which is now struggling to deliver lifesaving aid to Gazans. As millions are being forced from their homes by devastating storms, droughts, and U.S-imposed sanctions in Latin America, Democrats and Republicans alike are clamoring to beef up already bloated security forces at the southern border and cut off opportunities for asylum-seekers. The Department of Defense, meanwhile, is busy drafting contingency plans for how to keep its armed forces in fighting shape as the world warms. Rather than making any attempt to start phasing down record oil and gas production, policymakers that ostensibly care about the climate crisis are cheering it on. Do they see those on the other end of their decisions as real people capable of experiencing extraordinary pain? Or are these crises just more threats to be handled down the barrel of a gun?
https://newrepublic.com/article/179334/bushnell-self-immolation-palestine-climate
youth class culture: Steven Threadgold 