That moron who set himself on fire the other day in front of the Israeli embassy deserves and is receiving endless mockery and contempt from right-wing Twitter. Leftists are outraged and bellowing with phony indignation. Too bad. We’re not going to be morally intimidated by this stupidity. Let’s be really clear that this isn’t a tragedy. This was a selfish and stupid choice made by an immature moron whose moral illiteracy led him to the sorry scenario of channeling Michael Jackson on a Pepsi commercial. If you like compassion, save it for the people who deserve it. Save it for the people who we can convince not to do this kind of idiotic thing by heaping calamity on the crispy cretin who did.
Mean? Yeah, probably. But America could use a lot more meanness right now. Being nice to stupid people has led to stupid things like this stupid stunt. Being nice in the face of fatal foolishness is fake. This doesn’t deserve niceness. This deserves mockery and contempt, and don’t pretend you own the moral ground by being too weak to do what has to be done. What needs to be done is to describe it as the self-inflicted atrocity it is.
Understand that this wasn’t some sort of misguided political protest. This was conscious of the embrace of evil. This was a treacherous act by someone sworn to defend the United States, a knowing and deliberate decision to support one of our enemies. Hamas has murdered dozens of Americans. It’s holding about a dozen Americans hostage right now. Hamas wants us dead. It hates us. And the proper response is to hate it right back. Complicit in what he calls the genocide in Gaza? Let’s leave out the point that there is no genocide in Gaza, except the one that Gazans themselves tried to pull off. This is a righteous war of good against evil, and Mr. Toasty chose to side with the bad guys.
But, cries the left, he believed in something. Yeah, if it were 1944, he would have believed in the Nazis. Actually, he still kind of did. The only upside is that his moral bankruptcy will not be a problem anymore because he’s taken it upon himself to clean out the gene pool. The only props this guy deserves are for making Darwin great again.
But let’s leave aside his casual treason by giving aid and comfort to the enemy. This was an American Air Force airman who broke not only his oath but the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The UCMJ bars political acts in uniform, so he died breaking the law. It also bars causing injuries to oneself. And it bars bringing disrespect upon the military by your misconduct. Yeah, the left is making a big deal that it was some active-duty halfwit who did a Richard Pryor impression. So what? He was no war hero. He had nothing to do with Gaza. This guy was so far behind the lines he makes Pete Buttigieg look like Audie Murphy. He was a poser. But hey, the communist’s favorite kind of idiot is a useful one.
Recommended
Sadly, he seems pretty much in keeping with our current military. Remember all those unicorn hunts for the elusive Great White Extremist? It turns out the real extremist was white all right – well, not anymore – but he wasn’t a conservative. He was a commie schmuck who made no effort to hide his commieness. What this idiot was doing with a security clearance is beyond me, but then I look at the current state of our military leadership and it’s not a surprise. I’ll bet that some general shows up to this turd’s funeral and maybe even speaks about how he was a passionate young leader who really believed in something and blah blah blah blah blah. He ought to be posthumously stripped of his rank and his honors. He died in shame. He died a traitor. He should be treated as such to make clear that this is intolerable but, sadly, it’s not only tolerable in today’s broken military but will likely be cheered. It’s probably a matter of time until we find out he was a furry and they posthumously promote him.
The sad part is that his idiotic politics, as shown by his social media history, are actually the very same politics that are predominant in the White House right now. You know, they believe the same thing there that he believed. It’s all the same leftist colonizer crap. They just haven’t poured lighter fluid all over themselves and flicked a Bic for attention yet. But hey, there’s still time.
Finally, besides being an idiot and a treacherous disgrace to the uniform, this guy was a jerk who has caused untold pain to his family. Astonishingly, there are probably people out there who loved him, but in his vainglorious attempt to make narcissism great again, he caused them to suffer even greater than his own agony as he died screaming while he was burning to death for nothing.
Imagine the pain of his family. Imagine the heartbreak of his parents. He did that to them. He chose to do that to them. He was 25 years old, not a kid, not a baby but allegedly a man, and he chose to inflict that kind of misery on his parents so he could be the star of his own viral YouTube clip. And here’s the thing – it’s all for nothing. He will be a forgotten cinder when everyone moves on to something else in a few days, but his family has to live with it forever. Congratulations, you complete jackass.
This is a theme among people who hurt themselves. They’re often not really thinking about hurting themselves. They’re thinking about hurting others. This is not entirely unrelated to the trans nightmare, where people allow themselves to be mutilated, knowing the horrible effect it’s going to have on others – not the Munchausen mommies, but you know what I mean. It’s unimaginably selfish and cruel, and the only reasonable response is mockery and contempt directed at those who do it. They can’t be made heroes. They can’t be made symbols. They have to be made fun of. Some people might object that are pointing out that this dummy was a dummy who died a completely useless death will cause his parents more pain. Wrong. It’s not possible to cause his parents more pain. He was the sole cause of their pain, not the people pointing out that this wasn’t a tragedy but a decision by their son to hurt them to somehow elevate himself.
He’s not a hero. He’s an ash. And we have to keep saying it so no other selfish fool does the same thing again.
Follow Kurt on Twitter @KurtSchlichter. Get the eighth volume in the Kelly Turnbull People’s Republic series of conservative action novels set in America after a notional national divorce, the bestselling Amazon #1 Military Thriller, Overlord! And get his new novel of terrorism in America, The Attack!
Look, you need to keep up the fight by joining Townhall VIP right now. You get access to a bunch of great stuff, not the least of which is my extra Wednesday Column, my weekly Stream of Kurtiousness videos every Friday, and the Unredacted podcast every Monday! Plus, some stuff from Larry O’Connor – and a bunch of other stuff.
My super-secret email address is Kurt.Schlichter@townhall.com
