The guy who set himself on fire outside of the Manhattan courthouse where Donald Trump is on trial has been identified as 37-year-old Maxwell Azzarello of Florida. He was pronounced dead of his injuries this morning, so he clearly won't be answering any of the many questions that linger after this bizarre event. His family said that they weren't even aware that he had traveled to New York and they had no idea of what he was planning, though they did describe him as suffering from "mental illness" of some sort. (That seems rather obvious.) We're left wondering why he would have done such a thing. This was obviously a protest of some sort, but it's difficult to say what he was protesting. Much like the aspiring transgender shooter we discussed earlier today, Azzarello left behind a "manifesto" but it seems to be a rambling mess. (The Independent)

The man who set himself on fire outside the Manhattan courthouse where Donald Trump’s trial is underway has now been identified as a self-described “investigative researcher” who posted a conspiracy-laden manifesto online moments before the incident.

Maxwell Azzarello, a 37-year-old man from Florida, has been declared dead by hospital staff, police told NBC News early Saturday. No time of death has been given by police.

The man shared a string of conspiracy theories on his social media accounts in recent months, in which he railed against the rich and powerful and claimed “our only goal is to abolish our criminal government”.

I suppose we can express at least some sense of relief that Azzarello decided to do this rather than engaging in a mass shooting or blowing something up. Nobody else was seriously injured during his flaming departure from this mortal coil, though a few officers suffered minor burns. But what was the point he was trying to make? Was he protesting against Trump or in support of him? As noted above, his manifesto doesn't make his cause entirely clear. He was complaining about rich, powerful people and "our criminal government." (I'll probably cut him some slack on the "criminal government" part at this point.)

The day before he went up in flames, someone captured a picture of Azzarello out on the sidewalk holding up a sign. It read, "Trump is with Biden and they're about to fascist coup us." Max gets full credit for correct spelling and punctuation, but... what? What does that even mean? He wrote about an “apocalyptic fascist world coup” and claimed that educational institutes were controlled by the mafia. The guy was a registered Democrat who had a bachelor's degree, but it's unclear if or how that's relevant.

As far as suicides go, self-immolation has to be just about one of the most horrific methods imaginable and the person is obviously trying to make a point. Over the past twenty years, there have been more than 150 self-immolations by Tibetan monks and nuns protesting China's assaults on their territory. That's still terrible to think about, but at least you can probably understand their motivation. 

It's less common in the West and in the United States in particular, but it does happen. Just two months ago, a United States Air Force airman who supported Hamas lit himself on fire and died outside of the Israeli embassy in Washington. On Earth Day in 2022, a climate activist did it in front of the Supreme Court. In 2018, a climate alarmist did the same thing in New York City, not far from where Azzarello went up in flames. He was protesting fossil fuels.

While thankfully uncommon, this extreme form of protesting clearly takes place. These are people who are attempting to draw the maximum amount of media attention possible to their cause. Whether you agree with them or not, they all seem to have some sort of demand, typically against the government, and they are hoping others will take up their cause. But what was Azzarello demanding? Did he want to simply shut down the government? Dismantle the colleges? We may never know.