takeheart wrote on January 9, 2022 at 7:27 AM

Why won't somebody do something? Oh, so burning oneself alive is a way of doing something, a political statement. I don't believe so, people don't burn themselves for statement, they do this out of despair, because their life was made unbearable by environment. Kind of happens with mistreated animals: first they cease breeding, then they cease breathing.

ghast OP wrote on January 10, 2022 at 5:31 AM

I'd say in most cases it's a mixture of political protest and suicide from despair. True that usually someone who is just very serious about making a political statement would try to find a different way. But there are some cases where it seems like the main purpose is to get a message across.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_self-immolations