Self-immolating serviceman Aaron Bushnell is an alarm for the online radicalization of American kids

In February, Air Force serviceman Aaron Bushnell self-immolated in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC.

A recent profile of the 25-year-old, who died hours after setting fire to himself while screaming “Free Palestine,” reveals a disturbed backstory replete with radicalism and activism. It’s a cautionary tale about where falling prey to ideological narratives can lead.

And the subsequent celebration of him as a martyr reveals the derangement of his fellow pro-Palestine extremists.

Simon van Zuylen-Wood, writing for New York Magazine, traced Bushnell’s history in chilling detail.

Raised on a Christian commune in Cape Cod, where individual egos were meant to be broken down and children separated from their families, Bushnell was steeped in extremism and radical selflessness from an early age.

But his political trajectory, propelled by social media and internet rabbit holes, is one that young men can fall into online.