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In the past 24 hours, gawkers have gathered around the tree to stare, take photos, and show their support for the guy, whoever he is, whatever he's doing. (There's even a livestream of the tree.) Even if his reasons for being up there are obscure, you can understand what he's feeling on a gut level. It's like he's gathered up all the rage and futility hovering in the air around us, cloaked himself in it, then climbed a tree. #ManInTree has become a Twitter phenomenon; there is at least one #ManInTree T-shirt you can buy. People don't understand his message, but they're on board with it because he's angry and committed and refuses to back down. You feel like he's saying the things you can't say, though at the same time you have no idea what he's saying—in that way, he's a lot like Seattle's other favorite loner, Kurt Cobain.Though no one knows who he is—and though social media has a tendency to flatten people into memes—his behavior suggests that he's probably one of Seattle's many mentally ill homeless people. Seattle Real Life Superhero Phoenix Jones (Seattle has superheroes, by the way) said in a video posted to Twitter Tuesday night that he knew the guy and had tried to give him some Newports (he had reportedly asked for a pack of Camel Crushes) and beer because "this is what he needs," but the cops refused to let Phoenix close to the scene."Literally a sandwich a cigarette or a beer can stop this man's violence towards others," Phoenix wrote on Twitter Wednesday. "He's not a criminal he's mentally ill and until we treat him like a friend who is sick and needs help… I fear this problem will never be solved."