Man Commits Suicide Over Election.

[Sikander]

Originally posted by Drachasor


Just because you lack compassion does not mean others do not. You can take your cold-hearted, uncaring nature and shove it.

When you lack compassion for the pain and difficulties of others, when you merely insult and deride someone that just took their own life, then you are dehumanizing yourself far more than your words do them.

It is this kind of "Republican" -- and I use the term loosely here -- attitude that I cannot stand. It is an attitude that will admit no change into how a community reacts to those who need help. It is an attitude that derides the suffering because some do not want to life a finger to help. It is an attitude that tries to claim we are a mere collection of individuals and that words such as "community," "society," and "nation" imply no level of responsibility to each other.

There are many that disagree with you, but because you cannot accept that fact that some of us acknowledge that we as a society need to do more to ensure this sort of thing does not happen, you must deride us, you must ridicule us, you must denounce us. For the moment you stop doing that, the moment you open your eyes to the suffering of another in this instance, at that moment you realize how cruel and inhuman you have been, and your pyschological defense mechanisms try with all their might to keep you away from that.

In some ways I feel sorry for you and people like you more than I do the man we are talking about,

-Drachasor

While I doubt that I can improve on what The Mad Monk just said, I have to say that I agree wholeheartedly. If you really think you are compassionate you should be advised that it is just another symptom of your own wicked case of narcissism.

[Sikander]

Originally posted by Ted Striker

I have more experience with mentally disturbed people than anyone else on this board, PERIOD. Including people who eventually commited suicide and those that failed at the attempt.

Don't bet the farm on that.

[Lefty Scaevola]

Originally posted by Ted Striker
I have more experience with mentally disturbed people than anyone else on this board, PERIOD.

As a "1969" member and long time poster in the OTF here, you most certainly do have enormous experience with mentally distrubed persons. As do we all.
Lefty Scaevola

[RGBVideo]

I have more experience with mentally disturbed people than anyone else on this board, PERIOD. Including people who eventually commited suicide and those that failed at the attempt.

PERIOD... times two.

[Ted Striker]

[Ted Striker]

Originally posted by Lefty Scaevola
As a "1969" member and long time poster in the OTF here, you most certainly do have enormous experience with mentally distrubed persons. As do we all.
Lefty Scaevola

[Ted Striker]

Drachasor

[Ted Striker]

Originally posted by Lefty Scaevola
I am a bit calloused on the subject, having some legal experience in mental health committment proceedings. One of my former partners was, for over 20 years, the a judge specializing in, and the leading authority and leading author in Texas, on involuntary mental health commitment proceedings (which are based upon serious risk of harm to self or others, mostly self in practice). Spite towards persons that cared for them, and desrie to them 'to share the pain' was a rather common factor. My role of trying to lock them up to keep them alive needed cold blooded detatchment rather than empathy.

When it gets to the point of legal proceedings, you're looking at the most acute, chronic of the cases. Those don't make up the bulk of what I've seen, where someone has just had a run of bad luck or a chemical imbalance and just needs a helping hand to get back on their feet again.

I could see though how the cases you were dealing with could make you calloused towards the situation, since in those cases, there has already been an insane amount of work done to try and get those people back up and running. Or they people in question don't want any help, and have gone to a place where they have literally lost themselves.

Some of you will laugh at me, but I don't give a ****, I think in many cases people that get that point are literally possessed.

[Tuberski]

Originally posted by Drachasor


No, what I am expressing is moral outrage.

Generally I am pretty even-tempered and reasonable.

I, however, can have a low tolerance towards mean-spirited or cruel behavior, which many have demonstrated in this thread. Those "opinions" I was disparaging were of the order "he is stupid" and "he's selfish" regarding someone that killed themselves. Most people would find these quite out of line for obvious reasons. They ignore the realities of the situation, they are cruel, and they are innacurate (killing oneself can hardly be considered "selfish" behavior nor is it altruistic).

And I never "wonder why people around here have such a negative reaction" towards me because I don't think most do. You and some others might be an exception, but I don't think you are the rule.

-Drachasor

Explain to me how saying "suicide is stupid", is disparaging.

KILLING YOURSELF IS A STUPID THING TO DO. PERIOD.

His reasons for killing himself may not have been stupid to him, and i'm sorry he felt it was the best solution, but it was still a stupid thing to do.

Finally, I haven't insulted you once, but you have insulted me and others of my "ilk" several times.

Who doesn't show compassion and respect?

ACK!

[Drachasor]

Originally posted by Tuberski
Explain to me how saying "suicide is stupid", is disparaging.

KILLING YOURSELF IS A STUPID THING TO DO. PERIOD.

While suicide is generally a bad decision (and in this person's case certainly was a bad decision) you and several others do not limit yourselves to saying it was a bad decision. Instead many focused on insulting the man in many ways. Calling him selfish, saying one should not feel sorry for him, calling him stupid, etc.

Originally posted by Tuberski
His reasons for killing himself may not have been stupid to him, and i'm sorry he felt it was the best solution, but it was still a stupid thing to do.

No one here denies this, as best I know, but that doesn't mean he isn't deserving of compassion. Saying that an *action* he did was stupid is one thing. Saying that he is stupid, selfish, and a poor human being because of that one action is quite another.

Originally posted by Tuberski
Finally, I haven't insulted you once, but you have insulted me and others of my "ilk" several times.

Who doesn't show compassion and respect?

So you are saying that because I pointed out that people weren't showing compassion for the guy, that makes me lacking in compassion? Because I gave reasons why those who refused to show compassion were missing the bigger picture *and* the human element, that means I am lacking in compassion?

Well, sir, I reject this claim of yours and the similar claims others have made. While I understand how everyone has the right to their own opinion, that doesn't mean that certain opinions are not wrong or short-sighted. As a member of the human race it is my duty to stand up for what is right and proper in the world, and to fight prejudice and short-sightedness.

And it is prejudiced and short-sighted to not see that there is a *person* there who had real, human problems. It is short-sighted to write off an entire human being because of one mistake he made when he clearly was suffering and psychologically ill. Though you have been more reasonable than some of the others here, you still have tended to degrade the person involved here, and not been able to see that he was a person who was sick.

I would also note that I have expressed my sorry for those of your that do not understand that mental illnesses are real illnesses, for those of you that cannot connect to people like this man. I honestly find it quite unfortunate, though the attitude admittedly riles me as well. So perhaps I was a bit too insulting at times, but I largely focused my text on the particular attitude towards the mentally ill and others in need as opposed actual persons. However, my apologies to everyone for those times when my words strayed into attacks on an entire person, but I do not take back anything I said about the wrongness of particular attitudes and the like.

-Drachasor

[Tingkai]

There is a strong push within North American newspapers to do a better job at covering suicides and to avoid the garbage articles like the one at the beginning of this thread.

People do not commit suicide because of a single thing, it is typically a result of a combination of many factors and almost always a result of mental illness.

It is simply wrong and irresponsible for reporters to say a person committed suicide because event A occurred and it is extremely unethical to make assumptions about why a person committed suicide.

Journalists are being taught to remind people that help is out there and that there are alternatives to suicide. Usually this involves a comment from a health official.

Drachasor, Dava and Ted Striker are right in saying that we need to have some compassion and to at least understand that mentally ill people do not make sane decisions.

He wasn't selfish, he wasn't stupid, he wasn't brave. He was simply so ill that he thought suicide was an option and he wasn't able to find real solutions.

[Sprayber]

I'm sick of the holier than thou crap that is oozing through this thread. The main problem from the beginng of this thread was the elevation of the young man to a political martyr. That was the disgusting part. That is what myself and most of the others were trying to get across but apparently we are all evil people with no empathy or no experience with pain and tragedy . None of us who post here have a monopoly on pain or watching others destroy their lives. It's not a badge of honor and its not something that uniquly qualifies us to be experts. When a few of us called bull**** on the martyr complex we were quickly labled as uncaring and unsympathic.

[Tingkai]

Attacking people who you think were trying to make political hay out of this suicide is one thing, but attacking the man who died is quite another thing.

[DinoDoc]

Why?

[MrFun]

Originally posted by Ted Striker
Nice little strawman setup attempt.

Both this man and the monks (there were many of them, not just one) gave their lives making a statement.

They both did it for the same reason.

The person was being an idiot for killing himself over "four more years of a bad president" in contrast to Buddhists who burned themselves to death to protest against an illegitimate regime that was much more corrupt and brutal than anything could happen under President Bush.