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At Least 13 People Died by Suicide Amid U.K. Post Office Scandal, Report Says
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Re: At Least 13 People Died by Suicide Amid U.K. Post Office Scandal, Report Says
#12The four-part mini-series Mr Bates vs The Post Office is worth checking out:
> A faulty IT system called Horizon, developed by Fujitsu, creates apparent cash shortfalls that cause Post Office Limited to pursue prosecutions for fraud, theft and false accounting against a number of subpostmasters across the UK. In 2009, a group of these, led by Alan Bates, forms the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance. The prosecutions and convictions are later ruled a miscarriage of justice at the conclusion of the Bates & Others v Post Office Ltd judicial case in 2019.[4][5]
Re: At Least 13 People Died by Suicide Amid U.K. Post Office Scandal, Report Says
#13[flagged]
It's the euphemism treadmill in action. It's like how "undocumented residents", which replaced "illegal aliens" in the media, now has a negative connotation anyway, so mainstream media are now trying to find a new word that doesn't sound "offensive"... but the very concept is loaded by definition, so no amount of euphemism is going to change that.
Re: At Least 13 People Died by Suicide Amid U.K. Post Office Scandal, Report Says
#14[deleted]
Re: At Least 13 People Died by Suicide Amid U.K. Post Office Scandal, Report Says
#15Suicide is a verb and result by itself. Would the author also say “he died by murder”?
They are simplify avoiding using the word "committed" using a well accepted alternative because of the connotation with criminal behavior.
But no they would say "died by homicide" not "died by murder".
Re: At Least 13 People Died by Suicide Amid U.K. Post Office Scandal, Report Says
#16To the NY Times: please don't say they died by suicide. The passive voice makes it sound like some act of God, something regrettable but unavoidable that just somehow happened. It's important not to sugarcoat what happened: the postmasters killed themselves because the British state was imprisoning them for crimes they didn't commit, based on evidence from a buggy financial accounting system. Don't blur the details o…
"The passive voice makes it sound like some act of God, something regrettable but unavoidable that just somehow happened. "
That's a really odd take.
Re: At Least 13 People Died by Suicide Amid U.K. Post Office Scandal, Report Says
#17To the NY Times: please don't say they died by suicide. The passive voice makes it sound like some act of God, something regrettable but unavoidable that just somehow happened. It's important not to sugarcoat what happened: the postmasters killed themselves because the British state was imprisoning them for crimes they didn't commit, based on evidence from a buggy financial accounting system. Don't blur the details o…
I don't think the NY Times reads HN comments.
Re: At Least 13 People Died by Suicide Amid U.K. Post Office Scandal, Report Says
#18To the NY Times: please don't say they died by suicide. The passive voice makes it sound like some act of God, something regrettable but unavoidable that just somehow happened. It's important not to sugarcoat what happened: the postmasters killed themselves because the British state was imprisoning them for crimes they didn't commit, based on evidence from a buggy financial accounting system. Don't blur the details o…
"The passive voice makes it sound like some act of God, something regrettable but unavoidable that just somehow happened. " That's a really odd take.
> odd take
It's not odd when the sentiment is widespread, for example, look at the other comments in this thread that talk about it.
Re: At Least 13 People Died by Suicide Amid U.K. Post Office Scandal, Report Says
#19To the NY Times: please don't say they died by suicide. The passive voice makes it sound like some act of God, something regrettable but unavoidable that just somehow happened. It's important not to sugarcoat what happened: the postmasters killed themselves because the British state was imprisoning them for crimes they didn't commit, based on evidence from a buggy financial accounting system. Don't blur the details o…
>if software developers screw up
Well, yes, they did screw up, but the fallout was amplified 100x by bad management.
Re: At Least 13 People Died by Suicide Amid U.K. Post Office Scandal, Report Says
#20[flagged]
“Died by suicide” is not new. I heard it 30 years ago as a kid.
Many, many professional organizations use clinical language around suicide because it’s always been a sensitive topic.
You also see this everywhere in when people use euphemism instead of saying it directly.