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Aaron Swartz commits suicide

tech.mit.edu

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Re: Aaron Swartz commits suicide

#401

Post by aquateen »

madaxe wrote: post #146
puppetsock wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're being a bit unfair. It's equally inappropriate for me to speculate about his motives, but I recall there being an undercurrent of melancholia in Aaron's writings even pre-indictment.

In which case the prosecution should have realised he was a suicide risk and acted appropriately. They seemingly did not.

How would prosecutors go about that? Going through all his blog posts to look for depression? And that would be standard procedure for everyone they prosecute?

Re: Aaron Swartz commits suicide

#402

Post by ahoyhere »

jacques_chester wrote: post #237
rohamg wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is right. I'm shocked at the "suicide apologists" in this thread.

I'm not. Similar arguments come up every time. I am often accused in such discussions of being an offender against some wishy-washy personal development program ("just give depression a chance , what's the worst that could happen?"). Or of being a shill for some evil master-conspiracy to turn everyone into zombies. Or ... well lots of things, really. I honestly don't give a fuck. The results are in: Treatment. Saves.…

Keep up the good work… seriously. Remember, depression lies, so it's no surprise that people argue against you simply trying to help a fellow human being.

Re: Aaron Swartz commits suicide

#403

Post by n_coats »

Regardless of everything happening in his life, it's terrible in any instance when someone is pushed to the point where they rationalize taking their own life. Best wishes and thoughts to Aarons family and friends as they mourn during this horrible time.

Re: Aaron Swartz commits suicide

#404

Post by Eliezer »

Aaron Swartz may have left everything to Givewell. This makes it even sadder somehow in ways I can't fully describe.

http://www.reddit.com/user/AaronSw#c4e7n4h

The same page shows that the last Reddit comment he ever made was on /r/HPMOR. I don't think I noticed at the time - I don't think I knew he was a fan.

I have said and will say that Aaron Swartz acted heroically in trying to free the scientific literature. It was a good try.

Re: Aaron Swartz commits suicide

#405

Post by paulhauggis »

pretoriusB wrote: post #232
judofyr wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you hit someone with enough felony counts sooner or later something will snap. Can we stop the speculations until we actually know what happened? :-(

> Can we stop the speculations until we actually know what happened? :-( No, because: 1) we'll never know what "really happened" (even if he had left a note stating a reason one can never know if something not mentioned also weighted on him psychologically) 2) speculation is, counter to what some may think, productive. For example, it gets you questioning stuff like the legal system in the comment above.

okay.

I am speculating that it's because of all of the anti-gun laws in America that led up to his suicide.

Can we start questioning them now?

Re: Aaron Swartz commits suicide

#406

Post by larrys »

jacquesm wrote: post #243
wheels wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It really rubs me the wrong way when something like this happens and folks jump to conclusions as you have here. You didn't know this person. For all we know he could have not given two shits about the whole legal process and this is linked to family or relationship problems or long term general depression.

> You didn't know this person. That's an assumption on your part. And this was in response to people jumping to completely different conclusions, for instance that these things are not related at all. I wouldn't be so quick to make that call. Maybe you feel like arguing this line with his mom? : http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5047398

"Maybe you feel like arguing this line with his mom?"

How do you know the person who setup that account and posted that is actually his mom?

Re: Aaron Swartz commits suicide

#407

Post by misnome »

jacques_chester wrote: post #379
uptown wrote: post #346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Suicide is never, never the answer, it can just seem like it sometimes when you are very, very low." How about when someone is facing a terminal disease in constant pain with no prospect for improvement? My opinion is that someone in that condition should have that choice.

People usually call it "euthanasia" in such a case. I think it's worth noting that depression and terminal illnesses are different cases. Euthanasia advocates emphasise the difference. See for example the legislative system that was passed in the NT in 1995: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rights_of_the_Terminally_Ill_Ac...

Right, Euthanasia is a different subject and completely out of scope here. Was just getting pretty sick of the apparent defence of suicide as a good move in this case, and "blaming" various people/organisations for causing it.

Re: Aaron Swartz commits suicide

#409

Post by paulhauggis »

jakerocheleau wrote: post #342
rdtsc wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Troubles with the justice department don't alone cause a bright young man to kill himself. A potential to spend a longer part of his life than he has already lived in prison, will probably have a serious impact on anyone's mental state.

This, seriously. People need to stop excusing the federal government for the monster that it really is. Yes Aaron was depressed, do you really think the DoJ had absolutely nothing to do with that? I'd argue their constant indictments had a lot to do with it.

Let's say I'm a guy that obsesses over a girl I like. I send her creepy messages and generally make her uncomfortable. She gets a restraining order against me and I kill my self.

Would you be sitting here blaming the girl and the restraining order laws in the US?

I feel like many people here are trying to get their own opinions out by blaming the law that he broke (and the government).

Re: Aaron Swartz commits suicide

#410

Post by larrys »

michaelochurch wrote: post #324
jacquesm wrote: post #159

Man this so sucks. If you hit someone with enough felony counts sooner or later something can snap. This in response to those that claim the DOJ didn't have anything to do with Aaron killing himself. For some people the mere fact of being suspected of a crime they didn't commit is enough to push them over the edge. When you're placed in a holding cell the police will remove your laces from your boots so you don't han…

If you hit someone with enough felony counts sooner or later something can snap. There are the conditions for suicide, and then there's the impulse that drives it to happen. The first is visible and appears over a long period of time-- felony convictions, mental instability, or extreme career adversity-- but it never seems that things are that bad (especially because a lot of people refuse to admit that good things c…

"Thirty years ago, if your life got fucked up, you could pull a Don Draper. You could pay people off to represent themselves as past employers and reconstruct your career under an alternate name, and move halfway across the country. In 2013, that's becoming increasingly hard to do."

You can still do that today although agreed it is much harder. You could simply buy someone's company for example with a history and claim that is where you were (and modify the website with the appropriate collateral.) You can fairly quickly setup a linked in profile and get lots of contacts of people in any industry that you don't even know (source: I get people writing to me wanting to be a linked in contact constantly as I'm sure most people do.)

There are people that actually have an inventory of old websites that have been around since the 90's (and domains registered back then) representing a wide range of industries.

That said this is not as easy and of course if someone does a really through vetting much will be uncovered. But how often is that done?

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