Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Suicide rising across the US

cdc.gov

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 211 posts

Re: Suicide rising across the US

#151

Post by castlecrasher2 »

JacksonGariety wrote: post #142
ams6110 wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the world feels like such a blur Get off of social media and twitter. Stop watching/reading the news every day. If you want to keep up with current events, read a politically neutral monthly periodical. I grew up in the 70's and 80's. Every generation looks back on its youth as "the good old days" but things really were much less stressful then and the main difference I see is that you were not connected to a fireh…

The dilemma is that leaving social media is increasingly tantamount to leaving society, which is the basis for what remains of politics. On the other hand, the "politics" that occurs on social media is increasingly nothing other than a popularity contest. It seems hopeless.

It's a personal dilemma, not a societal one. My personal take of social media is similar to yours in that it's a popularity contest and allows people to distract themselves from community, local, or family involvement and from self-improvement.

Re: Suicide rising across the US

#152

Post by castlecrasher2 »

munk-a wrote: post #86
babkayaga wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Socialism might seem pretty cool for someone willing to ignore the last 100 years of humanity's experience with it.

Sorry, are you referring to the dictatorial planned economies of the soviet union?

> Sorry, are you referring to the Not True Socialism?

Re: Suicide rising across the US

#153

Post by DoreenMichele »

frgtpsswrdlame wrote: post #146
DoreenMichele wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, you clearly don't really understand it. If you did, you should know that telling a suicidal person "chin up, it's fixable!" is the worst thing you can do. Another big sin is offering me encouragement unsolicited as if I need it when I am not even saying that I am currently suicidal. Last, I have a genetic disorder. There is no cure for that. Your assumption that anything is fixable if you just try hard enough is…

You know I could never bring myself to be upset at people with a "chin up, it's fixable!" attitude. It's certainly not the worst thing they could do. And then the above commenter is committing a sin by not reading your mind to know you don't want to be encouraged? Come on. >But don't let the facts confuse you. Just carry on with doing things that could push someone over the edge if you did this to them while they wer…

They start by asserting they understood. I am asserting they don't.

I'm not currently depressed nor suicidal. But if you think it is on the depressed or suicidal person to meet the social and emotional needs of some random internet stranger who wants to be all encouraging, please do the world a favor and stay very far away from such discussions. Your mental model is the kind of thing that absolutely can push someone over the edge, while you try to find justifications for how it isn't your fault.

Re: Suicide rising across the US

#154

Post by ManFromUranus »

wtetzner wrote: post #89
ManFromUranus wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"where they are totally engulfed by white folks" Too bad they were forced there at gunpoint and not allowed to leave... when will white people learn to stop forcing people into their country, then when they ask to leave, building a wall to keep them in.

You're kidding, right? Many people were forced into the US, and not allowed to leave. The descendants of those people are natural-born citizens. It's their country too.

Nobody here now who writes things like "engulfed by white folks" has any knowledge of or claim to any of the events you mentioned. Nobody was forced into the country, nobody is forced to stay here. Nobody is forced to be around white people.

Re: Suicide rising across the US

#155

Post by harimau777 »

drdeca wrote: post #118
ars wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you kidding? Social pressure to make people feel worthless if you don't toe the line on liberal issues has absolutely skyrocketed.

I don't think one's political positions/expressions are really a fundamental and immutable part of what one is in the way described by the comment. Unless you mean that the attempts to make people feel worthless are done on the basis of immutable things, but are done in response to "not towing the line"?

I think thats a distinction without a difference. Even if things like political positions, worldview, way of live, and religion aren't (completely) biological they aren't just opinions that people can change at the drop of a hat. E.g. (genuine) political beliefs aren't something someone explicitly chooses, they are based on their beliefs, experience, and background. In addition, whether a trait is immutable or not is irrelevant to whether or not its ok to hate a person for it for it.

Re: Suicide rising across the US

#156

Post by ams6110 »

adamnemecek wrote: post #128
ams6110 wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the world feels like such a blur Get off of social media and twitter. Stop watching/reading the news every day. If you want to keep up with current events, read a politically neutral monthly periodical. I grew up in the 70's and 80's. Every generation looks back on its youth as "the good old days" but things really were much less stressful then and the main difference I see is that you were not connected to a fireh…

I'm not on social media. It's more like, idk, what you deal with living in modern society. And it doesn't matter if you are connected or not if everyone else around you is. If there's a Twitter organized revolution happening around you, ignoring it might be harmful. At no point was I reminiscing about good old days, and my argument is actually very orthogonal to that statement.

It's not just social media. Everything was slower. If you wanted to learn about something, you had to take a class, or go to the library or bookstore and find some books. There was no Google, no Wikipedia, no Reddit.

In some sense this limited what you could accomplish but it also made you think about investing time and everything was overall more deliberate.

Now, there's no going back, but you can still choose to live your life at a slower pace. The world is only a blur if you choose to ride the merry-go-round.

Re: Suicide rising across the US

#158

Post by nostrademons »

slg wrote: post #88
blhack wrote: post #9

"Hey kid: did you know that your very being is offensive and actually downright violent towards me and there is nothing you can do about it because it literally has to do with a fundamental aspect of who you are." Absolutely shocking that suicide is up.

I like this statement because its vagueness has apparently allowed people with diametrically opposed viewpoints to both view themselves as the victim and the other as the perpetrator. I am not sure how to fix that, but it certainly seems like everyone is feeling persecuted regardless of any objective reality and that can't be good for us.

I think that basically sums up the state of America in 2018.

I guess it's both good and bad, though. Bad because it indicates growth has left the U.S. and we're all doing a little worse than we expected we'd be doing. Good because if everyone is feeling persecuted, chances are we've actually got this equality thing down pretty well.

Re: Suicide rising across the US

#159

Post by castlecrasher2 »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #124
some_account wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand it. It's not like the world is a super happy place and everybody is like 'why would you want to leave this place - it's amazing!'. Everybody has their own experiences. Their life is unique. Telling other people that they should stick around can even be selfish, depending on what they are going through. However. Living life is a skill, and I believe can you get quite satisfactory skill levels by making ha…

No, you clearly don't really understand it. If you did, you should know that telling a suicidal person "chin up, it's fixable!" is the worst thing you can do. Another big sin is offering me encouragement unsolicited as if I need it when I am not even saying that I am currently suicidal. Last, I have a genetic disorder. There is no cure for that. Your assumption that anything is fixable if you just try hard enough is…

> "chin up, it's fixable!"

Having been suicidal for a number of years myself and having overcome it, in my case it was fixable. People suggesting that unfortunately may not be familiar with something as agonizing as a genetic disorder, and I'm sorry for what you're going through.

Re: Suicide rising across the US

#160

Post by ryandrake »

JacksonGariety wrote: post #142
ams6110 wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the world feels like such a blur Get off of social media and twitter. Stop watching/reading the news every day. If you want to keep up with current events, read a politically neutral monthly periodical. I grew up in the 70's and 80's. Every generation looks back on its youth as "the good old days" but things really were much less stressful then and the main difference I see is that you were not connected to a fireh…

The dilemma is that leaving social media is increasingly tantamount to leaving society, which is the basis for what remains of politics. On the other hand, the "politics" that occurs on social media is increasingly nothing other than a popularity contest. It seems hopeless.

> The dilemma is that leaving social media is increasingly tantamount to leaving society

This seems to be an opinion often stated as fact. We all have the power to end the hopelessness. Anyone can take the first step by leaving “social media” behind. You might find that the world indeed goes on without it and is even better/richer!

Post reply on HN