Update: Reddit Suicide Lawsuit Is a Hoax

[Jedamethis]

Argh, I wish things were more simple. Those guys may not have done something illegal (I have no idea) but we can agree they're tossers, right? So why not punish them anyway?

...And then this train of thought leads to me reminding myself that I do not and should not have power over other people. Because if I can, then either I must give a reason why I deserve it more than anybody else or allow everybody else to have power too, which they could abuse. And I could abuse as well, I suppose.

And to the people saying the world is a better place now/he deserved to die/thanks to him for removing himself from the gene pool. Great job, deciding that you should have the power to decide who lives and who dies. If you're serious about this, why not take a knife and go search out people who are weak. Kill them. Surely this is perfectly okay because they're weak and deserve to die. And I'm not just talking about people who are very weak. Hell, since you have power, you must be above average at everything. So attack everybody. Anybody who has the power to resist you will be the same or stronger than you, so the human race will become better.
If anybody is going to be a wanker (in my eyes) and say "Well, since you told me to, if I go kill people now it's your fault and can be sued.", I am not saying you should do that. I advise that you obey laws that have been handily put in place to prevent you from doing it.

 

[Jedamethis]

Yes. Yes it is. Whatever situation he was in while alive, it was in his power to go seek help, from real people. Instead of using the internernet to inform himself he went into the internet and said "wuah wuah im gonna off myself." and there is only one reaction that kind of behaviour will provoke:

"Good for you!."
"Have fun!"
"Enjoy the trip."
"meh."
"Can i have ur stuff?"

Christ you live in a shitty world. I assume every time you go out to eat, the staff shit in your food? Everytime you walk past a hooded man you get mugged? Every time you sit down to watch TV your family spit in your face?
I admit the internet can be shit sometimes, but "only one reaction" is bollocks.

 

[CrazyGirl17]

I say they should be at least held accountable for what they did. (Though I think the person involved should've turned somewhere else for advice...)

EDIT: Well, now I feel like an idiot. All the same, if this is a hoax, it's a pretty crappy one. >.<

 

[winter2]

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/04/reddit-scared-straight-for-encouraging-suicide.html

That is all.

 

[RobfromtheGulag]

There are tons of support groups online and offline and yet this fellow heads to Reddit. I don't know very much about Reddit, but it sounds like one of those Life Universe Everything boards where people just 'sound off'.

As others have said, this man had said he was preparing to kill himself before going to the board. Perhaps he was looking for support, or an aggregate of civilization's feelings on the matter. Perhaps it was accurate -- there are unsympathetic people out there.

Suing these people seems far removed from actual justice. And as stated, if social boards start coughing up IP addresses then the snowball starts rolling.

 

[Killertje]

How often do you read about people talking about suicide on the internet, and how often do they actually do it? After a while, untrained "trolls" will just stop giving a shit and say something trolly. This could be something like "Piss off with your whining.", or "Go ahead and do it, loser.". In both cases they mean the same thing, but now some of you are saying the second group should be punished because they "helped cause the suicide"?

Most people who say they want to kill themselves are just attention whores. If you are really suicidal you don't say it, you just do it. Telling an attention whore to go ahead is the fastest way to shut them up so most people on a troll infested forum will do just that. They have learned that this behavior is the most efficient way to deal with this particular problem.

Unless the guy was "very convincing(TM)" about really wanting to kill himself, no one on the internet has the obligation to take it seriously (well except psychiatrists maybe).

 

[Baldr]

On-topic: I have no problems with what happened and believe that the reddit users were completely within their rights. I would not support this if the guy had no intent to kill himself, but as it stands, it is not and should not be anyone's responsibility or duty to convince someone that he should not take his own life.

It is everyone's responsibility to save lives. If not you should be locked away.

 

[cidbahamut]

People being assholes on the internet is news? I'm sorry, but I have no sympathy for anyone but the trolls in this situation.

 

[Fasckira]

Guy comes onto Reddit, already holding the intention of committing suicide.
People who couldn't give a shit about what initially seems like nothing more than attention seeking taunt the guy.
Guy responds saying hes pissed off, more users encourage him to fuck off already.
Guy kills himself.

Hes the one who was already intending to commit suicide. The only person who could potentially be considered partly responsible for his death would be the wife as she would have known him on a personal level and would be more likely to have known if he was being serious or not.

Furthermore if I was feeling at the point of wanting to end my life, I would not be so stupid as to seek some form of moral support on the internet, let alone on Reddit.

 

[Grey Day for Elcia]

I like how so little research goes into a news report. Who needs integrity when you can have sensationalism, yeah?

 

[Jedamethis]

Yes. Yes it is. Whatever situation he was in while alive, it was in his power to go seek help, from real people. Instead of using the internernet to inform himself he went into the internet and said "wuah wuah im gonna off myself." and there is only one reaction that kind of behaviour will provoke:

"Good for you!."
"Have fun!"
"Enjoy the trip."
"meh."
"Can i have ur stuff?"

Christ you live in a shitty world. I assume every time you go out to eat, the staff shit in your food? Everytime you walk past a hooded man you get mugged? Every time you sit down to watch TV your family spit in your face?
I admit the internet can be shit sometimes, but "only one reaction" is bollocks.

Hyperbole.

And yes, technically we all live in quite the shitty world (no really, think about what your lifestyle is actually based on). However, we who can sit here and argue about stuff like this, live in the least shittiest places the world has to offer.


That aside: While i do not like how my life turned out, part due to my actions or lack thereoff and through circumstance, i still have it so much better than many, many others on this planet.

As for the internet: what you surely have realised by now that it serves as an outlet for people. And the majority of people need to vent steam, and perhaps let their little, vicious inside pigperson get out to have some air. You know, like hannibal lecter who got to walk a few rounds leashed in a Gym hall.



The point is: if you have some serious problems in your life, you go to seek help. And you do not go into Mos Eisley seeking help unless you are an old jedi master.

Not sure what you're getting at with everything that isn't in italics.

I think the majority of people do not let their inner dickhead out on the internet. I think quite a lot of people don't even have an inner dickhead. But I can't really argue that without having evidence. Shall we make a poll?

I agree with your point, that he should have gone to get help, but going to the internet did not mean he was instantly going to be told to die.

 

[Abedeus]

I was kind of surprised to not have heard about this on reddit itself... no surprise why.

 

[Aerosteam]

Aerosteam, you are using circular logic, stop doing that.

Looks like it was a hoax. Damn.

I can't use this as proof to prove something else, so I guess I'm not using circular logic/reasoning after all.

And now I regret ever posting on this thread.

 

[RJ 17]

I'm not sure what the point of such a hoax was, but even if it allowed us to consider our actions on the internet a bit closer and what the possible repercussions would be, then I will call that a win.

While I do fully agree that if this hoax has gotten everyone to take a look at their actions and consider their consequences then it's certainly a good thing.

As for the original intention of this hoax, pretty sure we all know it was probably something like this:

 

[bit_crusherrr]

Surprise, surprise! The MRA are still a bunch of worthless scum. I don't know how legal it would be for them to pay for this man's death but if they do end up being charged I will be slightly happier. I think few people deserve to suffer more than the MRA.

What?

So men who want to be treated fairly by the courts when it comes to them being victims of domestic violence and the courts being biased against them when it comes to the custody of their children are scum?