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RSS icon Comments on Suicide Is Painless! It Brings on Many Changes!

1

Disingenuous? Really? Huh.

Posted by Mr. Poe | January 7, 2008 1:26 PM
2

Is the route of that walk going to pass under SR 99 in Fremont? Just asking.

Posted by Rain Monkey | January 7, 2008 1:28 PM
3

Yeah, I agree. I don't understand why the stranger would continue to engage in behavior that research has shown increases the number of suicide attempts.

Yeah I get the irony and I am sure that somehow you guys thought that you were being edgy and funny. Maybe you even thought that addressing the issue in a humorous light is helpful in some way. Whatever your thoughts, they are wrong- the research is not on your side.

Depicting suicide increases suicide.

So Just Stop. It isn't funny even if some jackasses on here will say that it is.

Maybe you guys should consider a real apology and maybe partnering with them to help make up for some of the damage you may have done.

Posted by johnny | January 7, 2008 1:28 PM
4

Eh, I didn't find funny, but I'm not about to start writing letters over it. If we rob ourselves of the right to say/write poor things in poor taste, we rob ourselves of part of what it means to be 21st Century Americans.

Posted by Hernandez | January 7, 2008 1:32 PM
5

Lack of a sense of humor has been shown to be a leading cause of suicide.

Posted by J.R. | January 7, 2008 1:34 PM
6

The role of journalism is not to prevent suicide, it is to describe the events of significance.

I'm in favor of reducing the suicide rate. If the Surgeon General wanted to the government to spend twice as much on mental health than we do on crime and punishment then there would need to be some serious changes in the way we organize our public policies.

I doubt that such a change on the part of the Surgeon General is more likely as a result of newspapers ignoring suicide, than reporting it.

Posted by Rain Monkey | January 7, 2008 1:38 PM
7

It's not just that you guys are being such assholes about this, it's that you're so pleased with yourselves for doing it.

Posted by josh | January 7, 2008 1:50 PM
8

Let people kill themselves, why do you care?

You care because you care about someone and you want them to be around and make you happy and be your friend, you don't want to have to deal with the hurt and pain that comes with a loss, how selfish of you, how nice of you to attempt to save their lives just so they can continue to be miserable deep down or worse, medicated.

Chances are they'll just wind up doing it down the road when you're not over their shoulder nagging them about how awesome life is and how they should want to live. Maybe they'll turn into an alcoholic, commit homicide, become a druggie, wind up homeless, start fucking/eating/huffing to cover the pain or worse just give up and become a shell of a person.

They'll still be around though, right?
Please to try remember this fact when they're more of a mess then when they were seriously contemplating suicide and become bain to your existance and you secretly wish they had killed themselves.

If someone really wants to die, they should be allowed to die. Any karmic/spiritual consequence they must suffer is their bag, not yours.

The more people kicking the bucket around here the more likely I'll be able to actually afford to live in my home state and not have to kick the bucket myself or wind up one of those coked out bums.

Plus, if the Stranger is the one making jokes about it by letting on it might be a good idea and quietly nudging people into the great beyond the better for my karma, I won't have to pull a Tender Branson and start haunting suicide helplines.

Thanks guys! Keep up the good work!

Posted by Carissa | January 7, 2008 2:09 PM
9

A friend of mine committed suicide last year. While it's still very raw nearly a year on, I don't for a minute think that the Stranger's recent coverage would have done anything, had he seen it, other than make him laugh.

The AFSP's goals are laudable - but step back for a moment. If we're to censor our media for mention of suicide (sorry, sorry - *insensitive* mention of suicide) in order to prevent copycat suicides, surely it follows that we should also censor it for mention of violence (insensitive violence, of course) in case of copycats. And so on, and on, and on. I hope The Stranger continues to be boisterous. I enjoy it, and it makes me feel less suicidal.

Posted by Liz Upton | January 7, 2008 2:32 PM
10

I've been reading since 1994 and have tolerated most of the Stranger's bad-taste antics. But this unforgivable.

Posted by Joseph | January 7, 2008 2:58 PM
11

So Christopher, the special 4 week series titled "Suicide is Hillarious" is going to be put off? I was really looking forward to that! DAMN!!

Posted by Just Me | January 7, 2008 3:18 PM
12

I, personally, can't help but respect the commitment of any whose suicide is successful. They wanted to die and they made it happen.

As the ones left behind, yes, it is painful for us. But that's our problem. It's not about us. It's about them.

I have a hard time believing that The Stranger, or anyone else for that matter, can actually make a difference to someone who really wants to die.

No, I'm not trying to be funny or make light of suicide. Quite the opposite.

Posted by monkey | January 7, 2008 3:37 PM
13

This slog post adds insult to injury prevention.
Definitely not funny.
@3 I think a partnership in prevention and fundraising would be an excellent apology.

Posted by otter | January 7, 2008 3:52 PM
14

lol.

Posted by LOL | January 7, 2008 4:01 PM
15

What does Megan Seling think about this?

Posted by me too | January 7, 2008 4:14 PM
16

I'm no stranger to suicide-- my father's identical twin hung himself in my grandparents' backyard, my cousin stood on the tracks and allowed a train to run her over-- and I don't find the piece offensive.

No one from the Stranger was advocating suicide, and depicting suicide does not make healthy, non-depressed people think, "Gee! That seems swell! What a great idea! I think I'm going to go swallow a bullet now!"

There are lots of things that are public health crises and I have a hard time accepting that suicide is one of them.

Is it a problem? Yes. Does it suck? Yes. Is it tragic? Usually, yes. But a crisis? A public health crisis? I dunno...

On the matter of the suicide railing on the bridge, I think it's total BS.

Seriously? That's where our tax money is going? To put up a barrier so that people can't jump off of a bridge?

If someone is so intent upon killing themselves that they're climbing up on top of the bridge to do it, there's nothing that a barrier will do to stop them.

They'll go to an overpass. Go home and swallow a bottle of pills. Put their head in the fucking oven. Are we going to put suicide barriers on rope and pills and guns and razor blades and ovens, too?

People need to lighten the fuck up.

Posted by S | January 7, 2008 4:44 PM
17

S @16 is right. My step-father's dad killed himself (mind you, after the strokes and getting fatal cancer, it's too bad he wasn't in Oregon ...)

Really, as someone who walks under that bridge, I'd rather you spent the money on suicide hotlines instead.

Posted by Will in Seattle | January 7, 2008 5:04 PM
18

Another prop for @16.

My grandmother committed suicide, Frizzelle's brand of "humor" is suspect and I think of offing myself every time I watch The McLaughlin Group.

But yeah, we need to lighten up.

Posted by Jubilation T. Cornball | January 7, 2008 5:48 PM
19

Hernandez @4: Just because we have a *right* to say offensive things, doesn't mean we *should*. Of course the Stranger has a RIGHT to publish an article making fun of suicide. But, it doesn't make it funny and it doesn't make it acceptable.

I am glad that the letter from AFSP was posted. It is here in the comments that we can express our disgust with the Stranger and our support of AFSP. Yes, I read the Stranger, but it doesn't mean that I think suicide is funny.

I hope that anyone considering suicide will reach out to a friend, or hotline and get help. If you don't get help from the first person, try again. Your life has value.

Christopher: There is one line in particular in this post that has made me hate you.

Posted by Papayas | January 7, 2008 7:34 PM
20

I too would like to express my disgust, but not at the Stranger, but at the moronic thought police who would have you hold your hands over your mouth rather than even dare to mention suicide in any context whatsoever because God forbid the very mention of suicide drive someone to the brink. You are idiots.

Posted by MBI | January 7, 2008 8:28 PM
21

Or perhaps the idiots are the ones who balk at the face of research. When the fundies throw out scientific evidence we laugh. But, when scientific studies show that certain actions INCREASE suicide suddenly those of us who believe the science are idiots.

Oh yeah and if wanting people to live makes me the "thought police," I am guilty as charged.

Posted by Scientist | January 7, 2008 9:06 PM
22

As someone who seriously contemplated suicide from the time I was 13 until my early 30's I can safely say that "doing what the kewl ppl do" has never entered into any of my attempts.

The problems weren't outside of me, but rather an internal perfect storm of fucked up raw emotions. This piece probably wouldn't have even affected me, because I was too internally-focused.

Posted by thehawke | January 7, 2008 11:37 PM
23

Death, particularly suicide, scares the shit out of a lot of people. Especially in Seattle, where the winters make a lot of people crazy. Making light of suicide is tasteless, as most joking about death is, but it can also make it less scary.

People are still going to kill themselves whether or not we joke about it. We, the living-and-wanting-to-stay-alive, need something to help the pain of dealing with it.

Posted by Greg | January 8, 2008 8:27 AM
24

The issue at hand aside, the letter from Mr. Wylie G. Tene was one of the most snide pieces of writing I've seen in a long time. If he'd wanted to make the point more compellingly, maybe he should have done so in a more thoughtful way instead of throwing a verbal tantrum.

And, yeah, maybe suicide isn't funny. But we address a lot of serious issues with humor precisely because they're uncomfortable subjects. I, for one, prefer something like "The Daily Show" to "real" news these days for just that reason. (This has nothing to do with the strike--I'm just making the point.)

Plus, I honestly doubt that what The Stranger has to say on the subject is going to cause any suicidal people out there to put down their guns/razor blades/pills/nooses/etc. (Ditto people walking all night.) Whatever got them to that point was probably a little more personal and affecting and life-altering than a newspaper article, and it's going to take something more personal and affecting and life-altering to pull them back from whatever edge they're looking over.

Posted by LeslieC | January 8, 2008 9:13 AM

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