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Are Suicide Victims Really Victims
The Daily Dose of Reason ^ | June 8, 2018 | Dr. Michael J Hurd

Posted on 06/08/2018 6:09:42 PM PDT by huckfillary

I don’t wish to be unkind. But facts are facts. A victim is someone who has something bad happen to him, totally against his will and without any say or control in the matter.

Suicide does not “happen” to someone. It’s something one does to oneself.

Most of us are drowning in virtue-signaling and political correctness — so much so that we can’t even see it.

It seems cool to mourn people who kill themselves even though you never knew them. How do we know we would have liked and admired them had we even known them personally?

Consider some of the facts we do know about them.

Anthony Bourdain was a drug addict. He said nasty things about the Food Network for years, conveying bitterness he never became quite the celebrity chef that someone like Bobby Flay was. He joked on CNN about wanting to poison President Donald Trump. Can you imagine joking about poisoning Barack Obama? Yes, Bourdain was a productive person who accomplished a lot of things. But he might not have been your best friend, had you known him. He certainly would not have been mine.

Ditto for Kate Spade. To hear her sister tell it, Kate was Bipolar and refused to get professional help. Can you imagine having the world at your fingertips and refusing to get help for a problem that’s highly manageable and treatable? Everyone insists mental illness is a disease. Would you respect someone who refused to treat their cancer or diabetes, particularly if they had access to the best treatment available?

Anthony Bourdain left behind an 11-year-old daughter. Kate Spade left behind a 13-year-old daughter. They abandoned their children. Are we so politically correct that we can’t identify the raw cruelty in these actions? They didn’t have to do it. They could at least have waited until their kids reached young adulthood. Would you admire a person who dropped their child off on a public street and forgot about them? If so, what are you to think of a parent who literally leaves life before the child had a chance to grow up?

I have talked to hundreds of suicidal people who have told me, “I couldn’t do that to my child.” Some wouldn’t even do it to their dog or their cat. Why don’t we applaud and celebrate these unsung heroes, instead of fawning over celebrities we never met and pretending they’re victims?

Not all successful people are miserable. In fact, most are not. We don’t hear about the happy ones because — well, because I guess most of us don’t find them interesting. I find happy people interesting. I’m much more interested in health and life than despair and gloom. Celebrity suicides are sad and worth pausing to understand. So are non-celebrity suicides. But if we make them the most important attribute of success, we become negative and cynical, and there’s already far too much of that in the world.

Suicide is a choice. I don’t mean to deny there’s suffering. Suffering deserves a certain amount of empathy, compassion and understanding, to be sure. But misery and pain are not accomplishments. And killing yourself should not make you more of a celebrity than you were when you were alive.

Stop looking at people who make sad, tragic or irrational choices as victims. They’re not victims. We all make our choices, and it’s the people “suicide victims” leave behind who need your compassion and understanding the most.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bourdain; mentalillness; psychiatry; suicide; victim
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Another spot-on commentary by Dr. Michael J. Hurd. I differ with Dr. Hurd, however, when he says that those who commit suicide are not victims. Correction, they are victims of their own device. Indeed, nearly every bad situation we find ourselves in are the result of irrational thinking and poor choices.
1 posted on 06/08/2018 6:09:43 PM PDT by huckfillary
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To: huckfillary

They are victims when they’ve been given drugs that cause suicidal behavior.


2 posted on 06/08/2018 6:14:49 PM PDT by Seruzawa (TANSTAAFL!)
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To: huckfillary
Those who complete suicide are so curved in on themselves that only their own pain matters...they are either dismissive of the pain their final act causes to others, or so filled with anger and bitterness that they relish the pain that they will be inflicting for generations to come.
3 posted on 06/08/2018 6:16:31 PM PDT by lightman (ANTIFA is full of Bolshevik.)
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To: huckfillary

The victims are the people left behind who loved the person that took their own life. The person who commits suicide no longer feels pain, but for the people who cared about them, their suffering has just begun. They get to suffer for both.


4 posted on 06/08/2018 6:22:28 PM PDT by dforest (Never let a Muslim cut your hair.)
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To: huckfillary

I think this is an incredibly mean-spirited post.

Suicide may not just ‘happen’ to someone; but something has happened before which leads to it.

I can’t imagine the misery that would lead someone to do this, especially if they are leaving behind young children. I can only thank God that I’ve never been brought to that point, and pray for those who have.


5 posted on 06/08/2018 6:25:53 PM PDT by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it.")
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To: huckfillary

Suicide is badass.


6 posted on 06/08/2018 6:28:25 PM PDT by King Moonracer (Bad lighting and cheap fabric, that's how you sell clothing.)
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To: huckfillary
Is David Hogg a shooting survivor?
7 posted on 06/08/2018 6:28:36 PM PDT by skimbell
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To: huckfillary

People who take their own lives are lost in a mental illness. To say otherwise is ignorance. Suicide leaves those behind with devastation, guilt, and shame.

If you have not personally experience the devastation it’s probably best if the responses aren’t so smug


8 posted on 06/08/2018 6:28:53 PM PDT by Nifster (I see puppy dogs in the clouds)
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To: Jamestown1630

It’s a typical sociopathic post. The inability to feel empathy is the spirit of our age. The suffering that leads to suicide is a non-issue as long as those casting judgment have never personally experienced it.


9 posted on 06/08/2018 6:29:31 PM PDT by Fantasywriter (Any attempt to do forensic work using Internet artifacts is fraught with pitfalls. JoeProbono)
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To: huckfillary

Robin Williams is the one case I can understand, from all reports I heard, he was in pretty bad shape.


10 posted on 06/08/2018 6:31:32 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: King Moonracer
"Suicide is Painless"

The theme from "M*A*S*H" (the movie).

11 posted on 06/08/2018 6:31:40 PM PDT by Publius
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To: huckfillary

He claims to be an objectivist...a Randian, those who are enthralled by a godless self centered manner of living.


12 posted on 06/08/2018 6:32:01 PM PDT by Nifster (I see puppy dogs in the clouds)
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To: Jamestown1630

True words

The author is a follower of Ayn Rand.....objectivism is a self centered, Godless philosophy that scoffs at altruism


13 posted on 06/08/2018 6:33:05 PM PDT by Nifster (I see puppy dogs in the clouds)
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To: huckfillary

I heard a guy describe suicide as a permanent solution to a temporary problem.


14 posted on 06/08/2018 6:33:30 PM PDT by mountainlion (Live well for those that did not make it back.)
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To: Fantasywriter

There are still many people who can feel compassion for someone who is so lost that they will kill themselves.

You are correct that this post is ‘sociopathic’. It’s driven by the ego of the person who posted.


15 posted on 06/08/2018 6:34:41 PM PDT by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it.")
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To: huckfillary

“Can you imagine having the world at your fingertips and refusing to get help for a problem that’s highly manageable and treatable? “

Happens routinely with the mentally ill.

This Hurd is just pushing ‘objectivist’ dogma.


16 posted on 06/08/2018 6:34:48 PM PDT by Pelham (California, Mexico's socialist colony)
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To: Fantasywriter; Jamestown1630

Well said — both of you.


17 posted on 06/08/2018 6:35:37 PM PDT by USFRIENDINVICTORIA
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To: huckfillary

” Indeed, nearly every bad situation we find ourselves in are the result of irrational thinking and poor choices. “

__

Not so !!!!!!!!

.


18 posted on 06/08/2018 6:36:51 PM PDT by Mears
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To: huckfillary
Are Suicide Victims Really Victims

Of course not.
Egregious abuse of language, usually for nefarious ends.

Abuse of Language

19 posted on 06/08/2018 6:38:42 PM PDT by publius911 ( If we let it, California will lead us all over the cliff.)
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To: Nifster

Ayn Rand was an intellectually brilliant woman whose blind spot was her atheism - and that’s an ENORMOUS blind spot.


20 posted on 06/08/2018 6:38:57 PM PDT by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it.")
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