ABC Australia Hit Piece on SaSu

[Pluto]

The story goes something like this: there was a young man in Western Australia. Everything was going great for him. The sun was shining and the birds were singing. But then one sorrowful day, he randomly stumbled across an evil pro-suicide website full of murderous predators. Succumbing to the darkness, he was persuaded to take his own life using SN, and he promptly agreed to do so. Now, following his death, saintly activists are working around the clock to destroy the evil website that killed this poor young man and many others like him.



Dear ABC, this is a new low for yellow journalism. Here are just some of the key points you somehow missed:
* There is an enormous difference between pro-choice and pro-suicide. Pro-choice accepts the reality that there are extreme cases of chronic pain, severe mental illness and grave trauma when all society's usual strategies of locking people up, pumping them full of drugs and telling them to think happy thoughts fail. Desperate people are forced to take matters into their own hands because of our stone-age euthanasia laws and dismissive attitude to suicidal ideation.
* Information about suicide methods is readily available, even on Wikipedia. This is a forum allowing people in dire situations to feel understood and supported with whatever choice they must make. It is a necessity only because medical experts are clearly not competent in dealing with these extreme cases, nor does society allow for open discussion of end-of-life bodily autonomy. After all, everyone should live to 100 regardless of absurdly low quality of life, ne-c'est pas?. It's not like we're dogs who are allowed euthanasia to avoid a life of suffering.
* Long-term suicidal people such as myself are perfectly capable of rational cognition and sensible appraisals of our own situations. We are not farm animals to be herded back to the pen of the psych ward.
* While it is appropriate to have safeguards in place to prevent suicides involving young or healthy people in momentary distress, for people suffering with chronic pain and other intolerable life situations, peaceful suicide methods are vastly preferable to jumping in front of trains, or other barbaric acts that desperate people might resort to.
* All internet searches regarding suicide are bombarded with common mental health help websites like Beyond Blue. Finding a pro-choice website requires a far more meticulous search, which generally only an individual in an advanced stage of suicidal ideation will do.
* Many people have recovered as a direct result of time here, due to the rare environment of nonjudgmental understanding and compassion.
* For Christ's sake, people do not kill themselves for no reason. Every single case involves family abuse, trauma, chronic pain, mental illness, etc. Almost no information was given about your young man case-study's actual backstory. It is an insult to his memory to use a misinformed simplification of his tragic end to dramatise your short-sighted article, knowing he has no way of defending himself to set the record straight.
* This very same publication has published articles on the topic of voluntary euthanasia, and somehow it is OK to talk about it when it's in a political context.
* Over 3,000 Australians commit suicide each year. The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of 3,000 is a statistic, right?

I am pretty sure I am the most prolific Australian poster on here, and I sometimes spend half my day trying to help young people gain clarity and hopefully be steered towards recovery. The reason it is so hard is because people here are already in an advanced stage of suicidal ideation, as I am myself. This situation should be prevented far earlier on by engaged parents (with all due respect and compassion to those who are grieving), well-resourced schools and competent medical professionals. Not to mention making the world a much better place in general.

What to say except that I envy people like the writer of this article who obviously enjoys a sheltered life. Hopefully it stays that way, otherwise she will be clamoring for the comfort of peaceful end-of-life methods just like the many members of this community who find ourselves trapped in less than privileged and workable situations.

 

[LaVieEnRose]

Those who most fervently oppose suicide don't realize that their feelings about life and even their ability to have the opinions about suicide that they do are nothing more than a luxury, which, like all luxuries, isn't available to everyone.

I once saw on Reddit a post a doctor made talking about how her younger brother had killed himself using SN (she didn't identify it but it was obviously that). She said her brother had been popular and intelligent and seemed to have a promising future but mental illness (schizophrenia and depression) savaged his life, making him unable to work or study or be a "proper adult" and he spoke about suicide and his unhappiness for many years. She recognized that he had sound reasons to do what he did and that she probably would've done the same in his shoes. Then she said that she and her family were going to work hard to prevent consumers from obtaining SN. I found that to be somewhat contradictory. What about other people who are in her brother's position?

 

[Rounded Apathy]

But y'know, nobody is interested in real journalism - people want pseudo-journalistic storytelling. Infotainment. Presenting the complete picture in an impartial, balanced way? Who cares about that?

Someone should send this off to Dr. Bart Andrews (who, for anyone keen, rips the NYT tale a new one starting around the 11-minute mark in the video in the below thread [in ways that are likely applicable to this piece {of crap}]):

https://sanctioned-suicide.net/threads/a-surprisingly-balanced-pro-life-take-on-the-nyt-story.83801

PS from your friendly neighbourhood French editor: I think you meant "n'est-ce pas"

She recognized that he had sound reasons to do what he did and that she probably would've done the same in his shoes. Then she said that she and her family were going to work hard to prevent consumers from being SN.

My brain literally exploded at that part

 

[not_actually_human]

re: discussion of "grieving" people left behind whenever this subject comes up

Oh I know these people all too well. Those parents, for example, must have been so excited to learn that they had something other than themselves to blame. It's incredible how far they can go without being disgusted with themselves for the blatant disgusting acts they put on.
There's no talking to them, no holding them accountable - it's impossible.

 

[Silent.Tears]

Your thread is so well written. The writer of that article could learn a lot from you, I'm sure.

 

[not_actually_human]

My brain literally exploded at that part

These humans obviously have no ability to care about others. Their actions and behaviors' emotional inappropriateness tells you they're faking those emotions and are trying to manipulate you.
As natural as breathing for these monsters.

 

[ksp]

The story goes something like this…

absolutely fantastic post !! very balanced, and civil
i agree with each, and every point made, 100%

 

[looseye]

re: discussion of "grieving" people left behind whenever this subject comes up

Oh I know these people all too well. Those parents, for example, must have been so excited to learn that they had something other than themselves to blame. It's incredible how far they can go without being disgusted with themselves for the blatant disgusting acts they put on.
There's no talking to them, no holding them accountable - it's impossible.

Real talk. The way the parents are represented in the article portrays an image of those stereotypical hyperprotective people who never in their lives thought about the mere possibility of their son having his own feelings and inidividual needs. You see that all the time and it's just sickening. This is the type of parents that will never question their own methods of raising a child. Chances are the poor man has been struggling with severe mental health issues for the longest time but nobody ever picked up on his symptoms because there is only one world for everyone and that world is perfect. A world where weird behavior is nothing more than the person trying to be funny. The road to hell is paved with good intentions, right?

Now, these are just a bunch of assumptions based on the wording of the article and I really, really hope that the parents aren't actually such horribly delusional people. Quite frankly I can imagine the author to simply be a disgusting attention-monger. The article has its fair share of stupid sensationalism so it wouldn't be that much of a far fetch.

I feel deeply sorry for the Australian man. Killing yourself is the most definite form of expressing unbearable pain, be it physical or mental. In this case obviously mental.

One of the things that I find hard to believe is that nobody tried to stop him. If we assume the forum in question is indeed SS, someone must have gauged their eyes out when looking for "evidence" or whatever you'd like to call it. There is the occasional goodbye thread on here but so far I have never come across one where the comments were fully supportive of actually committing suicide. This isn't some fucking satanist fetish website. There is always that one voice of reason asking OP to take a step back and deeply think about what he or she is about to do. Actually, there are usually multiple voices of reason trying to prevent the death of a fellow member, which is heartwarming. If you've ended up here, you're probably convinced that you will die by suicide one day - not today, not tomorrow, perhaps not even in the next 20 years, but eventually. Everyone knows that because everyone can relate. After all, SS is not a place for adolescent kids that change their mind every other day, the people on here are genuinely desperate and have been struggling long-term.

It sickens me when I read a bullshit article that a total of 20 minutes of utterly biased "research" have gone into, trying to demonize communities like this. If it weren't for SS, I would have hanged myself two years ago in the most dumb way possible. I might have died but more likely than not I'd be stuck in a hospital with permanent brain damage now. I can't be bothered to collect empirical data of how many people were saved on here but I'd argue it's far more than the number of folks that came here to look for tutorials and killed themselves right away. It's an incredibly powerful support to be able to connect with people who deal with the same inner demons as you. It's almost impossible to open up about such topics in the outside world without being met with complete nonunderstanding from people who can't relate at all, and yet they will try to take action for you in the worst possible way.

Spend an hour browsing the forum and you will realize how supportive this community is in terms of helping people make a sustainable, positive change to their lives. And, ultimately, I'd like to ask you, dear journalists, to quit pumping out such unbelievably ill-researched articles that address serious problems in a way that makes you question whether or not the author is actually qualified for their job.

 

[rationaltake]

Thank you Pluto for yet another post which is absolutely spot-on. I appreciate your wisdom humanity and compassion. I wish your own issues could be solved. You contribute so much to this forum. The world needs people like you.

 

[FuneralCry]

I believe those types of articles to be nonsense, after all there is nothing wrong with suicide as we never asked for this life in the first place. Nobody should be forced to suffer against their wishes, other people are not living our lives so they should have no say in it. If someone wishes to leave then they should be able to, and they shouldn't have to resort to the most horrific and risky methods in order to do that. It's selfish how non suicidal people wish to deny others the right to die.

It would be different if they ended up in a situation of extreme suffering and then they would likely want a peaceful method. It seems as though many people forget that we will all die eventually and this life will inevitably be forgotten about. Staying alive is only delaying the inevitable anyway, so if someone wants to prevent unnecessary suffering then that decision should be respected. I believe those who are against suicide to be insane, as the cruel reality of this existence is undeniable. If they want to live then that is up to them but that doesn't give them the right to force their beliefs onto others.

 

[LaVieEnRose]

Life certainly would've been easier as a koala. Dim-witted (no nightly existential crises), content to do little but feed on eucalyptus leaves, and beloved by everyone. Rampant chlamydia among their populations, though, but at least they're getting some.

 

[Rounded Apathy]

If it weren't for SS, I would have hanged myself two years ago in the most dumb way possible. I might have died but more likely than not I'd be stuck in a hospital with permanent brain damage now.

Sadly it doesn't seem like anyone gives a flying fuck about people who've failed to die by suicide, regardless of their resulting situation - but those who have died? Stop the presses!!!

 

[123hopeitspainfree]

People will never understand this and I get where they are coming from because for some people they do get better but that's not the case with everyone and sometimes it's unbearable but if I lost someone to suicide I'd prolly feel the same way because I would say The usual they should of talked to Me etc etc etc but even for the ones who get better me for example I joined in 2018 and was certain I was going to end it but I didn't I worked out the issues that made me feel like thst but 4 years later I'm back and even worse situation then before so while times got better I wish I would of done it then

 

[makethepainstop]

I think the best way to help them understand our position would be if a few of these do-gooders were to be violently beaten, severely injured, or killed, whenever they start this variety of nonsense. It should be so dangerous and the consequences so horrific, that none would have the balls to attempt to interfere in our affairs. Nice if it were to become known that messing with suicidal people can get you killed. Such a reputation would prevent any of the rest of us from having to tolerate those prolife idiots.

 

[MephiticShadow]

That article helped me though....... it led me to find this site and all you lovely people