i get you. but i think that most times people need something bad to happen to them to realize how bad things are. protecting people's eyes from things like that will just make them blinder to others suffering.
I very much agree with you that people can become more aware of others' pain when something bad happens to them. However, in my opinion there's a massive difference between something bad and something traumatizing. Your initial post used the word trauma, and that's specifically what I was thinking of in my reply. There are so many different scenarios when we're talking about a public suicide, and for some people their experience would be *just* bad; a person walks by a body from a distance and sees a glimpse of it.
On the other end of the spectrum is the person driving their car when someone jumps in front of it. This driver sees the physical horror of their own car slamming into a body and they don't just feel the terror, shock, guilt, and pain in that moment. They re-live it in flashbacks, nightmares, and years and years (if not a lifetime!) of suffering. PTSD is hard to explain in words, and I don't really know how to, but it is truly like a part of your brain has broken. A piece of your mind has shattered. It's a living nightmare that keeps going even when you sleep. I don't think it makes sense for anyone knowingly, purposely sentence a random person to that.
that random person maybe thinks life is a gift and they might want to pass it to some innocent who is not yet to experience the horrors of life. maybe witnessing a suicide with their eyes , that can maybe help them realize that life sucks and they might decide that is not worth to bring more people to this hellish planet . it could help make people more sensitive to the problem of suicide methods (if suicide was legal, no one would choose brutal methods like suicide under train). most people really can't get that life is an immensity of suffering unless they see it with their eyes, but even then some would still deny everything sigh
This is an interesting thing to discuss, because I see a lot of people on here express the same sentiments. You certainly aren't alone. I see it a different way. *I* personally experience a hellish existence, I suffer and have since my earliest memories, but how does that have any effect on someone else's experiences? I've met plenty of people who are content and even happy in a variety of situations. They've all lived a very, very different life than me, and they have a very, very different brain than me. I don't know what it feels like to be them, but I just imagine it's like anything else I haven't experienced. I've never gone skydiving, that doesn't mean the act of skydiving doesn't exist. Weird example there, but hopefully you get my point. It's strange and foreign to me to imagine living a happy, content life, but that's because I'm me, and it's drastically different than the life I've lived.
I've also met people who are JUST as empathetic, caring and compassionate about other people's suffering without having lived through trauma themselves. That's what empathy is, after all; it's not just relating to someone, or only caring because it affects/has affected you. It's the genuine want for a person not to be in pain solely because you don't want them to be in pain. So by no means does someone have to live through a traumatic event to have empathy for others.
To note, I'm also not referring to split-second, impulsive decisions here; I'm talking about when someone purposely and knowingly plans to involve others in their death, and the implications around that type of situation specifically.
This is an interesting discussion, it's something I think about quite often when reading posts here and while I know you were also venting in your post, you stating your opinions directly made me interested in replying. I thank you for discussing it civilly and hearing me out on my thoughts too.
