AndroidAmongHumans
Full Bodily Autonomy is non-negotiable
- Apr 27, 2023
- 29
I've started a new job recently that requires me to drive over a bridge on a local road, and it has suicide hotline numbers posted on roadside metal signs on each side of the bridge. I would never have thought the bridge I drive over was close enough to the required height to dependably kill yourself from instead of just breaking a few bones, because from the angle of the rest of the surroundings it doesn't look like there's more than a 25-35 foot drop from what I can see from my car windows out over the edge of rhe bridge. However, it turns out that there's a dip in the river that forms kind of a bowl shape underneath the bridge right at the point the road has to go over, so the actual point under the bridge itself is more like 65-75 feet. I would have never known that site was high enough to kill myself off of without seeing those signs, and even though I don't plan on killing myself at that point unless I have no other options, as it's in a populated area and within sight of my work, it's still information about how to kill myself I wouldn't have otherwise have.
I think it's generally really funny in a dramatic irony kind of manner that suicide hotline numbers posted by a site, and not just on a general bulletin board or advertisement, essentially just broadcast that the area is one that's very likely able to reliably kill you and that there's no mechanical way those in charge of that area can physically prevent you from killing yourself there. There's a very significant amount of trains and train stations in my area, and all of the ones that have suicide hotline numbers up by the tracks or platforms are all of the ones that can't put fencing around the tracks to prevent people jumping on them because it'd block traffic or important footpaths. The bridge I learned about recently hasn't had the state budget in it to repair visible cracks in the road surface or the concrete barriers over the bridge for over 5 years, so a sign is up there to "prevent" suicides because no one is going to put the time and money into the bridge to put up higher fences or a net when they can't even keep it from visibly crumbling. The pro-life crowd is so wrapped up in their own messed up logic that they think a sign with a phone number with robotic "listeners" will motivate someone to not kill themselves at a place that has a high likelihood of success, instead of seeing that by showing the number next to a location or piece of machinery, they're broadcasting that you can intentionally kill yourself right there.
I think it's generally really funny in a dramatic irony kind of manner that suicide hotline numbers posted by a site, and not just on a general bulletin board or advertisement, essentially just broadcast that the area is one that's very likely able to reliably kill you and that there's no mechanical way those in charge of that area can physically prevent you from killing yourself there. There's a very significant amount of trains and train stations in my area, and all of the ones that have suicide hotline numbers up by the tracks or platforms are all of the ones that can't put fencing around the tracks to prevent people jumping on them because it'd block traffic or important footpaths. The bridge I learned about recently hasn't had the state budget in it to repair visible cracks in the road surface or the concrete barriers over the bridge for over 5 years, so a sign is up there to "prevent" suicides because no one is going to put the time and money into the bridge to put up higher fences or a net when they can't even keep it from visibly crumbling. The pro-life crowd is so wrapped up in their own messed up logic that they think a sign with a phone number with robotic "listeners" will motivate someone to not kill themselves at a place that has a high likelihood of success, instead of seeing that by showing the number next to a location or piece of machinery, they're broadcasting that you can intentionally kill yourself right there.
