Update: Reddit Suicide Lawsuit Is a Hoax

[CATS FTW]

No, not for sure.

If someone says he's going to kill himself, you really shouldn't tell them to go do it anyway.

So, if I told someone to jump from the 8th floor of a building, either:

1. That guy is lying and won't consider it, nothing happens.
2. That guy is serious and will consider it, I just helped in the death of someone.

Seriously, why would you tell someone to off himself, hmm? Hmm!?

I'd argue that point 2 is false. It should be "That guy is serious and has already decided to do it, making my actions just as futile as if he was lying."

Then why are the trolls getting punished? This guy in the news thread was obviously already thinking about committing suicide, but the trolls told him to go with it. So, them being sued shows us that you shouldn't tell someone to end his own life, if he has already decided on it or not.

Aerosteam, you are using circular logic, stop doing that.

 

[Elf Defiler Korgan]

We are not the party wanting to suicide. Maybe an end to their existential problems, the suffering, the fear is a good thing?

But we are told life is sacred, and then those who encourage someone to end it, now are punished. Pretty ridiculous. Did they force the party to do it? Where is the actus reus? Did they kill them? No.

Words are wind, and if a suicidal person follows the words on the wind (or in this case the internet) it is their choice.

 

[Korolev]

As disgusting as it is to cheer someone on to kill themselves... I can't imagine anyone going to jail over this, or being successfully sued. If he didn't like the posts.... he could have just stop going to Reddit. That was always an option. It's not like the Reddit trolls made him kill himself - he came to that decision himself and merely informed them. Yeah, the insults and the egging on didn't help, but they also didn't start his decline into suicide.

His ex-wife probably wasn't responsible for his death either. Sure, she insulted him, but insults alone don't cause people to commit suicide. Depression and isolation cause suicide. If you're going to sue people for causing his death, then conceivably you could sue just about anyone in society as society didn't do "enough" to save him. You could sue the government for not stepping in and saving him. You could sue the neighbourhood for not checking up on him. You could sue his parents for not supporting him. And what of his sister who is bringing this lawsuit? Why didn't she save him? Maybe she should sue herself!

It's understandable that a family member would look for a reason for why someone committed suicide. Surely, they think, someone or something else must be to blame. But sometimes people commit suicide due to depression, and that's no one's fault. Sometimes there is no one to blame for a suicide. The Sister is lashing out, looking for someone to blame for his death, because she can't come to terms with the fact that sometimes people kill themselves for deeply personal reasons or feelings. Accepting that fact would almost be akin to blaming her brother for his own death, and she doesn't want to do that, so she seeks to blame someone else.

Suicide is always tragic (except in Hitler's case), and while sometimes others ARE to blame, sometimes there's no one to blame. You can't blame the suicide on some nasty forum posts. If that could drive anyone to suicide, they were already on the brink anyway, and it's not like we can go around wearing placards saying "I am emotionally fragile, treat me extra special today!" on the internet.

I don't go to Reddit or 4chan precisely because the people who are on those forums are often (but not always) nasty, sub-human scum and I don't want anything to do with them. He had the option of closing his browser window. It's not like highschool facebook trolling where the trolls actively harass you offline and online and follow you around. He had the option of simply.... not going to those sites.

 

[coolkirb]

As was said before regulation will come to the internet. How harsh and in what form is unkown but it will come. People claim free speech but as was said before their are limitations on it.

 

[TheGauntman]

I hope they see jail time. And not the minimum security kind. The anal rape kind. A black guy with a huge penis stretching them out kind.

So in response to people who told a guy they hope he kills himself, you say you hope they get anally raped.

The irony, it's strong with this one.

Nope. Hoping that assholes get their comeuppance isn't ironic. Now if I said "They should jump off a bridge so their evil no longer exists" that would be ironic. Even more so if they did.

But if they do end up being anally raped in jail, would that be your fault? The irony I spoke of was that in condemning people for something, you did a similar thing. Not having a go, it just amused me.

 

[MrTub]

If someone is so weak that a few posts on REDDIT of all places is the 'final straw'...
I just have no sympathy. People who commit suicide are cowards, and deserve no sympathy from me.

Please do explain why you think they are cowards?

Because it's harder to live then it is to die.

Any fool with a gun or knife can kill themselves.
But it takes more courage to face down the darker times in your life and live.

One could make the argument that its harder to kill yourself then continue living. Humans self preservation can be very strong

This guys self preservation wasn't very strong then

edit: People go to Reddit, 4chan or whatever site and post that they are going to kill themselves do it purely for the last minute attention. Fairly certain this guy was going to kill himself with or without Reddit's help. Get a grip you fucking pussies.

Or perhaps his desire to die was simply stronger then this self preservation?

 

[coolkirb]

As disgusting as it is to cheer someone on to kill themselves... I can't imagine anyone going to jail over this, or being successfully sued. If he didn't like the posts.... he could have just stop going to Reddit. That was always an option. It's not like the Reddit trolls made him kill himself - he came to that decision himself and merely informed them. Yeah, the insults and the egging on didn't help, but they also didn't start his decline into suicide.

His ex-wife probably wasn't responsible for his death either. Sure, she insulted him, but insults alone don't cause people to commit suicide. Depression and isolation cause suicide. If you're going to sue people for causing his death, then conceivably you could sue just about anyone in society as society didn't do "enough" to save him. You could sue the government for not stepping in and saving him. You could sue the neighbourhood for not checking up on him. You could sue his parents for not supporting him. And what of his sister who is bringing this lawsuit? Why didn't she save him? Maybe she should sue herself!

It's understandable that a family member would look for a reason for why someone committed suicide. Surely, they think, someone or something else must be to blame. But sometimes people commit suicide due to depression, and that's no one's fault. Sometimes there is no one to blame for a suicide. The Sister is lashing out, looking for someone to blame for his death, because she can't come to terms with the fact that sometimes people kill themselves for deeply personal reasons or feelings. Accepting that fact would almost be akin to blaming her brother for his own death, and she doesn't want to do that, so she seeks to blame someone else.

Suicide is always tragic (except in Hitler's case), and while sometimes others ARE to blame, sometimes there's no one to blame. You can't blame the suicide on some nasty forum posts. If that could drive anyone to suicide, they were already on the brink anyway, and it's not like we can go around wearing placards saying "I am emotionally fragile, treat me extra special today!" on the internet.

I don't go to Reddit or 4chan precisely because the people who are on those forums are often (but not always) nasty, sub-human scum and I don't want anything to do with them. He had the option of closing his browser window. It's not like highschool facebook trolling where the trolls actively harass you offline and online and follow you around. He had the option of simply.... not going to those sites.

Their are some flaws in this arguement. First you cant just say he could have walked away because then you could say people who are bullied via text could do the same thing. Also their is a difference between doing nothing and encourageing the action, the posters could have stayed quite but they instead encouraged it, his family may have done nothing but they did not tell him to kill himself. Next you cant say he had the option not to go to those sights because then your saying those sites are OK for stuff like that to happen.

 

[MrTub]

If someone is so weak that a few posts on REDDIT of all places is the 'final straw'...
I just have no sympathy. People who commit suicide are cowards, and deserve no sympathy from me.

Please do explain why you think they are cowards?

Because it's harder to live then it is to die.

Any fool with a gun or knife can kill themselves.
But it takes more courage to face down the darker times in your life and live.

One could make the argument that its harder to kill yourself then continue living. Humans self preservation can be very strong

This guys self preservation wasn't very strong then

edit: People go to Reddit, 4chan or whatever site and post that they are going to kill themselves do it purely for the last minute attention. Fairly certain this guy was going to kill himself with or without Reddit's help. Get a grip you fucking pussies.

Or perhaps his desire to die was simply stronger then this self preservation?

So in other words, his self preservation wasn't very strong?

How do you know?

Perhaps his self preservation was very strong but the desire to die was stronger?

Just because you have two strong person fighting each other and one wins doesnt make the other person weak.

 

[MrTub]

If someone is so weak that a few posts on REDDIT of all places is the 'final straw'...
I just have no sympathy. People who commit suicide are cowards, and deserve no sympathy from me.

Please do explain why you think they are cowards?

Because it's harder to live then it is to die.

Any fool with a gun or knife can kill themselves.
But it takes more courage to face down the darker times in your life and live.

One could make the argument that its harder to kill yourself then continue living. Humans self preservation can be very strong

This guys self preservation wasn't very strong then

edit: People go to Reddit, 4chan or whatever site and post that they are going to kill themselves do it purely for the last minute attention. Fairly certain this guy was going to kill himself with or without Reddit's help. Get a grip you fucking pussies.

Or perhaps his desire to die was simply stronger then this self preservation?

So in other words, his self preservation wasn't very strong?

How do you know?

Perhaps his self preservation was very strong but the desire to die was stronger?

Just because you have two strong person fighting each other and one wins doesnt make the other person weak.

I know because hes dead, by his own hand. That's all I need to know.

Well good that you know that then, I would personally say that his desire to die was simply stronger then his self preservation.

 

[Asuka Soryu]

This is a sign of what happens when you give people freedom, it tends to get abused. Sadly, we all have to pay for the 'assholeism' of others.

 

[Arakasi]

Yet another reason why one should always use a fake name on the internet.

 

[Rallus]

"It's not freedom of speech if I don't like it!". That's essentially the view of some of the people on this thread. What makes you the moral arbiters of society and what makes you the judge on what constitutes as free speech or not? What? If it coincides with your morals it's free speech, but if it doesn't, it's not?

 

[lizabeth19]

snip

Not surprise that this happened in the Men's Rights Subreddit. These are the same people that recently were declared by the Southern Law Poverty Center to be a 'hate group'. Same people who were supportive when a 'young man' posted on the same reddit, 'afraid that he was going to go to jail because he had punched his girlfriend in the stomach when she tried to steal his sperm from a used condom' (it was a hoax).