December 03, 2005

• kids please stop killing yourselves on teh internets
• what is ytmnd?
• People kill themselves all the time and make announcements, it should be no surprise that the internet has been used for this, and this aint the first example. But mocking the person, however short-sighted their decision, is out of order, imho.
• ytmnd is "you're the man now dog" a site devoted to spoofs and riffs on cultural artifacts. The title comes from that movie with Sean Connery as a hermit writer who befriends a black up and coming writer, at the end he utters the immortal line 'you're the man now, dog' and it sounds stupid. It became a meme.
• Suicide is stupid, myspace is stupid, YTMNDs are stupid. I think Art Vandal hopes that if people know they will be mocked in death that maybe they won't kill themselves, or at least in such a lame drama queen way.
• BTW, lol
• Now I'm depressed. I don't think Art Vandal is mocking his suicide, though. I think he's just posting a link to an interesting, ghoulish phenomenon. That completely depresses me. *sigh
• suicide is hilarious when it involves a popular website.
• suicide is painless
• FYI guys, this might be a bit of a sensitive topic for some, especially right now.
• ugh LINK McFly, LINK!
• 
• LOL @ Chyren
• Suicide is always hilarious until it happens to you. Karma's a bitch.
• I posted this because it was funny/depressing/bizarre/ignorant. Instead of this kid seeking help from those around him he decided to post a suicide note on myspace of all places. He shouldn't be any different from anyone else who decides to take their life but he posts it on the internet for everyone to see. And now he's getting more attention in death than he did when he was alive. I think that's what he wanted, and he got it.
• And nickdanger I'm a she :-).
• This is fucked up.
• Yeah, that's fucked up. But that's also what happens to your kids who think the internet is their first line of defense. Talk to your babies. Believe me, it has become a parental force.
• Yah. Chyren, just shut the fuck up. You don't have children in the position to resort to this horrific thing, do you? Or am I wrong? I feel like I walk on a tightrope every day with my kid. I can't promise her anything but chaos in the long term. But she only wants the near term so I bought her a pretty Holiday Dance dress and some new "big girl" shoes all for $75 which is a lot for us, but will get us through the next two months or so, and then I have to worry about the next threat whether confirmed or not. Then, it gets cold and frozen and we both have to walk everywhere. So where can we walk in safety? I have to do some analysis: Who would want to blow us up and where? The first place I pick is the train tracks. How obvious, and what an easy way to disseminate slow-acting poisonous weapons? Just heave them over the side and let them go through the heartland. And then I think some more and the fury is balanced by the will to survive. I don't know what will happen, but I will die to see justice for my child, whatever it takes. Sorry to be so maudlin. But You know what? We will prevail.
• I do appreciate the fact that the news article explicitly said that emo doesn't kill people. Though I would be vaguely amused if the "won't someone think of the children" crusade teamed up against emo...
• I have to do some analysis: Who would want to blow us up and where? Cynn, nothing's going to happen to you. You *don't* need to do an "analysis". Contrary to what you read in the media, the world isn't a scary place. It's we who scare ourselves. Unfortunately, our culture seems to get kicks from spreading fear and anxiety. Just say no.
• Yah. Chyren, just shut the fuck up. You did read this comment, right? Regardless, dial it down a little.
• the article is a horriblly written piece of crap that says "emo and the internet dont kill kids" then spends the rest of the piece trying to snidely insinuate that they do. The last paragraph is a masterpiece of shitty journalism. I dont blame cynnbad at all. I am not one to get easily offended but a a lot of what's written here borders on really really ignorant.
• Wow......I'm speechless after seeing his profile page hacked.
• Wow......I'm speechless after seeing his profile page hacked. Likewise. I suppose the luxury of distance and the feeling of belonging is the greatest usher of the desensitized.
• I'm a she My mistake. Appy polly logies.
• "But You know what? We will prevail." Who's 'we' and what will you 'prevail' over? I think you sound like a nut.
• FYI guys, this might be a bit of a sensitive topic for some, especially right now. Especially right now?
• I was confused by that as well.
• The first place I pick is the train tracks. How obvious, and what an easy way to disseminate slow-acting poisonous weapons? Just heave them over the side and let them go through the heartland. You make it sound very easy, this is something you have clearly thought about, but have you thought about where you are you going to get the poison from?
• How about an internally planted non-metalic bomb? Seems easy enough to figure out, if you assume you're not planning to survive the explosion...
• Hm Livewire - that song kept me alive when I was a teen and contemplating non-existence. I guess for others it didn't. Cynnbad you need to live your life - not worry about it - otherwise the 'bad guys' whoever they may be - and I include the internal ones - win anyway
• Oh and as dor the original thread - it seems to me an attention seeking way to go. - A kind of I won't do it if someone responds but then who am I to judge others?
• Suicide is by nature desperate. Desperate people do things that seem beyond the bounds of convention, you know, like killing themselves. I don't see anything particularly funny or deserving scorn about the "drama queen" nature of his last message, just something extremely sad: a person trying to communicate the kind of overwhelming feelings that society consistently turns away from, trying to communicate those feelings in a certain medium because all other channels seem dead. Sure, there are better ways to attempt that communication, sure it seems like it was a means of getting attention; but if you're willing to kill yourself to get that attention, then how intense must the pain be that's driving that need? And if the pain is that intense, how can you expect someone to make a rational decision?
• And if the pain is that intense, how can you expect someone to make a rational decision? Bingo. How about a little fun with deconstruction? Instead of this kid seeking help from those around him...he decided to post a suicide note on myspace of all places. And you know for a fact that he didn't seek help from those around him. Right? Are you his neighbour? A family member? A classmate? Or just somebody talking shit about a fucked-up dead kid? He shouldn't be any different from anyone else who decides to take their life... What the fuck does that even mean? I didn't realize they'd established a Suicidal Standard . It's just so hard to keep up with these things... And now he's getting more attention in death than he did when he was alive. Interesting...first you state as fact that he didn't seek help from those around him, and yet, in the space of two sentences you then state he was not getting any attention while alive. I think that's what he wanted, and he got it. Excellent. He wanted people like you to treat his death with contempt. Congratulations.
• I feel like I walk on a tightrope every day with my kid. I can't promise her anything but chaos in the long term. But she only wants the near term so I bought her a pretty Holiday Dance dress and some new "big girl" shoes all for $75 which is a lot for us, but will get us through the next two months or so, and then I have to worry about the next threat whether confirmed or not. Cynn should have said this earlier, I hope you're okay and that things will work out for you.
• And you know for a fact that he didn't seek help from those around him. Right? Are you his neighbour? A family member? A classmate? Or just somebody talking shit about a fucked-up dead kid? He very well could have asked for help and they all turned their backs on him and told him to fuck off. Or they could have tried to help but he still went on with it. Or he could have been silent about it and did his thing. I don't know and neither do you. He sure as hell didn't post asking for help, just where to find the body. What the fuck does that even mean? I didn't realize they'd established a Suicidal Standard . It's just so hard to keep up with these things... What I meant was he posted it where his suicide is going to be known by many, many people. People that didn't even know this kid now know who he is because of a fucking myspace bulletin telling so. Otherwise this would never have been known and no one would know about him or give a shit. Interesting...first you state as fact that he didn't seek help from those around him, and yet, in the space of two sentences you then state he was not getting any attention while alive. Again, maybe he did maybe he didn't. We don't know for sure. It's all in how it looks. Excellent. He wanted people like you to treat his death with contempt. Congratulations. I didn't and I still don't feel sorry for him. Everyone has to deal with shit they don't like but it doesn't mean we should all go out and kill ourselves. Why should I feel sorry for him because he couldn't handle something? He obviously wanted people to know who he was and now they do. I'm not saying mocking him is the right thing or that I'm jusitified in what I think but he posted his suicide on myspace for everyone to see and I think that is stupid.
• I side with Art Vandal on this one (surprised? you shouldn't be) I agree with her that the kid did a stupid thing. I think he was acting like a total drama queen. He wanted to kill himself and he would love the attention he is getting. Also, I wholly support suicide and in particular this suicide because after all the ridicule he's getting maybe people will try to work out their problems if it means they will be an internet joke. I pretty much think human beings are worthless all together, the less of them the better. Darwin's law in practice. Is that cold? If someone wants to do it, it's their business because it's also their body. And before I get a barrage of bleeding hearts thrown at me I can name at least 4 people who were close to me who committed suicide and at least 5 family members who attempted to do it and I still think it's stupid. I love how everyone is so touchy about this but when a gay tranny male hooker looks for advice it's all
• ...it's all laugh in time. This is the most emo thread ever.
• Also make sure my comment gets forwarded to Koko in an attempt to get me barred A.S.A.P. because it offended or threatened you and your feelings got hurt.
• ?
• Strangest segue evar?
• par for the course, really.
• I love how everyone is so touchy about this... Because you're not... Art Vandal and LivewireConfusion; do you guys really not get that someone doing a stupid thing when their brain is working correctly is different from when someone does a stupid thing with a brain that isn't working correctly? State your opinion. Always valuable. Just as long as you know what it might say about your apparent inability to understand and/or indifferent attitude to the difference between acts motivated by suicidal depression and "kids doing stupid shit on the internet". And I'm assuming you aren't teenaged kids. Feel free to correct me on this. Presumably you're in a better mental state. And yet you're happy to post all kinds of negative speculation about a fucked-up kid who you think should have known better than to do what he did. Strangely, I really don't think you're in a position to complain about self absorbed shallowness on the Internet.
• Most suicides do leave a note of some kind, don't they? If this kid was most comfortable communicating in the cybershpere (which is true of a lot of folks - insert headshake at breakdown of real communication here) then it stands to reason that's where he'd leave it.
• with a brain that isn't working correctly? keep typing I am beginning to understand you point.
• My experience has been that when you are suicidally depressed, your brain has, essentially, decided to kill you. The thing with which you form ideas and with which you make decisions, and with which you understand the world has turned it's back on you. It believes the only possible solution to your pain in non-existence. You're in the back seat of a car whose driver (your brain) decides to drive into a tree at eighty miles an hour. I don't think the 'people who commit suicide are stupid' thing has as much to do with suicide as it does with a general fear of mental illness. It's easier to declare someone you loved to be 'stupid' than admit to yourself that mental illness can cause you to do things you would never do when well; and that if it happened to a friend or family member it could just as easily could have happened to you, and that it may happen in your future. When I was younger, I hated suicides. I thought that it was a big dramatic "Fuck you" to everyone around them. Then it happened to me, and more and more of my friends, then my best friend, and I realized that most of the time, it meant "Make it stop". It's a hard, hard thing to really understand. Everything we are considers being alive an essential and wonderful thing...but someone finding you dead in the wreakage needs to understand that you weren't driving rather than simply thinking 'What kind of asshole purposely drives into a tree?'
• Having said that, I don't believe all suicides are driven by mental illness. If you're terminal and in pain it could be considered the most logical thing you can do, given it's not the dying that's in question, but rather the timing. I also wonder how it fits with murder suicides as well. It could be argued that those suicides are more about retaining power; that is, if it's possible to be sane while or after killing somebody else. Personally, I think it is. A sociopath can easily fit the legal definition of sanity; ie. they knew what they were doing was wrong, but really didn't give a shit. I know I harp on the issue of depression and suicide a bit on Monkeyfilter, but the thing is that people knowing others may think them weak and selfish for even thinking about suicide may hide it until it's too late. It's a stigma that kills people.
• The point of this thread wasn't about the reasoning behind why someone decides to kill themselves. It was about how a kid whom we never would have known or cared about before we now know because of a myspace bulletin. The internet can make someone known under depressing circumstances.
• Sure. But then you speculated on his state of mind what you thought his motives were, perpetuating the stereotype that suicides are self-absorbed attention seekers. Incidently, none of this is personal. I respond to topics and comments as they arise and don't keep track of who posts them or why. Monkeyfilter is a great opportunity to throw one's perceptions and conclusions into the dog pit to see how they fare. And talk about owl semen. Without owl semen, there is no Monkeyfilter!
• Here's how I've tried to explain suicidal depression to people who don't get it: It's about pain. People who commit suicide are usually in so much pain that killing themselves seems like (and, in some cases, may very well be) a rational decision, as in: "If my choice is between living with this much pain or not living, not living is what I choose." That may seem self-absorbed, or that may seem pathetic, or that may seem like someone who needs as much compassion as possible, depending on what kind of person you are and your level of empathy, I think. Whether the person killed himself in a "drama queen" fashion is beside the point -- I mean, is there really a "polite" or "proper" way to commit suicide in your worldview? Darwin's law in practice. Is that cold? Yep, and disgusting, too.
• What's disturbing is that rates for teenage suicide have been rising in the past few years. What's behind it?
• Here's a look at teen suicide rates. And another that lists this risk factor; ...the presence of a psychological disorder, especially depression, bipolar disorder, and alcohol and substance use (In fact, approximately 95% of people who die by suicide have a psychological disorder at the time of death.)