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Suicide Rates Are Up 30 Percent Since 1999, CDC Says (nbcnews.com)

New submitter Austerity Empowers writes: Amidst all the name calling and straw man arguments about the overall health of America, sometimes it helps to look at data from people who sacrificed everything based on their perception of reality. Whatever politics you subscribe to, the feeling of hopelessness is evidently real, and frightening. NBC News: "Suicide rates are up by 30 percent across the nation since 1999, federal health officials reported Thursday. And only about half the people who died by suicide had a known mental health condition, even though depression had been thought to be the major cause of suicide, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. While many cases of mental illness may have been diagnosed, the CDC also noted that relationship stress, financial troubles and substance abuse were contributing to the trends."

478 comments

  1. How surprising,... by AbRASiON · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Really? Who could have guessed.

    The division between the rich and poor, is without a question, worse than it was in 1999.
    Hope is fading out for the middle and lower class. The middle class becomes smaller, soon to be just "the poors and the rich"

    On top of this, the world is straight the fuck up, dying. We're not working towards protecting it very well, we're not working towards replacing it (finding a new one elsewhere)

    Then we have the internet, it's giving the poor access to see what's going on in the world better, they can see just how rich the rich are becoming, they can see the death of the world better than ever before, they can communicate with each other (as I am right now) elaborating on why there's little hope.

    Co2 is up, heat is up, methane bubbles are going off in siberia, animals are dying out, bees are dying off, America is slowly crumbling into debt. (no, I'm not American)

    No fucking shit suicides are up 30%, I have to wonder what % of the suicide people are actually mentally broken or just strong enough to say "you know what, fuck all this"

    1. Re:How surprising,... by novakyu · · Score: 4, Informative

      This is the most ignorant thing I have read this year so far. Everybody knows that the poor do not commit suicide at higher rates.

    2. Re:How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you being sarcastic? From the link you posted, they found that the more money you make, the less likely you are to off yourself.

    3. Re:How surprising,... by AbRASiON · · Score: 2

      I'm not talking about the poor, I'm talking about those who were middle and upper middle or the chidlren of middle / upper middle, seeing "oh fuck, shit I'm going to be poorer than my parents"

    4. Re:How surprising,... by AbRASiON · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Read my post history, I no longer identify as a leftie. I'm a centrist.
      The far right (climate deniers, most hard religious folk) are fucking idiots.

      SJW's are censoring dipshits.

      No, I'm just a realist, with a dose of common sense and the simple ability to understand mathematics, sustainability, very very basic economics.

      If you don't see how fucked we are, you're in denial. This ain't about politics, it's about logic.

    5. Re:How surprising,... by AbRASiON · · Score: 1

      I can't believe stupid people are actually thinking my post is political. I'm literally no longer what would be classed as a leftist and I'm regularly moderated on this very site by the extreme left here. I'd almost say I'm probably in some posters "omg ugh, he's an alt-right!!" list.

      This isn't about politics, it's about common sense.

      Off yourself now, it's for the best.

    6. Re: How surprising,... by iggymanz · · Score: 2

      Quit whining and look at a graph of say the 1900 onward. Someone picked a year with a dip to invent fake news. The suicide rate had been going up and down and up again, so picking the recent minimum as a start date makes something that resonates with the made-up head canon you have. Meanwhile nothing out of the ordinary is happening

    7. Re:How surprising,... by jenningsthecat · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Listening to all that shit is enough to want to off myself.

      Seriously, it's finger pointing and blaming you lefties are doing which is driving everyone down the hole.

      "Finger pointing" is usually taken to mean singling out a person or group for blame. I didn't see that anywhere in the post you're whining about. OTOH - "lefties"? Who's doing the finger pointing here? Look in the mirror, Mr. AC Dolt!

      Sanctimonious bunch of hypocrites the lot of you... Keep destroying the family... Keep promoting divisions between folks.

      Who's more sanctimonious and divisive? The OP, who is simply pointing out legitimate problems? Or you, who clings to 'family values' tropes, and blames a statement of verifiable facts for "promoting divisions"?

      You're all so blind you've lost touch with reality.

      Say what? You've just stuck your fingers in your ears and started singing "la la la la", so don't be lecturing others about their hold on reality.

      You cross the line, forget to respect the boundries that maintain a healthy medium for everyone else.

      In the context of this discussion, there's so much out of place in what you've just said, that it's hard to know where to start. What line was crossed in the OP? What "boundries" weren't respected? How does one maintain a "healthy medium" when the suicide rate is up 30% and the planet is crumbling? Here's a hint - your cherished family values ain't worth shit unless you accept that your "family" is the entire human race. That includes the creepy uncles, serial killers, and despots, as well as the kind aunts, great artists, and those who put their lives on the line for their fellow man - and everybody in between.

      If you were trolling - and I suspect you were - then please continue. I'm happy to build houses with your sticks and stones - especially when they fail to hit the mark and simply fall at my feet, ready to be turned into something that's possibly helpful.

      --
      'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
    8. Re:How surprising,... by novakyu · · Score: 3, Informative

      No, I'm just better at reading than you are:

      Analyses at the community level are significantly more likely to demonstrate lower rates of suicide among higher socio-economic areas than studies using larger areas of aggregation.

      Read between the lines; socioeconomic status of a person is not the primary determinant of likelihood of suicide. That's why they had to drill down to community level, in order to eliminate confounding variables. There are factors aside from wealth status that affect suicide rates by a greater amount.

    9. Re:How surprising,... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 3

      significantly more likely to demonstrate lower rates of suicide among higher socio-economic areas

      That very clearly and unambiguously says that suicide rates are lower among areas that are less poor and/or experiencing less strife.

      No need to read between the lines, it is a simple statement that leaves little room for interpretation.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    10. Re:How surprising,... by squiggleslash · · Score: 2

      It's hard to imagine someone feeling depressed enough to kill themselves simply because they're poorer than their parents. And BTW, that has been going on since Generation X, it didn't just start in 1999.

      I would suggest there are more relevant factors, which may or may not have contributed, including:

      - Increased financial difficulties for the bottom 98%. Wages haven't kept up with inflation after all, although I don't see the CoL as being much higher today than it was in 2012
      - Increased complexity of life causing more stress
      - Increased social interactions with people who don't give a shit about you and will be unpleasant because they're not dealing with you face to face, thanks to the Internet, indirectly causing a loss in self esteem

      I don't think any one of these by themselves is the cause of anything, but add everything together and a huge number of people are going to find it harder to cope with life, suffering more pressure and having less confidence in themselves to deal with it.

      Psychiatrists will argue that all suicide is "caused by" depression which none of the above contribute to. I'd argue they're full of shit, that depression - a condition characterized by lethargy and an unwillingness to take risks - is the brain's way of preventing you (well, discouraging you) from committing suicide, which is why the two are correlated - people who aren't considering killing themselves or otherwise doing something self destructive are in no need of that self defense mechanism.

      And I'm inclined to think that this survey underlines that. There's been no massive up take in drugs that cause depression since 1999. Just an increase in things that make life miserable and difficult to cope with.

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
    11. Re:How surprising,... by mentil · · Score: 3, Interesting

      So it's not how rich YOU are, it's how rich your NEIGHBORHOOD is?
      I think that's Exhibit A for why the 1% hoarding the world's wealth won't turn out well for anybody, even themselves. Sure they can lock themselves up in a gated community and try to surround themselves with other affluent people, but they'd have to pretty much avoid all contact with the outside world (TV, internet, newspapers, books, cinema, music, even video games.)

      There's a reason superhero movies are so popular right now, and it's not (just) because Marvel just now figured out how to get their shit together.

      --
      Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
    12. Re:How surprising,... by aliquis · · Score: 1

      As AmiMojo say is that those who are from a higher socio-economic area suicide less.

      That's all it say. It doesn't say what you say and it doesn't mean that either.

    13. Re: How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Except stats back it up, the ridiculous difference in incomes, and the ridiculous drop in median normalized income.

      Centrists and realists get called lefties by righties and righties by lefties. Somehow, going straight to partisan insults ISNT the wrong way of arguing? Who's the dipshit listening to the med in a, the one talking about the actual issue, or the one frothing at the mouth about lefties?

    14. Re:How surprising,... by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 3, Insightful

      No fucking shit suicides are up 30%, I have to wonder what % of the suicide people are actually mentally broken or just strong enough to say "you know what, fuck all this"

      Well, I suppose it is true that things have never ever been this bad, amirite?

      Never ever. This is the absolute worst time in history.

      Sarcasm aside, I can't help thinking that economic conditions don't have much to do with this. The overwhelming "cause" at 42 percent is relationship issues. Interestingly in the article, other than noting that cause, nothing was done to address it, only things like housing and programs to make people feel like they belong.

      We've had several around here that were people checking out after a divorce. I suppose there is a certain financial aspect to that - in all cases the suicidee had been financially destroyed, but no one around here has killed themselves because of not having a place to live.

      I'm pretty convinced that at times, suicide is just the simpler and more effective option.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    15. Re: How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're not very clever, are you ? The 1% do not hoard money and keep it out of circulation so you get nothing.

    16. Re: How surprising,... by AbRASiON · · Score: 1

      Thanks for the response, you said it more eloquently than I could.

    17. Re:How surprising,... by AbRASiON · · Score: 1

      This is the second dipshit to assume I'm a leftie responding. Look at my post history and walk away embarrassed.

      Congratulations on seeing politics everywhere, you're as bad as the SJWs you think you're mocking (you're missing, by a long shot, I sit right in the middle)

    18. Re:How surprising,... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 4, Interesting

      People who are born into poverty are used to it and can see that other people somehow cope. When people have been comfortable for their whole lives and then a financial crash hits and end up with nothing, and don't have the mental tools to cope with that loss and uncertainty and angst and anger... That's what causes depression.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    19. Re:How surprising,... by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Read my post history, I no longer identify as a leftie. I'm a centrist. The far right (climate deniers, most hard religious folk) are fucking idiots.

      Very true.

      SJW's are censoring dipshits

      You forgot to add Racist, Sexist, and soft fascist. But otherwise, yeah.

      No, I'm just a realist, with a dose of common sense and the simple ability to understand mathematics, sustainability, very very basic economics.

      You should give some thought to pragmatist. Both sides of the political spectrum - actually far left and fr right are almost identical in aim if not the details - have some concepts that work, and some that are dopey.

      You're most of the way there. Becoming a pragmatist means you'll piss most everyone off. Far right will call you a socialist, far left a fascist, but they'll be really confused because you pick positions that make sense, not party/ideology dictated.

      If you don't see how fucked we are, you're in denial. This ain't about politics, it's about logic.

      Things have been fucked up before, they will be fucked up again. The best thing about pragmatism is that once you accept it, the rage eventually goes away.

      Although it is fun to troll the far right and far left. You must do this because they deserve it.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    20. Re:How surprising,... by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      I can't believe stupid people are actually thinking my post is political. I'm literally no longer what would be classed as a leftist and I'm regularly moderated on this very site by the extreme left here

      One enjoyable thing I often see is when I get email notices on some of my posts that get yo-yo'd up and down between Insightful and Troll.

      When that happens, you know you are on to something real.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    21. Re:How surprising,... by MitchDev · · Score: 1

      Sad but true....

    22. Re:How surprising,... by f3rret · · Score: 1

      Found the internet tough guy.

      --
      Admit nothing. Deny Everything. Make Counter-accusations.
    23. Re:How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      yeaaaah.... no.

      Sorry. you couldn't be more wrong.

      Suicide is directly linked to depression, which is a medical reality caused by chemical imbalance in the brain. While depressive episodes can be triggered by outside causes, depression itself, and therefor suicide, is caused by a physical problem.

      Suicide is not now and never has been caused by healthy people becoming despondent over external causes. You gotta be depressed first.

      The real question here is: what is making more people sick?

    24. Re:How surprising,... by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 2

      That very clearly and unambiguously says that suicide rates are lower among areas that are less poor and/or experiencing less strife.

      No need to read between the lines, it is a simple statement that leaves little room for interpretation.

      The numbers speak for themselves 42 percent are attributed to a relationship problem. Only 16 percent were financially based - although I wonder how they differentiate. In my neck of the woods, there have been several suicides that were both relationship based as well as financially based. This was in nasty divorce cases where one of the ex-partners was financially decimated.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    25. Re:How surprising,... by GrumpySteen · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I know this post is probably a troll, but I'm going to respond anyway.

      If you're actually considering committing suicide, maybe you should stop focusing on responding to posts that piss you off and call a suicide hotline.

      Or, if you're unwilling to try to get help, go the fuck outside and enjoy what's left or your life and stop dwelling on online arguments. You might find that life is actually a lot more livable without the influx of garbage that comes from being online all the time.

    26. Re:How surprising,... by tehcyder · · Score: 5, Insightful

      That very clearly and unambiguously says that suicide rates are lower among areas that are less poor and/or experiencing less strife.

      No need to read between the lines, it is a simple statement that leaves little room for interpretation.

      The numbers speak for themselves 42 percent are attributed to a relationship problem. Only 16 percent were financially based - although I wonder how they differentiate. In my neck of the woods, there have been several suicides that were both relationship based as well as financially based. This was in nasty divorce cases where one of the ex-partners was financially decimated.

      The point is that if you're really rich and you have to give half your wealth to your ex-wife/husband, you're still fairly rich. If you're just coping financially and have to give half your wealth to your ex-wife/husband, you're then suddenly poor.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    27. Re:How surprising,... by AbRASiON · · Score: 1

      I'll look into it, I'm definitely finding myself agitating people on both sides significantly more than I used to.

    28. Re:How surprising,... by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I'm not talking about the poor, I'm talking about those who were middle and upper middle or the chidlren of middle / upper middle, seeing "oh fuck, shit I'm going to be poorer than my parents"

      Offspring that are poorer than their parents is not a new phenomenon. Drive and success are not a lock between generations, in some cases, the opposite is true. I came from poor stock, but blessed or cursed with drive, I far outpaced them.

      As well, in many cases, these parents only looked more wealthy. The children of the 80's and 90's were often living in families that had pretend wealth - maxed out credit cards, refinanced homes to buy that Escalade, flat or no savings.

      It was the middle class playing rich, and it all blew up around them.

      But experiencing being poor as well as being wealthy, I wasn't unhappy at all being poor.I had no intention to stay poor, but I wasn't even upset, much less suicidal. If young people today are committing suicide because of their financial situation not being that of their parents - we have failed them by teaching them that money is the only source of happiness, and without it, life is nt worth living.

      As for my theory, I lay a lot of blame on the self esteem movement. I saw a lot of Millennials crashing and burning when they found out the world links self esteem with actual achievements, not something inculcated in a person for no other reason than thinking that they are the most important person in the whole wide world.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    29. Re: How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Owning stocks does not keep money in circulation. Owning overpriced property does not keep money in circulation. Owning rare artwork does not keep money in circulation. Offshoring profits to tax havens does not keep money in circulation.

      The 1% absolutely does hoard their wealth and they've spent the last 40 years using their influence to get laws rewritten to exempt them from taxes so that they can hoard even more while given less than ever back to society.

    30. Re:How surprising,... by AbRASiON · · Score: 1

      I'm also seeing a lot of that lately too, quite a bit.

    31. Re:How surprising,... by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      I'm not talking about the poor, I'm talking about those who were middle and upper middle or the chidlren of middle / upper middle, seeing "oh fuck, shit I'm going to be poorer than my parents"

      No offence, but that's utter bollocks. It is not only logically absurd, it is psychologically farcical.

      If you're the sort of person who bases their idea of happiness solely on how much money you've got, you're the sort of person who will do something about making money, not top yourself. Virtually anyone can do two jobs and live a frugal lifestyle if they're really that bothered just about acquiring money.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    32. Re: How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The rise of the internet and social media is nothing out of the ordinary? The shit people say. The question is if this is going to stabilize and go into a downswing again, or if things are getting worse and we are on our way to 18, 24, 40 per 100k. What will it take to finally get your attention?

    33. Re: How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      Bullshit. With this past week Anthony Bourdain, not a poor guy by any stretch and Kate Spade, also not the least bit poor hung themselves this week. So any argument about income equality is a load of crap. I won't even mention others like Robin Williams and a slew more not poor folk committing suicide.

    34. Re:How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If your argument is correct, then only the poor commit suicide? I saw nothing in your comments to explain how Anthony Bourdain and the Kate Spade celebrity (rich) suicides this week coincide with your reasoning your.

      I think you may have described why _you_ may contemplate suicide (please don't), but not the reasons for suicide. Personally I think some of the 30% may be due to an increasingly-connected society where "solutions" like suicide are broadcast broader, with some people even posting videos of it.

      As for your reasoning, I wouldn't be surprised if the study revealed you have it completely backward, and the rich, having achieved success but saw no other point in life, ended it.

    35. Re:How surprising,... by butzwonker · · Score: 1

      Absolutely. Stress due to financial problems and lack of sleep can be major contributing factors.

    36. Re: How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Trolls like you need some medication and a reality check. Seriously, do yourself a favour and visit a shrink. Also, stop pestering forums all over the world with your US-internal shitpolitics. The world is larger than the US and nobody is interested in your domestic "problems" and your "leftie" versus "rightie" choice between two different brands of fascism.

    37. Re:How surprising,... by vivian · · Score: 1, Troll

      There is no real "left" in the US. your choices are right and far right. with varying degrees of authoritarian.

      https://politicalcompass.org/u...

    38. Re:How surprising,... by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 2

      When you are too biased, the center often looks to be the other side.

      --
      SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
    39. Re: How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Amen brother!

    40. Re:How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I agree with you, AbRASiON.

      Logic has no place in America and if you're not a hardcore *ist who unconditionally believes in an *ism then you're shit out of luck. It's not enough to offer partial support to these factions anymore. You have to completely compromise your beliefs and support every, single aspect of the faction's agenda otherwise you'e a NAZI or a SNOWFLAKE!

      Look at how people talk. They don't speak freely or intelligently, they speak in slogans and talking points. It's in every aspect of our lives and it's fucking pathetic.

      We're 300 million people all arguing over who gets the be less poor...

    41. Re: How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      So since you can name a few rich guys who committed suicide, that means suicide has nothing to do woth social inequalities? Ok.

    42. Re:How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      More left wing crap.

      The rise of psychology has turned many people permanently inward, and as a result, many people have kind of shallow self-absorption. No religious belief, and no transcendent purpose in their life except the creation of crises to ward of meaninglessness.

      Now 1 in 10 people in the western world take some psychotropic medication, which are often downright harmful. I've almost never seen it mentioned, but a vast majority of these mass shooters were 1) Seeing a psychologist/psychiatrist and 2) Were on some kind of anti-depressant.

    43. Re:How surprising,... by Junta · · Score: 1

      The division between the rich and poor, is without a question, worse than it was in 1999.

      Numerically, perhaps. Quality of life wise, not much has changed. There's some ludicrously rich folk by the numbers, but there's some weirdness in that rarified air that make the numbers not a straghtforward thing to interpret. This is a problem, but probably not a *personal* enough problem.

      On top of this, the world is straight the fuck up, dying. We're not working towards protecting it very well, we're not working towards replacing it (finding a new one elsewhere)

      Again, this isn't a personal item for people. In fact, on many fronts things are improving and very promising. Sustainable lumber is now the norm rather than the exception. Per-capita energy has gone down. Sustainable energy sources have improved that also reduce release of gasses to atmosphere is on the rise.

      Then we have the internet, it's giving the poor access to see what's going on in the world better, they can see just how rich the rich are becoming, they can see the death of the world better than ever before, they can communicate with each other (as I am right now) elaborating on why there's little hope.

      When you started with 'the internet' I thought you were going to a relevant place, but then more about class difference and environmental concerns. There are of course challenges there, but the reality is social media causes people to engage more personally and strain our ability to reasonably interact. One person who takes their interactions very personally comes across a person who likes to say things they think are funny and don't take it seriously because 'It's just the internet' and get very hurt and take it way too seriously. It's a forum for expression that dehumanizes folks and create a toxic atmosphere that carries over into people's real lives.

      --
      XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
    44. Re: How surprising,... by vivian · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You are partly right.
      Owning residential property does not keep money in circulation, but owning stocks does - it's money that can directly be used by the company to buy machinery and hire people to work.

      One of the problems Australia has, is that because of certain tax deductions that can be made investing in property (negative gearing, which lets you write renal losses off against your income tax), everyone thinks it's a great idea to buy a second or third property as an "investment" even if it earns less rent than the costs of financing and other expenses.

      This is pushing house prices up to stupid levels - average houses now cost more than 12x average income) while at the same time, starving the country inf investment capital, so it's very hard to get a new business up and running - there simply aren't enough people willing to invest in new businesses, instead of property. Likewise, its very hard to get a loan from the bank to start a business - but very easy to get ridiculous oversized loans to buy residential property.

      Back to the topic at hand though - I personally think that income level has relatively little to do with happiness. The real problem is when you start to live outside your means, often in an attempt to keep up with the jones's. More than ever before, we are bombarded with images of how we should be living, what the "in crowd" on social media are are doing and how much that rapper guy with all his bitches is doing so great, with his mega yacht and bling..

      Is it any wonder it's so hard to keep a realistic perspective on what's needed to live a happy life, and focusing on the important things like eating right, exercising well, and spending time with family and friends instead of plugged in 24/7?

      I blame social media.

    45. Re:How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Listening to all that shit is enough to want to off myself.

      Seriously, it's finger pointing and blaming you lefties are doing which is driving everyone down the hole. Sanctimonious bunch of hypocrites the lot of you.

      Keep destroying the family. Keep promoting divisions between folks.

      You're all so blind you've lost touch with reality. You cross the line, forget to respect the boundries that maintain a healthy medium for everyone else.

      You Lefties? Really? If you blame the world's problems on one group, you are truly blind. The fact is we are all in this together. We all live on the same planet and have the same stake in preserving it. It wasn't "lefties" who broke down the traditional nuclear family; it was big business who took so much for themselves that most families had to start working two jobs, and those families didn't fight when unions were crushed. It's 'lefties" promoting division between people? Re-read your post. Get your head out of your ass, and realize that you determine the course of your own life. Stop blaming people for your problems and start working proactively on the solution. Or at least stop bitching; nobody cares.

    46. Re:How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      "far right [are]...most hard religious folk"

      60% of Republicans are religious
      40% of Democrats are religious

      This generalization should be retired.

    47. Re: How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bullshit. With this past week Anthony Bourdain, not a poor guy by any stretch and Kate Spade, also not the least bit poor hung themselves this week. So any argument about income equality is a load of crap. I won't even mention others like Robin Williams and a slew more not poor folk committing suicide.

      That just shows that a lot of money will not make you happy. But a bit of money will. It has been shown that more money increases happiness up to the point that the person's basic needs and wants are satisfied, and they don't have economic anxiety. After that, it doesn't really help. Income inequality wouldn't be a problem if the poor weren't so poor. If the "poor" lived a mostly comfortable, middle-class lifestyle, and had their needs met and weren't worried about paying the rent or fixing their car, it wouln't matter so much if someone else had a billion dollars. But that's not the world we have chosen.

    48. Re: How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you really want to argue with that, you should at least give some statistics that show the differences. Here is one example. However, it is not the best evidence because it is not specific to the U.S. but rather the whole world. It shows that the income isn't one of reasons for rich people to commit suicide.

    49. Re:How surprising,... by Ryanrule · · Score: 1

      right and left mean a different thing in europe than in the us. and lets not even talk about south america

    50. Re: How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's just not the only reason.

      Unless you think they were empathazing with the poor by offing themselves. I guess that's possible.

    51. Re:How surprising,... by Ryanrule · · Score: 1

      plus, the current admin is tearing down the social supports systems that the lower and middle classes rely on. the rich have decided that there are enough rich people, and are putting up a wall. oh you arent rich yet? now you never will be.

    52. Re:How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      lol.. everyone is always trying to cry about the sky falling. If you are a 'realist with the ability to understand mathematics,' then certainly you would understand this data: https://ourworldindata.org/slides/war-and-violence/

      The world now is by far the safest place it's ever been (per capita.) In America, we were burning people alive for being witches not that long ago.

      Seriously.. If you claim yourself to be a man of reality then look at that statistics: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/foreigners/2014/12/the_world_is_not_falling_apart_the_trend_lines_reveal_an_increasingly_peaceful.html

    53. Re:How surprising,... by argStyopa · · Score: 4, Informative

      This is why suicides are up, I agree.
      Oh, not with your facts - your facts are almost entirely wrong, tendentious, or meaningless.
      What I'm pointing to is YOUR histrionic overreaction to asserted facts that make you think that "everything is terrible"...when in fact, despite what CNN is telling you 24/7: life in 2018 is pretty fucking great by every objective measure.

      "The division between the rich and poor, is without a question, worse than it was in 1999.": So? It's better than it was through the bulk of human history.

      "the world is straight the fuck up, dying" No, it isn't. Humans have likely overpopulated the planet, but believe me, there will be a correction. And the earth itself? Won't even notice. The earth's ecosystems have been through FAR more cataclysmic changes than humanity could ever inflict at our worst, and after some oscillations, has returned to a fairly stable norm. Yes, likely that correction will kill lots of people but TBH with 7000+ million on the planet, losing even 50-100 million really isn't as big a deal objectively as everyone makes it out to be. (Setting aside "every life is sacred" bullshit that nobody ACTUALLY believes except at their own convenience.)

      "Then we have the internet" which is basically the problem.

      "Co2 is up, heat is up", the paleoclimate has spiked both CO2 and temps regularly about every 120k-140k years ago. Last one was about...140k years ago. Really, aside from some postmodern ethnocentric narcissism that insists humans are the center of everything, this is normal.

      "methane bubbles are going off in siberia", happened before. There's clearly some feedback mechanism that reacts to send the climate plummeting again.

      "animals are dying out, bees are dying off" yep, adapt or die; that's how Darwin works. Of course, you're only talking about highly specialized megafauna in regards animals, which are a vanishingly tiny part of the earth's ecosystems. Bees? Try facts, instead of popculture hysteria.
        https://www.attn.com/stories/1... and http://www.slate.com/articles/...

      "America is slowly crumbling into debt." America has been plunging into debt (not slowly) since Vietnam. Think about that: we are the wealthiest society ever in human history, yet we STILL can't pay for everything we want to have. Evolution works by death, and a society so wedded to consumption beyond its means gets what it deserves.

      Violent crime is down. Modern politics are far tamer than they were 200 years ago. The economy is roaring ahead. Unemployment is at a long-time low (historic lows for minorities!). Women, minorities, and historically marginalized groups are treated legally fully as equals, and culturally we're getting there. People living at the "poverty line" in the US are better off than 85%+ of the rest of the world, including (by some measures) better than the middle class in Europe. (https://www.heritage.org/poverty-and-inequality/report/air-conditioning-cable-tv-and-xbox-what-poverty-the-united-states) From that link:

      The typical poor household, as defined by the government, has a car and air conditioning, two color televisions, cable or satellite TV, a DVD player, and a VCR. By its own report, the typical poor family was not hungry, was able to obtain medical care when needed.The typical average poor American has more living space in his home than the average (non-poor) European has.

      So really...it's you. And people like you. Buying into the tocsin of doom and gloom in the media that is calculated and designed to make you anxious, make you fearful, and make you pay attention because that's how they sell advertising (or worse, manipulate you in other ways).

      --
      -Styopa
    54. Re:How surprising,... by judoguy · · Score: 1

      On top of this, the world is straight the fuck up, dying. We're not working towards protecting it very well, we're not working towards replacing it (finding a new one elsewhere)

      Then we have the internet, ...

      Well, listen to you, Mr. glass half empty.

      --
      Peace is easy to achieve, just surrender. Liberty is much harder get/keep.
    55. Re:How surprising,... by amiga3D · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I've been on this Earth now for almost 59 years. I've seen bad times and good. Some things are better now than they were when I was a child in the 60s and 70s and many are better. Poor people today in the US, and I'm lower middle class, live better than at any time in history. This country has people desperate to come here from places that know what real poverty is. While challenges exist there is no reason to run around screaming the sky is falling. Get a grip!

    56. Re:How surprising,... by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The point is that if you're really rich and you have to give half your wealth to your ex-wife/husband, you're still fairly rich. If you're just coping financially and have to give half your wealth to your ex-wife/husband, you're then suddenly poor.

      Exactly. When one person has to give up the house, the car, and the Kids, then their future earnings, and gets to see their children growing in time lapse, well, they might be excused for thinking the system is out to get them, and that suicide is a fine way to opt out of it. That was exactly the case in these societal self-removals.

      If you have 50 million sitting around the house and have to give up 25 million of it, you're still a millionaire. If you are making 100K a year, lose all your investments, And can look forward to paying half of your paycheck to your ex - suddenly you can be looking at not all that much more than minimum wage. That's why it is getting difficult to find people saying "Sign me up!" for that these days.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    57. Re: How surprising,... by F.Ultra · · Score: 1

      He did not claim that 100% of the suicides where due to that. These two people where celebrities and it looks like bipolar and depression is very high among celebrities and those two groups have a high suicide rate.

    58. Re:How surprising,... by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      I'm also seeing a lot of that lately too, quite a bit.

      I've been hoping to achieve the goal of -1 Insightful. I don't know if that is possible, but I've reached 0 Insightful IIRC.

      Or was that Inciteful?? 8^)

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    59. Re: How surprising,... by F.Ultra · · Score: 3, Informative

      The company does not get money from you buying and selling stocks at the exchange. It's only at the IPO and when they do other issues that they get any money from the stocks.

    60. Re:How surprising,... by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 2

      There is no real "left" in the US. your choices are right and far right. with varying degrees of authoritarian.

      https://politicalcompass.org/u...

      Actually no. That is one of those things that can be used by either far left or right to spread FUD. It also paints CLinton as far right while right wingers painted her as socialist.

      Even that article surmised that Old Bernie - Is he right wing? - would have done better than Clinton against Dear Leader. And Trump's actions since taking office include some left wing tactics of protectionism and tariffs .

      So its a nasty hodgepodge of randomicity.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    61. Re:How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      AC,

      If your comment here is serious (yes, this is how far sites like SlashDot have sunk), you ought to know that you can reach out for help. Not to some anonymous stranger, but to real people in your neighbourhood or, failing that, a help centre just a google search away.

      Whatever you are going through, no matter how bleak it looks, it's temporarily. Things can get better, but not by themselves... you need to act. Do the truly courageous thing, by reaching out and admitting you need help.

    62. Re:How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You should give some thought to pragmatist. Both sides of the political spectrum - actually far left and fr right are almost identical in aim if not the details - have some concepts that work, and some that are dopey.

      This is a false equivalence. The far right is given a voice on mainstream outlets like FoxNews and encouraged by mainstream Republican congressman and the administration. The "far left" SJW types are a bunch of college kids who are loud in social media forums and seem to be a big part of internet conversation, but aren't actually given much of a place in mainstream media outlets or the Democratic party. The Democratic party is for the most part where all the pragmatist are these days. The false equivalence idea you are pushing is something the far right promotes.

    63. Re:How surprising,... by DarkOx · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Right and lets not pretend its not worse than it looks on paper too. A lot of those settlements require transfers of assets and sales of houses or other assets like stocks etc at inopportune times.

      If your stock portfolio is evaluated at 300K and you are ordered to give 150K in cash to your ex you have to liquidate a lot of stocks which may have depreciated but you would otherwise have held on the reasonable assumption the share price would recover. Especially if its stuff you bought as dividend plays, where you don't watch the current price as closely.

      Divorce is about the most economically devastating thing that can happen to someone in the middle class after perhaps some unexpected medical condition arising. Which is really another reason no-fault divorce should NOT be a thing. Neither party to a marriage contract should be permitted to unilaterally bring that kind of destruction on family and still be permitted to run off with half the assets.

      --
      Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
    64. Re:How surprising,... by arth1 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      If your comment here is serious (yes, this is how far sites like SlashDot have sunk), you ought to know that you can reach out for help.

      This attitude is what pisses me off more than anything. The belief that anyone who plans or attempts suicide needs help. That's incredibly condescending, and shows off your cultural bias based on a fairy tale belief that "life is sacred". Sure, some people might have their life changed in one way or another, making suicide no longer their choice. But that still does not make it right. Who are you to say that life is better than no life for others? Do you say the same about being hetero being better than being gay too? It's really the same type of condescending "moral" view that people want to enforce on others.

      If someone wants to die, that should be their right. If we cannot even be allowed to own the decision about our own death, and don't own our own bodies, we are slaves.

    65. Re: How surprising,... by Hussman32 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Except the stats don't back up the 'sky is falling' position...the world is much better now than ever before. And it is much better for the poor than it was before.

      I, for one, don't miss polio, small pox, massive deaths in wars, and a lack of access to information.

      Leftist, centrist, rightist...the one thing they all have in common is they are pessimists. Put on some Louis Armstrong, enjoy the sun, and then make the world even better for the future.

       

      --
      "Who are you?" "No one of consequence." "I must know." "Get used to disappointment."
    66. Re:How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually, I know lefties who are "climate deniers" too. And the few I do know who I'd consider hard left do little to nothing about climate change. They talk a good game as they goose step but their lifestyles show that they really don't care that much and just need a talking point to bash others with.

    67. Re:How surprising,... by triffid_98 · · Score: 1

      Then we have the internet, it's giving the poor access to see what's going on in the world better, they can see just how rich the rich are becoming, they can see the death of the world better than ever before, they can communicate with each other (as I am right now) elaborating on why there's little hope. Co2 is up, heat is up, methane bubbles are going off in siberia, animals are dying out, bees are dying off, America is slowly crumbling into debt. (no, I'm not American)

      Um...while I'll agree it's depressing to learn how people are fucking up the country and in fact the earth itself I'd rather know than be blissfully ignorant. Maybe that's just me.
      People are not killing themselves over rising CO2 levels, people are killing themselves over crippling depression. When I think of things that depress me CO2 only makes it to #10 (and only because I enjoy diving and it is destroying reefs that it took many thousands of years to build). Money and family issues are like...99% of this among people that didn't already have problems. Incidentally these suicides also account for something like 50% of the "gun violence" we have in the USA.

    68. Re:How surprising,... by Lucas123 · · Score: 1

      This isn't about wealth or poverty. Suicide rates have little to do with monetary wealth. In fact, studies have shown that people who live in wealthier neighborhoods and try to keep up with the Joneses are more prone to suicide than those living in poverty. http://business.time.com/2012/...

      You can be extremely happy if you're content with what you have and not constantly focused on what others' have and what you don't.

    69. Re: How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's simple. I grew up in a single breadwinner household. I was raised by my biological mother, not a daycare center. That is one major boon kids today no longer have. In addition, once we get married, we're both working AND doing all the normal household shit. Income is virtually unchanged (and inflation in real shit like food, housing and medicine is way higher than official numbers). So we're working for some kike fuck 80 hours when it was 40 before but we're not financially any better off. In fact, were paying for people who did 30 and out on a single salary to just lounge the fuck about for 30-40 more years while we're going to be expected to work till like 70 (assuming the economy isn't decimated by then, which it might be). You need to wake the fuck up. Things are NOT better. You're working your life away for Schlomo Shekelstein who got where he is through racism, nepotism and corruption.

    70. Re: How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I like you you're a good guy

    71. Re:How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you being sarcastic or not, as the linked srltudy suggests higher rates in deprived areas.

    72. Re:How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Informative

      It's not about coping. It's about the inability to actually get anywhere through hard work. Animals need to have a purpose for their survival instinct to work. Lots of animals will kill themselves in certain (usually non hospitable) environments. If the world is just becoming shittier even with a ton more people working more hours than before, at some point, it becomes completely obvious that we're just making some kike fuck rich while our kids are eating processed poison, inheriting a worse world than we did (which was, in my generations case, a worse world than my parents did). If all we're working for is to survive one more generation and make even more rich kikes who will try to genocide our progeny, why not just skip a step and jump off now? I think this might only make sense to a man.

    73. Re:How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Suicide is not a new phenomenon. What this is about is that the rate of suicide has changed, not that it is new. So just because having children poorer than their parents is not a new phenomenon does not mean that it is not a factor in increased suicides.

      A question task would be: has the rate at which children are poorer changed? Is it correlated with the suicide rate? (For a first pass, find if there are correlations... later try and prove cause and effect if there is one)

    74. Re:How surprising,... by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 1

      Suicide because of pessimism about the state of the world is actually a good thing. To make the world a better place, we need all the hard-working, non-substance-abusing optimists we can find. The more of you existential pessimists we can get to autodarwinate, the better off the rest of us are.

      The people who deserve the most sympathy are those who have personal problems. We need a better mental health system. Small wonder that the closure of state mental hospitals nationwide has given us homelessness and suicide rising in tandem.

    75. Re: How surprising,... by xystren · · Score: 1

      Bullshit. With this past week Anthony Bourdain, not a poor guy by any stretch and Kate Spade, also not the least bit poor hung themselves this week. So any argument about income equality is a load of crap. I won't even mention others like Robin Williams and a slew more not poor folk committing suicide.

      Quit thinking in black and white terms. Stop think in strict cause/effect terms. Start thinking contributing factors, start thinking in terms of many shares grey rather than black and white.

      You have mentioned 3 famous people in the span of about 4 years. Just in 2015 according to the CDC there were about 44,193 suicides https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fasta...

      I'm sorry, your spouting of 4 or so famous people over the course of 4 years when compared to the 44,193 in just 2015. Your argument with income equality not being a cause (again, your B&W thinking style) and think of it as a potential contributing factor. If income equality is a contributing factor, I would argue that higher income could be insulating factor... not a cause, but a contributing or insulating factor.

      The fact of the matter is, suicide is happening far too often. It's time we look at what the contributing factors are playing a role in these trends. It is time to take a look at our society and see what changes over the past couple decades could be contributing to these events. I would hypothesize that income equality plays a larger contributing factor that you will be willing to admit. But, I also know there are more contributing factors out there which haven't been discussed.

    76. Re:How surprising,... by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 2

      Suicide is a luxury of the well to do. When all you value is wealth, and that is taken from you, of course you're prone to depression and driven to suicide.

      Life is a struggle, those that live in struggle understand this, and are able to cope. People who have never struggled don't understand that this world is brutal and nobody gets out alive. They don't have the skills needed to survive the struggle, and the world eats those people first.

      --
      Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
    77. Re:How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Some people are just not used to army boots stomping their children's bodies and faces while they silently scream in fear.

      They will though. They will.

    78. Re:How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Like health status, I assume.

      I haven't read the article, big surprise, but based on this conversation, perhaps this wasn't discussed in the article. But, I would assume health would play a big part of it. My good friend killed himself several years ago, and while he didn't leave a note, it's widely believed that a health condition (not unlike what Steve Kerr is dealing with) led to his death. Socioeconomic status may have been a factor, but he probably could have overcome that barrier if not facing the health issue.

      I imagine that it is much more complex than just one dimension, like poverty...it's probably multiple aspects pulling you in ways that just confound your abilities to adapt.

    79. Re:How surprising,... by houghi · · Score: 1

      So richer people are unable to give their kids the mental tools to cope? I know a lot of people who are born into old money and I never see that. Even if they fall on hard times.

      I do see it with kids of 'new money' e.g the dad made a fortune doing whatever and does not want his kids to ever live in the same poverty he has, so he never gives them the mental tools. He just gives whatever they ask. Or at least gives without letting them learn some valuable lessons.

      And then there are all the exceptions that exist. In fact so many that it becomes hard to think of any of it as truth without any sientific basis.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    80. Re:How surprising,... by houghi · · Score: 0

      You hate everybody? Welcome on being an adult, asshole.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    81. Re:How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There's some real irony. Going out making as much CO2 as possible!

    82. Re:How surprising,... by fish_in_the_c · · Score: 1

      An excellent point. Basically , if you don't believe in God , what cause can you have for any real hope and why not off yourself when life becomes inconvenient.
      It makes perfect sense that as a society when we stop believing in God and treat human life as nothing more important then any other animal life , people loose hope and start killing themselves, and others. If you don't think the rise in crime and school shootings are also related , think again. Most of the shooters were also suicidal as evidenced by there lack of any exit strategy yet having well planned entry. Suicide by cop and why not take some of the other who cause pain with you.
      IF there is no God , what difference does any of it make, if your in pain, what reactions seems best, The conclusion is quite logically and fact based, even though for some reason people always posit mental illness. Of coarse the DSM list ( an overdeveloped sense of reality) as a cause of depression, so... there's that.

      --
      âoeTolerance applies only to persons, but never to truth. Intolerance applies only to truth, but never to persons.
    83. Re:How surprising,... by houghi · · Score: 1

      Just because it is better does not mean that it is good. And even if it is good, it does not mean that it can't be better.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    84. Re: How surprising,... by houghi · · Score: 0

      Louis Armstrong? I assume you think that is the best music. yet that would mean that after him it all went downhill. To me that alone means that the world is worse off.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    85. Re:How surprising,... by houghi · · Score: 1

      Could you please explain how you know it is that the people that moderate you are extreme left? I have no idea who or why I get modded up or down, let alone know what their political views are.
      That means I could also not analyze the fact that they are left or right or chinese or muslim.

      For somebody who says it is not about politics, you seem to talk about it a lot.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    86. Re:How surprising,... by eepok · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You have to remember that it has always been a political tactic of those seeking to gain power to convince people that things are worse than ever and they're only getting worse. With modern communication giving a platform to all dissenters, one would tend to assume that such a mass of people saying the same thing over and over would be correct.

      Yes, the gap between the rich and not-rich is widening and has been widening for the last 40 years, but the poorest are still living better than the poorest did 40 years ago. On the whole, the quality of life for the vast majority of people in American has gone way up, but a some people are doing even better.

      Where I think the activists don't really really fail is describing the effective class contract between the mega-rich and the less-well-off.

      "We work unpreferable jobs with little job satisfaction so you can get rich. All we ask for in return is a livable wage so that we do not go hungry, we can afford safe housing, and so that our towns can afford good infrastructure and schools."

      Were they able to consistently describe such a contract, they would then be able to say, "Since the 1970s, the rich have strayed from this agreement. It is time they return."

    87. Re:How surprising,... by fish_in_the_c · · Score: 1

      Of coarse that is one of the things I love about being a Catholic, there is no other philosophy in the world that allows you to make use of every suffering weather big or small. Nothing need be wasted and all life and all suffering has value. Of coarse that makes no sense unless you first believe, still, it is a way of life that brings me great joy in the face of what is beyond my control, even if it involves great suffering.

      --
      âoeTolerance applies only to persons, but never to truth. Intolerance applies only to truth, but never to persons.
    88. Re: How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ill show you suicide rates!

    89. Re:How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The division between the rich and poor, is without a question, worse than it was in 1999.
      Hope is fading out for the middle and lower class. The middle class becomes smaller, soon to be just "the poors and the rich"

      That isn't the type of hopelessness that suicidal people experience. It's the hopelessness of existence itself. The knowledge that everything ceases to be and that nothing that anyone ever does matters, except perhaps to a few in the brief present that it takes place in.

      On top of this, the world is straight the fuck up, dying.

      Uh, no, it's not. The Earth is far more resilient than you are giving it credit for. It was here long before us and it will be here long after us.

      Then we have the internet, it's giving the poor access to see what's going on in the world better, they can see just how rich the rich are becoming, they can see the death of the world better than ever before, they can communicate with each other (as I am right now) elaborating on why there's little hope.

      Your grasp on the subject matter is child-like at best.

      Co2 is up, heat is up, methane bubbles are going off in siberia, animals are dying out, bees are dying off, America is slowly crumbling into debt. (no, I'm not American)

      These are all the types of things that occur naturally, even before humans existed.

      No fucking shit suicides are up 30%, I have to wonder what % of the suicide people are actually mentally broken or just strong enough to say "you know what, fuck all this"

      A strong person would suck it up and try to live their life to the fullest. Since you can't change the universe and you get only one shot at life, you might as well have fun as much as possible.

    90. Re:How surprising,... by MoarSauce123 · · Score: 1

      One of the biggest contributors to suicide is the easy access to guns, which are the prime tool for this purpose. Countries who have far stricter gun control also have a significantly lower suicide rate. OK, they also tend to have far better medical care for mental illness, but neither is a fact folks in the US want to hear. So stop being upset about high suicide rates and mass shootings.Most apparently do not want it any other way.

    91. Re:How surprising,... by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 1

      The most sensitive indicators of global temperatures change are glaciers, because each glacier flows downhill, melting as it gets to warmer altitudes, until in most cases a point is reached where the melt rate exactly matches the flow rate. This glacial endpoint is extremely sensitive to temperature changes. And they are moving uphill in unison.

      And those glaciers that do not melt totally before reaching the sea, ending up as pooped icebergs, are throwing off fewer icebergs than they used to.

    92. Re:How surprising,... by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 1

      One enjoyable thing I often see is when I get email notices on some of my posts that get yo-yo'd up and down between Insightful and Troll.

      When that happens, you know you are on to something real.

      This happens to me all the time. I’ve had some posts elicit an entire Slashdot page of yo-yos.

    93. Re: How surprising,... by jedidiah · · Score: 0, Troll

      > So since you can name a few rich guys who committed suicide, that means suicide has nothing to do woth social inequalities? Ok.

      It contradicts your fantasy. That's what your narrative is. It's a total fantasy backed up by nothing. The mega corps push it because it sells ads. You push it because it suits your political agenda.

      Even rich people get poisoned by this nonsense and fixate on class envy while ignoring their own relative good fortune.

      Beyond that, the liberal media actively sabotages sane financial behavior. They encourage people to financially harm themselves. This sabotages upward mobility. They are a big part of this so-called problem.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    94. Re:How surprising,... by PopeRatzo · · Score: 4, Informative

      America has been plunging into debt (not slowly) since Vietnam.

      The rate of debt growth in the US grew at about the same rate from WWII to 1980 (the Vietnam war ended in 1975). It wasn't "plunging". It didn't start to explode until Ronald Reagan took office. If you want to point to a cause of national debt, you can point to trickle-down economics, which has been the US flavor of late-stage capitalism since 1980 through today. Supply side doesn't work. It was voodoo then, and it's voodoo now.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    95. Re:How surprising,... by jedidiah · · Score: 0

      Stop swimming in the Kool-Aid. Vile leftist nonsense is pervasive in the liberal media. Hollywood, comedians, and most journalists are all eagerly competing to out troll Trump.

      The idea that the media doesn't give a platform to young SJWs is just insane. They will eagerly latch onto and exploit any kid that sees things their way. Hogg is an epic example of this. The same media will also downplay viewpoints it doesn't approve of.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    96. Re:How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sweet Baby Jeebus this. THIS! Here, folks, is a shining example of what happens when you think. To use the tired colloquial this person is WOKE. Look at what the REALITY of the situation is, not what could be, or is desired to be, but ACTUALLY IS. Then react to it. Then scope out a course of action. Or do nothing. But don't spout bullshit and react to incorrect interpretation of the facts.

      argStyopa if you weren't Spec Ops or raised in the sticks color me surprised.

      Kudos. Seriously. Best /. post I've read in weeks.

    97. Re: How surprising,... by iggymanz · · Score: 1

      internet and social media allow people to imagine crisis such as this "increased suicide rate" that isn't there and whine about it to each other, but other than that not seeing relevance

    98. Re:How surprising,... by jedidiah · · Score: 1

      > All we ask for in return is a livable wage

      If you can look past the nearest franchise coffee bar, that's not really a problem.

      People have continually escalating expectations. They act like they are suffering from "participation trophy syndrome". They want the best of all possible worlds with no trade offs or personal responsibility. They are narcissistic and think they are the only generation that ever had things rough starting out. They want it all handed to them without any effort or work.

      Better jobs are out there. They just require real work and a willingness to look past the franchise coffee bar on the next corner.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    99. Re:How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm not talking about the poor, I'm talking about those who were middle and upper middle or the chidlren of middle / upper middle, seeing "oh fuck, shit I'm going to be poorer than my parents"

      Offspring that are poorer than their parents is not a new phenomenon. Drive and success are not a lock between generations, in some cases, the opposite is true. I came from poor stock, but blessed or cursed with drive, I far outpaced them.

      As well, in many cases, these parents only looked more wealthy. The children of the 80's and 90's were often living in families that had pretend wealth - maxed out credit cards, refinanced homes to buy that Escalade, flat or no savings.

      It was the middle class playing rich, and it all blew up around them.

      But experiencing being poor as well as being wealthy, I wasn't unhappy at all being poor.I had no intention to stay poor, but I wasn't even upset, much less suicidal. If young people today are committing suicide because of their financial situation not being that of their parents - we have failed them by teaching them that money is the only source of happiness, and without it, life is nt worth living.

      As for my theory, I lay a lot of blame on the self esteem movement. I saw a lot of Millennials crashing and burning when they found out the world links self esteem with actual achievements, not something inculcated in a person for no other reason than thinking that they are the most important person in the whole wide world.

      I will say that when I did not have enough money to eat I was a bit depressed, generally more just pissed off, but not suicidal.

      I agree with the self esteem idea. Telling people through their entire formative years that they are wonderful, unique and special only to end up as a theoretical adult and hearing "I don't care what you are, what can you do?" and the only answer available is basically nothing doesn't really reinforce the narcissistic personality they have been encouraged to develop.
         

    100. Re:How surprising,... by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      Trump's actions since taking office include some left wing tactics of protectionism and tariffs .

      Protectionism has been a feature of both left and right-wing governments. It is generally considered to be outside the spectrum of left/right politics.

      It is most closely associated with mercantilism, which was basically an effort by England to establish economic hegemony over other countries.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    101. Re:How surprising,... by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      I've been on this Earth now for almost 59 years.

      And may I say you still look pretty good for your age? And you appear to have most of your faculties. I salute you members of the Greatest Generation. Sometime, you'll have to tell us what it was like when Vietnam invaded California and how you charged your phones at Woodstock.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    102. Re: How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually yes, since "socialist" is a dirty word for both US parties.

    103. Re:How surprising,... by sacrilicious · · Score: 1

      we're not working towards replacing it (finding a new one elsewhere)

      d About this particular sub-point, a note of realism: global thermonuclear war could obliterate huge swaths of the globe and Earth would *still* be far more inhabitable and worth trying to rehab than Mars. Effort on this front would be flat out wasted (and yes, Elon Musk is a kook in this regard, and I'd be delighted for the future to prove me wrong).

      --
      - First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then ???, then profit.
    104. Re: How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There is "I believe in a higher power" religious, and "homosexuals are not people" religious.

      I leave as an exercise guessing which type are most of the rightwingers.

    105. Re:How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Said the real comrade. Well played.

    106. Re:How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      the world is straight the fuck up, dying

      Quit the emo shit and study up on ecology. During your breaks, open a history book.

    107. Re:How surprising,... by cyberchondriac · · Score: 1

      Well, if you mean we're not communist, then that's a good thing.
      But then your site there thinks a 90% tax rate is a good thing. We only went there temporarily because of WWII, and even then, there were other deductions to offset it that don't apply today.
      https://mises.org/library/good...

      --

      Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
    108. Re: How surprising,... by Evtim · · Score: 1

      Same here. Was a leftie and raked in mod points. Became a centrist, the slightest criticism for nothing (e.g. TLJ was SJW crapfest) and down you go....
      My advice- ignore the extremists and stay focused on Truth and Reason.

    109. Re:How surprising,... by serviscope_minor · · Score: 1

      People living at the "poverty line" in the US are better off than 85%+ of the rest of the world, including (by some measures) better than the middle class in Europe.

      Then those measures are comically broken. The middle class in Europe aren't living paycheck to paycheck, don't have to choose between food/rent and medicine and so on.

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    110. Re:How surprising,... by doesnothingwell · · Score: 1

      if you don't believe in God

      He knows when you are sleeping, he knows when your awake... Oh wait, I thought Santa made everything right, here I had the wrong imaginary friend! My bad, more fables are the answer to life's hard questions.

      --
      They can have my command prompt when they pry it from my cold dead fingers.
    111. Re: How surprising,... by desdinova+216 · · Score: 1

      you were doing fine until you started with the anti semetic stuff.

    112. Re: How surprising,... by cyberchondriac · · Score: 1

      So what what happens to the money that was spent on buying the stocks or artwork? That's still out there, to be spent on something else. What's it cost to house and maintain said artwork? How about the "overpriced" (whatever that means) property, when that was bought, and the property taxes, upkeep, landscaping, repairs, etc..? You think when you buy a house that's the end of your home expenses? Man I wish!
      The only accurate thing you said is when they spend the money offshore.
      The 1% still pays the majority of the taxes in the country however.
      The flaw here is this sounds like anything is that is "owned" is "hoarding" money. Therefore, what ..?..seize the means of production, comrade? Let no one own anything, but the government, to disseminate to the people as it sees fit? That's tyranny.

      --

      Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
    113. Re:How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      significantly more likely to demonstrate lower rates of suicide among higher socio-economic areas...

      than studies using larger areas of aggregation.

      You left out the important qualifier at the end of that statement I see.

    114. Re:How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      BOOM! Best mic drop I've seen in a long time. "histrionic overreaction to asserted facts" pretty much defines the Internet age.

    115. Re:How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dad??!? Is that you?

    116. Re:How surprising,... by cyberchondriac · · Score: 1

      Gotta disagree for the most part. We're being way too materialistic if we are committing suicide because we're not making as much as we perceived our parents to make, or because we see others with more. As I recall, "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" was a hit show in the late '80s. In my case, my parents lived through the depression and WWII, so they deserved an uptick later on in their lives that exceeds what I have now.
      I grew up with the threat of nuclear annihilation under the cold war, which is nowhere near the level of likelihood today. I can tell you that was depressing. I sometimes wondered if people were wasting their time getting college degrees and all that if the world was gone in the next few years.
      I don't see animals dying out en masse, and bees are on the comeback (fortunately).
      I think it's the negativity and doom-saying, and the severely politically divided country that contributes more to depression than anything else. Hope is not gone unless you choose to let yourself be convinced it is.
      I totally get what you say about being centrist though. Nobody cares when what you say aligns with their beliefs, because they take that for granted. It's the thing you say that they disagree with that they remember and hold against you.

      --

      Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
    117. Re:How surprising,... by shaitand · · Score: 1

      Nah, this is teenagers and millennial. The inability to cope with shitty reality came alongside the shift away from the sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me. Everyone is sheltered and sensitized to emotional stress and they can't cope. Pain, both physical and emotional is something you should become desensitized to instead we focus on removing every potential opportunity to encounter it.

    118. Re:How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "plunging into debt" =/= "debt is plunging".

    119. Re:How surprising,... by shaitand · · Score: 1

      No the point is that actual brass tax and bottom line has little impact on emotional stress. My 1 year daughter is likely feeling more emotional trauma when I won't let her have another banana as I'd experience if my house burnt down. The problems might objectively be bigger for some than others but emotional stress and trauma are not.

      As we age and experience more emotional trauma you become less sensitized or at least you should as you are encouraged to learn to shed it off and focus on the practical realities like "don't cry about it, call the insurance company and move on". Instead people are encouraged to embrace emotions, intentionally sensitized, and sheltered from all forms of emotional trauma. These days things are actually being outlawed that do nothing more than hurt someone's feelings. Gone is the attitude of "yup, that sucks, now stop whining we've got shit to do"

      Is it really surprising that we have raised several generations of children who can't cope with the shit salad that is life?

    120. Re:How surprising,... by slew · · Score: 1

      I've been on this Earth now for almost 59 years.

      And may I say you still look pretty good for your age? And you appear to have most of your faculties. I salute you members of the Greatest Generation. Sometime, you'll have to tell us what it was like when Vietnam invaded California and how you charged your phones at Woodstock.

      As a matter of fact Vietnam *did* invade California in the '70s and '80s (currently about 350,000 which is the largest number of Vietnamese outside of Vietnam 160K is San Jose alone)...

      They didn't have many phones at woodstock (very rural area), but they did have *telegrams* (kindof like ancient form of SMS, not the anonymous peer-to-peer messaging app)...

      One of the telegrams received by the act Iron Butterfly from the event promoters has been immortalized in history...

      For reasons I can't go into / Until you are here / Clarifying your situation / Knowing you are having problems / You will have to find / Other transportation / Unless you plan not to come.

      This telegram was apparently in response to a request to have a helicopter sent for them to bypass the traffic jam...

      Oh yeah, BTW 59 isn't really part of the greatest generation, they are the boomers. Boomers are the ones that protested Vietnam, not the generation that experienced WWII and built the world we have to day. People born before 1924 (and saw WWII) are part of the greatest generation...

    121. Re:How surprising,... by shaitand · · Score: 1

      Why is this modded troll?

    122. Re: How surprising,... by shaitand · · Score: 1

      Yes, they do, just not in a big vault. They hoard money in the form of debt. The reason most people NEED to take on debt is the .1% and the reason they'll need it again is because of the interest they paid on the debt the first time, they'll then be borrowing back the interest they paid for another round.

    123. Re: How surprising,... by shaitand · · Score: 1

      "but owning stocks does - it's money that can directly be used by the company to buy machinery and hire people to work."

      For the most part stock has the losest possible connection to a company. It does not go up because a company is doing well, or down because a company is doing poorly, it is purely based on what outsiders FEEL is happening. There are executives and board members impacted by the stock price but the company itself, its bank accounts, and operational budget, and profits, are usually completely unattached to company stock.

    124. Re: How surprising,... by shaitand · · Score: 2

      Lets stop talking about the 1% because the 1% includes engineers, doctors, and people who work for a living. We are really talking about the .1% or even .01% who contribute nothing but loaning us back the interest they charged us last week. It baffles me, if we need to build a road and there is a building in the way we use imminent domain in the interest of the public but erasing the wealth of a tiny fraction of population smaller than would be impacted by tearing down that building and doubling the value of all wealth held by 99.9% of the population instantly we consider it "evil"

    125. Re:How surprising,... by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      So your saying that only shril alarmists are killing themselves?

      I doubt it, but to the extent it's true, it's good. Remember cut up and down your arm, not across.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    126. Re:How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      SJW types aren't given much of a place in mainstream media outlets or the Democratic party?
      Are you actually daft? Have you been living under a rock for the past decade?
      How many articles about BLM, Antifa, "cultural appropriation", "hate speech", campus protests, or feminist propaganda pieces do I need to link you?

    127. Re:How surprising,... by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      I hope this catches on with greenies.

      Anybody else? I'm paying for the gas. Anybody?

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    128. Re:How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Seems like all the comments tend to tie happiness to money. Yet, the world as a whole is richer than it ever has been. The middle class lives better than the Kings of 200 years ago. Poor housing in my town has AC/Heat wireless and all the EBT cards you can get food/drugs money with.

      People were "happier" in the 1920's/1930's with very few material goods. Problem is nobody is left alive to remind us.

    129. Re:How surprising,... by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      You should give some thought to pragmatist. Both sides of the political spectrum - actually far left and fr right are almost identical in aim if not the details - have some concepts that work, and some that are dopey.

      This is a false equivalence. The far right is given a voice on mainstream outlets like FoxNews and encouraged by mainstream Republican congressman and the administration. The "far left" SJW types are a bunch of college kids who are loud in social media forums and seem to be a big part of internet conversation, but aren't actually given much of a place in mainstream media outlets or the Democratic party. The Democratic party is for the most part where all the pragmatist are these days. The false equivalence idea you are pushing is something the far right promotes.

      Long before the people you claim formed my false equivalence, it was clear that communists and Fascists shared much more than they differed. Old Adolph and Papa Joe were a lot more alike than different (and please let's not try toclaim that the Nasties were actually left wing - they weren't.

      Both far right and far left crush the power of the individual, and prefer dictatorial power (simple government?) over any sort of democracy. As I noted, the rhetoric is different, but the action is not. And when words and actions differ, always trust the actions.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    130. Re:How surprising,... by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      What?

      You know _completely_ different old money people than I have. The _parents_ only coping skill is typically 'throw money at the problem'. How are those parents going to teach actual coping skills to their kids?

      With new money, the person that earned it, is somewhere in the picture. Old money, by definition, means they've never known a family member that works for a living. But they think they have, define 'golf' as work.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    131. Re: How surprising,... by F.Ultra · · Score: 1

      Well I cannot answer for how it works in the US but over here you will not get it prescribed just for complaining that you are feeling down. The suicide rate of people with bipolar disorder is magnitudes higher if they are not prescribed with SSRIs, I know because I'm married to one and before we found the particular dose and SSRI that worked for her I spent uncounted amounts of time in the ER to try to reverse her suicide attempts.

    132. Re:How surprising,... by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      Stop swimming in the Kool-Aid. Vile leftist nonsense is pervasive in the liberal media. Hollywood, comedians, and most journalists are all eagerly competing to out troll Trump.

      The idea that the media doesn't give a platform to young SJWs is just insane. They will eagerly latch onto and exploit any kid that sees things their way. Hogg is an epic example of this. The same media will also downplay viewpoints it doesn't approve of.

      It is so very strange - I read a lot of media. From MSNBC to PBS and PRI to Washington Times to Breitbart to Washington Post. RT and others. Fox is just propaganda, not a news source any more.

      What you are sayin in your cute way is that you want the liberal end of media silenced. That's pretty vile.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    133. Re:How surprising,... by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      You deny that the Reagan boom raised tax revenue much more than the Reagan tax cuts lowered it?

      History, learn it. BTW the Reagan boom lasted until the end of Clinton's second term.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    134. Re:How surprising,... by slew · · Score: 1

      Then we have the internet, it's giving the poor access to see what's going on in the world better, they can see just how rich the rich are becoming, they can see the death of the world better than ever before, they can communicate with each other (as I am right now) elaborating on why there's little hope.

      Co2 is up, heat is up, methane bubbles are going off in siberia, animals are dying out, bees are dying off, America is slowly crumbling into debt. (no, I'm not American)

      Um...while I'll agree it's depressing to learn how people are fucking up the country and in fact the earth itself I'd rather know than be blissfully ignorant. Maybe that's just me.

      People are not killing themselves over rising CO2 levels, people are killing themselves over crippling depression. When I think of things that depress me CO2 only makes it to #10 (and only because I enjoy diving and it is destroying reefs that it took many thousands of years to build). Money and family issues are like...99% of this among people that didn't already have problems. Incidentally these suicides also account for something like 50% of the "gun violence" we have in the USA.

      And there are more suicide deaths than auto/traffic deaths in the US, which means we should worry about that at least as much as we do auto safety...

      Although the suicide deaths among teens and early twenties is still the highest, an alarming trend in the last few years of increased suicide of 50yo+ (almost a 50% jump in the last decade). Some have noted that the jump in suicide rates of older people seems to correspond with the addiction rates seen in the opioid crisis as applied to people as they get older. That might be a better explanation than standby narratives like money and family (which have always been problems throughout history in varying amounts). I remember the 1970's in the USA, today is *much* better than the 70's...

      Anyhow...

    135. Re: How surprising,... by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      Well I cannot answer for how it works in the US but over here you will not get it prescribed just for complaining that you are feeling down. The suicide rate of people with bipolar disorder is magnitudes higher if they are not prescribed with SSRIs, I know because I'm married to one and before we found the particular dose and SSRI that worked for her I spent uncounted amounts of time in the ER to try to reverse her suicide attempts.

      Well, I am TRULY glad they worked for your wife, seriously.

      But they are WAY over-prescribed here in the U.S.; and often lead to more problems than they fix, especially when people try to DISCONTINUE them...

    136. Re:How surprising,... by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      Those priests were _helping_ by making the alter boys suffer!

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    137. Re:How surprising,... by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      If your stock portfolio is evaluated at 300K and you are ordered to give 150K in cash to your ex you have to liquidate a lot of stocks which may have depreciated but you would otherwise have held on the reasonable assumption the share price would recover.

      A frined's wife demanded and got half of his retirement fund. After him paying the penalties and losing the ability to retire in a timely manner he said he understands why some call it divorce rape.

      Which is really another reason no-fault divorce should NOT be a thing. Neither party to a marriage contract should be permitted to unilaterally bring that kind of destruction on family and still be permitted to run off with half the assets.

      "But.... but...... I just feel like I need to find myself! Gimme the money. You can see the children for 4 hours every other friday while I'm at my spinning classes."

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    138. Re: How surprising,... by Dragonslicer · · Score: 1

      So what what happens to the money that was spent on buying the stocks or artwork?

      It goes to other people who are also already rich.

    139. Re:How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yay more right wing political propaganda and media bashing on /.

      So rare!

    140. Re:How surprising,... by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      Oh yeah, BTW 59 isn't really part of the greatest generation, they are the boomers.

      Well, that's just like, your opinion, man. I believe the boomers are the greatest generation. The generation before boomers didn't even have cell phones or video games so how could they be "greatest"?

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    141. Re:How surprising,... by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      One enjoyable thing I often see is when I get email notices on some of my posts that get yo-yo'd up and down between Insightful and Troll.

      When that happens, you know you are on to something real.

      This happens to me all the time. I’ve had some posts elicit an entire Slashdot page of yo-yos.

      Having read your posts - I do believe it. That is a compliment by the way.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    142. Re:How surprising,... by slew · · Score: 1

      Suicide because of pessimism about the state of the world is actually a good thing. To make the world a better place, we need all the hard-working, non-substance-abusing optimists we can find. The more of you existential pessimists we can get to autodarwinate, the better off the rest of us are.

      The people who deserve the most sympathy are those who have personal problems. We need a better mental health system. Small wonder that the closure of state mental hospitals nationwide has given us homelessness and suicide rising in tandem.

      Although I agree that we need a better mental health system, I don't agree that people who deserve the most sympathy are those that have personal problems. Why single them out for sympathy when you throw the "mere" pessimists under the bus?

    143. Re:How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thank you.

    144. Re: How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Itâ(TM)s interesting that out of all the comments I have read in every thread so far... and not a single one points out that most (75%) of suicides are MEN.

    145. Re:How surprising,... by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      I agree with the self esteem idea. Telling people through their entire formative years that they are wonderful, unique and special only to end up as a theoretical adult and hearing "I don't care what you are, what can you do?" and the only answer available is basically nothing doesn't really reinforce the narcissistic personality they have been encouraged to develop.

      A horrid horrid thing! Promoted by well meaning idiots. If there is a left wing utter failure equivalent to Trickle down theory, it is the Self esteem movement.

      I managed to keep my son straight that he could develop good self esteem by doing important things and doing them well. It wasn't easy when the Teacher was handing out participation awards for having one's shoes tied.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    146. Re:How surprising,... by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      Trump's actions since taking office include some left wing tactics of protectionism and tariffs .

      Protectionism has been a feature of both left and right-wing governments. It is generally considered to be outside the spectrum of left/right politics.

      It is most closely associated with mercantilism, which was basically an effort by England to establish economic hegemony over other countries.

      Wellllll, is there a stupid wing of politics?

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    147. Re: How surprising,... by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      Actually yes, since "socialist" is a dirty word for both US parties.

      But as Bill Maher notes, for as much as we hate Socialism, we sure have a lot of it. Its one of those words that is more pejorative then meaning anything.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    148. Re:How surprising,... by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      Why is this modded troll?

      I think I insulted someone who was on the happy end of divorce pecuniary accumulation.

      But yeah - Troll is a weird mod for that post. Especially when I know people who killed themselves for the very reason I wrote. They were financially and socially destroyed.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    149. Re:How surprising,... by Rakarra · · Score: 1

      > Just because it is better does not mean that it is good. And even if it is good, it does not mean that it can't be better.

      In other words you are a raving ingrate with zero perspective.

      You would find the dark cloud in any silver lining. Your kind of nonsense is why the suicide rate is up.

      Well that's a similarly pessimistic way to interpret what he said. Another interpretation might be "there is no situation so good that you can't try to think of something better."

    150. Re:How surprising,... by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      You deny that the Reagan boom raised tax revenue much more than the Reagan tax cuts lowered it?

      And yet somehow, the deficit and debt increased. Do you deny that since the US adopted "supply-side" trickle-down economics that our national debt has grown?

      http://zfacts.com/p/318.html

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    151. Re:How surprising,... by eaglesrule · · Score: 2

      The right to end one's life on their own terms is an essential liberty that should not be denied. But every attempt should be made to ensure that it is a decision based out of conviction from sound mind, and not impaired judgement due to mental illness or extreme duress. Since the AC provided no reason, there is no basis for attacking someone who only merely offers valid advice and showed a bit of concern for their fellow human being.

      Why? Because many people who attempt suicide go on to live normal lives after receiving assistance or their circumstances change, and become thankful they did not succeed. It has nothing to do with imposed moral values. The person who offered the advice may have known such a person, or even be one themselves.

      If someone doesn't want to be bothered by such normal reactions of concern, they shouldn't broadcast their decision in public.

    152. Re:How surprising,... by micahraleigh · · Score: 1

      The revenues to the federal government increased by a factor of nearly 2.

      SPENDING is the problem.

    153. Re:How surprising,... by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      The revenues to the federal government increased by a factor of nearly 2.

      But I thought Ronald Reagan was a small government guy. Why would he want the government to get even more money?

      And was the "Reagan Boom" due to any of his policies or thanks to the fact that the information revolution hit its stride during his term? I mean, the fact that in the 80's every single business on earth started buying computers for their employees might have had a good effect on the economy. And further, Reagan raised taxes, just not on the rich or on corporations.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    154. Re: How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Shut up, communist

    155. Re: How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your rant reads like a leftist screed, that's why.

    156. Re:How surprising,... by Ichijo · · Score: 1

      "Co2 is up, heat is up", the paleoclimate has spiked both CO2 and temps regularly about every 120k-140k years ago.

      Yes but today's warming is 10 times faster. Such rapid change will be devastating on a scale never seen before in a natural cycle.

      ...ethnocentric narcissism...

      Nice ad hominem! But logical fallacies don't work on thinking people.

      --
      Any sufficiently unpopular but cohesive argument is indistinguishable from trolling.
    157. Re: How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      âoeWhat you are sayin in your cute way is that you want the liberal end of media silenced.âoe

      Try a little harder at making strawmen

    158. Re: How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Homosexuality is a sin would be less of a strawman

    159. Re:How surprising,... by sarren1901 · · Score: 1

      This is fairly true. My wife and I only make 90k a year. If I would just buckle down and go earn another 60 units for a BS, I may very well be able to get a job that's 30k better then my current offering. Heck, I may even be able to do if without the education if I'm just willing to work 12 hour days.

      I accept that I don't really want to work 12 hour days and I also don't want to pay the cost and time to get the 60 credits to put myself in the position to maybe get the job that pays 30k more.

      At the end of the day, I'm happy enough only living in a condo. In a couple years we won't have any CC debt, my car will be paid off and we'll be able to safe a bit more for retirement and take a real vacation yearly instead of every three years. She'll get to upgrade from a Malibu to a Lexus in all likely hood. It's all about choices as Jedidiah said.

      Who knows, maybe the city and real estate builders will construct a slew of small houses to help with the very real housing shortage (HAHA sure they will) and we can get one.

    160. Re: How surprising,... by superdave80 · · Score: 1

      ...if we need to build a road and there is a building in the way we use imminent domain in the interest of the public but erasing the wealth of a tiny fraction of population...

      We don't just 'take' the building. Fair market value is paid for it. We don't 'erase' the wealth, we simply change it from property to cash.

    161. Re:How surprising,... by organgtool · · Score: 2

      I'd argue they're full of shit, that depression - a condition characterized by lethargy and an unwillingness to take risks - is the brain's way of preventing you (well, discouraging you) from committing suicide, which is why the two are correlated - people who aren't considering killing themselves or otherwise doing something self destructive are in no need of that self defense mechanism.

      While I normally agree with your posts and I do agree with everything in the beginning of this post, I vehemently disagree with the quoted portion above. Based on your characterization of clinical depression, I can't imagine you've ever been through it. If I understand your argument, you make it seem as if thoughts of suicide induce depression as a defense mechanism in an attempt to make you too lazy to kill yourself. That characterization of the disease is so far divorced from reality that I feel I have to address it so that no one reads your statement and adopts that mindset.

      Clinical depression has to be one of the most misunderstood diseases among people not involved in the medical field. It causes a chemical imbalance, often characterized by a lower availability of neurotransmitters such as serotonin, which are necessary to help your brain experience emotions. While the most notable side effect is the inability to experience happiness, at its peak it can dull all of your emotions, including negative emotions, leaving you to feel like a robot.

      In addition to serotonin, dopamine is another neurotransmitter that can be reduced during a depression. Dopamine is associated with the reward center of the brain and its effects have been well studied inside and outside of the medical field. For instance, casinos are designed to release as much dopamine as possible in gamblers to keep them motivated to put more money into gaming. Now imagine I injected one of these gamblers with a substance that prevented the production or uptake of dopamine. They would have absolutely no motivation at all to continue gambling, or do much of anything else for that matter. That is very much what happens for many people who suffer from depression - absolutely nothing provides a rewarding experience, no matter how great the outcome or how little the effort. It's not necessarily rooted in pessimism, it's just completely impossible for someone to experience reward or happiness if they temporarily lack the chemicals necessary to transmit those feelings.

      After dealing with that for months at a time, many people feel like they will never be capable of experiencing happiness or rewarding experiences again, so they take their lives. Therefore, the depression causes suicide, not the other way around. Fortunately, for many people the chemical imbalance resolves itself within six months but every second of a depression feels like an eternity when there is absolutely nothing that provides you with even a moderate amount of satisfaction.

      Anyway, I hope that clears up some misconceptions about depression and helps provide a better understanding of what it does to a person's mental state.

    162. Re:How surprising,... by Talderas · · Score: 1

      Aim for a +5 Troll.

      --
      "Lack of speed can be overcome. In the worst case by patience." --Znork
    163. Re:How surprising,... by arth1 · · Score: 1

      The right to end one's life on their own terms is an essential liberty that should not be denied. But every attempt should be made to ensure that it is a decision based out of conviction from sound mind, and not impaired judgement due to mental illness or extreme duress.

      To a certain point. Not the "every attempt" point. I mean, would you demand "every attempt" for other decisions people make about their own bodies, like smoking, drinking, having unprotected sex, or being gay for that matter?

    164. Re:How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It is provably true to 100% of non-Americans. It is literally only Americans (and mostly far right wingers) that believe there is any political "left" at all in America, and that's only because their media tells them that America is rapidly slipping into Communism. It is quite easy to prove that Clinton is a right winger, though not as far right as most Republicans. She is definitely more right wing than Trump, who doesn't give a shit about anyone except himself.

      That's why the power brokers in America had to shut Bernie down no matter what. If he had awoken an "actual" left-wing movement in America, there could be guillotines for them. That must be avoided at all costs, so Clinton or Trump were allowed to further their plans. What's so frustrating is how close Bernie actually WAS. Had he been the Democratic nominee, we all know he would've beaten Trump in the biggest landslide victory the US had ever seen.

    165. Re:How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      >which are often downright harmful
       
      ...uh, you're saying you'd prefer they weren't getting treatments?

      Humans are still humans, the same capabilities needs fears etc as ever. A shifting metric means an environmental shift. I'll bow out of guessing which.

    166. Re: How surprising,... by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      âoeWhat you are sayin in your cute way is that you want the liberal end of media silenced.âoe

      Try a little harder at making strawmen

      Oh..... sorry - I guess he was telling us how much he likes the "Vile Leftist Media". Ylou like to keep things aroud that you call vile? Masochist perhaps?

      The only straw here is in your head, Scarecrow.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    167. Re:How surprising,... by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      Aim for a +5 Troll.

      Squad goals FTW!!!

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    168. Re:How surprising,... by Dread_ed · · Score: 1

      Again with the focus on a person. Sigh. It's not about the people, or the entities described. That is merely the anthropocentric wrapper. The concepts are the payload.

      --
      When the only tool you have is a claw hammer every problem starts to look like the back of someone's skull.
    169. Re:How surprising,... by Dread_ed · · Score: 1

      The authoritarian angle is completely ignored by the partisan. They worship any authority used by their own "party" to bludgeon and subjugate those that think differently than they do.

      There is no left or right in the US. It's the corporatist oligarchy party or the corporatist oligarchy party. Choose.

      Also, consider that Clinton did not win the presidency because American didn't want a Republican in office.

      --
      When the only tool you have is a claw hammer every problem starts to look like the back of someone's skull.
    170. Re:How surprising,... by slew · · Score: 1

      Oh yeah, BTW 59 isn't really part of the greatest generation, they are the boomers.

      Well, that's just like, your opinion, man. I believe the boomers are the greatest generation. The generation before boomers didn't even have cell phones or video games so how could they be "greatest"?

      Perhaps a few members of the *real* greatest generation might want to respond to you with an immortal *telegram* ;^)

    171. Re:How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      {...} What's so frustrating is how close Bernie actually WAS. Had he been the Democratic nominee, we all know he would've beaten Trump in the biggest landslide victory the US had ever seen.

      No, we don't. We can't. It's nice to think, but it suited Murdoch et al's purposes to keep Bernie in play to help peel people off Clinton, who was actually running. If Bernie took the nom, Fox would have turned on a dime to throw the whole swamp at him. Her emails would never have been heard of again, while the time Bernie farted in synagogue would get weeks of coverage, spiking up with Trump's flubs just like her emails did in the history that actually happened. We'll never see the Fox/Breitbart/Infowars press against Bernie in the same way it would have happened, and we'll never know how much of it would stick versus Trump. Even if he takes the nom in '20 and rides to Reaganesque EC and PV numbers, we'll never know how he'd have held up against the image of Trump unsullied by any contact with reality.

    172. Re:How surprising,... by jtgd · · Score: 1

      I'm definitely finding myself agitating people on both sides significantly more than I used to.

      It's in your name. :)

      --
      J
    173. Re:How surprising,... by eaglesrule · · Score: 1

      one of the things I love about being a Catholic, there is no other philosophy in the world that allows you to make use of every suffering weather big or small.

      If only God would get rid of these pesky secular governments, you could go back to some decent displays of human suffering to really get the message across as to how much your philosophy values human life. At least in the good old days a true believer could look forward to a heretic burning once in a while.

      For that reason, being an atheist is kinda inconvenient. There's no truth so sacred that boiling someone to death in oil could be rationalized and justified as serving a higher purpose. I guess we have to admit to being cold blooded murderous psychopaths when deciding to off someone for having a different opinion.

      As for suicide, well, not having that hellfire Sword of Damocles overhead can be a bit inconvenient too. Actually having to value and respect and appreciate life for what it is, rather than merely taking it for granted into perpetuity, can really adjust one's outlook.

    174. Re: How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Typical conservative narrative. It's the media, the rock music, the Dungeons and Dragons. You blame social media. Who or what kind of person owns all the social media? It ain't a broke ass redneck in Tennessee, I can guarantee that.

      Shill harder.

    175. Re: How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Which are all mostly on shot like Mother Jones, or as OPINION pieces on other outlets.

      But, like, whatever.

    176. Re: How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But not by much.

      When I hear homosexuality is a sin, I always think back to how, as a little boy in Christian school, I was told we are all sinners.

      If we are all sinners, it leads one to understand that sin cant be judged, and all should not be judged lest ye yada yada yada.

      But, you know, we better legislate away homosexuality... just not greed. Or anything that makes our overlords more money.

      Just the faggots.

    177. Re: How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yet the poor per capita are gaining wealth faster than the wealthy.

    178. Re: How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      CO2... Really? Either way, thanks for a good laugh

    179. Re: How surprising,... by HornWumpus · · Score: 0

      Worse than that. They now prescribe antipsychotics for being grumpy (Abilify).

      Antipsychotics make normal people psychotic.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    180. Re:How surprising,... by eaglesrule · · Score: 1

      would you demand "every attempt" for other decisions people make about their own bodies, like smoking, drinking, having unprotected sex, or being gay for that matter?

      I would expect that the decisions people make are at least not done so out of ignorance of potential risks. Just as I would expect those who would foolishly attempt to legislate personal behavior would learn a little about the unintended consequences from attempts to do so in the past and present, where the solution is of greater harm than the original problem. Better that cigarettes come with a clear, bold warning, than it is to make them illegal, and restrict their consumption so that those who make this choice do not negatively impact others.

      These things are also not the same. Being gay is uncommon, but normal, and not to be considered a 'bad habit'.

    181. Re:How surprising,... by HornWumpus · · Score: 0

      They were sitting on the Bernie dirt, that's true. Also Rs were crossing to vote for him in the primaries, same as Ds voted for Trump.

      They didn't have to throw a swamp at Bernie, truth would have done fine. The dude took his wife to Lenin's tomb for their honeymoon...Bernie was playing at being mainstream. He was unelectable, even worse than the bitch.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    182. Re: How surprising,... by HornWumpus · · Score: 0

      Fox and MSNBC/CNN/ABC/CBS/NBC/NYTimes are exactly the same, just on different sides.

      After the last election cycle, you can't even deny it with a straight face.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    183. Re:How surprising,... by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      To a leftist no left wing government is actually left wing. No true scotsman.

      Nazis were clearly marxists, by their own words and actions. But not actually leftists (per the left), just like the USSR, Red China, Cambodia, Venezuela etc etc. No leftists anywhere.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    184. Re:How surprising,... by arth1 · · Score: 1

      These things are also not the same. Being gay is uncommon, but normal, and not to be considered a 'bad habit'.

      I beg to differ. I think that wanting control over your own life including when to end it is uncommon, but normal too, and should not be considered a mental problem.

    185. Re: How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I love your words there. May I use that?

    186. Re:How surprising,... by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      Suicide and attempted suicide are two very different things.

      It's not that hard, attempted suicides are pitiful cries for help, often done in silly overdramatic ways.

      Cut longways, up and down the arm, not crossways.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    187. Re:How surprising,... by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      The rate is noisy. The 30% jump is cherry picked data designed to get pageviews.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    188. Re:How surprising,... by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      We're still owed the spending cuts congress agreed to in order to get Reagan to increase taxes (much less than he previously lowered them).

      Next time a congresscritter suggests: 'We need more money now, we will cut spending tomorrow' they should be laughed out of the room.

      The 80s were still pretty slow adoption, it was the very late 80s and 90s where the (computer industry/office automation) boomed. Remember DOS? remember netmare?

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    189. Re:How surprising,... by eaglesrule · · Score: 1

      Someone: "I'm miserable and want to die."
      You: "Ok! Bye!"
      Me: "Ok, but let's at least make sure there is a reason like terminal illness or just advanced age, and that you're in sound clear mind to make this kind of life-altering decision. After all, taking a dick in the ass and regretting it is a bit different than dying and never getting the chance to change your mind."

      Now can we agree?

    190. Re: How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nobody cares enough because men are disposable.

    191. Re:How surprising,... by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      To a leftist no left wing government is actually left wing. No true scotsman.

      See folks? Here is the person for whom if you dare diasagree with him - you are labeled a Leftist.

      Well I hate to burst your bubble, there sparky, But I ain't no leftist - So really, your argument fails before it even starts.

      Yer talkin shite, my man!

      Nazis were clearly marxists, by their own words and actions.

      I understand now - you get your news from StormFront.

      Hitler had the Communists in the Reichstag arrested or excluded from voting - 81 of them.

      He banned trade Unions in 1933.

      The suppression of the Communists began after the infamous Reichstag fire. Later in 1933, the Communist Party was banned in Nazy Germany.

      Wilhelm Pieck and Walter Ulbricht, the leaders of the German Commies, had to escape to Russia.

      Where some folks get confused is the Nazi's close relationship between business and government. This is not only a communist action, but a fascist one. So that's a draw.

      Then there is Nationalism. The German concept of the Aryan Master Race differs from White Nationalism only in degree, they are the same at base.

      But not actually leftists (per the left), just like the USSR, Red China, Cambodia, Venezuela etc etc. No leftists anywhere.

      I know you want to have a checklist, where anyone who doesn't agree with you is your hated leftist, but in the real world outside of propaganda channels, it just ain't that simple. Which is why long ago, I decided that left and right are not good terms for a continuum where what we think of as left or right becomes very similar when reaching the more radical elements.

      But hey, enjoy your narrative. It allows you to dispense with the thought process.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    192. Re:How surprising,... by arth1 · · Score: 1

      Now can we agree?

      Hell, no. Because of your:

      Me: "Ok, but let's at least make sure there is a reason like terminal illness or just advanced age,

      You're saying that because I don't have a terminal illness or advanced age, I should not be allowed to make that decision? Well, fuck you.

    193. Re: How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There's no denying that climate alarmism has become a religion for some people. My best friend has a child that won't give her the pleasure of having grandchildren due to the belief in climate alarmism. Her kid is employed as a nuclear engineer, but refuses to debate me on climate sensitivity and the feedback equation correction from Monckton. The googly-eyed dude figured it out.

    194. Re: How surprising,... by CristalShandaLear · · Score: 1

      People can communicate better & faster than ever. What do they use it for? To tell each other how much they hate each other. Bizarre.

    195. Re: How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Did you just suggest that people are killing themselves because gay people can get married? What a fucking moron

    196. Re:How surprising,... by arth1 · · Score: 1

      Just as I would expect those who would foolishly attempt to legislate personal behavior would learn a little about the unintended consequences from attempts to do so in the past and present, where the solution is of greater harm than the original problem.

      Yeah, but who gets to decide what "greater harm" means? The god-botherers who believe all life is sacred?

    197. Re: How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Me, Iâ(TM)m more wealthy then all of you and I just laugh at you.

      Richer people then me want to off themselves? Well... dumbass..

      Poorer people then me want to off themselves? Well... dumbasss..

      At least have some sense and take someone with you. You have to be crazy just to kill your self.

    198. Re: How surprising,... by stinkyjak · · Score: 1

      Social media....

    199. Re: How surprising,... by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      Worse than that. They now prescribe antipsychotics for being grumpy (Abilify).

      Antipsychotics make normal people psychotic.

      Funny how that works...

    200. Re: How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I love you. No homo. Just genuine admiration and respect. The mob follows the mob. Usually only under the lie of beterment. Then commitment to the lie they told others to follow. How could they not. What would others think. If one changed their mind. What if one could finally see through the lies, admit to one's own mistakes, and change for the better. Not many of us can break free of the social chains.

    201. Re:How surprising,... by eaglesrule · · Score: 1

      You're saying that because I don't have a terminal illness or advanced age, I should not be allowed to make that decision? Well, fuck you.

      I used those two examples since they are the most common reasons for any sane person to off themselves. I'll just repeat myself when I said earlier that:

      The right to end one's life on their own terms is an essential liberty that should not be denied.

      Maybe that verbage should be tweaked a bit to be suitable for a constitution, but I think the idea is sound at least. Anyway, your rudeness is tiresome. Have a nice life.

    202. Re:How surprising,... by eaglesrule · · Score: 1

      It seems that not being of sound mind to begin with might make one not capable of planning a suicide that is guaranteed to be effective. Or like you say, 'silly and overdramatic'. Also, Murphey's law, amirite?

      I always found "down the road not across the street" a helpful way to remember. Of the various options I've decided on, it still wouldn't be my choice though. It just wouldn't be all that considerate to leave a mess behind for someone else to clean up.

    203. Re: How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The money Elite works hard to keep their agents Bush, Clinton and Obama in power.

      Too many people fall for their propaganda.

    204. Re: How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Only for Goldman Sachs and their ilk it is wrong to protect your nation from complete and utter drin dust realization. Oh, I forgot the Maoists of China. For them it is wrong that America protects herself.

    205. Re: How surprising,... by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 0

      Who's the dipshit listening to the med in a, the one talking about the actual issue, or the one frothing at the mouth about lefties?

      That's the only argument they have. And their success or failure is based uponhow many stupid people there are listening. A certain segment of the population loves to be told what to think. So if someone hear another screaming about "lefties" that's good enough.

      Besides, they gotta get back to watching "Mama June, From Not to Hot"

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    206. Re:How surprising,... by argStyopa · · Score: 1

      "Yes but today's warming is 10 times faster."

      Nope. The earth has suffered temps much higher and lower AND MUCH FASTER CHANGES.

      cf major meteorite strikes (many) and many catalclysmic vulcanic periods. In both cases, the entire climate of the earth was changed radically (usually warmer, obviously) over a span of days, weeks, months, or years. Not decades, not centuries, not millennia. Nearly instantly, in geological terms. And what's the result? An oscillation of climate which brings us back to our current norm.

      One thing I didn't mention was that yes, many of these events killed 50, 70, even 96% of existing species...and yet, we wouldn't exist without them. Our rodentate ancestors were given their shot because of the last one. What this proves is that the earth is ASTONISHINGLY fecund; even with life reduced to 4% of existing species, in 200 million years it rebounded to our current world. Amazing testament to the durability of the earth's ecosystem.
      A bunch of hairless apes burning petrochemicals and driving around in SUVs won't impact that in the *slightest*.

      --
      -Styopa
    207. Re:How surprising,... by ebvwfbw · · Score: 1

      Do yourself a favour and take a political test. Here is an easy, relatively short one - https://www.politicalcompass.o...

      I have a feeling you're still well into the left territory. I really get a kick out of how may people think they're independent, centrist and they're clearly not. Not even close usually.

      What about me? I consistently score almost exactly in the middle.

    208. Re:How surprising,... by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      Chased off the cliffs of Dover by a hoard of topless, huge hootered, chicks is my preferred method. Just because I want to see what they do when I let them catch me.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    209. Re: How surprising,... by cthulhu11 · · Score: 1

      How much a part of the problem are you? What did you eat for supper?

    210. Re: How surprising,... by Hussman32 · · Score: 1

      Not sure if the sarcasm tag is missing, but the song is 'What a Wonderful World.'

      --
      "Who are you?" "No one of consequence." "I must know." "Get used to disappointment."
    211. Re: How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, quitting an ssri cold turkey will cause issues. It fucks up your brain chemistry in awful ways.

      But that isn't a reason not to take them, it's a reason not to listen to people like you who claim they're "evil and awful" and then just stop without talking to your doctor.

      Most physicians won't prescribe them, they'll send you to a psychiatrist.

      And psychiatrists do look at the research in medications for mental health

      Your entire rant is basically "I don't understand how the medical industry works, and my psych 101 teacher said pills are bad, therefor nobody should take them. SSRIs are causing suicide, not untreated depression in a society full of people who refuse to acknowledge mental illness as a real thing!"

      You're part of the problem. Your posts will stop someone who needs help from getting it, and if they kill themselves it will be your fault.

    212. Re: How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      He didn't say "this is the best music" he just listed an artist he finds relaxing

      If he said something like jack Johnson it also wouldn't have bearing on his point.

      A point which was bad, because an increase in gdp and income has no relation to actual wellbeing and happiness.

      "Just relax, man" is terrible advice for the person working two minimum wage jobs to afford their apartment and car payments, and it's terrible advice for the doctor that's so stressed by his patients that he's suicidal.

      I've never met an actually happy person who says shit like that

    213. Re: How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, he's correct. Jews own more capital than any other ethnic group.

    214. Re: How surprising,... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are wrong.

    215. Re:How surprising,... by amiga3D · · Score: 1

      No. My Dad was part of the Greatest Generation. He lived and prospered during the Great Depression and served in the US Navy in WWII. He knew what sacrifice was. He took soldiers and equipment in to Omaha Beach and landed them just after the beach had been secured. He told me once when he was in his 60s (he seldom talked about the war) about seeing bodies floating in the water and heaped up on the beach. He had tears in his eyes even then decades later. He would never watch a war movie, ever.

    216. Re: How surprising,... by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      But that isn't a reason not to take them, it's a reason not to listen to people like you who claim they're "evil and awful" and then just stop without talking to your doctor.

      Where did I EVER advocate stopping SSRIs cold-turkey?!? Oh, GOD no!!!

      No, the trick is to not start them in the first place, UNLESS they are ACTUALLY effective for the SPECIFIC condition, and THEN, only when other methods have been tried and failed.

      And if you want to STOP them, make SURE you are doing so under the guidance of your prescribing physician, and THEN only on a multi-MONTH "taper"...

      There. Does that satisfy you that I understand the issue?

    217. Re:How surprising,... by micahraleigh · · Score: 1

      Totally beat me to it.

      This is exactly what Grover Norquist has been waving around.

    218. Re:How surprising,... by micahraleigh · · Score: 1

      Typically his opponents suggest it is a coincidence. Just like economic growth being
      Voters don't see this as a coincidence. In fact they demand the economy improve A LOT if a GOP gets installed into the White House. If not ... (Bush 41) they don't stick around to a 2nd term.

      I think it is fairly easy to see how relaxing regulations and stock increases would ease employers into buying computers, but there's no way to prove causation here. Actually ... modern predictive analytics would be interesting to try out on this. Feed the GDP and party affiliation into an agent learning ML instance and see who it decides to vote for. Of course this would be ripe for manipulation ...

    219. Re:How surprising,... by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      Feed the GDP and party affiliation into an agent learning ML instance and see who it decides to vote for.

      You don't need machine learning for this. Regular old learning is plenty good, and the work's already been done. It's pretty clear that all things being equal (and they're not, of course), if you're looking for economic growth, you're better off with a Democratic president. If you want a recession (or depression), then you're best going with a Republican. it's been that way since the Civil War.

      http://visualizingeconomics.co...

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    220. Re:How surprising,... by micahraleigh · · Score: 1

      You are clearly not keeping score. US Federal revenues were about $500 bil at the start of Raegan's admin and about double that when he left.

      During the superbowl interview, Barack Obama was asked how government revenues INCREASED after the Bush (43) tax cuts and Obama said it was because the economy grew under Bush W 43. Btw, W was not a democrat.

      Growth under Obama never made it to 3% but is about to hit 5% under his successor (a Republican).

      Your generalization is so flawed it is hard for me to even see where you are coming from.

      Are you just being a provocateur?

    221. Re: How surprising,... by Dread_ed · · Score: 1

      Please feel free.

      --
      When the only tool you have is a claw hammer every problem starts to look like the back of someone's skull.
    222. Re:How surprising,... by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      You are clearly not keeping score. US Federal revenues were about $500 bil at the start of Raegan's admin and about double that when he left.

      So, you're saying the goal of a small-government conservative is to give government more money?

      During the superbowl interview, Barack Obama was asked how government revenues INCREASED after the Bush (43) tax cuts and Obama said it was because the economy grew under Bush W 43. Btw, W was not a democrat.

      Oh yes. The economy grew under Bush until it completely tanked and took us into the Great Recession. You may be too young to remember when we were losing 800,000 jobs a month at the end of the Bush Administration.

      Did U Know? That Barack Obama was the only post-war presidency during which the United States did NOT enter into a recession?

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    223. Re:How surprising,... by micahraleigh · · Score: 1

      >> Did U Know? That Barack Obama was the only post-war presidency during which the United States did NOT enter into a recession?

      I don't think you are intending to celebrate mediocrity here, but you kind of do. 2% growth is waaay meh and surpassed by all the other administrations. If your goal is to not once have the boat rocked, ok, Obama scored. I voted against all that.

      >> The economy grew under Bush until it completely tanked and took us into the Great Recession.

      Obama left that part out of his response in the interview. Either you know better than him or your claim is a tough sell.

      Look, I don't want to buy overpriced coffee. In the same way, corrections are GOOD !!

    224. Re: How surprising,... by slashdotwannabe · · Score: 1

      Bullshit. Anecdotal fallacy. Look at the statistics, not the headlines.

      --
      This comment is my opinion and does not represent an official position of Donald Trump or others I do not work for
    225. Re: How surprising,... by triffid_98 · · Score: 1

      In what way? Our cars are better, inflation is lower but the cost of living vs income is worse, not better. College education is now a virtually essential prerequisite for a halfway decent job (even for jobs that should not need one) and it costs a great deal more (well above base inflation), as does medical care (it's better but costs have increased significantly above reported inflation) and housing mirrors this in many parts of the country. There still IS cheap housing but it's typically only found in places with bad job prospects so unless you're a retiree or welfare reciperants (or provide essential services which cannot be outsourced) it's virtually irrelevant. My parent's $40K home (purchased in 1975) is now worth somewhere north of $1M. It is the same house. There have been no major upgrades ever. Its no showpiece, it's just a normal 3 bedroom home. When you are making six figures, have that degree and still can't afford a home you must eventually say WTF?

  2. Where's Jared? by h33t+l4x0r · · Score: 0

    the CDC also noted that relationship stress, financial troubles and substance abuse were contributing to the trends.

    So it's Jared Kushner's fault in other words?

  3. TRUMP by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just getting that out of the way,

  4. A good start. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Still 2-4 billion too many people on the planet.

    1. Re: A good start. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Make that about 6. A very gradual and voluntary decline to ~500M -1B while tech keeps improving would certainly stop overpopulation pressure and allow a sustainably high prosperity.

  5. Obviously, this is the president's fault by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    because how could it be otherwise?

    1. Re:Obviously, this is the president's fault by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hopefully he'll claim responsibility for it

  6. and? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    if people want to kill them selves - why it it your concern?

    people might not like their life, for what ever reason....

    if they want to commit suicide - let them...

    oh wait - "RIGHT TO LIFE" - everyone must live...

    but the human race has no issues killing every other animal on the planet

    1. Re:and? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I guess its time for Queen to come out with another song to hold this off.

    2. Re:and? by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

      I'm pretty sure some countries have laws were suicide is punishable by death.

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
    3. Re:and? by h33t+l4x0r · · Score: 1

      Obviously it's religion's jurisdiction at that point. But yes, that is Catholicism's position more or less.

    4. Re:and? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No country has laws where suicide is punishable by death. A number of countries have laws against attempted suicide, but none punish the successful act (for obvious reasons) and generally the punishment isn't capital (for equally obvious reasons).

    5. Re:and? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Especially the successful attempts.

  7. And "diseases" of despair. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Alcoholism and other drug abuse. Numb out enough and the body gives out. There's a huge problem with that in areas of the country that have been in economic decline.

    1. Re:And "diseases" of despair. by sheramil · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Why do you think alcohol and drug use is so rampant? It's not the cause, it's an effect.

      The world is an MMO, and less people see any point in continuing to play if it's set up so that they can't have any fun at all, much less win.

    2. Re:And "diseases" of despair. by bickerdyke · · Score: 5, Funny

      Stupid grinding, but the graphics are incredible!

      --
      bickerdyke
    3. Re:And "diseases" of despair. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Massachusetts has one ski mountain and one website for it. I did not grind. I shredded. But I do not snowboard. Hard luck to get a dollar bag of chips never mind a ski pass. How much does dad make. I heard those season pass are for rich folk. l0pht number too

    4. Re:And "diseases" of despair. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The framerates and polygon counts are off the chart, but I'm more of a cel-shading person.

    5. Re:And "diseases" of despair. by Sumus+Semper+Una · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yeah, but it's pay2win and the griefers are rampant, creating a toxic experience. Looks like a lot of people are abandoning it.

    6. Re:And "diseases" of despair. by desdinova+216 · · Score: 1

      and the RNG for loot drops is unbalanced

    7. Re:And "diseases" of despair. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The world is an MMO and when you roll a new character the deviations are insane.

      Any sane player would immediately realize that it makes zero sense to try and salvage - though immense hours and effort - try to marginally salvage a mediocre (or more overwhelmingly likely, a shitty) character, when the entire game experience is determined on roll.

      Imagine a card game. Your deck has millions of cards. A dozen of those are incredibly powerful monsters, the rest are between garbage and doubleplusgarbage. The logical outcome is almost masturbatory, the way you'd immediately restart over and over.

      "The world" doesn't have mulligans but MMOs do, and you'd spend an eternity rerolling your opening hand. Anyone opening their mouth about "trying really hard with what you got" would be laughed into oblivion.

      While I didn't draw an astronomical, server-crashing card, I figure just getting into the Golden Billion is beating the odds. I live comfortably, I have one of the remaining musical chairs in the paycheck club, one with little actual work. I recognize how much of my circumstances had fuck-all to do with bootstraps. I didn't "earn" shit. Even the things I know are often chance, when I learn about a high-yield cache of tools or methods or entertainment through a passing mention - sometimes right here /.

      I live luxuriously relative to the whole and it's because of sheer, fucking chance. A few live several magnitudes higher, and even if they don't understand why the cosmos do: bcuz lol

      o fortuna
      velut luna
      statu variabilis
      semper crescis
      aut decrescis
      vita detestabilis
      nunc obdurat
      et tunc curat
      ludo mentis aciem
      egestatem
      potestatem
      dissolvit ut glaciem

      Some say it's good sportsmanship to concede a determined game. To scoop up the pieces, acknowledge the obvious victor (even if it's a round/minute/turn-one determination) and maybe start a new round. Dragging out the motions wastes everyone's time.

      Some say it's poor sportsmanship to invite a challenger where there is no challenge. To crush a novice in chess. Some find it outright pointless - do you even need to watch an F1 race a minivan? Is it a "race" at all? Why bother?

      Why bother?

      Why bother?

    8. Re:And "diseases" of despair. by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      One ski hill perhaps.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  8. Good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Gotta weed out the shit people.

  9. It would be nice to see a year by year increase by Chrisq · · Score: 1

    It would be nice to see a year by year increase. "Since 1999" makes it hard to see the reason. Did it improve in some years and get worse in others? If so what policy changes may have caused this

    1. Re:It would be nice to see a year by year increase by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

      With the way things are going on Slashdot lately, I'm sure we can expect a few replies to be "it's Trump's fault" or some other political bullshit.

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
    2. Re:It would be nice to see a year by year increase by Chrisq · · Score: 1

      With the way things are going on Slashdot lately, I'm sure we can expect a few replies to be "it's Trump's fault" or some other political bullshit.

      The thing is we don't even have an indication. It might have increased more under Trump, or it might have decreased - the "rise since 1999" tells us nothing.

    3. Re:It would be nice to see a year by year increase by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're the first I've seen to bring it up. Nice job.

  10. yet another sad story by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    overdose is frequently unintentional offing? leaves out motives of the elderly, physically failed, abuse victims/witnesses, the unfairly prosecuted,, 1000 forms of ptsd.. cease fire stand down.. that's the spirit..

  11. Many more types of suicide not counted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    As a former drug addict I can tell you from first hand experience many drug-heads are suicidal who are too timid to commit real suicide - so they choose the alternative --- drug themselves until they forget their pain

    I guess a lot of alcoholics are in similar circumstance as well

    Officially those who died of OD or those who drank themselves to death are not counted as suicide --- and they should be

    1. Re:Many more types of suicide not counted by fisted · · Score: 1

      Probably because it's kind of hard to ask them, after the fact, whether they OD'd because they wanted to kill themselves, or whether they were just looking for the best trip ever. Not ever OD is suicide.

    2. Re:Many more types of suicide not counted by fisted · · Score: 1

      s/ever/every/

    3. Re:Many more types of suicide not counted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I spent about 4 years in an emotionally abusive marriage with about zero support ("just toughen up"). Well, I did toughen up by spending my non-working hours drunk every day. The last 2 of those years, I was drunk about every day. I think if I weren't I would have killed myself. As gross as it was to be 40 lbs overweight, bloated and hungover every day, I would have killed myself if I had to endure that torture sober and of clear mind. Alcoholism probably saved my life. I have had my drinking well under control using The Sinclair Method for about 2 years now, and 6 months ago I quit and haven't touched a drink again. I thank God for alcoholism, because it probably saved my life.

    4. Re:Many more types of suicide not counted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And, before you ask, it was me who finally left. An abuser who was getting her meal ticket off of her victim isn't going to leave.

    5. Re:Many more types of suicide not counted by Kjella · · Score: 1

      so they choose the alternative --- drug themselves until they forget their pain. (...) Officially those who died of OD or those who drank themselves to death are not counted as suicide --- and they should be

      I'd go with Darwin award rules, unless you were trying to die it's not suicide. That your escapism leads to high risk behavior and the need for a stronger and strong fix to keep reality at bay or you recklessly take a too large dose to cause your death is not the same. Otherwise you'd probably have to classify most extreme sport deaths as suicide by adrenaline addiction. Obviously you can miss out on a few that intentionally took a lethal dose without leaving any suicide note or anything like that, but like you said they've made a choice to do drugs instead.

      If they were looking to outright die they'd probably pick a more direct approach, I mean there's quite a lot of them and that are quite certain to work, I really don't quite know what to think of people with failed suicide attempts. Honestly I'm thinking that if you really deep down wanted to be dead you'd be dead by now, this is "just" a theatrical cry for help. I could jump off the balcony head first into the pavement and be stone cold dead in a matter of seconds if I wanted to, even if there was a flash of blinding pain I'd hardly notice before my brain was all over the sidewalk. I just like being alive.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    6. Re:Many more types of suicide not counted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Only if they succeed. Most *female* suicides are after repeated attempts, entirely dramatic, "cries for help" rather than actual attempts to die. If they die, it's by accident. It's the male suicides that are likelier to involve guns, driving into a pylon at high speed, or other more likely means of ending a life.

    7. Re:Many more types of suicide not counted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Anton LaVey once wrote that drugs are a "polite alternative to suicide". Having known people with drug abuse issues, I would say that it's anything but polite.

  12. Hmmm... by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 5, Informative
    A quick check of older data shows that suicide rates, even though up 30% since the turn of the century, are about the same as a century ago.

    And well below the peak 90 years ago.

    Well below where it was 110 years ago, for that matter.

    Note that the previous peak corresponded with the beginning of the Great Depression. Not really sure what was happening 110 or so years ago to cause a bounce in suicide rates - it overlapped with WW1, but got started well before then....

    --

    "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
    1. Re:Hmmm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

      there's a "need" to write an article. so you do a moving window on some data and look for "shocking" outliers. If you don't find any, you narrow the window and repeat. you're guaranteed to come up with a story that way.

      (e.g. could it have been any more shocking if the story said "since 1950" or "since 1980" or "since 2010" they just wrote the story about that particular window that *did* create an outlier.

      And then as you point out, someone comes along and says "beh, that's no outlier at all, if you use this other window of time" :-)

    2. Re:Hmmm... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The financial crisis is really taking a toll on people. It's not wonder they are turning to populists and anyone who promises to fix things.

      What's interesting is that relatively speaking the US came out of the crash fairly quickly. Countries like the UK that went the austerity route are still well below 2008 levels for things like wages and quality of life. Where the US differs is that there are fewer safety nets. If you lose you lose big time and can very quickly end up with nothing and little hope of recovery.

      Also, people in the US have access to guns and less emergency mental healthcare, so suicide attempts are more likely to succeed.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    3. Re:Hmmm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Let me have a stab at it.

      Life was shit, social mobility was practically non-existent, the poor had to work insanely hard and had no rights while rich people had all the rights and only got richer, and there was basically no social security at all beyond what you and your family could provide. You know, the kind of dystopia we seem to be headed for with the speed of light today? The dream age of every libertard out there.

    4. Re:Hmmm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There's no financial crisis anymore. What you are experiencing is the new status quo. If you disagree please come up with a reasonable scenario where the current situation would improve at any point. You won't be able to, because there is not.

    5. Re:Hmmm... by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Let me have a stab at it.

      Life was shit, social mobility was practically non-existent, the poor had to work insanely hard and had no rights while rich people had all the rights and only got richer, and there was basically no social security at all beyond what you and your family could provide. You know, the kind of dystopia we seem to be headed for with the speed of light today? The dream age of every libertard out there.

      And yet, before that peak 110-odd years back, suicide rate was lower than now (roughly comparable to 1999 levels). And afterwards, likewise.

      What changed to cause that peak? What changed to cause that peak to go away?

      --

      "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
    6. Re:Hmmm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And the US is in much far worse debt, to themselves and the rest of the world. That may work for a while, but eventually it will not. I'll take the austerity route over the large government in debt failure any day. Don't listen to partisan hacks like Krugman who gets it wrong nearly every time.

    7. Re:Hmmm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A few reference points:
      Just about 110 years ago.
      Just under a century ago.
      Almost 90 years ago.

      For all the attention World War 2 gets in history books, the span from the Civil War to the Great Depression is nearly skipped in modern US education.

    8. Re:Hmmm... by DarkOx · · Score: 1

      Yes but the US is going to crash again. SS and Medicare are headed from problems in less than 10 years. Sure there are fixes like moving the retirement age up, increasing SS taxes, reducing the benefits etc. Any of those changes will seriously upend the financial plans of a very large portion of the American public.

      It will drastically reduce the spending money they have (or think they have) which will lower velocity and create an entirely new crisis.

      We have pretended our way out of the crash by propping up the money supply, and not really addressed the core issues

      --
      Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
    9. Re:Hmmm... by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      A quick check of older data shows that suicide rates, even though up 30% since the turn of the century, are about the same as a century ago.

      Oh good. Anti-global warming logic applied to suicide now. No one cares how bad it was 100 years ago. The only question is why is it getting worse when we have been doing well to drive it to zero, and more importantly how are we going to fix it.

    10. Re:Hmmm... by atrex · · Score: 2

      I'm not sure that all of the US really came out of the crash. Certainly the stock market, the banks, corporations, and the rich came out of it. But it seems like a lot of the general populous got left behind to foot the bill. Taxpayer money used to bail out the banks, taxpayer money used to bail out the motor industry. And none of those bankers got prosecuted or served a day in jail. Thousands, millions of people lost their homes during the mortgage crisis. Health insurance and health care costs rising year over year by sometimes as much as 40% or more.

      I hear some work place insurance plans have already started forcing everyone to take a full physical and are going to start adjusting policy prices on a per worker basis based on an individual's risk factors. Made a few unhealthy lifestyle choices? You're going to pay more. Have high risk of cancer in your family? You're going to pay more. Been to the doctor too often recently? You're going to pay more.

      I wouldn't be surprised if suicide rates continue to rise until there's almost no one left for the rich to feed off of.

    11. Re:Hmmm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Saying what exactly happened is pretty difficult unless we agree on specific years to look at. Also, admittedly, I'm not versed well enough in American history to be able to pinpoint exactly what would trigger something like that about 110 years ago. A reasonable hypothesis, however, would probably be that things up to that point were actually improving slightly from being absolutely horrible, and then something made people lose hope. You can cope with a lot of crap as long as you have hope that things will eventually improve. Once that's taken away, it's not so easy anymore.

      IOW; it's pretty clear that something happened which caused these peaks, and it was something related to the society which made people lose faith in their future prospects. It sure as heck wasn't that things were all fine and dandy, and suddenly a whole bunch of people decided to kill themselves.

    12. Re:Hmmm... by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 1

      Are you taking into account the difference in the population of the planet in those different time periods?

    13. Re:Hmmm... by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 1

      Are you taking into account the difference in the population of the planet in those different time periods?

      I'm not taking anything into account. The data I looked at was suicides per 100K population in the USA....

      --

      "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
    14. Re:Hmmm... by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 1

      ...riiight, as I said: take into account the total population differences, it matters. Population pressure changes things.

    15. Re:Hmmm... by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 1

      No one cares how bad it was 100 years ago. The only question is why is it getting worse when we have been doing well to drive it to zero, and more importantly how are we going to fix it.

      Well, I care how bad it was 100 years ago.

      And whatever makes you think we've been driving suicide rates to zero? The data shows that, over the long term, suicide rates are essentially unchanged - they fluctuate from year to year, and the noise allows people to write about how much worse it was since xxxx (where xxxx is picked to make it look like we have a crisis in the making now)....

      --

      "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
    16. Re:Hmmm... by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      Austerity route? Citation needed.

      Counter citation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      Read with critical thinking hat on. Why don't they mention the numbers for 'automatic' stimulus built into English laws? What agenda does this article's 'owner' have?

      The brits pissed away comparable money in 2008. Obama's money wasting didn't even really get started for years, then went mostly to croneys and connected.

      The EU, in general, spent more money on stimulus and recovered slower.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    17. Re:Hmmm... by HornWumpus · · Score: 2

      The whole developed world has underfunded the baby boom's retirement. There are exceptions, but they're rare.

      In the USA we've taken the SS trust fund off book, but are requiring dying government agencies (e.g. the post office) to fund their employee retirements. In England they've taken _all_ government retirement funds off book.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    18. Re:Hmmm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's not wonder they are turning to populists and anyone who promises to fix things.

      Democracy is an implementation of populism nit wit. Stop treating populism the way right wingers treat socialism.

    19. Re:Hmmm... by DarkOx · · Score: 1

      Off book or otherwise the money has to come from some place. It very possibly could just come from expanding the money supply. It might be possible for the economy to absorb the inflation effects of that but it would mean that money supply expansion would be a much more limited tool in terms of combating other economic problems.

      At best taking more off book and funding the off book liabilities when they come due with expansion will just kick the can a little bit further. A decade or so beyond that and something will happen and the banks will have no arrows left in the quiver with which to fight it.

      --
      Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
    20. Re:Hmmm... by squiggleslash · · Score: 1

      Most of Europe started a stimulus but then almost immediately went for extreme austerity - the latter pretty much killed the nascent recoveries that had been apparent. So, yeah, you'd expect Europe to take longer.

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
    21. Re:Hmmm... by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      The data shows that, over the long term, suicide rates are essentially unchanged

      Oh good. Anti-global warming logic applied to suicide now. I get the feeling I've typed that before.

      I get it man. You feel like we shouldn't worry about anything. It's fine. We'll put our efforts into your pet project instead.

    22. Re:Hmmm... by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      Citation needed. Europe spent more per person and as I'd expect, took longer.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    23. Re:Hmmm... by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      The money will have to come from someplace regardless. Accounting tricks don't change reality, they just fuck up transparency.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    24. Re:Hmmm... by eaglesrule · · Score: 1

      I wouldn't be surprised if suicide rates continue to rise until there's almost no one left for the rich to feed off of.

      Which is why steps need to be taken in advance to ensure that a population, with little left to lose and a bleak future to look forward to, are disarmed and closely monitored. Bonus points if you maintain the proper amount of infighting as a diversion.

    25. Re:Hmmm... by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what's for dinner. Never lasts.

      Constitutionally limited democratic government is what makes the modern western world work.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  13. Talk about male privilege by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    According to the CDC more than 3/4 of suicides are men, yet the article makes it all about women. Do you feel privileged yet?

    1. Re:Talk about male privilege by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

      I actually think that this has to do with the gradual erosion of male values. Men seem increasingly unnecessary and vilified, male employment has taken a serious downturn, husbands/fathers are less societally respected, and the sexual market of old (goodJob->getGirl->getMarried->haveSex) is now nearly entirely vanished (gotoBar->Gamechicks->haveSex). I feel like it is gradually turning to a winner-takes-all system where the top 20% of men get the majority of both money and women. On an individual level, this means "OMG, get in the top 20% immediately!", but it means that the majority of men are getting locked out for resources (money/women) and left with nothing.

      I am a young professional scientist and the *majority* of my male colleagues (PhD scientists in their early 30s!) are unmarried non-churchGoers frustrated in the sexual/family market. It is truly crazy to think that a 6-figure salary and a doctorate cannot attract a wife in the current market, and that they go home lonely each night. NOTE - I am not immune to these trends, and I am on my second wife (first wife left me for a drummer in a band... which is also crazy to think), and seriously contemplated suicide in my first divorce (called the hotline... don't call the hotline).

      Essentially, men are unmooring into the ocean. Limited religious participation, erosion of the typical husband/wife structure (through divorce, the pill, family court structure, etc.), and lower overall participation in the workforce (no longer a preReq for sex, increased competition). This pretty quickly puts men into a "no money, no family, no one that cares about me, no reason to live" rationale.

      Sad analysis:
      https://dalrock.wordpress.com/...

      I really feel like someone needs to do something about it - but there are so many incentives lined up against it that I have no idea what to do. Locally, I started/ran a mens group, where these issues came up pretty commonly.

    2. Re:Talk about male privilege by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well in theory it means that there now are more women available per man than before so why not?

    3. Re:Talk about male privilege by Cederic · · Score: 4, Informative

      In the UK there's also a sizeable funding issue. The government spends more on 'violence against women and girls' than it does on suicide prevention/support, even though men are 25 times more likely to kill themselves than a woman.

      In divorce cases women can get legal aid; men can not.

      In domestic violence situations there are hundreds of refuges funded for women. Very few in the whole country for men. Funding for domestic violence is almost all targeted towards helping female victims too, and at least one of the national domestic violence charities assumes men are abusers (and is demanding gendered legislation to provide protections to women but not men).

      That's before you look at the gender imbalances in the justice system and the family courts, the impossibility for men to interact with women without risking a charge of harassment, the demands that men should show emotion combined with criticism when they do, the suspicion men face when alone with children, the constant barrage of media hatred towards masculinity..

      It's no wonder some men are struggling to cope.

    4. Re:Talk about male privilege by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is exactly how I am coming to see the world. A giant "white males hurry up and die" sign. People can openly discriminate against white men. While male problems are routinely mocked on social media. The words racist, sexist, and fascist have no meaning any more and are simply thrown about when a self-identified member of a protected minority feels the need to have a conniption fit.

      We humans replace one injustice with another and label it progress. We are living in George Orwell's 1984.

    5. Re:Talk about male privilege by serviscope_minor · · Score: 1

      Parent post is an outright lie.

      It was clearly modded up by dipshits slathering over the idea that they're massively oppressed rather than anyone interested in facts like you know the actual contents of the article.

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    6. Re:Talk about male privilege by serviscope_minor · · Score: 1

      I agree the imbalance is bad (but the suicide rate difference is 3x not 25x) and the laws should protect all equally.

      But your claim about how it's impossible to interact with women without risking a charge of harassment is the kind of unmitigated bullshit that shows you have a very large axe to grind. It also detracts from the worthwhile arguments you're trying to make.

      If you want to make a difference, drop the MRA hyperbole.

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    7. Re:Talk about male privilege by Cederic · · Score: 1

      The 25x is the chance a man will kill himself compared to the chance he will kill a woman.

      (Even that assumes no female murder victims will killed by another woman, which is unlikely)

      But your claim about how it's impossible to interact with women without risking a charge of harassment is the kind of unmitigated bullshit that shows you have a very large axe to grind.

      Oh please. You want to see men getting accused of harassment for perfectly innocuous behaviour, just browse Twitter with a filter set to #metoo.

      I know a man reported to HR for harassment for.. holding a door open for the next person to come through, because it was a woman.

      If you want to make a difference, drop the MRA hyperbole.

      If nobody highlights the inanity of the current culture then it wont change. That's not even a men's rights issue, it's causing women a shitload of problems too. They're finding that men are choosing not to ask them out, and certainly not to marry them, because the risks to the man are too great.

    8. Re:Talk about male privilege by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not original AC, but, like, facts?
      https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/produ... (2014, males represent 78% of US suicides)
      https://afsp.org/about-suicide... (WHITE males represent 70% of US suicides in 2016)
      https://www.nimh.nih.gov/healt... (2016, males represent 78% of US suicides)

      Given that men kill themselves ~3.5x as much as women, with a *vast* majority being white men, phrasing this as a "mens issue" isn't particularly out of line.

    9. Re:Talk about male privilege by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But your claim about how it's impossible to interact with women without risking a charge of harassment is the kind of unmitigated bullshit that shows you have a very large axe to grind. It also detracts from the worthwhile arguments you're trying to make.

      Really? As of this writing he's got quite a few up votes. So looks like a lot of people understood him without being detracted.

      As of this writing, the only one with an axe to grind over his choice of words is you.

      As of this writing, the only one with an axe to grind and brought up MRAs is you.

    10. Re:Talk about male privilege by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You mean the message that young men are fed from birth today? By single mothers, by a feminist education system into a workplace that is becoming totally hostile to men. That men are worthless and a liability?

      It would amusing if it wasn't so horribly ignorant. Men make the world go around. They invent, build and maintain everything. Not women.

      Women only succeed because men are conditioned not to compete with them... and once feminists get hold of the rules, they change them to ensure that men are second class citizens.

      The one thing I am sure of from this point forward - western civilisation is doomed without some radical reforms to purge feminists from the education system (for a start). My only hope is that there is a generation of men coming out of education now who are REALLY red-pilled when it comes to women - largely thanks to the internet. There's no chivalry, no respect for women.

      Good.

    11. Re:Talk about male privilege by WhoBeDaPlaya · · Score: 1

      Herbivore men, it's a thing : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    12. Re:Talk about male privilege by organgtool · · Score: 1

      In general, I agree with your point but I didn't see anything in this particular article that mentioned or implied anything about gender. Let's not needlessly inject identity politics into a subject that is already emotionally-charged for many people.

    13. Re:Talk about male privilege by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I suspect he's talking about the GGP's assertion the article treats this as a woman's issue. It doesn't.

    14. Re:Talk about male privilege by squiggleslash · · Score: 1

      The article clearly treats this as an issue that affects both men and women. I'd say serviscope_minor is right to call the original poster a liar, and I think you're out of line both by pretending the complaint is about the OP's assertion that men make up a majority of suicides, and by implying that the article doesn't treat this as an issue that affects both men and women.

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
    15. Re:Talk about male privilege by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There's two videos specifically about a women who committed suicide and two related articles about teen girls.

      One of the articles leads with how girls' suicides are up and you have to read further into the article to see that boys are up too AND have 3 times the overall rate.

      The other article apparently retroactively removed the focus on girls from the title but still has it in its URL.

      In all the pictures/video stills across those 3 articles there a single male and maybe a shadow that could be either.

    16. Re:Talk about male privilege by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Society is swinging back upwards. For centuries, men (white men in particular) have been artificially inflated in value, because (white) men have literally ran everything and created the toxic culture our society is recovering from. When the majority of society knows that (white) men are the reason history has been shitty for everyone (except [white] men), it is normal and expected for society to reject (white) men.

      I myself am a white man, and I accept this inevitable societal swing. I am already married with (mixed race) children, but the writing is on the wall; our time is over. It is time for us all to live with equal respect instead of holding the (white) man on a pedestal. Mediocrity should not be celebrated, and that's essentially what is happening.

      Don't lose hope though, you can find a new girl. Just don't bother with bars, you likely won't find any girl worth keeping there.

    17. Re:Talk about male privilege by serviscope_minor · · Score: 1

      The 25x is the chance a man will kill himself compared to the chance he will kill a woman.

      You're comparing suicide rates to murder rates in order to get a larger number. You're arguing in bad faith.

      If you spend half your posts making a good point and the other half being a dickwad then you do not harm than good.

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    18. Re:Talk about male privilege by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What on earth are you reading? Because it's certainly not the article. Other than a brief mention of Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdaine, there's nothing discerning about gender in the article.

    19. Re:Talk about male privilege by Cederic · · Score: 1

      Your inability to comprehend the point I'm making does not make me a dickhead. The 25x ratio is pertinent because of the discrepancy in Government spending on violence against women as compared to suicide prevention.

      Women are also far more likely to kill themselves than be killed by someone else, so it's not helping women either.

    20. Re:Talk about male privilege by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Look dude, if you talk at women like you do to the people here, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind what the cause of your celabecy is. If one person hates you, they're an asshole but if everyone hates you, YOU are the asshole.

    21. Re:Talk about male privilege by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And yet instead of providing a counter argument, you bitch and moan and scream names like a typical liberal. What a shock.

    22. Re: Talk about male privilege by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What the fuck article did you read? It sure as hell wasn't the one linked from the summary.

    23. Re: Talk about male privilege by TJHook3r · · Score: 1

      That was not how I read it. In fact, case studies are mostly male.

    24. Re:Talk about male privilege by geekymachoman · · Score: 1

      > According to the CDC more than 3/4 of suicides are men, yet the article makes it all about women. Do you feel privileged yet?

      How dare you....
      https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic...

    25. Re:Talk about male privilege by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In the U.S. there are over 2,000 domestic violence shelters. All but one of them serve female victims only. - "The Red Pill"

    26. Re:Talk about male privilege by squiggleslash · · Score: 1

      The 25x ratio is pertinent because of the discrepancy in Government spending on violence against women as compared to suicide prevention.

      I'm struggling to come up with any justification for pretending that violence against non-consenting women is somehow less important than people taking their own lives.

      Suicide is a sad thing, but let's not pretend for a second that (1) suicide prevention isn't 100% about making people who aren't suicidal feel less bad and (2) suicide prevention isn't about preventing someone from making a choice that is rightly their's and no other's.

      Complaining the levels spent on suicide prevention are out of whack with that spent on preventing men killing women is like complaining the amount of money spent on safety features for a motorcycle is out of whack with that spent on the safety of a school bus.

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
    27. Re:Talk about male privilege by Cederic · · Score: 1

      Well, fucking forgive me for equating premature death through unnatural causes with premature death through unnatural causes.
      Forgive me for valuing the life of someone the same as the life of someone else.
      Forgive me for understanding that people choosing to commit suicide are predominantly legally not mentally capable of making that decision.
      Forgive me for feeling that helping 25 men stay alive might be worth merely as much as keeping one woman alive.

      I'm struggling to come up with any justification for pretending that violence against non-consenting women is somehow less important than people taking their own lives.

      At the moment the Government funding suggests it's well over 25 times as important. Justify that.

  14. Trump is president now by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I heard all those Anti-Trumpers were going to move out. Maybe they are just offing themselves instead?

    1. Re:Trump is president now by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Either way, let them do what they promised..

  15. times (reports) of unprecedented prosperity.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    we should be dancing in the streets?

    1. Re:times (reports) of unprecedented prosperity.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Jew media means the Kikes are having unprecedented prosperity. They've never fucked a country this hard without getting booted the fuck out. Hell, we even cut part of our kids' dicks off as a show that they are slaves for Israel. The kikes are living large.

  16. 1999 data point is cherry picked by Solandri · · Score: 5, Informative

    The long-term suicide rate for the U.S. has fluctuated between about 10-14 per 100,000 over the last 40 years. 1999 was just the minimum, which the reporter cherry picked to try to turn this into a story. It's been higher in the past.

    Also, suicide rates have been climbing up throughout the world, not just in the U.S. Curiously, homicide rates also stopped the long-term decline around 2010 and started creeping up again. So average global temperature may actually be linked (violence and higher temperatures have been correlated in the past). But nobody really knows for sure why, and anyone who claims they do is just trying to spin the story to fit their preconceptions.

    1. Re:1999 data point is cherry picked by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Curiously, homicide rates also stopped the long-term decline around 2010 and started creeping up again. So average global temperature may actually be linked (violence and higher temperatures have been correlated in the past).

      This means that homicide increases are caused by the decline of high seas piracy. As ship security improves, people in dead-end careers see their Plan B slipping away from viability.

    2. Re:1999 data point is cherry picked by micahraleigh · · Score: 1

      Suicide rates climbing throughout the world as governments are expanding throughout the world ...

    3. Re:1999 data point is cherry picked by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So the reporter picked the lowest year to make it look like suicides are up because of Trump.

    4. Re: 1999 data point is cherry picked by mapkinase · · Score: 1

      No, you blatant lying imbecile, it was not a minimum, the previous couple if years were the aberration maximum. It's right there in the graph you linked. How stupid are you to kie so arrogantly, moron?

      --
      I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
  17. CDC itself contributes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    As the CDC itself issued 'guidelines' to essentially force doctors to stop giving opioid drugs even to people with chronic pain illnesses and conditions, many of these people are giving up and killing themselves because of the pain.

    This report isn't the CDC soberly discussing a disturbing trend. They're bragging at how effectively they themselves are helping cull people from the Social Security and disability payments lists, thus helping their government masters kick the can down the road a bit more.

    When the CDC sticks to actual infectious disease, they're some of the best. Anything else, they're one of the evilest parts of the whole fucking federal government.

    1. Re:CDC itself contributes by swb · · Score: 2

      So the CDC is stuck between a rock and a hard place.

      There's very little serious infectious disease in the US, and those diseases that remain are low-level and stubborn to eliminate. They can chase short-term outbreaks (E. Coli and other food-borne pathogens) and predict potential apocalypse from new pandemics, but other than that they're forced to redefine non-pathogenic problems as "public health crises" and suggest social engineering solutions.

    2. Re:CDC itself contributes by Ryanrule · · Score: 3, Insightful

      opioids are shit for long term pain. you just want your heroin fix.

    3. Re:CDC itself contributes by DogDude · · Score: 1

      'guidelines' to essentially force

      That doesn't make sense. How do guidelines "essentially force" anything? By definition, a guideline doesn't "force" anything.

      --
      I don't respond to AC's.
    4. Re:CDC itself contributes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The scare quotes around 'guidelines' are a strong hint that this is a cynical name, that the officials involved know how the guidelines will be applied.

    5. Re:CDC itself contributes by bobbied · · Score: 1

      opioids are shit for long term pain. you just want your heroin fix.

      That's BS...

      My wife took opioids for almost a decade for pain on an as needed basis. They where the only thing that helped her. She was so afraid of being addicted to them is was sad because she'd avoid taking them way too long an suffer greatly waiting for the medication to work. Lucky for us the pain issue has been dealt with because I shudder to think how bad it would be today trying to get the medication...

      I'm not saying that opioids are not dangerous, that some people don't have issues with them, but I am saying that they WORK for some people who are unable to take anything else and if you really are in chronic pain, they are not always addictive. Now prescribing them for a toothache is stupid, but chronic pain suffers and their doctors should have the option.

      --
      "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
    6. Re:CDC itself contributes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Spoken by someone who doesn't have a long-term pain condition.

      Yes, opioids are a shitty treatment. Unfortunately, for some things they're the only remotely effective solution. Some members of my family have had wonderous results from nerve ablation procedures. But that only works for some types of pain in certain areas of the body. Some types of neuropathic pain can be well treated with non-habit forming medications. Even then, not everyone tolerates those medications well and are worse off on them then they are without.

      Yeah, they are a shit treatment for long-term pain. But until we figure out a different way to mess with that particular part of the nervous system, they remain the only remotely effective treatment for several classes of condition. Not everything can be helped with ibuprophen and deep breathing exercises.

    7. Re:CDC itself contributes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Pretty easily. The CDC doesn't enforce anything, they just draw up guidelines. Now, if you happen to be a doctor who happens to be prescribing against the CDC guidelines, you have nothing to worry about from the CDC. The DEA, however, will build a pretty good case against you for distributing and trafficking. Their primary 'evidence' will be you not following those guidelines. Now, tell me with a straight face that when a federal agency tells a judge or jury that you're acting against CDC guidelines and you should be criminally charged and have your medical license revoked, that that does not somehow constitute 'essentially force'.

    8. Re:CDC itself contributes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If doctors don't follow the guideline, the DEA will label them a 'pill mill', raid their offices, and take their license to practice.

    9. Re:CDC itself contributes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The doctors who have spread that lie own and run one of the largest 'rehab' chains in the country. Of all those people who can't get legal drugs to control their pain anymore, some will turn in desperation to street drugs. A lot of them will get caught, and be sentenced to rehab. More money for the doctors.

    10. Re:CDC itself contributes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > There's very little serious infectious disease in the US,

      Nonsense. Ordinary cold and flue, while better managed than in many nations, are still chronic issues among the poor and elderly. AIDS may get a lot of press, but it's tiny fraction of the risk of variations of hepatitis. Antibiotic resistant superbugs are on the rise, many forms of cancer have a viral component, and polio is on the upswing due to various anti-vaxxers around the world.

      If you want to see rampant infectious disease, visit an ER where very poor people attend, or an underfunded nursing home.

    11. Re:CDC itself contributes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      opioids are shit for long term pain. you just want your heroin fix.

      This is the mentality of a true moron. It's easy to get heroin if someone wants it. FAR easier than opioids. The common addiction path is prescription opioids -> black market prescription opioids once they are no longer prescribed -> heroin because black market pills are much more expensive. Seriously, that's just common knowledge for anyone actually following what's happening not to mention common sense. Since you clearly don't know what you're talking about your opinion is worthless. You should really keep quiet and let the educated grownups talk.

    12. Re:CDC itself contributes by swb · · Score: 1

      Every infectious disease, unless it can be wiped out like smallpox, will have stubborn reservoirs, like iimpoverished populations, where no amount of mainstream public health awareness will help. It's a 99%/1% situation, where eliminating the last 1% literally takes 99% of the larger cost, effort and time.

      This isn't to say that the CDC should close its doors, even low level but persistent work on these kinds of diseases is worthwhile, especially if they could spike up.

      But it's not 1925 anymore where major pathogenic diseases like cholera, malaria, smallpox, typhus were a real public health hazard and where public health initiatives provided significant and valuable increases in public health.

      It's more like the fight against smoking. At least where I live, the major public health initiatives against smoking have cut smoking so drastically it's almost a non-problem in terms of general public health. With the main work completed, now anti-smoking activists are bearing down on the stubborn reservoirs with increasingly onerous and paternalistic social engineering -- like banning menthols. Why ban menthols? Smoking rates remain stubbornly high among poor black people and they like menthols more than white people, and its a way of social engineering their goal among a population that won't listen to their public health message.

      The CDC is the same way -- the big jobs are done for the most part, and now they're looking for new ways to define existing problems as "public health" issues so that they can pursue "solutions" and remain relevant. If the other issues (new polio outbreaks, MRSA, etc) are such big problems, why is the CDC devoting manpower and money to non-pathogenic social "diseases" like gun violence? Either there's not much they can do about the existing pathogenic problems or they're just looking for relevance.

  18. Probably more reasons now by Tangential · · Score: 1

    The article says that suicide rate increases have traditionally correlated with economic downturns but I wonder how much incremental impact the isolating effect of social media has now had on the rates? Along with the isolation social media also enables more intense bullying that also drives some to suicide. Between this and the fact that our new ânormalâ(TM) economy just isnâ(TM)t that great could this increase be just a bump to a new normal?

    --
    Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of congress. But then I repeat myself. -- Mark Twain
  19. Divorce/Retirement by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Divorced twice, retirement funds minimal. When it’s time to retire, I’ll retire the body.

  20. Re:Banned Bibles & but have guns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But black women don't get nearly as many abortions as white women.

  21. This just in... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Anthony Bourdain was just found dead in Paris, apparently a suicide...

    1. Re:This just in... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Does that mean that CNN will stop showing that stupid show? If I turn to a new network, I expect to see news.

    2. Re:This just in... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I expect to see news.

      On CNN? News? Um... Well, if you consider a hooker named Stormy worthy of being "news" for 6 weeks...

  22. Famous dude ded by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Anthony Bourdain just necked himself.

    1. Re:Famous dude ded by jfdavis668 · · Score: 1

      Just read that. Timely /. post.

  23. So? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    A quick check of older data shows that suicide rates, even though up 30% since the turn of the century, are about the same as a century ago.

    And well below the peak 90 years ago.

    So, it's regressing to the mean - big deal, right?

    This isn't some natural phenomena that just happens. These are people making the choice to off themselves. The suicide rate should be going to zero.

    And the fact that it's going back up is indicative of some underlying problem that shouldn't be ignored.

  24. Since mostly men die from suicide... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Since mostly men die from suicide, as with most problems that primarily affect men, society will see the problem as just the way things are, like dying in coal mines and war, and not help.

    If suicide rates in women rise, which no one wants, we'll see resources devoted to help, even when those rates are far below men's, just as women entering medicine led medical schools to address safety issues like working hours that had long injured men.

    1. Re:Since mostly men die from suicide... by Cederic · · Score: 1

      we'll see resources devoted to help

      Cynically I don't just think you're right, I think the resources will be targeted to women too.

  25. Is there a correlation with drug use worth examini by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Drug use and overdose rates are up (significantly affecting White Americans than other groups).
    White males are also disproportionately showing increased rates for suicide.

    This is a trend for the last few years, we need to better understand the warning signs.

  26. Sense, meaning and enthusiasm are essential by Qbertino · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Sense and enthusiasm are essential for a happy life. In a world transitioning though cyberpunk into post-scarcity faster than any science fiction writer could've ever imagined, sense, meaning and enthusiasm are constantly upended and revised.

    These are not easy times. I was suicidal for a bit 6 years back. Luckily I though about what that would do to my daughter and pulled myself out of my rut of over-emphasised self-importance that often is the cause of 1st world depression and went to work to be useful to my loved ones. I bounced back pretty quick and once again these days life is awesome again. Best sex ever, neat job, webdev in high demand and - most importantly - I'm more resilient and prepared for the next slump and emotional downer.

    I recommend stoicism as a life philosophy. Get's you though tough times very neatly and helps you focus on the real things. No religion needed.

    My 2 cents.

    --
    We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
    1. Re: Sense, meaning and enthusiasm are essential by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Curiosity also seems to help, at least for me...

    2. Re:Sense, meaning and enthusiasm are essential by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm not saying this to be offensive, but to provide another point a view. Many of those who do go and kill themselves would have looked at their daughter and thought "she'll have a better life without me" and then killed themselves regardless of if it was true or not. To them, it was true. So it doesn't sound like you were deeply depressed, only averagely depressed.

    3. Re:Sense, meaning and enthusiasm are essential by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Marcus Aurelius, is that you?

    4. Re: Sense, meaning and enthusiasm are essential by Qbertino · · Score: 1

      My very beautiful cute and sexy girlfriend left me, I lost my job, got kicked out of my very nice condo and had to realise that I couldn't do 16 hours a day working and studying comp sci at Germany's toughest comp sci university. All within the span of a few weeks. So yeah, you could call it an episode and not clinical depression but it was very tough. When you fall into a coma after a regular workday of 16 hours and still wake up from deep sleep with a panic attack at 2 o'clock in the morning and get the warmest feeling when you ponder killing yourself, you know things are pretty fucked up and you'd better find a turnaround. Like, fast.

      As I said, luckily I did. Being a stoic and having read 4hww, Alan watts and Seneca before did help me though. Big time.

      This is not comparable with hardened clinical depression, I'm very well aware of that. That can kill you quickly and there's little to do other than have yourself monitored 24/7 and get treatment.

      --
      We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
    5. Re:Sense, meaning and enthusiasm are essential by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Stoicism as a life philosophy sounds a bit much like the destructive "suck it up and be a man" mantra that has held back the emotional growth of men for centuries.

    6. Re: Sense, meaning and enthusiasm are essential by mapkinase · · Score: 1

      Stoicism is based just on a human thought, that makes it questionable, every day, and by the very same person who adheres to it. Ergo, the person is going to lose it with much higher probability that a person who belives that he will go to the Hellfire for eternity if he commits suicide.

      --
      I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
    7. Re:Sense, meaning and enthusiasm are essential by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We are not transitioning into a cyberpunk post-scarcity economy. You are being delusional. Eliminating fossil fuels will make energy very scarce and expensive. The cheap inexpensive "green energy" you've been sold is a lie and will never happen. What will happen is the rich and the government aristocrats will have it and you won't. Furthermore the future economy will be crippled by globalization, austerity, a declining tax base due to steep decline in population of the high skilled, highly educated native population and is being replaced by unskilled, uneducated immigrants from countries who's values contradict yours.

      Want to see your future? Go to a third world slum flled with poverty and starvation. That is the future being planned for you. You are going to need your Stoicism.

      For a Stoic you basing your current state of happiness on your sex life and job shows you don't know much about Stoicism either.

  27. "We suffer more in imagination ... by Qbertino · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ... than in realtiy." - Seneca

    "You can make yourself miserable or you can make yourself happy. The amount of effort is the same." - Carlos Castaneda

    Stoicism. Beats religion and any other philosophy any time, hands down.

    --
    We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
    1. Re:"We suffer more in imagination ... by jfdavis668 · · Score: 2

      Sarcasm beats stoicism hands down.

    2. Re:"We suffer more in imagination ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ... than in realtiy." - Seneca

      "You can make yourself miserable or you can make yourself happy. The amount of effort is the same." - Carlos Castaneda

      Stoicism. Beats religion and any other philosophy any time, hands down.

      easy for you to say, you're probably wealthy, compared to most people. Makes it easy to be stoic and dismissive. Like all you overly-affluent types, it's blame the victim. Go ahead, pretend it's not your fault so you can continue to act as if you have a clear conscience. Remember that actions speak louder than words and you will see that in this age of consequences how the rich are broadcasting their selfishness, greed and irresponsibility. The obvious truth is rich people don't care how many poor people are suffering, just as long as they stay rich which is exactly how the world arrived at its present level of social injustice. The main concept here is denial. Clearly the upper class is in complete denial about how corrupt and evil they've become.

    3. Re:"We suffer more in imagination ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I personally think that Philosophical Pessimism (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pessimism#Philosophical_pessimism) is the superior philosophy.. Schopenhauer was a genius.

    4. Re:"We suffer more in imagination ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I can just imagine Marcus Aurelius bashing religion to tout the virtues of stoicism... Good job, Skippy.

      And I say this as a non-theist.

    5. Re:"We suffer more in imagination ... by houghi · · Score: 2

      I beat sarcasts down with my hands.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    6. Re: "We suffer more in imagination ... by Qbertino · · Score: 1

      I'm a minimalist and live not much different than my brother who's had homeless episodes in the last two decades. My recent hardware is a refurbished ThinkPad for 200 euros and my sneakers t-shirts and jeans are off-brand bargain deals. I've been riding the bike and of for all my life, never owned a car even when it wasn't hip not to have one. I work part time and live in a 35 square metre apartment.

      I'm anything but rich. At least money wise. My wealth is my education.

      So you got it wrong.

      --
      We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
    7. Re: "We suffer more in imagination ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bullpussy.

      "Best sex ever, neat job, webdev in high demand "

      Webdevs make good money in every country. Even if you live minimalist, you're solidly lower middle class.

  28. Sad news ... Anthony Bourdain, dead at 61 by slashdice · · Score: 0

    I just heard some sad news on talk radio - Chef/Writer/TV Personality Anthony Bourdain was found dead in his New York City apartment this morning. There weren't any more details. I'm sure everyone in the Slashdot community will miss him - even if you didn't enjoy his work, there's no denying his contributions to popular culture. Truly an American icon.

    --
    Copyright (c) 1990 - 2014 Dice. All rights reserved. Use of this comment is subject to certain Terms and Conditions.
    1. Re:Sad news ... Anthony Bourdain, dead at 61 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually he hung himself in France.

    2. Re:Sad news ... Anthony Bourdain, dead at 61 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ...of suicide...

    3. Re:Sad news ... Anthony Bourdain, dead at 61 by PPH · · Score: 1

      It was something he ate.

      Too soon?

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
    4. Re:Sad news ... Anthony Bourdain, dead at 61 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Way too soon. Totally wrong.

    5. Re:Sad news ... Anthony Bourdain, dead at 61 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I wonder if this was one of those kinky sex hangings or just a good old goodbye.

  29. Prescribed Drug Side Effects by omfglearntoplay · · Score: 1

    What are the side effects of anti-depressants? Suicide. Why are we over prescribing this and everything else in the US? People need to stop taking drugs if the side effects are DEATH.

    1. Re:Prescribed Drug Side Effects by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're a fucking moron. So gee, people who are prescribed drugs for depression are more likely to commit suicide than the general population. Maybe the drugs work and cut the suicide rate among depressed people in half actually saving lives but they aren't perfect so the suicide rate is still higher than the normal population.

      Cholesterol pills have death as a side effect, they do kill some people. But a lot more people would die of high-cholesteral related disease if they didn't take the pills. So by your logic people shouldn't take those either.

      You're so fucking stupid, you need ot just fuck off and die for the good of society.

    2. Re:Prescribed Drug Side Effects by F.Ultra · · Score: 1

      For many of the users the effect of not taking the drugs are also suicide.

  30. They forgot a reason by nehumanuscrede · · Score: 2

    Veterans are killing themselves in significant numbers.

    Likely due to the persistent conflicts the US has participated in since Desert Storm kicked off in the 90's.

  31. In possibly related news.... by mark-t · · Score: 1

    Coincidence? You decide

    Yeah, I'm a cynic.

  32. Come on guys! by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 2

    If we try really hard, I'm sure we can get that up to 100%!

    --
    #DeleteFacebook
    1. Re:Come on guys! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The environmentalists and SJW have something to celebrate. Less CO2, less global climate change, fewer members of the white patriarchy, etc.

      Humanity is a macrocosm of the human body. Just like a human body, that has been raised in a sterile environment will start attacking itself with allergies, humanity without any real conflicts will make up conflicts to keep itself busy. Hence the global concern over global warming, terrorism, white privilege, child abuse, etc.

      In order to fix the problem, we need to reintroduce packs of feral tigers into the cities, and ban all guns.

  33. Fuck Hollywood by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Also since 1999, movies and TV are so disgusting, miserable, and cynical. Everything is so dark, negative, and depressing. Vile people in dysfunctional relationships (personal, social, professional, or family). Everything's a mess, we're all fucked. The government exist only to screw us over. It's enough to drive anyone to suicide.

    But those social justice wingnuts making the trash will never admit it, they've convinced themselves that everything the do is a magical force for positive social change.

    In 1999 star trek was still a positive message about a utopian future, not the disgusting dark dystopia it is today.

    1. Re:Fuck Hollywood by eaglesrule · · Score: 1

      In 1999 star trek was still a positive message about a utopian future, not the disgusting dark dystopia it is today.

      At least there is a second season of Orville to look forward to. It may even stave off my own untimely demise. :)

  34. Dude, you're killing me.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

    From the results of your own link:

    Analyses at the community level are significantly more likely to demonstrate lower rates of suicide among higher socio-economic areas than studies using larger areas of aggregation. Measures of area poverty and deprivation are most likely to be inversely associated with suicide rates and median income is least likely to be inversely associated with suicide rates. Analyses using measures of unemployment and education and occupation were equally likely to demonstrate inverse associations.

    And the Conclusion:

    Resources for suicide prevention should be targeted to high poverty/deprivation and high unemployment areas.

  35. Social Engineering by jamlam · · Score: 5, Insightful

    We've spent the last 50 years "deconstructing the pillars of society" that pretty much everyone adhered to up until then. As an engineer, I'm wondering if anyone ever checked to see what they were holding up.

    1. Re:Social Engineering by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      One of the big reasons cited for supporting LBGQT is to reduce suicide in that population.

      But the rates have only gone up (and drastically).

    2. Re:Social Engineering by Cederic · · Score: 1

      I'd be interested in seeing the sources for that trend. I'm aware that transexual suicide rates are horribly high relative to the general population but I don't know whether that's historically the case or not.

    3. Re:Social Engineering by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh. You mean the "Pillars of Society" that you can just randomly name because they don't and never have actually existed in any tangible form?

      Shithead

    4. Re:Social Engineering by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm aware that transexual suicide rates are horribly high relative to the general population but I don't know whether that's historically the case or not.

      Post transition suicide rates are higher. No one has legitimate historical data. In the past trans people hid their whole lives, so reconstruct the past with that information as you will.

    5. Re:Social Engineering by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We've spent the last 50 years "deconstructing the pillars of society" that pretty much everyone adhered to up until then. As an engineer, I'm wondering if anyone ever checked to see what they were holding up.

      The people who, in high school terms, threw people like us in lockers and rufied the cheerleaders.

      But you knew that.

  36. Evil uses of technology contributes to this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Cameras watching you on the street even from buses, stop lights, Windows 10 & google phones forcibly spying on you (Why does location services need to be turned on for bluetooth and wifi again???), you can't enjoy a television show or web surfing without your eyes being force-fucked ads, license plate readers, facial recognition (In China, it will alert a human if you go to another neighborhood that you've never been to), China's social score system. The US is starting to implement evil-use technology at an alarming rate. This is only one component as we are more isolated than ever.

    All of these things that China and UK have done to forcibly spying on innocent people will create anxiety. There are people who say yeah yeah, I'm not doing anything wrong so I have nothing to worry about. The problem is that surveillance opens up all actions, even innocent open to interpretation and that will lead to false charges.

  37. Obligatory Family Guy by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1
    --
    #DeleteFacebook
  38. um, no by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 2

    This doesn't change the fact that clinical depression is the chief driver of suicide.

    Most of us cling tenaciously to life, no matter how much things suck. We all have negative things happen to us; most of us do not react by taking to our beds or deciding that everything is hopeless. It's not the external event; it's the resilience against it. (A good popular work on this is Against Depression, by Peter Kramer.)

    As others have pointed out, suicide rates were higher 90 years ago.

    Stop trying to make everything about politics.

  39. It's hard to be poor and getting poorer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    did you really think that exploiting people doesn't have consequences? When the upper class cheats and steals from the lower classes, they destroy lives. It's corruption and it's evil. People need to retake their economy, and government, back from the rich greedy selfish and irresponsible thieves who have stolen it away.

  40. Sometimes it is just time to move on by trevc · · Score: 1

    People should have the right to end their own life when they chose to. I think there comes a point where many people think 'I have had a full life, I am getting older, I don't want to deal with aches and pains, reduced mental capacity, the inability to do the things I enjoy. I want to go on my own terms.'. It doesn't have to be linked to depression- - it's just a decision based on a realization.

    1. Re:Sometimes it is just time to move on by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A lot of the kind of suicide you're talking about doesn't even get included in the numbers, because people outside close family and medical staff don't know.

  41. You might rethink stoicism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Best plan of all is to have some meaning and purpose in life, so that as our rapidly devolving culture continues to decay, you have something to hang onto. But that meaning and purpose can't be all about you either. It can't be the self-centered, keep-me-entertained-24/7 thing that Hollywood and the media in general push on us.

    (P.S. Stoicism might work for a while, but I was never closer to ending it all when I was at my most stoical.)

  42. Rich and Poor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    The division between the rich and poor, is without a question, worse than it was in 1999.

    The rich are the one's offing themselves.

    1. Re:Rich and Poor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The rich are the one's offing themselves.

      The rich are the only ones that are getting any sort of coverage on this. What about the untold stories of the thousands, upon thousands that are not told, and do not get a front and center headline on the news channels or the newspaper.

      You only know about the few rich offing themselves off, because you are unaware of the thousands of others that have.

    2. Re:Rich and Poor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you want to get all pedantic and shit, the real question is which group is seeing the increase, if it's is not across the board?

      The you have to answer why people with everything going for them decide to hang themselves. If the assertion is that people are killing themselves because life sucks, you need to explain Bourdain and Spade, etc.

      Even if you stipulate that things are, "fucked up", it wasn't fucked up for those people.

    3. Re: Rich and Poor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What's weirder is around me they just never mention the cause.

    4. Re: Rich and Poor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Its the wickedness and cynicism out of the bankster centers and their Marxist tools. "Deplorables" etc

      You must be strong to carry on despite these devils running the show.

  43. Substance abuse by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    All of the other factors would be more manageable if drug use wasn't so prevalent, and not just street drugs, but prescription drugs as well. An awful lot of people, including young children, are basically walking around high all the time. That distorts everything, particularly in drugs that work directly on the brain. Big Pharma and the AMA have had a huge hand in propagating all of this. The non-parenting of the past 25 or so years hasn't helped, either. Not knowing we have options even in our thinking due to negligence (yes, helipcoptering is actually a form of neglect) or substances or both creates a narrow path, indeed. We can still turn it around, but the actual causes must be addressed rather than the symptoms.

  44. Its your right to carry a suicide by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Its not suicide that kills people, its mental health. Oh wait.

    A really simple solution to this problem is more suicide. If you dont protect yourself by carrying your own suicide as laid out by the 22882th amendment then you're just a victim. You don't want to be a victim do you? For maximum protection I recommend the extended pill bottle that has a concoction of America's best and most dangerous drugs; don't have healthcare? Well, there's always the $2 razor blades at walmart.

    I wish I could say I was joking but I'm not. I've just adapted the above to the local gun nuts logic.

  45. MADA by NotFamous · · Score: 1

    Make America Dead Again.

    --
    Some settling may occur during posting.
  46. It is / was their decistion. by Blinkin1200 · · Score: 2

    You should respect their wishes.

    1. Re:It is / was their decistion. by aicrules · · Score: 1

      To some extent I agree. But if there is something about society that could be changed, willingly, that would make people less likely to make that choice, then I might be for it. If the cause is external, why can't the solution be external?

  47. That Correlates by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    With the release Windows 98. Where do you want to go today?

  48. Finally they are doing something with their life! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Throwing things away makes for a clean new start.

  49. Re:Spare me the knee-jerk response..... by F.Ultra · · Score: 1

    So you found one case out of 40k and that should somehow be proof for why the rest of them commited suicide?

  50. Social cost by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

    The wife and I were talking just the other day about how even people who are 'struggling' in TV shows seem to be able to afford wonderful New York apartments. The people in the dingy apartments are always the bad guys, or the people with alcohol issues, or whatever. Furthermore, these characters are always well dressed, even though the joke is they have a shitty job. People move away from their support structure in search of this image of the American dream, to more condensed places where proper lodging is even more unattainable. This is the cost.

    --
    Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    1. Re:Social cost by fluffernutter · · Score: 2

      Another thought.. recent Slashdot article indicating there are more open jobs then people to fill them, yet many comments indicating that it is still a struggle out there. That's kind of a brain fuck in itself.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    2. Re:Social cost by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Jerry Seinfeld lived in a fairly modest apartment, where the kitchen was just a corner of the living room. It just looks big on camera due to wide-angle lenses (and the fact that the rooms only have 3 walls).

      The Friends characters lived in a rent-controlled aparement that they inherited from a grandmother.

      I'm sure there are many more examples I can't think of right now, but I think you're confusing "poor" with "struggling".

      dom

    3. Re:Social cost by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There are lots of "jobs". There's not as many actual jobs, though.

    4. Re:Social cost by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      Right, so media outlets tell us "life is great!" and then it's not....

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    5. Re:Social cost by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      How many people can afford Seinfeld's apartment as a comedian or any kind of performance art as an only source of income? This is not reality. Furthermore, I know about the Friends backstory, but it doesn't matter. People see TV characters living a certain lifestyle and they want that for themselves, and become disappointed when it cannot be attained.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    6. Re:Social cost by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      Kids grow up thinking their life will be a movie.

      It's a shock when they realize it won't happen. In my generation, that happened in middle school, about the time you got your first shit job.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  51. Thanks to the Clintons by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If you omit those that have dared to oppose the Clintons, rates are probably down.

  52. Massachusetts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Western Massachusetts must have high rates too. Gone are nine out of ten inhabitants from two decades ago. Those people are replaced with southern black school children who appear and dissappear depending on how safe it is for them. All hail verizon. And have fun on the bike path in Spring Hill Florida. Thats where people go to get their ass whooped. Right. l0pht number too

  53. Remember the rule of three... by The+Fat+Bastard · · Score: 1

    Kate Spade and Anthoney Bourdain committed suicide this week. Who is the next celebrity suicide?

    1. Re:Remember the rule of three... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is C.D. Reimer a celebrity, and is death by atherosclerosis a suicide?

    2. Re:Remember the rule of three... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      C.D. Reimer died last year. Be sensititive, you insensitive clod!

    3. Re:Remember the rule of three... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That happened two weeks ago, but the extremely famous woman who did it survived. The press reported the resultant hospitalization as a routine kidney operation, which, I guess, isn't 100% false.

    4. Re:Remember the rule of three... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0


      Somebody please mod this fucking crap down!

      creimer's child bride retired military buddy suggested to him to "hide in plain sight" so creimer picked up "The Fat Bastard" as his new sock puppet user name!

  54. The Total Perspective Vortex by jellomizer · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Douglas Adams wrote for the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy Radio Series (First) About this torture device called the Total Perspective Vortex. Which simply showed your place in the universe. Causing the victim to die a painful death, on realizing how insignificant they are in the perspective of the entire universe.

    I expect a similar and much smaller scale effect is happening with access to the internet, and a flood of 24 hour news showing how tiny you are, and how little impact that you are doing to anything is depressing.

    Back before all this or when it just started. You could be the big man in your town, the Sports Star, the business owner, the guy with a Masters or a Doctorate. Your society as relatively small, events outside you world were shown in small doses often censored to keep up with your sensibilities. Sure you may get called off to War, but you knew you part of the good guys. There are complex problems, we knew they were "Egg Heads" working on them and their solutions will fix things. But you knew your place in the world, chances are you are doing better then your parents, you have stuff that society says that you should have. You feel good about yourself.

    Now being the local expert isn't a big deal, because anyone will google the answer, or watch the real pros play. Local news is mostly limited to the Weather and Traffic. All the problems of the world have half of the people blaming you/your ideals/your life style as the problem. The so called Experts show they don't have as a full grasp as you believed and can only do so much....

    For me to find meaning in my life, I often need to cut myself off from the media. just because it is too much.

    --
    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    1. Re:The Total Perspective Vortex by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 1

      There's something to this. Whenever my friends complain that the wrong person got elected to national/state office, I ask them what they have done it their local community lately. You can own/influence a piece of the sandbox, but you need to pick the right one (e.g., place to live).

    2. Re:The Total Perspective Vortex by AbRASiON · · Score: 1

      Insightful, thanks. Makes a lot of sense.

    3. Re:The Total Perspective Vortex by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't know about that. The ratio of big men to smaller men has always been pretty stark. If you can't be a shlub in a big town, how much better is it really to be a shlub in a small town?

    4. Re:The Total Perspective Vortex by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Stop defending nazis. Your ideals can very well be the source of a majority of problems. Look at israel vs palestine.

  55. snowflakes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    snowflake liberals cant cope with reality when they get out of their echo chamber

  56. Suicide is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    the sincerest form of self-criticism.

  57. Character Flaws by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is going to continue as long as mental illness is considered a character flaw rather than an illness

  58. Why not? by fish_in_the_c · · Score: 1

    If you don't believe in God , what cause can you have for any real hope and why not off yourself when life becomes inconvenient.
    It makes perfect sense that as a society when we stop believing in God and treat human life as nothing more important then any other animal life , people loose hope and start killing themselves, and others. If you don't think the rise in crime and school shootings are also related , think again. Most of the shooters were also suicidal as evidenced by there lack of any exit strategy yet having well planned entry. Suicide by cop and why not take some of the other who cause pain with you.
    IF there is no God , what difference does any of it make, if your in pain, what reactions seems best, The conclusion is quite logically and fact based, even though for some reason people always posit mental illness. Of coarse the DSM list ( an overdeveloped sense of reality) as a cause of depression, so... there's that.

    Of coarse that is one of the things I love about being a Catholic, there is no other philosophy in the world that allows you to make use of every suffering weather big or small. Nothing need be wasted and all life and all suffering has value. Of coarse that makes no sense unless you first believe, still, it is a way of life that brings me great joy in the face of what is beyond my control, even if it involves great suffering.

    --
    âoeTolerance applies only to persons, but never to truth. Intolerance applies only to truth, but never to persons.
    1. Re:Why not? by GuB-42 · · Score: 1

      If you don't believe in God , what cause can you have for any real hope and why not off yourself when life becomes inconvenient.

      Survival instinct. It is not a choice, we are hard-wired to survive, and the amount of suffering humans can endure and still cling to life is astonishing.
      As for hope, I am an atheist and I still have great hope in humanity. Human history is a story of solving impossible problems, there is no reason for it to stop. Global warming, nuclear proliferation, political unrest... meh, minor setbacks at worst.

      But that's my opinion. If you are a Catholic and it makes you a better, happier person, then don't lose your faith.

    2. Re:Why not? by fish_in_the_c · · Score: 1

      fair enough. Survival instinct is not 'reasonable' though. There are far too many people out there who claim to be living 'rationally' and 'scientifically' ( not to mention using those terms as a way to be derogatory to people who have faith) and as I think you very aptly pointed out , are doing nothing like it, they live almost entirely by instinct, with very little actual thought behind their actions. Not that I have anything against atheist , but if you don't believe and live only by what you feel, own it and stop trying to claim you are doing something else ;)

      --
      âoeTolerance applies only to persons, but never to truth. Intolerance applies only to truth, but never to persons.
    3. Re:Why not? by dddux · · Score: 1

      Just kill yourself. We will be much better off without you. Yeah, I've got nothing more to say to people who think if you don't believe in fairies you are a bad person. You go to my foes list.

      --
      "It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." - Jiddu Krishnamurti
    4. Re:Why not? by dddux · · Score: 1

      I also have great hope for humanity, especially without any fairies involved. They only make things worse.

      --
      "It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." - Jiddu Krishnamurti
    5. Re:Why not? by dddux · · Score: 1

      Let me ask you this: how old is the Earth? ;)

      --
      "It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." - Jiddu Krishnamurti
    6. Re:Why not? by fish_in_the_c · · Score: 1

      wikipedia lists it as 4.54 ± 0.05 billion years (4.54 × 109 years ± 1%) . I can't really say myself that I have on opinion beyond that because I haven't reviewed the method and data , but I don't have any reason to think the experts who study such things are intentionally making a mistake.

      --
      âoeTolerance applies only to persons, but never to truth. Intolerance applies only to truth, but never to persons.
  59. Shocking by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So you're telling me that mental illness has increased dramatically in the past two decades? I couldn't tell with all the people who can't even tell what gender they are, or pedophiles running for political office. I guess all that stuff's been fooling me into thinking everything's been copacetic.

  60. In addition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There's a lot of truth in that blog but unfortunately no one cares.

    1. Re:In addition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yea - I find myself asking the basic question: "The institution of marriage is dying. However, is it worth saving?" Marriage provides stability for children, but it is serves very little other practical function. Its cost-saving benefits can be had with roommates, and the sexual benefits once reserved exclusively for "in love" (and/or married) couples seem to be had cheaply elsewhere. My re-entry into the dating world in 2011 made it abundantly clear that loveless sex was commonplace, as I was *refusing* blowjobs on first dates (Why would any self-respecting girl blow a guy she met today? Why would any self-respecting man bed a woman just because she offered? Is morality dead?).

      That said, many modern men are simply adrift. The answers were clearer in days of old:
      "Why should I move out of my parents house?" "To attract a woman with which to mate."
      "Why should I work hard at my job?" "Because your wife does not work, and family needs you to do so in order to eat and stay warm."
      "Why should I be a good person?" "So that your social community will respect, rather than shun, you."

      We are seeing today's youth (which I am barely not in) "fail to launch", but there are real societal questions here on whether "launching" is *good*. Young women are seeking career paths and wealth, rather than husbands and motherhood. They stay at home longer in order to reach these goals. Young men don't know what to seek (wealth?), as sex has become either cheap (top 20%) or out of reach (bottom 80%). Why should they work hard? At what? Why? Who cares?

      I'm in an upper-middle class (if not upper) social circle. My female friends (among whom advanced degrees are commonplace) struggle to find "marriage material" males, and they are all looking to "marry up". That said, the pool of men who are a) unmarried, b) financially successful, c) in their 30s, d) with an advanced degree, e) seeking marriage is close to 0. Add in a death blow like "black", "in shape", or "reasonably attractive", and it *is* 0. To a one, they have had to settle - the COO of an HR company with a part-time car mechanic, the executive at a VR startup with a tile-layer, a Physician's Assistant with her own practice with some unemployed (but in shape) guy.

      There are serious storm clouds on the horizon, and the suicide rate is only part of the coming wave. On an individual level, the answer is clear - learn Game, lift heavy, kick ass at work, and embrace the hedonistic lifestyle of food, travel, and cheap sex; no reason to take a girl along, there will be girls where you are going. That said - what will it mean for society when the family collapses? What of the people that *don't* want hedonism, and get trashed in divorce court? What of the bottom 80% that get left with nothing?

  61. Not surprising. by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 1

    The world has not only gotten quite a bit shittier in the last 20 years or so, but we've got the Internet now, which means you have orders of magnitude more sources and volume of information available at the click of a mouse button to show you how shitty the world is, so it's no big surprise that more people would fail their morale check and decide to check out early on life.

  62. Yeah, this isn't mysterious. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You tell people how much they suck and they'll kill themselves

    You tell people all there is in life is XYZ, they get there and find nothing, they'll kill themselves

    You tell people life is pointless and thst living is pain, they'll kill themselves

    Men, celebrities, depressed people

  63. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 1

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  64. lithium! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's lack of lithium I would bet.
    With everyone moving away from well water or minimally treated surface water to highly filter water either in bottles, water coolers or provided by municipal systems people are getting less lithium than they were.

    Lithium in low doses is naturally occurring in many/most natural water sources all over the world.

    This is like a reverse of the removal of lead from gasoline. (Removing lead from gas led to a huge reduction in crime and mental problems.)

    https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/14/opinion/sunday/should-we-all-take-a-bit-of-lithium.html
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2017/08/23/adding-lithium-tap-water-could-prevent-thousands-dementia-cases/

  65. Re:Spare me the knee-jerk response..... by micahraleigh · · Score: 1

    Anthony Bourdan

  66. Some very by wolfheart111 · · Score: 1

    Environmentally conscious people... :)

    --
    [($)]
  67. Re:Spare me the knee-jerk response..... by oldmac31310 · · Score: 1

    Bourdain

    --
    http://www.acetonestudio.com
  68. Having faith is really about lacking perspective. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    as a way to be derogatory to people who have faith

    Your faith isn't something that you possess over someone the lacks it faith. Faith is a negative property, to possess it is to be less. It is submission. It is reliance on a fantasy. And it amounts to gambling your life on pure chance.

    I don't need to treat you like garbage just because you're different than me. Because we should respect your neighbors. But I'm certainly not going to put you and your religion on a pedestal for believing in backwards nonsense.

  69. Atheism "winning" by mapkinase · · Score: 1

    That's why

    --
    I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
  70. Re:Spare me the knee-jerk response..... by F.Ultra · · Score: 1

    So now you have only 39998 cases left to explain then. I guess that they are all wealthy celebrities.

  71. Don't try suicide by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Nobody cares

    1. Re:Don't try suicide by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's worse than that. Nobody ever has cared, and nobody ever will care.

      The best you can hope for (ha! 'hope', yeah right) from other humans is indifference. What you'll usually get is hate, and they will kill you if they can. They laugh at your suffering, and delight in your agony.

      The aborted are the lucky ones, as they were never cursed to be born.

      There probably isn't any kind of a god, but if there is, it hates us completely and utterly. Our screams must give it pleasure, our writhing must look so pretty to it.

      Existence is damnation, and life is a prison sentence for the crime of being. At least death will come, and end all, all.

  72. Which is worse? by TJHook3r · · Score: 1

    Relative wealth is much more important than absolute wealth when considering happiness. That is markedly worse.

  73. You forgot anti-depressants. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Which is popped like candy even by kids nowadays.

    While being a well-known and blatantly obvious cause of suicides (and mass-shootings).
    Because most people who suffer really badly, realize that there are far worse fates than death, at which point death become a relieving /reward/... but they simply fail at bring up the strength kill themselves too ... or others, for that matter.

    Until they get a prescription that gives them the strength to manage life anyway and give them the strength.

    This is well-known in the industry, but of course now it it far too late to admit it. Esp. with it being such a hugw profit-maker, now that the marketing worked its magic in schools and with fake magazines full of fake studiea aimed at doctors. (Remember that Elsevier/Merck scandal.)

  74. Re:Having faith is really about lacking perspectiv by fish_in_the_c · · Score: 1

    "Because we should respect your neighbors." -- why? you are making an ascertaining without evidence or reason, AND assuming other people will agree with you irrationally.

    Faith is a positive characteristic IF it is faith in what is TRUE , some people have faith that there are alian life forms ( which likely there are) some people also have faith they are common ( for which there is zero evidence for or against.)

    There are however mountains of evidence for the existence of the supernatural and a preponderance of the evidence ,in my opinion, for the existence of the Judaeo-Christian God. No faith that is worth having , is a faith based on anything other then evidence. Most people have faith in many things , because faith is a belief you have based partially supported by fact and contains a reasonable element of conjecture based on that fact, which is one of the reasons it is non-sense to take exception to other people who have not have the advantage of seeing the evidence you have reviewed and of understanding in correctly.

    On the other hand I will guarantee you you have faith in many things. Do atoms exists? unless you can do the experiment yourself to prove it or have seen the experiments with your own eyes, you are placing your faith in the words of others whom you trust who are have gathered and interpreted partial information from you.

    One of the advantages of faith in God is that everyone is able to take direct actions and experience the evidence for themselves without the use of expensive equipment. That is why proving God exists and proving water exist are similar. We believe such things through experience. Have you read any scientific papers lately proving water exists?

    --
    âoeTolerance applies only to persons, but never to truth. Intolerance applies only to truth, but never to persons.
  75. Re:Having faith is really about lacking perspectiv by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Faith is a positive characteristic IF it is faith in what is TRUE

    I'm sure everyone believes they follow the TRUE path.

    ... because faith is a belief you have based partially supported by fact ...

    This is wrong in so many ways. You follow a worm's religion. It is vitally important for you to try reading about Abraham and the sacrifice of Isaac. Keep reading it until you understand what faith meant to Abraham.

    On the other hand I will guarantee you you have faith in many things. Do atoms exists?

    Your assertion suffers from your faulty premise on the nature of faith. Atoms exists because we can detect them. Atoms are not indivisible even though we once thought they were. Science continuously updates our understanding of the world, it circles closer and closer to truth. But it would be foolish at any moment to claim that science has got things 100% right.

    Faith on the other hand is a belief in an immutable, permanent, and unerring truth.

    Have you read any scientific papers lately proving water exists?

    You're full of funny bullshit aren't you?

    And yes. Read about the holographic universe. Or the papers on the likelihood that we're living in a simulation.

    But what's more interesting are the philosophy essays on existence of the material world.

  76. Re:Having faith is really about lacking perspectiv by fish_in_the_c · · Score: 1

    "I'm sure everyone believes they follow the TRUE path."
    That may be , do you claim to be any different? It is non-sense at it's highest to claim you assert the truth that there is no truth.
    "You follow a worm's religion. It is vitally important for you to try reading about Abraham and the sacrifice of Isaac. Keep reading it until you understand what faith meant to Abraham." No I understand precisely what faith meant to Abraham.

    He believed that God is the cause of existence itself, that if he willed it We would cease to exist or even be erased from time , with just a thought.
    That God created all things and is the cause of what we call existence, or as stated later in the Pentateuch 'I am IAM'. He believed that because we are utterly dependent on God , we owe him every loyalty and that he will not fail to deliver what he prom sis because by his nature he cannot fail, nor promise what is untrue.

    The relevant question is weather or not what he believed was true? A persons response to reality presupposes it's truth. IF existence and truth are more then simply abstract concepts , illusions without any real meaning , then we owe a proper response to that reality. A person can 'want' or dislike any aspect of what is true , but that will not change what is true, nor will it change the fact that improper response to reality will have negative consequences. That of coarse is part of the difficulty that arises among human beings How best to negotiate our differences in our perception and exposure to the evidence around us.

    'Atoms exists because we can detect them.' -- no they most certainly do not. Atoms existed long before human beings climbed out of the slime of the earth ( or there would have been no slime) and will continue even if all human life is destroyed tomorrow. They exist because they 'are' it is our knowledge of them and our ability to gather data about them that has changes. Truth is independent of the existence of an observer.

    'Faith on the other hand is a belief in an immutable, permanent, and unerring truth' -- you and I disagree on this definition.

    let's look at the dictionary. http://www.wordcentral.com/cgi...

    I am using definition 3. you seem to be merging definition 3 and 2.
    Staying with definition 3, ANYTHING you believe in confidently is evidence of your specific faith.

    What a persons believes can and should changes as they gather more information and grow. The relationship between faith and belief being that we 'have faith in what we believe'. What I believe and understand about God has changed over my lifetime, not because God has changed, but because I have. What I believe about my mother has changed over my lifetime as well, because both of us have changed AND because I have greater capability to understand then I once did. Faith is not static, every religion changes and adapts to it's specific environment, the only question is weather or not what they teach is true. You may disagree, but unless you have reviewed the evidence for yourself you are again putting your faith in someone else's data.

    --
    âoeTolerance applies only to persons, but never to truth. Intolerance applies only to truth, but never to persons.
  77. Re:Having faith is really about lacking perspectiv by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What ridiculous filth this is. You're a troll pretending to be religious and it's offensive.

  78. Re: Having faith is really about lacking perspecti by fish_in_the_c · · Score: 1

    You are mistaken if you had read the writing of Pope Francis Benedict or John Paul the 2nd you would realize I am stating thing that are basic mainstream catholic thought

    --
    âoeTolerance applies only to persons, but never to truth. Intolerance applies only to truth, but never to persons.
  79. Re:Spare me the knee-jerk response..... by King_TJ · · Score: 1

    Thanks for completely missing my point ... But it is interesting that we had that second celebrity death right after this article was posted.

    If the deaths were utterly random with NO specific explanations for them that could be formulated, you'd have a pretty even distribution of rich, middle income and poor people who committed suicide. So quite obviously, there's no need for me to explain 39998 cases to you.

    I will say, I *love* how Slashdot readers are so quick to click that "Troll" moderation button when they aren't comfortable with something that's been said. I really think my original comment was pretty infused with hope and reason, compared to a lot of this sensationalist "sky is falling" stuff people are spouting. But that seems to come with the territory in recent times.

  80. Re:Spare me the knee-jerk response..... by F.Ultra · · Score: 1

    Well to be honest it was very easy to miss your point considering the first line of your post aka "rich celebrity just died so this have nothing to do with poor vs rich" is basically how that can be decoded. You then wrote some more meaningful text but I don't think any one read past that first line (I know I didn't until just now).

    Oh and the moderation from some people are just crap unfortunately, I don't agree with this person so (s)he must be a troll!

  81. Well, reported rates, anyway by eric_harris_76 · · Score: 1

    Maybe if I RTFA, I'd know if that was taken into consideration, and this post would clearly be nonsense..

    Even so, it's probably raised the average nonsense level of what appears here, so I'm probably OK.

    --
    There's no time like the present. Well, the past used to be.