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noname223

Archangel
Aug 18, 2020
5,361
I read a footbal outlet which wrote an article where they were dramatizing his statement. I had ambivalent feelings when reading it.
First what happened:


Parts of the article:

Chilean international and ex-Barcelona player Arturo Vidal has been heavily criticised for his vile comments about the suicide of Robert Enke on social media platform, Twitch. The player took to Twitch to connect with fans as he looked back at his career.

However, things got really disturbing when Vidal discussed his first goal in Europe. The goal was scored on September 23, 2007 in a match where Bayer Leverkusen came up against Hannover, the club for which Robert Enke was the goalkeeper.

According to some people, Vidal made a disgraceful and pathetic statement while commenting on his first goal in Europe. He has been accused made fun of the German goalkeeper, who had depression and tragically died after throwing himself under a moving train at the age of 32.

Vidal jokes about Enke's death by suicide
Vidal said: "I scored my first goal in Europe against Hannover. Their goalkeeper fell into depression and ultimately even took his own life!". This comment received a lot of criticism mostly in Germany.

Robert Enke was considered as a very promising goalkeeper. He was a part of the Barcelona squad from 2002 to 2004. In November 2009, he committed suicide close to his house, in Neustadt Germany.

Vidal justifies his statement

In his stream, he defended himself: "To all the spiteful journalists: You saw in this video that I said everything with good intentions and nothing bad. I didn't laugh either, I would never do that."

Vidal further said: "I told this anecdote, but I never meant it in a bad way. I would never laugh at something like that."

My personal remarks on this incident:

So far I just copied parts of the article. I got the notification on my phone. "A statement of Arturo Vidal shocks the soccer world. There is a shock-wave because of what he said in a livestream - scandal statement. "

Fist I did not know what has been the topic it must have been something big. Then I read the article and was somewhat puzzled and kind of angry. More on the journalists than on Vidal. The title was so extremely clickbaiting they chose the most extreme words possible. I had the feelings these journalists were hypocrites. They blame Vidal for his behavior and want to get attention, money and good reputation by doing that.
The whole thing is way more intricate and others probably will come to a different conclusion.

I am kind of annoyed by this story because the moral indignation feels so shallow and fake. The suicide of Robert Enke was the first suicide in my life which had an impact on me. As I told once my dad made a similar tasteless joke after his death. I got emotional when writing about this in this forum. I don't have the feeling these stories with dramatizing language really have any bigger purpose than to generate clicks.

Vidal played for Bayern Munich. I was somewhat of a fan but not really that much. I cannot make a statement about his character. However the last part of his own defence was not fully described in another article I read. First I had the opinion it was a thoughtless remark by someone who has not much experience with this topic. And that he defended himself was more of a problem than the remarks itself. Though they did not mention the following quote in another article "I told this anecdote, but I never meant it in a bad way. I would never laugh at something like that." After this quote my sympathies for Vidal has grown again. I think the scandalization of the journalists is also problematic. The defence has some issues. I think he clearly laughed about it. This is why there is some contradiction in his own defence but I will elaborate on that later.

First of all the anecdote of Vidal was tasteless. Though I would not immediately judge that he is a bad or evil person for that. I assume as a soccer player you usually don't have that much education. Maybe especially if you come from a country with a bad education system. This dude probably played soccer all his life. I don't expect him to be nuanced on such topics. I have heard way way worse jokes about suicide from people in their daily lives. The statement of Vidal was rather harmless in my opinion. He probably thought 5 seconds about it before saying it loud. I don't assume evil intentions. Personally I think the biggest issue is that he is a role model and that he has a huge impact on young people. It is important to increase the awareness of the seriousness of depression and suicide. His joke was very counterproductive in this instance. Though the journalists with their indignation made it worse. I think by overdramatizing of this incident turned Vidal into a self-defence mode. He should have apologized for this stupid statement. He should have explained himself why he told this anecdote. We should have had a mature and serious discussion about this statement. Though the media made this impossible by turning it into a heated and polarizing moral indignation game. By showing the most extreme forms of digust about this remark they proved the world how much better they are than this soccer player (whose job is to kick a ball and not really using his brain.)

It is so stupid. For depressed and suicidal people there is barely a benefit of this reporting style. We should have a rational, nuanced and analytical discussion about suicide but not this.

I can understand that for some people this statement is hurtful. It can incentivice young people to make similar statements. But the media is responsible for that too. Media stars or influencers learn how to get traffic and people like Andrew Tate exploit that. There has to be a balance in the reporting which was not the case in this Vidal scandal. It must have been hurtful for the widow Teresa Enke. However my personal feeling is that relatives often notice how much the media dramatizes such remarks. Only due to this reprting the incident became so viral and was spread worldwide. Which could have been positive if a real sustainable and serious discussion would have followed. I have the feeling the media also wants to please people like me depressed and suicidal people with such indignation. Though they could use their power for a way better outcome for us. I don't need this bullshit and this drama. I don't benefit of that.

Though I could easily see that other suicidal people will have a different opinion on it. It is highly subjective and different individuals will come to different conclusions. His remark was tasteles but the outrage was a little bit too much. Especially in the German media which is known for their desire of moral superiority.

What do you think about it?
 
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