The most insulting and dangerous suicide prevention lecture I've seen yet

[deathbydragon]

17 minutes of mostly waffling but I put it on as background noise, and wow is it a piece of work. Some terrible fallacies and nonsense comparisons.

It's quite sinister when you think about it...it's a talk supposedly being given at a "American Association of Suicidology" conference, where a guy with full confidence is saying that everyone who takes their own life does so unthinkingly, irrationally, they can't control themselves. And then he props himself and the audience up as the saviours of suicidal people, no doubt emboldening them if they ever make a choice to section one of their clients. Spreading this idea that we have no free will and it's their job to take away our freedom and autonomy if suicide crosses our minds. At 13:25 he is openly dismissing the idea that anyone who takes their life does so with a rational, thought out plan, by comparing terminal mental torment to him wanting to get out of an ice cold bath.

These people want to force everyone to live, he talks of some sort of personal utopia with no suicides at 15:13, while never going into why a world without a right to die is ideal...other than maybe some shitty argument from beauty at 17:16. It's also a big round earth with endless amounts of greed and suffering and unavoidable, unpredictable pain, why is it so hard to believe that any desire to escape this earth can be rational?

At 8:57 he admits that those in the room don't understand the choice, he then contradicts himself at 17:09 lmao. They are so removed from our mindset, so fundamentally against it, these people should have never been allowed to exercise power over us. They don't understand one fucking bit. Or maybe they do, and they're just evil people that delight at prolonging suffering as long as suicide number go low.

 

[Lost Magic]

Honestly, that guy needs to stop talking about a subject he knows nothing about. People like that are dangerous though because people who fall for him become the biggest pro life arseholes walking the planet.

 

[Klo]

Scientology is a nasty cult with many dangerous teachings and policies including their fair game policy which is targeted harassment which I'm sure has driven at least some to contemplate suicide. That would be ok with them though because those that they deem their enemies are less than human according to their beliefs.

The issue of autonomy in thought might be because they also believe that we all have several entities (thetans) attached to our soul and body that can interfere and meddle in thought.

Don't take any message from someone involved in scientology without thinking about the abusive belief system and practices that their church espouses. They have harmed many people including some who have committed suicide because of the abuse and manipulation they experienced while involved with the church

 

[DontplayGod]

I feel like this mentality is spreading way more than it should be and could easily be turned into fascism

 

[waitingforrest]

"Suicidology"" lol. I would easily get a PhD in that. It's not even a TED talk, it's a rip off with nothing thought provoking other than the meaning behind the "ZER∅" as their trademark.

I don't know why but I find it so funny that he is talking about how great he is when the zero is in every frame of his "talk".

 

[Account unknown]

It's quite sinister when you think about it...it's a talk supposedly being given at a "American Association of Suicidology" conference, where a guy with full confidence is saying that everyone who takes their own life does so unthinkingly, irrationally, they can't control themselves.

That's one of the infuriating things I've ever heard. For many people (I'd argue most people who CTB) suicide is not even an impulsive thing, it's something that people spend years thinking about before they follow through, it can take years of planning and acquiring things you need, hiding your actions from anyone close to you, acquiring the funds to be able to do it. Suicide is also not an easy thing to do, it takes a lot of willpower to overcome your SI and all of these things cannot be done "unthinkingly" and "irrationally" or without control of one's self.

To even come to the conclusion that I want to CTB, I've had to look at my own life with stone-cold, emotionless logic and realise that my prospects will never get better and my life is beyond saving, I've then been planning out various methods for years now after over a decade of feeling suicidal and not acting.

Why is this guy even an authority to speak on this?

 

[CrossroadsCurious]

F@ck Scientology!!! POS Doucheb@gs!!!

 

[Red Scare]

It's concerning that TED talks would have been willing to humor Scientology in any capacity.

 

[szinigami]

And what about chronic pain sufferers? My life is miserable, no matter how I try because my brain gets a freakin pain signals 24/h. Im 21, cant work and study. I live in a paralell world than people my age. What about people like me?

 

[waitingforrest]

It's concerning that TED talks would have been willing to humor Scientology in any capacity.

It's a knock off version if Ted talks lol. It says Ted style talk in the title.

 

[thedaywillcome]

That's one of the infuriating things I've ever heard. For many people (I'd argue most people who CTB) suicide is not even an impulsive thing, it's something that people spend years thinking about before they follow through, it can take years of planning and acquiring things you need, hiding your actions from anyone close to you, acquiring the funds to be able to do it. Suicide is also not an easy thing to do, it takes a lot of willpower to overcome your SI and all of these things cannot be done "unthinkingly" and "irrationally" or without control of one's self.

To even come to the conclusion that I want to CTB, I've had to look at my own life with stone-cold, emotionless logic and realise that my prospects will never get better and my life is beyond saving, I've then been planning out various methods for years now after over a decade of feeling suicidal and not acting.

Why is this guy even an authority to speak on this?willpower OR a hell of emotional pain.

 

[Superdeterminist]

That guy thinks a few platitudes are going to stop suicide. Haha.

 

[deathbydragon]

Why are people going on about Scientology? Is it because they misread Suicidology?
This has nothing to do with Scientology lmao. American Association of Suicidology is some non-profit that does anti-suicide conventions in Chicago.

These aren't some Scientologist crackpots that everyone just ignores. These are a group of medical 'professionals' with real power over their clients. It's far more dangerous that these people are sharing these ideas.

 

[stoiccactus]

I have watched almost every TED talk on suicide (there are many) and a non-trivial % are people talking about a partners suicide in the "I never knew they were depressed" mode. Yet, when they show old pictures it is so clear. I wonder often if those talks are a way to assuage guilt for being an abusive partner (many seem like narcissists of some kind)

I think of this one a lot:


The man killed himself on her birthday and she still couldn't put together the pieces on why.

 

[PPEcel]

I have watched almost every TED talk on suicide (there are many) and a non-trivial % are people talking about a partners suicide in the "I never knew they were depressed" mode. Yet, when they show old pictures it is so clear. I wonder often if those talks are a way to assuage guilt for being an abusive partner (many seem like narcissists of some kind)

I think of this one a lot:


The man killed himself on her birthday and she still couldn't put together the pieces on why.

Every single person that shows up on TED is a narcissist, I guarantee it. I hate how popular it was in the mid-2010s. At best, TED talks are comprised of randos who present themselves as groundbreaking thinkers even when there are already 1000 or so academics discussing the issue. At worst they're just unhinged ramblings.

 

[Euthanza]

Suicidology nowadays has gone too far from it's unscientific fundamental while claiming otherwise, they left us effortless with nothing better than stupid posters and useless hotlines, but they also mine profits from SPONSORS! Those are the surviving families of lonely suicide, thinking their ignorance can't never be too late.

Suicidologists that I know is like an athlete that doesn't do sport and preventing people from building a stadium.