Suicideisnirvana
Specialist
- Aug 4, 2018
- 312
I've noticed that people who preach unconditional optimism will often tell us that most people love life, only a tiny extreme minority of people are depressed/suicidal, and people who attempted suicide regretted it : just look at what people say, write on forums, most of them like life, only a minority like 1% don't.
And a lot of us seem to concede this argument, and only respond about how the majority still doesn't have the right to oppress the minority and decides for it (this is true, and a very good argument), but the thing is that, even the optimistic pressuposition is biased for an obvious reason : incentives.
Any economist will tell you, incentives are one of the most important factors in determining how people act and behave, if you want to change society in a certain matter, it's very naive to hope for personal changes and maturity, humans just don't work that way, but changing the incentives may give you a very different society (whether for better or worse).
What happens to people who express negativity ? They are shamed, guilt-tripped, or in the best case scenarios, given an arrogant paternalizing allegedly "compassionate" discourse. They get their post banned in Reddit for many reasons, they get hotline suicide numbers and told to talk to someone there. What happens to people who attempted suicide and say they are still intent on doing it again, now more than ever ? Well, they are kept under durress in mental hospital, their rights are infringed upon, they are treated as a captive criminal, and they are guilt-tripped by friends and family. Why the hell would we expect them to reveal their real intentions then ?
It's like when Ahmedinejad tells us that there are no gay people in Iran. And sure enough, it will be way harder to meet any gay people if you risk your life by admitting openly that you're gay.
Now, i'm not saying that the majority of people are depressed, just that it's probably not as much of an extreme minority as some assumes it is. It's just that society is organized in such a way as to silence them, and make them look waaay less numerous than they are.
And a lot of us seem to concede this argument, and only respond about how the majority still doesn't have the right to oppress the minority and decides for it (this is true, and a very good argument), but the thing is that, even the optimistic pressuposition is biased for an obvious reason : incentives.
Any economist will tell you, incentives are one of the most important factors in determining how people act and behave, if you want to change society in a certain matter, it's very naive to hope for personal changes and maturity, humans just don't work that way, but changing the incentives may give you a very different society (whether for better or worse).
What happens to people who express negativity ? They are shamed, guilt-tripped, or in the best case scenarios, given an arrogant paternalizing allegedly "compassionate" discourse. They get their post banned in Reddit for many reasons, they get hotline suicide numbers and told to talk to someone there. What happens to people who attempted suicide and say they are still intent on doing it again, now more than ever ? Well, they are kept under durress in mental hospital, their rights are infringed upon, they are treated as a captive criminal, and they are guilt-tripped by friends and family. Why the hell would we expect them to reveal their real intentions then ?
It's like when Ahmedinejad tells us that there are no gay people in Iran. And sure enough, it will be way harder to meet any gay people if you risk your life by admitting openly that you're gay.
Now, i'm not saying that the majority of people are depressed, just that it's probably not as much of an extreme minority as some assumes it is. It's just that society is organized in such a way as to silence them, and make them look waaay less numerous than they are.
