Discussion What are the political implications of suicide?

[EmployedHikikomori]

Midterms are coming up and political sphere is heating up. MAGA and liberals are at each other's throats. To the point where I actually don't want to get involved. But than I remember the discussion of being apolitical.

Apparently, there's no such thing as being apolitical, because we're all affected by politics every day. The only way you can't be affected as if you're very rich and privileged. That sounds like a leftist talking, right? Well, it is. Apparently when large amounts of people are apathetic and don't vote, it hurts the left the most. This means that being apolitical, neutral, moderate, or centrists always benefits the conservative.

For transparency, I was a progressive myself and still technically am. But i've reached the end of my rope and I kind of don't want to vote anymore.

Then, I realized I don't have to after I CTB. If the left is talking point is true, that everything we do is political. What would be the political implications of suicide?

Does it support the conservatives because that's one less vote for liberals? Or does it support the liberals? Because it's one list, vote for the conservatives? (In recent times men have been leaning more towards conservatives, and men have always made up the majority of suicide cases.) Or is it a truly a political move because the suicidal person won't be affected by the politics after they died?

 

[MatiSendiri]

In my opinion, suicide is a way to remove one person from earth (duh). It works the same as declining birth cases, but much more impactful since there's effort to support the person itself (or at least make them survive). If we're going completely pragmatic, that's just one lost worker/human/thing that can be worked/exploited/create something.

That's why suicides is generally bad on all political spectrum. Because it loses a worker to rely on (on the left) and someone to be exploited (on the right). We're not even talking about the damages on people around the person who commits suicide (family, friends, etc) and much more broad effect on other people (eg. Werther effect)

 

[Forever Sleep]

That's an interesting perspective on it. I haven't voted for years- not feeling confident to trust any of them. So- in my case- it won't make any difference.

I wonder how many suicidal people do vote. I'm sure some are still very interested in politics and the world but then, I imagine a common symptom of depression/ ideation is to become withdrawn from all that.

I do know of people who use their vote strategically- to oppose a party they don't like- rather than to support one they do. Although ironically- they vote against the left. Not the other way around. Which, I don't entirely understand anyway- because they aren't really all that far right in their attitudes.

I suppose though- if the conservatives/ republicans hold the most votes in a constituency- any potential vote against them dying would enable them to stay in power. So, that does make sense.

That's assuming also you have 100% faith that the voting process isn't interfered with. I'm not even sure of that.

 

[pelicanportal]

Veering a bit off the main point but I want to say... in the U.S., politics used to not be this cut throat. You could be apolitical and not get much, if any, shit for it. It was the default for teenagers and young adults to be apolitical or more centrist. There was no "you are directly influencial for x and you have to take a stance whether you are informed and passionate about it or not".

Rambling a bit now. Kony 2012 was the first time I remember seeing this phenomenon play out on a large scale: Facebook was becoming common for the average person to use, people got told "thing is bad and you NEED to care about this to make a difference!" and it turns out: it doesn't make a difference and people should actually be able to research or admit they don't know about complex African geopolitics and can't form an opinion on it in two hours, and that it is okay to forfeit having a dog in the fight especially because you might be pushing for something also bad ("bad") without knowing and meaning to be.

 

[n1kita_]

This is something that gets debated a lot when people seek out euthanasia for illness' sake (chronic sufferings, decline of social life, depending on others, etc). On one hand, nobody's body should be subjected to being the vessel of a political conviction like one that tells people that if they are suffering, and if you happen to be working class especially, you are to exhaust every method to keep alive as the system clearly deems parasites those who can't add onto the productive wheel (capital, essentially). On the other side I also consider a lot of our sufferings deeply rooted in this system itself, if not completely tied to it (geography, domestic violence, quality of life, labour, social circle, bureaucratic and social treatment of mental illnesses, etc), so there is a deep feeling of bitterness when I look back at my considerations and connect the dots with how much of said violence is yeah, potentially self-imposed, as it is also a response to my material conditions, conditions others dictate for you. So in my opinion, yes, suicide is political. So long as there is systemic violence, suicide is political. I recommend reading Cioran, for he exposed these afflictions quite nicely, as he also got quite philosophical with it too!