There have been a lot of suicides, of famous people as well as people I’ve known, that have made me feel terribly sad. But the funny thing is, when I ask myself if any of them would be happier today if they’d lived, the answer is always no. They’re better off dead.
Even people like, say Robin Williams who had so much to offer the world, do you honestly think he’d want to have lived through the last 10 years of bullshit in the world (let alone what he might’ve personally struggled with)? Hell no, tragic as it was, he got out of this shitheap before things got even shittier. And that goes for everyone I can think of. Suicide may be a tragedy, but death is a fucking blessing to us all.
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There’s no real way of knowing. What’s done is done. Speculation is just that. Death may be a blessing, but recieving it will always be the hard part.
Oh I wasn’t comparing life to death since I agree we can’t know what death is. Death will eventually get all of us, whether we choose suicide or not, so I never saw the need to compare.
What I meant was, if you look at any suicide and ask “would that person be happier today in 2025 than they were in 2014 or whenever” I can’t think of any case where I could say they’d be happier. In other words it doesn’t get better.
Not really related to OP, I’m in a shitposting mood so I’ll just keep it all here.
In general, the world just keeps getting shittier doesn’t it? Of course there’s pollution, lack of open land, overpopulation – all of that is quantifiably shittier and beyond discussion – but there’s also the increasingly normalized hatred & fear oozing out of everyone you pass on the street. Maybe it was always there, after all humans are ruled by fear, but in the past there was a modicum of civility that kept the hate from frothing over visibly.
Or maybe not? Maybe humans were always this shitty to each other. Now there are just tons more of us. So it’s like taking any fearful animal species and throwing them in a box and piping toxic air into it. Bloodbath.
And so, saying nothing about any possible corrosion of human civility, just the fact that we’re getting crammed together tighter every year, that’s proof enough that the world is getting shittier with each tick of the clock.
I really need to get the fuck out of here asap
Things are worse now than 20 or 30 years ago bc
1- yes overpopulation creating overcrowding and less resources but that’s due to #2
2- the main reason why ppl are shitty is due to ECONOMICS- increasing wealth disparity / poverty / high cost of food, rent, education, bills / lack of upward social mobility / low paying dead end jobs, longer hours, no pension, no job safety, etc. All the boomers had when they were growing up and in their adulthoods but who purposely pulled the rug out under the future generations. Yes ECONOMIC factors ARE causing much of the distress, and ppl then lash out on others, becoming Karens, Kens, and just assholes in general.
3- Yes social media has a lot to do with it too and has created entitled self-absorbed monsters. Who are now the norm and not the exception.
You might like this- on YT- there’s this podcaster that creates these “Why I stay home” series. Try watching a couple of those. He might be even more jaded, bitter, and pessimistic than I am, which is always shocking to find. Try watching a few of his videos.
He understands that society has “gone down the tubes.” And his dry, monotone voice kinda makes the perfect “I hate humanity” videos 😛
haha I should probably stay away from stuff like that. I’m already on the razor’s edge of suicide, all I need is for someone to confirm my dark views and I’ll be on the next train(tracks) outta this world.
It really is a quantifiable fact that the world is just going to keep getting worse, unless people magically stop spreading. I know there have been predictions of a population tapering but I don’t believe it. Once a virus always a virus.
And you’re right, I think economics is the real driving factor behind our decay. Even the decay of the human soul. I don’t believe in any inherent goodness or evil, any gods or devils, because one thing is for sure, you can take any “good” person and subject them to starvation, hardship, fithly water and helplessness for long enough, and I guarantee that person will turn as wretched and foul as any common criminal. And with the economy going the way it is: 1% hoarding all the wealth while the rest of us get deeper in debt, we’ll all be common criminals soon enough. Jeez I think I just talked myself into relapsing on alcohol tonight lol
Yes, there actually are some good amount of ppl who claim it was “the best thing” that they didn’t actually end up suiciding, usually the religious ones, or the ones who wound up having a baby/family.
But I would say for the majority of ppl- that yes, most would be probably be better off dead than to suffer endlessly. But well since they’re all dead, no one can confirm or deny if they were “better off.”
Kurt Cobain might be one suicide I would have liked to have seen prevented, just because he was such an amazing talent, he was so young, he wasn’t terminally ill.
You picked Robin Williams and he was very sick and it didn’t seem like there was much prospect for him to get better. For people over 65 that’s an entirely different prospect. But for someone under 40 with lots of good years left to live it’s a bit of a different matter isn’t it?
I mean, I’m not a great musician. However I do have talents, and I’m still relatively young and I know that’s why the agency that works with me is working so hard to keep me from ending myself. They wouldn’t be doing nearly as much work if I was a few decades older, I’m pretty sure. Well, maybe if I was more accomplished, which seems unavoidable… society really wants to put people to work.
I guess that’s why talented people want to die, the pressure. I stand by my wish though, that Kurt was still around, you can’t have enough talented musicians in the world. Music is what helps people cope with the awful things in this world.
To me Kurt Cobain represents a truly hopeless case, if you read his suicide note and grasp the things he singled out as the cause of his agony. I guess if we were to stamp a label on it, it would be ‘anhedonia’ but it went much deeper in his case.
In his case, the one thing he most wanted–to feel the exhilaration of creativity and artistic expression–was the one thing that kept shooting further away the more successful he became. He specifically noted how Freddie Mercury had an unstoppable passion for performing while he, Kurt, could only envy people like that. And with all of Kurt’s superstardom you know the ‘show’ was getting more tedious, meaningless and uninspired as he was swallowed by the business machine.
I guess what I’m saying is that Kurt’s best chance for happiness would’ve been playing anonymously in Seattle coffee houses where, just maybe, he could feel connected to a small intimate crowd rather than a sea of dollars buying his latest commercial chart topper.
Of course that’s just conjecture, but I don’t think I’m too far off the mark.
Then of course there’s the question about the state of the world in 1994 compared to 2025. He died without ever having to experience the post-9/11 new-paranoia that steamrolled the country and kept picking up momentum, darkness, rancor and hatred leading us to the bullshit we are saddled with today. To say nothing of the high-octane brand of xenophobia that came with the maga takeover of the republican party. Do you really think Kurt, the lifelong anti-racist, anti-sexist, anti-homophobe champion of the leftist post punk movement (“antifa” by today’s nomenclature) would consider for an instant wanting to live in the Trump era? Kurt got out while the gettin was good.