Oh, of course suicide is not rational. Then again, neither is hope.

Some parents think that anything would be better than the status quo, and also that their children would be lost without them, and that's often the motivation behind extended suicide. That "responsibility for your children"-angle can really backfire.

It's quite possible to be smart about some things and an idiot about others.

I wouldn't either. Of course you will always try to pull the person back. It's just - sometimes you can't, and that's not your fault, and not the other person's fault either. A depressed person might be in no position to judge whether there is hope or not, but neither are you.

I think a child has a right to be angry at a parent for committing suicide. It's unfair for a child to get abandonned. It's also unfair to judge a suicidally depressed person for killing themselves, but a child does not have the obligation to be fair in these matters.

I'm just someone who tends to assume that the person suffering the pain is the best judge of its horribleness.

Which is one of the main reasons why we can't have nice things.

But the choice not to seek treatment basically amounts to suicide, no? And yet we perceive it as a valid choice. Because we know that for the cancer patient who refuses treatment it's just a matter of time - to die a a very likely prolongued painful death at a later date, or a potentially more dignified one at a…

I've heard many people with depression wish for something like cancer instead, because at least people don't expect you to get better through pure willpower (quite as much. Seriously, some idiots will even give a cancer patient the "it's all about attitude"-spiel).

"Outside of the person that takes their own life to avoid horrible pain associated with a terminal illness"….. some people with personal experience on the matter might suggest that depression is such a frequently terminal illness associated with precisely this horrible pain. Why would you discount them? Who are you to…

Well, clearly he doesn't uncerstand suicide. That's what he claims, that's what people who criticise him claim, so I guess we're all in agreement about this point. Nobody has doubted his honesty about this. Lack of honesty is not the problem here as much as lack of empathy (and humility, required to refrain from…

Well, it usually suggests that you are also only interested in that person for one purpose only - the person becomes an instrument for that purpose and instruments are objects. No matter how careful you handle that instrument to preserve its usefulness to you - it's still pretty reductive.

I guess I actually kinda knew that before (about the origin of the idiom), but I still can't stand people trying to discount an argument with a few paltry examples to the contrary. We all have our pet peeves.

Exceptions prove the rule.

I wonder why this "well off, well-connected parents"-thing is only ever brought up to diminish female accomplishments. Art is often a rich person's game. Lord Byron wasn't a gritty street-urchin either.

Think again.

On the one hand…. whitewashing.

I think it's very dangerous to assume that everyone would immediately want to implement all their fantasies.Some things just turn out to be better in theory than in practice and some people know that beforehand. Especially when it comes to submissive/dominant stuff.

It only works as long as those consequences are not disporportionate and something you can recover from.

"Never fuck up because no one is bailing you out now" can lead to a very limited existence. A margin of error is the most valueable gift in the world, because there are certain things you can only learn from mistakes, certain opportunities you can only seize if you're willing to take some risks. I understand where…