The Line Between Black Humor and Being a Fuckstick...

Is crossed when you shout "Jump" to someone on the ledge of a building.

Is crossed when use your cellphone/digital camcorder to record the incident while you're laughing.

Is crossed when you laugh while telling people why there's a crowd at the sidewalk, and the emergency responders are there.


There's a time a place for everything, and I actually tend towards a dry, black humor myself at times. But for the love of vampire bats and their kidneys, the place for that shit is not fifty feet from the cooling body, dammit!

For anyone who thinks I may be making this shit up, here's a link to the SF Gate website, where they discuss a recent suicide in that city.

I'm just disgusted.

Good God, that is horrific. However, the person who left this comment is absolutetly correct:

Quote:

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Anyone who thinks "(s)ociety has become so desensitized and human life reduced to an amusement and a spectacle" has an extremely poor grasp of history.

We should rather be proud of how many people can actually feel empathy for a complete stranger.

One hundred years ago this would have evoked the exact same reaction from a crowd in SF, London or Tokyo (minus the Tweeting, of course).

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Sadly, people have always been inhuman to other people. Hopefully someday we'll move past that as a species.

What an awful story. :(

How long has it been since a favored form of public entertainment was executions? Not that long, really.

That being said - fucking San Francisco.

Exactly. And we'd go back to real gladiatoral entertainment in an instant, if the authorities would allow it. Oh, there'd be objectors, but the will of the most vocal people would probably hold sway.

It's a suicide case so I think it's easier to understand. It's not some person being hit by a car, or dying of cancer, or getting shot while going to school. This is somebody who wants to kill themselves for whatever reason. Let them, go right ahread my friend, just try and not die in front of any of the kids ok. I agree, We should rather be proud of how many people can actually feel empathy for a complete stranger (who wants to kill themselves of their own will).

Hateyface, I would assume a suicidal person is either mentally ill (and therefore possibly not thinking clearly) or has been the victim of tragedy in some form or other. In either case I feel they deserve my sympathy, at least.

Quote:

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Originally posted by hatesfreedom

It's a suicide case so I think it's easier to understand. It's not some person being hit by a car, or dying of cancer, or getting shot while going to school. This is somebody who wants to kill themselves for whatever reason. Let them, go right ahread my friend, just try and not die in front of any of the kids ok. I agree, We should rather be proud of how many people can actually feel empathy for a complete stranger (who wants to kill themselves of their own will).

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Damn, dude. You used to smile once in awhile. What happened?

I think hates is just the mello Satan. You know, he argues the other side. Not because he necessarily believes it but because he holds a great respect for the art of debate.

I find it hard to reconcile a concerted effort to prevent suicide with my basic belief in individual autonomy.

I have no idea how to resolve this problem.

Shout "Jump!", but try and catch them.