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Comment by RealityNow | Hacker News Reader

Suicide for any able-bodied person privileged enough to be born under good circumstances in the first world is so incredibly selfish. There are so many causes worth fighting for, like bringing a basic income, fixing our medical system, etc. If you're going to kill yourself, at least do it for a cause so that it can help the world and isn't completely in vain. Maybe go to Washington and do a hunger strike in front of the capital.

That being said, do not commit suicide. Happiness is a choice, and you should chose it.

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"How dare you feel dissatisfaction with life. By my standards, things are good for you and you're wasting your life. Do something I consider good to make amends."

I'm sure you wonder why depressed people say they don't want to open up about their depression. It's because people like you make a point of pushing them down further and weighing them down with guilt.

Honestly most people I've met who are depressed are just mentally weak people experiencing first world problems. Yes there is that 5-10% that truly have a reason to be, but that's a very small minority.

Depression is not outside of your control. This encouragement of that kind of thinking classifying it as a "disease" is what keeps people depressed (and makes doctors money).

Was reading a book by a now successful guy who was suicidal all throughout his teenage years. He said that feeling suicidal was one of the best things to happen to him because it gave him this risk-taking attitude to just make the bold moves to turn his life around, because if things didn't work out, he could always kill himself.

Honestly it's unfortunate that this is considered too touchy a topic to talk about. We'd have less suicides if we could openly talk about it, and maybe you're committing the sin that you're accusing me of.

More like:

>If you are considering choosing death, why not do so being useful to me?

Absolutely revolting.

You're literally twisting my words to serve your personal crusade.

"If you're going to kill yourself, at least do it for a cause so that it can help the world and isn't completely in vain"

I was clearly referring to the betterment of humanity.

This I'll never understand. You're blaming others for being selfish yet ask that they participate furthering causes you believe in. You're asking others to do your work for you!

Nay I say! Free will - or the ability to be as useless as one wants - is one of the very few beautiful things in this world and a basic human right.

I shall not bow to your wicked ways! I shall continue to be completely useless until the last of my breaths! I will self-terminate when and how I please!

And yet ironically suicide is also illegal, and many states don't even have half-way decent right-to-die laws for those with terminal illness.

http://www.everything-game.com personally helped me see more value in life. It actually got me thinking that maybe having children wasn't the worst idea in the world.

Edit: for me personally, I get a lot out of helping people. I try to help people get better jobs and move out to Silicon Valley. I've done this for about half a dozen friends now, and all of them have had a great experience with it. I don't get any financial benefit from it; it's just great to see my friends doing "better" in life and to see them happier / more fulfilled. Same with my exes; I never truly understood why people can be so cruel to people they once loved. I'm happy for any way I've helped people I have loved and I have no desire to try to take anything away from them, even if some of them did shitty things to me. I can only hope that they got something out of it / learned from the bad parts.

So yeah, there's a suggestion for anyone reading this: if you want to try to feel better about being alive, help one of your friends get a better job. Teach them what you know or just help them get their foot in the door if you're in a position to do so.

Well, hat's off to you sir :) Also, that game looks awesome. Must. Get. Copy. Fast.

About legality - I can see why people are hesitant to legalize suicide as it can be exploited for personal gain or for the thrill of pushing others off track... For the terminally ill it should be granted tho. That's just cruel.

At the above post - I just have a problem with people criticizing suicide as some horrible sin. More sticks! That will bring someone back!

Happiness is a choice?? Life itself is a choice! For all those who have yet to self-terminate and who keep marching off in the unknown I say thank you for still being here and best of luck!

It's not about furthering causes for myself, but causes for humanity.

Depression is within one's control, and this attitude of classifying it as a disease only keeps people feeling helplessly depressed and enriches the pockets of doctors and pharmaceuticals companies. My other comment in this thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14655648

I did research this a bit somewhat recently. People who have self immolated in protest have mixed results in realizing any change for their cause. I believe the guy who did this outside a powerful government official's office during the Vietnam war did manage to generate influence.

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