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Comment by dagmx | Hacker News Reader

Well said. I really wish we had a better word for someone who is bullied into suicide. It’s tantamount to manslaughter imho.

Recently, a snark/bullying community on Reddit resulted in the suicide of their target (a woman responsible for rescuing foxes).

That kind of targeting and bullying is horrific for any individual to process, let alone people who don’t have the press teams and training that celebrities do.

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This sets a bad precedent. There is a wide gamut of emotional resilience in people. What is a funny insult to one person, can be rope-fuel to another.

Would you want to be called that if you make a light jab at a middle aged bald guy?

Sounds unrealistic they would blame it all on one remark like that.

I'd be more afraid people would kill themselves just to get retribution on their tormentors and it would increase suicides.

Do you see a lot of people harming themselves physically and framing people in their suicides?

A 90 year old is much more physically fragile than a 20 year old. If you hit a 20 year old and they are bruised you get an assault charge, if you hit a 90 year old and they die you get a murder charge, despite using the same amount of force.

I do agree with the sibling post that suicide would be weaponized which is the real problem.

A single comment is not really bullying. Continued harassment is.

And much like assessing how physical violence might contribute to the end result, so could this be actually assessed. I don’t know why people reach for binary classifications strawmans like this.

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