Men’s Rights Activists and their MGTOW fellow travelers would probably be a lot more effective in fighting male suicide if there weren’t so many of them who think suicide is kind of cool.
In the Men Going Their Own Way subreddit today, a fellow called Zombocom1911 posted a link to a story about a man who slashed his own throat with a straight razor while sitting at the kitchen table in front of his wife and kids.
To Zombocom1911, the obvious question raised by this deeply unsettling story was this: “Can suicide be considered MGTOW?”
Chillingly, some of Zombocom1911’s compadres on the MGTOW subreddit seem to think the answer is “yes.”
aanarchist, while acknowledging that the man’s actions were “really f*cked up,” couldn’t quite contain his admiration.
“what a badass to do that sh*t in front of his own family,” he wrote in a comment that actually got upvotes from his peers. “it’s like looking them in the eye and going all f*ck you, death is preferable to slavery.”
Yes, I’m sure his wife and children benefitted enormously from this lovely message.
aanarchist went on to suggest that large numbers of men killing themselves could strike a powerful blow against women and feminists.
i’d say that suicide is letting feminism win but in reality the worst possible thing for women and feminism is a reduction in the male population. women’s comforts are built upon an abundance of manpower. if you cut down the population of men enough they go through some pretty strifey periods cuz no one’s there to provide for them.
You may recall a gentleman at Return of Kings making a strikingly similar argument not long ago — although his preferred method of man-elimination was to send as many men as possible to die horribly in wars.
You may also recall how, several years ago, Men’s Rights activists turned a fellow MRAÂ who burned himself alive outside of a family courthouse in Maine into a sort of Men’s Rights martyr, celebrating him in song and doing their best to disseminate the frankly terroristic manifesto he left behind, in which he urged other men to take up his cause by firebombing courthouses and police stations.
There are, to be sure, some MRAs and MGTOWs who are genuinely concerned about male suicide, though very few of them have actually done anything at all about it. They might start by trying to convince their ideological compatriots that suicide is not actually cool.
Depression absolutely manifests as lack of motivation for me. It reads as laziness to people because when people think about depression, they think suicidal ideation and constant crying jags.
There’s a blogger named Allie Brosh who writes Hyperbole and a Half and she does a whole long bit on depression and it’s amazeballs. (The rest of the blog is pee your pants funny.)
If you can seek a pro for a consult, @Sunny, by all means look into it – living like that must be so hellish and would definitely cause depression if depression isn’t the cause! ((hugs if appropriate))
@sunnysombrera – others have already given excellent feedback, but I’d second and third the advice to talk to a qualified person (if you’re not already doing that; sorry if I’m assuming). That’s a horrible place you’re in, and it’s difficult to get out of it by yourself in many cases.
@Viscaria – brilliant response 🙂 🙂
@sunnysombrera:
What others have said, but I’d also recommend getting your thyroid levels checked. My doctors assumed my low motivation and focus were due to mental illness, but when doing blood work also discovered extremely low levels of my thyroid hormones. The manifested symptoms are pretty similar wrt energy levels and concentration.
Best of wishes to you.
@sunnysombrera – I feel the exact same way. Exactly. Someone has suggested getting your thyroid checked. I concur. I do have low thyroid, but it is a damn struggle getting medicated properly.
I am also prone to depression which is unrelated to thyroid.
Hugs, sunnysombrera.
I’ll second others as saying that I recognise those feels exactly from my own periods of depression. I’m not a mental health professional so I can’t diagnose, but it may be worth talking to someone.
The only advice I can give is to ensure that if you’re seeing someone for it, you’re doing it for you and not for someone else. If you feel that you want to become who you used to be, then that’s one thing; if you feel that you owe it to someone else to fix yourself so that you can meet their expectations of being the perfect daughter/employee/partner, then that’s a different thing entirely. That was a very difficult lesson for me to learn and I hope you can be wiser than I was.
You’ve always come off as being a sharp, lively and extremely kind person in your interactions here. Your bleh may be telling you that you’re not as good as you could be; but from this perspective I think it’s lying to you.
@ sunnysombrera
That sounds like depression to me. I would be a hypocrite to tell you to get help, but what tends to work for me is to some repetitive task like cleaning with no real chance of failure. If you can wrap your mind around that, it may break a negative train of thought and give breathing room.
Thanks everyone for the kind comments. xxx And for kind of giving this thing a label, even though we don’t internet diagnose here. Still I appreciate hearing that others experienced the same thing and it does make me feel now that it’s treatable. Before I just thought it was random emotional issues of mine.
I will go see someone to talk to and I will ask the doctor to check my thyroid levels. Again, thanks for the support.
@EJ
One of my greatest desires is to become the best that I can be, regardless of expectations. Wasted potential, in anyone, is such a sad thing in my eyes. So don’t worry, I’m doing this for me. 🙂
TW: Suicide/depression
The last three days have been bloody awful for my depression, but I’ve managed to not become suicidal. I haven’t had suicidal ideation for about six months, but last year was horrible and I spent much of it very depressed and suicidal.
Reasons I haven’t successfully managed to die yet:
1. My niece and nephew don’t need to be scarred any more than their alcoholic father has already managed to scar them
2. I couldn’t leave my dogs, nobody I trust could look after them and I don’t trust strangers with their care.
3. My mum turning up because I hadn’t answered any phone calls and text messages from anyone all day
4. My sisters ringing me and talking me down from highly suicidal to a point where I can think through the problem that triggered my suicidal ideation in the first place.
5. Going to bed and wrapping myself in to a blanket burrito until I fall asleep or I’ve worked through the urge. Can’t hurt myself if there’s nothing within reach and once I’m wrapped up I don’t have the motivation to make the effort required to get up go downstairs, find a sufficiently sharp knife and hurt myself.
I know now (counselling and medication) that killing myself is not the answer and traumetising my family and friends is cruel and would cause suffering. Why, when I’m going through such suffering, would I inflict that pain on other people? The worse times were when I couldn’t convince myself that anyone would care if I wasn’t here anymore.
The OP:
Glorifying suicide as a means to traumatise the innocent is very seriously not cool. MGTOW’s are scum.
“aanarchist went on to suggest that large numbers of men killing themselves could strike a powerful blow against women and feminists.”
Wow. Makes you wonder if MRAs and MGTOWs are a part of a psyop and don’t even know it.
Actually, the suicide victim is a kind of feminist hero. A lot of men murder their family too, when they kill themselves.
So thanks, dead guy, for not doing that.
Dude sounds like he had some serious borderline personality disorder. They just love to involve people in their pain. It’s great for reality shows.
Oh, do I sound a bit harsh?
I suppose reading this blog will do that, on top of living in this world with a bloody vagina.