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Culture War Roundup for the week of April 20, 2026

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It's only "unnecessary suffering" if you ignore the suffering caused to loved ones when someone they knew and loved has died. Most people are distraught when a friend, family member, relative, etc. commits suicide.

That "suffering" should be ignored as they deserve it for not relieving their "loved one's" suffering. If someone you love is suffering so much that they kill themselves, you owe it to them to bear the pain their death causes you. It's the least you can do since you failed them so miserably while they were still alive.

If someone is suicidal it's not because you failed them, it's not because society failed them, it's because something in their brain is making them want to kill themselves. The vast majority of suicidal bouts last less than two minutes, which is why very simple interventions like locking rooftops and withdrawing gas ovens are usually enough. The suicidals I have known were good, decent people who regretted both their own suffering and the suffering they couldn't help inflicting on their loved ones.

You failed them so you deserve this.

If you were just nicer to me, I wouldn't be like this.

This is the logic of narcissists and abusers.

This is the logic of narcissists and abusers.

And "How dare you kill yourself to relieve your own suffering. What about my suffering?" isn't?

Suicide is bad. Other people's suffering is part of why it's bad. The loss of a person, with all their potential, is another part.

For any form of suffering, you can find people who bore it bravely and often even cheerfully. Conversely, there is no life that is good enough, loved enough, respected enough to stop some people from killing themselves.

The difference between suicidal people and everyone else is not that they suffer more and need to kill themselves to make it stop, it's that they have a brain and a disposition that makes them want to kill themselves. Often this comes in very short bouts, as I say. Often it's fixable. I have known somebody whose father killed himself, who inherited his father's condition and tried to kill himself as well, thankfully failed, and is now living a reasonably happy life 99% of the time. He has bad days and needs to kept from harm on those days.

There is no need to agree with an irrational person about the nature of their condition, nor the solution thereof.