Death of Amanda Todd

Have you heard about it? What's your opinion? Let's discuss it!

Personally I think that the attitude of people to this case is getting ridiculous, overacted and hypocritical. I can understand the feelings of this girl: I was expelled when I was a child, and I had several other bad events in my life, but seriously...I can't imagine why people make it big - this is not the first case.

From what I read she was pressured into showing her tits at 15 by a pedophile, then the pedo blackmailed her into more or else he would post them; and he did. Then she fell into depression, drugs, and sex and stole guys from girls. She is bullied, then she killed herself. I say "is" instead of "was" because even as I type this people are still making fun of her as well as her suicide. I can't even put into words how much I despise those little brats; moreover there's a pedophile still out there.

Don't think I claimed her to be completely innocent. Certainly not deserving the treatment she allegedly got. On the other hand, we're all animals and cheating happens; which is not to say that it's not dishonest behavior for all parties involved, it's hardly justification for assault.

I definitely agree that her parents should have kept better track of her online activities, but there's only so much parents can do save for full lockdown which is typically neither feasible nor very healthy way to treat your kids.

Maybe it's just my hippy liberal ideals, but I'd prefer educating my daughter about the dangers of the internet and how to avoid them to denying her access. It's equivalent to teaching kids about strangers and when not to talk to them, versus locking them away at home and not letting them experience the world.

Declaring that you'll stop giving a shit about what your kids do with their lives once they turn 18 and condoning violence as a way of dealing with relationship problems fits my idea of how a psychopath might think.

WTF is up with the flash cards?

I have nothing against this girl, but I'm not going to pity some random girl over internet. Shit happens, deal with it.

Looper said:

I have nothing against this girl, but I'm not going to pity some random girl over internet. Shit happens, deal with it.

I didn't know a single person who died in the 9/11 or 7/7 attacks. Should I have concluded that "shit happens"?

A pretty white girl killed herself for basically no reason. It sucks, but that's all the explanation you need for the hype.

I heard wrists would bleed better if you cut them in line with your arm, vertical rather than horizontal.

DoomUK said:

I didn't know a single person who died in the 9/11 or 7/7 attacks. Should I have concluded that "shit happens"?

Have those events in any way impacted your life? Would you be in a different position right if those events didn't happen? What would you propose to conclude instead?

I don't really care, since I'm not involved in any way. I never done wrong to any woman, but I just honestly can't care about someone I don't even know. Smells to me like some media outlet is just trying to whip people up into emotional frenzy, coz that's the way they operate (that's right, they don't care about the girl either).

Someone's trying to blame someone because she killed herself? It may have been someone else's actions that were her reasons, but it was ultimately her decision to do it. No-one but her is responsible for her death if she "killed herself".

hex11 said:

I don't really care, since I'm not involved in any way. I never done wrong to any woman, but I just honestly can't care about someone I don't even know. Smells to me like some media outlet is just trying to whip people up into emotional frenzy, coz that's the way they operate (that's right, they don't care about the girl either).

This is pretty much how I feel.

There's a difference between "playing the blame game" and recognizing that there's an overarching problem that is driving these young people to such depths that they would attempt to end their lives. Bullying IS a problem, speaking as a past victim of it myself, and it honestly makes me sick how some would try to justify it. It's impossible to accurately describe the intense fear and anxiety brought on by being bullied, as well as the shame of feeling so powerless against it. No one should be treated that way, and neither should anyone just stand by hurling insults while others are treated that way.

It's a shame that she killed herself, but I personally am upset more about the reasons why than the person it happened to. Of course I have no actual emotional attachment to the girl, but through the magic of simple human empathy and compassion I feel for her. Same goes for the victims and survivors of 9/11, Columbine, and any other tragedy. I don't really understand how some can portray themselves to be so cold and unfeeling towards these things. Sure they generally don't effect you, but it can't be that hard to put yourself in the other person's shoes and see how awful it is, and maybe even become a motivated to do something to prevent it from happening again.

inb4 bleeding heart comments. Grow a heart, morans.

Nomad said:

There's a difference between "playing the blame game" and recognizing that there's an overarching problem that is driving these young people to such depths that they would attempt to end their lives. Bullying IS a problem, speaking as a past victim of it myself, and it honestly makes me sick how some would try to justify it. It's impossible to accurately describe the intense fear and anxiety brought on by being bullied, as well as the shame of feeling so powerless against it. No one should be treated that way, and neither should anyone just stand by hurling insults while others are treated that way.

It's a shame that she killed herself, but I personally am upset more about the reasons why than the person it happened to. Of course I have no actual emotional attachment to the girl, but through the magic of simple human empathy and compassion I feel for her. Same goes for the victims and survivors of 9/11, Columbine, and any other tragedy. I don't really understand how some can portray themselves to be so cold and unfeeling towards these things. Sure they generally don't effect you, but it can't be that hard to put yourself in the other person's shoes and see how awful it is, and maybe even become a motivated to do something to prevent it from happening again.

inb4 bleeding heart comments. Grow a heart, morans.

I wasn't trying to imply that these people that bullied her or the pedophile shouldn't be left free of charges. They should be persecuted for their wrongdoings; bullying/assault and child molestation and distribution of child pornographic material.

Honestly, I'd put a bullet in their heads for those offences alone, but that would be "inhumane".

I'm sure she could've received many forms of assistance if she had asked for it, or reported to a higher authority. Her parents probably could've taken more responsibility as well in teaching their daughter about sexuality and the consequences. In fact, there are countless things that could've resulted in better outcomes. In the end, it happened this way, and unfortunately there is nothing that can be done for her now that she is gone.

Stroggos said:

I don't particularly care about the girl but the fact remains that a young life was lost and that is the point. Kids make mistakes but no child deserves to die because of them.

The truth is nobody deserves anything. There are no guarantees in life, and you don't get your money back if you're not happy. It is up to each of us to decide whether or not it's worth fighting to live another day, just so that you can do it again and again, until finally you die anyway. IS LIFE EVEN WORTH IT? That's something everybody has to answer for themselves, and I'm not one to impose my opinions, values or beliefs on someone else. There are a lot of people these days who aren't really living because they're all drugged up with meds and other bullshit like that (is that kind of "life" worth it?) The fact is, modern society is insanely stressful, in a completely different way than past eras. This stress never really goes away. In my case, it's the absurdedly high levels of noise that I can't escape. I can't focus for shit, can't trully rest, can't find any peace. For others, it's something different but ultimately the stress is there and you either deal with it somehow or you just say the hell with it and that's a valid option too.

But no, I'm not going to pretend to "care" about someone I don't know, even if that makes me look mean in another's eyes. Quite frankly, I have enough trouble even caring about my own shit. Life sucks, dudes!

Technician said:

It can be but parents are too lazy to monitor their kid's online interactions. Instead they'll take this incident and demand more from ISPs/websites/government to limit how the internet is used so the they do not have to take responsibility.

Thank you. The internet is a tool. If people are using it wrong it's their issue, not the internet itself. To say it's "not a place for children" is more "playing the blame game" than anything.

She did not deserve the abuse but she should not have slept with someone who had a girlfriend.

I'd say it's not wise to draw quick and shallow conclusions and moralizations about the troubled lives of people we never knew.

hex11 said:
It is up to each of us to decide whether or not it's worth fighting to live another day, just so that you can do it again and again, until finally you die anyway.

Yes, although the choice is not just individual and it's up to us to create social environments where deciding to fight another day is more worthwhile for us in general, at different levels in corresponding ways in the sense that there are many levels of social interaction and governance.

But no, I'm not going to pretend to "care" about someone I don't know, even if that makes me look mean in another's eyes. Quite frankly, I have enough trouble even caring about my own shit. Life sucks, dudes!

I don't share that nihilism anymore. I care about anyone in some sense. Although I often simply don't know. But that is not a lack of caring, just a lack of contact. There is something even for people in fucked up states that may be like cancer in the world, and even when I may sometimes feel impelled to restrict them or, at a pinch, even harm them. This is because I can tell they're also trapped in this world. Other beings are like a living mirror. We can find all our flaws and all that makes us great because we can see each other.

Life is everything we've got, and something that exceeds the ego, thus the most worthwhile thing ever. However close to hell it may be, as it passes by, we will only miss it.

I have absolutely no background for this aside from this thread, but it sounds like the typical teenage problem. The kid's own issues made worse by some bad choices, some opportunism and some bullying. The sad part is it's kind of everybody involved at fault, as she should have known better than to do these things; the pedo is obviously scum; the bullying kids made things worse; the cheating guy is a dick and the parents clearly weren't doing enough to address the root of the problem, instead just relocating to keep the kid from getting in too deep (a good start, but it's symptoms being handled, not the cause).

Completely drive-by analysis here.

EDIT: Removed a bit that's no longer relevant to help with thread clean-up.

Myk has the right idea: you don't have to care about her at all to realize you should care about what goes on in the world. Make your surroundings less shitty for others and they will be less shitty for you too.

There are people who whom this is a horrible tragedy. That's going to affect everyone around those people for a while, and maybe even forever in ways that are unpredictable. Her parents' workplaces will be less pleasant for a while and her school will have a weird atmosphere that makes time there uncomfortable even for kids who didn't know her. The list goes on.

This kind of thinking applies to just about everything in the world. It isn't said often enough around here, though. Props to everyone else here who injected a bit of sanity.

To be honest, I'm surely wrong, but the only aim of my life is to be happy, until I die. Don't care either I'm gonna die at 20 or at 120, I just want to be happy, and I don't want to live if I can't be happy.

Consequence of this and the fact that I can't communicate with people well -> I don't give a sh*t about other people and anything related to a wider group of people, including politics, and the decay of society.

I just told it because I think, myk and Aliotroph? are right definitely, but I don't want to make the problem of the world to my own. If I die, I don't want to leave anything more important, that I did and I do to entertain people and to emerge my creativity. (Doom maps, Youtube videos, unfinished games, pixelarts, game concepts, and probably my thoughts I wrote on my Tumblr blog)

Katamori said:

I don't give a sh*t about other people

Why should anyone give a shit about you?

Before you answer with something like "suits me, because I hate everyone anyway": Hippocratic Oaths and insurances aside, why should you be entitled to, say, medical treatment when you injure yourself? Why shouldn't the surgeon tell you to fuck off and let you bleed to death?

DoomUK said:

Why should anyone give a shit about you?

Before you answer with something like "suits me, because I hate everyone anyway": Hippocratic Oaths and insurances aside, why should you be entitled to, say, medical treatment when you injure yourself? Why shouldn't the surgeon tell you to fuck off and let you bleed to death?

People didn't deal with me through years, so your first sentence doesn't touch me.

Okay, in my previous post I wasn't totally exact: partially, I deal with people - I wouldn't even visit this forum in any other case. The most important meaning of my post wasn't "I don't give a sh*t about other people", but "I don't want to make the problem of the world to my own". I think it's definitely not the same.

Also, I don't hate people - I didn't even say that I'd hate anyone.(probably when I was younger and more idiot than now) I just can't communicate clearly, but I try not to hate anyone.

To the surgeon part: surgeons are responsible for people. Being responsibe for somebody is one of my biggest fears, so I avoid it. (for example: I don't want to found family and oviously I don't want to be surgeon or medic or anything like that) Maybe if I have bad luck and my surgeon think like me and let me bleeding to death, then, I can't do anything against it, I had bad luck. I don't really worry of death - half year ago, I've thought a lot about committing suicide, so I wasn't even sure that "I'll be able to argue with DoomUK in the middle of October 2012"

Anyway if I misunderstood something, I'm sorry, the more serious topic I'm speaking, the worse my English knowledge becomes.

The truth is the surgeon doesn't really care about you. He only cares to the extent that you can pay him - he's not going to work for free. In fact, he will get paid somehow (if the hostpital values him) but you'll get billed for the work, even if you can't afford it. Then you'll be just another loser in debt, with bad credit, and thus a wage slave.

And, if you obviously have no means to pay, the hospital will try to find ways to avoid treating you, or give you less attention (going through the motions to make it look good on paper).

It turns out a lot of people "care" about you when you flash $$$ around. And they might even say they "care" when there's news story about some poor girl. But that's not really caring, it's very superficial and externally motivated. People who really care about something have already and independently made it a priority in their life, and you can only really do that with people very close to you, because energy and time is limited.

RIP poor girl, such a sick/confusing world this new generation has to live through.

She was mentally ill, because she had the possibility to go offline from the internet and stay there. Also: If she had problems in school, she should had used violence in reaction to her classmates in a way that she wouldn't had got problems with the police! Very simple situation and simple conflict in that she was, but I also feel sorry for her, because she was very unintelligent.

Deeforce said:

She was mentally ill, because she had the possibility to go offline from the internet and stay there. Also: If she had problems in school, she should had used violence in reaction to her classmates in a way that she wouldn't had got problems with the police! Very simple situation and simple conflict in that she was, but I also feel sorry for her, because she was very unintelligent.

Lol. And how fucking bright were you when you were 15? I still hope you're 15 though, because seeing adults spew out bullshit know-it-wall comments like you just did makes me pretty angry.

She was mentally ill because she could avoid internet? What does that even mean? Go fuck yourself

Deeforce said:

Also: If she had problems in school, she should had used violence in reaction to her classmates in a way that she wouldn't had got problems with the police!

I don't disagree with that. Remembering yourself as a bully fighter (even if it resulted in eye bruises each year) is better than remembering yourself as a punching bag.