Death of Amanda Todd

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

Things like this make me yearn for simpler times.

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Younger generation is not sick nor confusing compared to any other previous generations. It's just different.

Justince said:
Complete failure of parenting.

Parents are human and may be under many pressures, some of which could drive nearly anyone insane. These pressures include any previous "bad parentage", possibly going back to the dawn of time itself.

After the individual, parentage is one of the most convenient scapegoats because, being the closest thing to privacy which is inevitably social, we can dump all our prejudices there or put it up as the true factor behind anything.

That is, perhaps it can be called a failure of parenting and all, but that does not necessarily even close the case.

j4rio said:

Younger generation is not sick nor confusing compared to any other previous generations.

I agree, and if it was, it would not be the younger generations fault, right?

Stygian said:

Things like this make me yearn for simpler times.

Not me.

I don't really feel any sort of human-warmth emotion for her. Simple as that.

I don't know her, so I really don't feel anything for her.

Stygian said:

Things like this make me yearn for simpler times.

That's a very simplistic perspective. Simpler times, doesn't mean better times. Only that they were simpler. Had it been simpler times, a lot of us here on DW wouldn't have been alive to "enjoy" these simpler times.

Some of us would have died in factory accidents as kids. Many others wouldn't even survive their infancy due to different medical complications.

Also, as a bonus of these simpler times. If anyone were raped by a pedophile, you wouldn't be able to tell anyone. Cause no one wouldn't believe that it wasn't your own fault. Others would never have been concieved, because your parents wouldn't be deemed fit and have been put through forced sterilizations.

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.

God forbid you were the bully, though. Because *these* kids were obviously monsters from the start and don't deserve to be understood ever, save in condescending, dismissive and reassuring generalizations for the victims - i.e. "their parents were drunks", "they're going to have a shitty life", and so on.

(...I'm not calling you out. Just a random unrelated rant.)

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).

USA! USA! USA!

Even then, getting into medicine since the 80s (which, in 2012, is likely as far back as it goes) without caring for your patients at some level is more and more unlikely. If you have the skills to make it at all, then you also have so many other options with better pay and less workload.

When the patient is on the operating table most doctors will tell you what they see is a machine that needs to be fixed, but that's more of a coping mechanism than a lack of empathy, because to stop and think you're cutting human flesh, operating on another human being, any mistake potentially harming or killing them, can be a paralyzing thought.

Likewise, you can't attach yourself to every patient you have as if they were your friends. Not only it'd be exhausting emotionally, but the more involved you get the less objective you can be about how they should be treated - and the more likely you are to make poor calls.

No doubt you can find unempathetic surgeons out there, but at the end of the day what keeps many of them going is knowing you made a positive difference in someone's life. It's a powerful feeling - and even from the unsympathetic dick angle, it's a feeling of power. Money is nice too, but at the end of the day, if that's all you wanted you'd be a lawyer or a banker, not a doctor.

I'll be honest, if it wasn't for this thread, I would not have heard of Amanda Todd.

Enjay said:

I'll be honest, if it wasn't for this thread, I would not have heard of Amanda Todd.

From what I can tell, it's mostly an American media phenomenon anyway, so it's understandable that someone who lives outside of the States and doesn't pay attention to petty stuff in the mainstream eye wouldn't have heard about this.

Sodaholic said:

media phenomenon

Which of course will be nothing to do with the fact that she was kind of cute looking and made a quirky, very-in-vogue-to-report YouTube video. If she had been ugly or just one of the thousands of other teen suicides that happen in the US* (and elsewhere of course) without a video to go with it, she'd be just another anonymous statistic and far less reportable.

At least her death becoming more public than most might have a positive spin off in raising awareness. However, I suspect it will just mean that the press features a few more teen suicide stories for a month or so before we all go back to our lives with nothing changed.


*Some Statistics - veracity not investigated

Kristus said:
That's a very simplistic perspective. Simpler times, doesn't mean better times.

My statement was overly-vague and, depending on what you take "simpler" to mean, you could interpret it any number of ways. Rolling back the clock just exchanges our current set of problems for those of previous generations.

What I should I have said is, I lament the fact that technology makes it possible for sociopaths all around the world to collectively dance on the graves of young suicide victims and although I wish something could be done about this, I realize there isn't a plausible solution. Attempting to ban teenagers from sharing compromising information over the internet would amount to sweeping censorship, so there isn't much that can be done without serious drawbacks.

I watched that slow video and I think she was too emotional about it.
I too did not have many friends at that age. I did sit alone at launch and I prefered it that way. She should have been throwing school chairs at them, running with knife on them and mindless head-striking.
Like I did! And that was just my response to harmless provocation. That is probably why they did not try anything worse. Fight fire with Inferno!

You got lucky. That kind of response is often very unpredictable and could have landed her in jail. Besides, a lot of people really are just incapable of responding with violence.

@Stygian: The psychos definitely have a longer reach with the internet, but so do the saints. I think the benefits of all our technology already outweigh the risks.

I find it very hard to believe you did that and didn't end up in prison.

You'd be amazed what is accepted by some teachers in schools if it is seen as a response to targeted and prolonged bullying.

Prison? Do you guys live in North Korea? Oh, sorry, probably the US OF A!!! :D D:D: D:

Phobus said:

You'd be amazed what is accepted by some teachers in schools if it is seen as a response to targeted and prolonged bullying.

What country do you live in? Here in the USA, the school faculties punish whoever swung first, and everything else is kept quiet.

The UK, where my personal experience was that everybody gets punished, but teachers were aware of who the bullies/dicks were and who the victim lashing out was, so where things got (particularly) violent a bit of leeway was applied in favour of said victim. Obviously there are limits, but fist-fighting on it's own would have to be pretty extreme to get the police in.

I live in Czech Republic (Europe). I did not harm anyone, I just scared them off. I had to be in a hospital department for psychicaly ill, for a month. It was not directly related to these.. bursts.

[PROTOTYPE] is that u d00d?

Bucket said:

What country do you live in? Here in the USA, the school faculties punish whoever swung first, and everything else is kept quiet.

Bull-fucking-shit, a few years back a kid who was having a shitty day decided to tackle me and try to fight me; I wound up maneuvering myself on-top of him and just punching him in the face.

I got suspended for two weeks for defending myself from this crazy kid (probably because his eye got all swollen and black), but him, the instigator came back the next day, only got a single day's suspension.

I had another incident of me defending myself and still getting the bad end of the stick, but the point is, that's not how it is today. I presume your'e a bit older? Like late 20's early 30's? I've heard a lot of stories from my family and others on how they didn't get punished at all for defending themselves. Well nowadays the old assholes of the schoolboard pretty much crucify all involved. They actually expect you to either take it while help is received, or you run and go get help. I'm sorry, but if you lay your hands on me I'm not just going to take it.

Like my grandpa's motto: Don't start nothing, there won't be nothing. But don't back down from a fight either, as the problem will just continue.

I was sort of bullied at school. Then if they tried to skip me in some line, I would tell them (and push/pull them back if necessary), if they insulted me, I would insult them back, if they wanted to fight, I fight. The fights that I won, resulted in the bully to never bother me again. The fights that ended in a tie, also had quite similar results. I never lost a schoolfight and never harmed anyone badly.

It helps to know some martial arts, gives some confidence in winning the fights, or scaring them away without needing to fight.. probably usually the bullies don't know martial arts, since in most martial arts people learn not be bullies. Not saying all bullies would just flail their arms randomly if they stayed to fight... Probably better to get some help from teachers/adults if it's a group of bullies vs one.

Bucket said:

What country do you live in? Here in the USA, the school faculties punish whoever swung first, and everything else is kept quiet.

Not everywhere in the USA. The kind of "Zero Tolerance" policies where I went to school meant that both parties were punished regardless of who was actually doing the swinging (even if the target wasn't fighting back). Pretty fucked up.

hex11 said:

[PROTOTYPE] is that u d00d?

Unlikely, unless he's been expelled from Romania. ;-)