Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

People commit suicide for only one reason: because their lives are so miserable, they seek relief.

Can you think of ANY other minority, other than those with suicidal ideation, that has so many groups seeking to torture them?  You would think someone would try to avoid suicides by bringing some little joy into their lives. But no. these people are locked up, and forced to take medicines that have nasty side-effects with minimal efficacy.  The suicide rate has actually gone up substantially since SSRIs like Prozac were introduced.  And when someone actually assists the suicidal in achieving their goal, he gets sent to prison.

But it's all justified because suicide is "the most selfish act one can commit.

You can call me nigger if you want; I freely admit that I'm not fully white but rather a quintroon.  But if you call me - or my friends - selfish, you better have some beefsteak handy for your eye.  I have every right to pursue my own agenda.

Robert said
The word selfish identifies no group.

To use it or not is  entirely up to the speaker- nothing wrong with the word itself.

Issues so far either hazy or altogether nonissue.

When someone among the Amish commits suicide, they aren't just denied burial in "hallowed ground", they are buried where he has died, with no ceremony, no marker, and no mention of his name, ever again.  It is hard to identify a group if the members of the group have their very existence denied.

Many other self-styled "Christian" churches similarly refuse to bury the suicide.  It's even worse than the unpersons who died in the Magdelene laundries, who wee dumped in unmarked graves without any words.

At least bigots assert "some of my best friends" are niggers.  Leaders of foreign countries assert that there are no homosexuals within their borders, but readily admit that other countries have gays.  Not just famous racehorses get tombstones but ones like Sorrel Billy that nobody ever heard of.  Goldfish have ceremonial flushings with their little children owners properly somber.

And nobody ever says "some of mt best friends are suicidal".  In the Ronald Reagan administration, they forced many of the psychotics and schizophrenics out of the institutions, granting them the freedom of homelessness, but they still lock up the suicidal.  Foreigners get constitutional rights, but the suicidal are imprisoned without having committed any crime, without any legal representation, without a trial, without even the freedom from abuse legislated for dumb animals, because they don't exist, not really.

Nonpersons form a null set.  It's no wonder that you find such nongroups hazy, and their maltreatment to be a nonissue.  How dare they be so selfish as to pursue their own agenda.