[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Male Suicide: Genetic Defect or Desperate Act?
posted by D on Tuesday February 11, @12:11AM
from the Suicide dept.
Men's Health Dan Lynch writes ""There is no bottom to stupid when it comes to government inaction" someone mailed me today. Read on: " ‘New think’ thought of the day, published first in the Montreal Gazette – Men commit suicide because they are genetically defective (the Gazette always reports women commit suicide from desperate acts). Once again the Montreal Gazette Newspaper, continues to call any issue regarding men a PEOPLE ISSUE (Women’s issues are reported as women’s issues). It is the same sexist propaganda from the Gazette when it comes to suicides. Because suicide is 80% men, the Gazette reports it as a people issue. Men are the victims of 75% of violence in Canada, 43% (growing) of spousal abuse victims and ¾ of suicides. Over 90% of the homeless in Canada are men. Heritage Canada gives 100% of all gender specific funding to women and 100% of gender exclusive resources to the over 500 gender exclusive shelters to women. The Canadian and Quebec governments refuse to fund a single gender exclusive penny to anything to do with men’s issues (health, suicide, etc). Millions to women, nothing to men. Desperate men / Zero resources = desperate acts. Yet these researchers as you report, obviously without a clue, are looking for ‘a genetic link’ and a new study. Study What??? How about the Gazette Newspaper starts asking why there is no emergency funding for men from our Governments. Today and each and every day 3 men in Quebec will commit suicide. There is no bottom to stupid when it comes to government inaction and newspaper silence!""

Sacks on National Radio Tour | Stop Denying that Women Batter Men!  >

  
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Genetically defective, Oh, I see. (Score:0)
by Anonymous User on Tuesday February 11, @03:50AM EST (#1)
Men are genetically defective.
Oh, I see. That's a good reason to just let ANYONE die. (sarcasm)
This sort of "mentality" is the sort of thing that makes me mad enough to commit violence. (Which is rare for me.)
The same "mentality" is applied towards American and Canadian Indians. I.E. 'Indians are genetically "proned" to be drunks, suffer from depression AND commit suicide, etc.
I've heard it all before.
No one who believes this about us, (Indian people) ever stops to look at what we are forced to deal with day to day.
The same is EXACTLY the case with men, in general.
This sort of mentality is indicitive to that of the Nazis. It was said of the Jewish people that they were infirior ethnicaly, genetically, and so on.
Some how I get the feeling that if women were "pre-disposed" to commit suicide, it would make no difference as to WHY they committed suicide, but that it must be STOPPED AT ALL COST!!
Yes, All one need do is look at history. History is checkered with those who allowed, even hoped to kill off "un-desirables" with indifference.
I think indifference is actually the greatest weapon to commit mass slaughter that humanity has ever had. Many would say it's the BOMB.
I say it is indifference.

        Thundercloud.
Re:Genetically defective, Oh, I see. (Score:1)
by Uberganger on Tuesday February 11, @04:55AM EST (#2)
(User #308 Info)
I think indifference is actually the greatest weapon to commit mass slaughter that humanity has ever had.

This rings a certain bell with me. Didn't a recent UN report show that men die earlier than women in every single country in the world bar one? And their conclusion? Surely it was to acknowledge the many ways in which men are shortchanged and harmed by their role in society, blah-blah, etc. Er, no. I think their conclusion was that any place where women aren't living longer than men indicates discrimination against women.

It's like water forcing its way through rock. The water follows whatever channels it can find. If you block a channel off, the water finds some other way to go, some other crack in the rock. So, given that 80% of suicides are men we could conclude that men are experiencing severe emotional hardships of some kind, and that as a society we need to face up to that and do something about it, offer these guys some help. Yeah, we could do that; it's one of those cracks in the rock. But hang on, there's this thing called 'feminism' which says that women are society's great victim class and that men have it all their own way. There's no way that the feminist mind will accept any explanation of suicide which undermines its claim to authority - that men are the oppressors and women the victims. Having thus blocked any channel in the rock that might lead to a sympathetic interpretation of men's situation, the only options left are the unsympathetic ones. It doesn't matter how convoluted and forced these interpretations are, they're the only ones left once the others have been denied.

Feminism is the hatred of men, and that's all it is.
But this article does not state such a thing ! (Score:1)
by rage on Tuesday February 11, @06:26AM EST (#3)
(User #1131 Info)
This article does not state that men are genetically defective ! It just says that suicide could also be accounted for by genetic explanations, besides the usual social and economic problems. That's all. And it doesn't target men specifically but both men and women when it comes to a possible genetic explanation. Re-read it, please.

And do not forget that if men are 80% of people commiting suicide that leads to death, women try to kill themselves more often.....but they don't manage to do it most of the time.

So an eventual genetic explanation would be for both men and women.

Yours sincerely, brothers, and kisses from France.

Re:But this article does not state such a thing ! (Score:1)
by Severin on Tuesday February 11, @08:04AM EST (#4)
(User #1050 Info)
This article does not state that men are genetically defective ! It just says that suicide could also be accounted for by genetic explanations, besides the usual social and economic problems.

I think rage has a point. I just read the article, and I read it as an article about proposing a genetic link as another possible avenue of investigation that might lead to the better identification and treatment of suicide. I think it's actually a good thing that they mentioned the men's statistic. Not many people know that, and it's good that at least now some of them do.

But it didn't seem to be proposing that men were defective, or that anyone was defective, only that there might be genetic reasons for depression and suicide.

Sean
Exactly (Score:1)
by rage on Tuesday February 11, @09:21AM EST (#5)
(User #1131 Info)
Thanks. You have explained very well what I was trying to say in my poor English (sorry I'm French).

And as far as biological reasons are concerned, we know already that depression in older males (or even in younger sometimes) can be caused by a lack of testosterone. This problem being more and more discussed by doctors in the media, I think we can hope for a widespread hormonal treatment for males in the near future, that will improve the quality of their lives, and perhaps their life expectancy itself.


Re:But this article does not state such a thing ! (Score:1)
by Martian Bachelor on Tuesday February 11, @01:50PM EST (#6)
(User #105 Info) http://Science.MartianBachelor.com
> So an eventual genetic explanation would
> be for both men and women.

As someone steeped in Darwinian evolution I'd love to see someone finagle a way for such a gene to ever arise in any population of living and breeding organisms. I don't think we share much in common with lemmings.

* MB

-------------------------------------------------- ----------
/* Not All Men Are Fools -- Some Are Martian Bachelors
Re:But this article does not state such a thing ! (Score:1)
by Smoking Drive (homoascendens@ivillage.com) on Wednesday February 12, @06:45PM EST (#7)
(User #565 Info)
As someone steeped in Darwinian evolution I'd love to see someone finagle a way for such a gene to ever arise in any
                                                    population of living and breeding organisms. I don't think we share much in common with lemmings.


Perhaps you need more steeping. There is no principle in Darwinian evolution that forbids genes which make people more likely to commit suicide any more than there is one that forbids the existence of genes which make people more likely to suffer from heart failure or broken legs.

Some persons' bones are stronger than others' and this is partly due to genetic factors. Therefore broken legs are explained somewhat by genetic factors. The fact that broken legs are generally maladaptive does nothing to rule out genetic factors.

cheers,
sd

Those who like this sort of thing will find this the sort of thing they like.
Re:But this article does not state such a thing ! (Score:1)
by jenk on Wednesday February 12, @07:34PM EST (#8)
(User #1176 Info)
If the suicides are occuring mainly in teenage and early twenty something men, could the probability that they would not have produced yet make any difference?

Interesting subject, I wish I knew more about it. Jen
Re:But this article does not state such a thing ! (Score:1)
by Martian Bachelor on Thursday February 13, @01:18PM EST (#9)
(User #105 Info) http://Science.MartianBachelor.com
> There is no principle in Darwinian evolution
> that forbids genes which make people more
> likely to commit suicide any more than there is
> one that forbids the existence of genes...

Sure there is. If you commit suicide you're not around to breed (i.e., pass on your genes) or help raise your offspring to breeding age. It's that simple. Suicide is the opposite of survival, which is what darwinianism is all about.

* MB

-------------------------------------------------- ----------
/* Not All Men Are Fools -- Some Are Martian Bachelors
[an error occurred while processing this directive]