Suicide Rates in the USA and how this will become political (or Anthony Bourdain dead at 61)

[The spartan]

Are you seriously quoting yourself? No one here said anything close to that.

[Cyclops]

So this thread stinks, there's a desperate attempt to politicise suicide by pretending some other faction is doing so. Pathetic posting of the lowest order.

[NorseThing]

This may seem like a strange question to ask, but political campaigns can have a profound impact on public policy, and there is a direct connection between the current focus on America's opioid epidemic and Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.
After losing the Iowa caucus to Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Donald Trump came to New Hampshire and won his first (of many) GOP primary victory. And one of the key issues in his Granite State campaign was the state's overwhelming opioid addiction crisis.
Long before the topic was part of the national conversation, it was front-page news in New Hampshire. Drug overdose deaths hit a record high in 2015—doubling the number just two years earlier. The culprits were fentanyl and heroin. Then-candidate Trump stumped across the Granite State talking about the issue and pledging help from Washington, D.C. To outsiders, it seemed a somewhat odd topic, but it resonated with local voters, too many of whom have to address the ravages of opoid abuse in their everyday lives.
Trump won a huge victory, doubling the vote total of second-place Gov. John Kasich.
The opioid issue was so central to Trump's campaign strategy that, during a 2017 phone conversation with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, Trump claimed he'd won the New Hampshire because it was a "drug-infested den." New Hampshire politicos bristled at the language, but they couldn't deny that the magnitude of their state's drug problem or the impact it had on the 2016 campaign.
And while Trump would eventually lose New Hampshire to Hillary Clinton in the general election, he had the best performance of any Republican since George W. Bush won the Granite State in 2000.
Today, the headlines in New Hampshire contain eerie echoes of 2015. The state's suicide rate jumped by 48.3 percent between 1999-2016—the third-highest increase in the U.S., according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control. It's the state's second highest cause of death among young people and eighth overall.
And as was the case in 2015, New Hampshire's struggles are part of a national narrative. From 1999 to 2014, the number of opioid overdose deaths in the U.S. rose by around 400 percent. According the CDC's new report, suicide rates in the United States have risen nearly 30 percent since 1999, rising in every state except Nevada. Suicide is now the 10th leading cause of death in the U.S. and, like New Hampshire, the second-leading cause among young people.
The overlap between the opioid epidemic and suicide doesn't end there. Just as fentanyl and heroin have disproportionately ravaged rural, white communities, a recent report in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine finds that suicide rates are rising faster in those communities as well.
On the geography side, "nearly half of the most rural counties (49 percent) exhibited increases in estimated suicide rates of more than 30 percent, compared with 19 percent of suburban counties and only 10 percent of the most urban counties," the report found.
As for the demographics, the new CDC report confirms that middle-aged adults (45-64) had the highest suicide rate increase of any age group. More than 80 percent of people who commit suicide are white and about 77 percent are men.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/comment...erm-elections/

Perhaps the media is driving this as this is a commentary by CBS News. I started this thread because it was obvious to me that this was going to be a populist issue for the midterm elections. It was not a desperate attempt to politicize suicide.

[Aexodus]

I understand the male imbalance in statistics, and the natove american one, but white? What’s happening there I don’t understand that.

[The spartan]

I honestly believe it is an identity crisis for the older white male segment of the US population that is driving the increase. The old style of familial system (the nuclear family) is outmoded, and being the patriarch of the family was the typical identity for most white males in the US; being the breadwinner. Now that that role is no longer as necessary, and has lost a lot of influence politically, white men don't quite know what to take on as an identity. This would also explain the interest in more racially motivated politics white males are engaging in. Like during the Charlottesville protests that occurred, it is important to note that the chant being echoed by the white nationalists marchers was "Jews will not replace us!". Setting aside the reference to Jews, I certainly believe that white males in the US are feeling replaced and insignificant which is tragic.

[NorseThing]

I am not a doctor, but I am old enough to have been in the prime stats a few years ago. We age. We then begin to lose some of what we thought made use who we are. In the rural areas, this can lead to being less capable to do what needs to be done. We are no longer the multi generational family of the 19th century farming communities -- the children leave and then what? Add to this the aging military veterans. For some men and even for some women, it leads to a terrible conclusion. And these are from the Trump voting base. So, yes, it will become political. And the strong complaints of turning this political are political as well.

[Love Mountain]

I honestly believe it is an identity crisis for the older white male segment of the US population that is driving the increase. The old style of familial system (the nuclear family) is outmoded, and being the patriarch of the family was the typical identity for most white males in the US; being the breadwinner. Now that that role is no longer as necessary, and has lost a lot of influence politically, white men don't quite know what to take on as an identity. This would also explain the interest in more racially motivated politics white males are engaging in. Like during the Charlottesville protests that occurred, it is important to note that the chant being echoed by the white nationalists marchers was "Jews will not replace us!". Setting aside the reference to Jews, I certainly believe that white males in the US are feeling replaced and insignificant which is tragic.

I don't think so. I realize this is a popular theory but there are more obvious causes. The majority of the military are white men, meaning they are the majority of Veterans who have a high suicide rate. The recent epidemic of opioids is portrayed to be largely a white people problem. Then there's also family dynamics. I don't know, but I'm thinking that minorities tend to form bigger community and family ties. Whites tend to be more individualistic and have smaller, more distant families. At least in my experience. Lack of a support network can make it easier to succumb to depression.

[Basil II the B.S]

I honestly believe it is an identity crisis for the older white male segment of the US population that is driving the increase. The old style of familial system (the nuclear family)is outmoded,

And yet kids that grow up without a father or mother are more likely to be depressed, suicidal, less successful in school and work, more likely to be incarcerated.

The nuclear family may be out of fashion among liberals and mentally ill people. Those two categories maybe overlap.We'll see about that below.

and being the patriarch of the family was the typical identity for most white males in the US; being the breadwinner.

And in 99% of other human societies. Typical SJW narrative that patriarchal societies are typical of white ones. Ignorant argument.

Now that that role is no longer as necessary, and has lost a lot of influence politically, white men don't quite know what to take on as an identity. This would also explain the interest in more racially motivated politics white males are engaging in. Like during the Charlottesville protests that occurred, it is important to note that the chant being echoed by the white nationalists marchers was "Jews will not replace us!". Setting aside the reference to Jews, I certainly believe that white males in the US are feeling replaced and insignificant which is tragic.

Courtesy of the other SJW narrative of white privilege.
So, white men can't be fathers, can't be bread winners and are inherently and collectively guilty of white privilege. Why are they so angry?
Lol. And I'm not even going to touch how bad the situation is for black men, who have been under the caretaking of liberals for decades.

Let's be honest, your society is an unmitigated failure. It took the ideas of mentally ill thinkers and it's creating even more mentally ill people who end up killing themselves. Kinda like The Savage in Huxley's Brave New World, who's confronted with a society where father, mothers and family are abolished, promiscous sexuality is the norm, people who are at discomfort with this are banished and he ends up killing himself.

Ooops.


Fun fact, the paradox of women unhappiness shows that your society is failing for them as well.
http://www.nber.org/papers/w14969
Another issue is that successful women don't want to marry below their social status. So they end up bitter spinsters.

So people are more lonely and more unhappy than ever, since the left has started socially engineering their lives to create automas to undermine capitalist societies and create the glorious socialist utopia. The reaction against it is just natural and desiderable. You created a society that is failing everyone: white men, white women, black men, black women, even liberals themselves have regular meltdowns. Guess who's happier? Liberals or conservatives?
Obvious answer is obvious:
http://bigthink.com/neurobonkers/the...welfare-states
https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/08/o...st-of-all.html

Guess who's less likely to be mentally ill?
Again, obvious.
http://neuropolitics.org/Anxiety-Dep...-Moderates.htm

So, which type of social model is more likely to survive in the end and which one is outmoded? The one that made it through millennia or the one that, once tried, produces mentally ill people?

Btw, spoiler warning: your attempt to destabilise capitalism by destroying the nuclear family has failed. Capitalism has commercialized your gay agend (rainbow flags), feminism (the future is female t-shirts), just like it commercialized Che Guevara t-shirts. So not only you are producing a society of mentally ill unhappy people, but your ultimate goal will never be achieved. As I said indeed, an unmitigated failure on all fronts.

[Candy_Licker]

Btw, spoiler warning: your attempt to destabilise capitalism by destroying the nuclear family has failed. Capitalism has commercialized your gay agend (rainbow flags), feminism (the future is female t-shirts), just like it commercialized Che Guevara t-shirts. So not only you are producing a society of mentally ill unhappy people, but your ultimate goal will never be achieved. As I said indeed, an unmitigated failure on all fronts.

lmao. The thing that's responsible for fragmentation of societies is capitalism itself, not some liberal conspiracy . The biggest destroyer of traditional families is the economy. Modern economy demands the flexible, unbound human. Read Ulrich Beck (Risk Society) or Zygmunt Bauman's works.

You are right though that women don't select partners below their social status, and this indeed causes problems.

[mishkin]

So this thread stinks, there's a desperate attempt to politicise suicide by pretending some other faction is doing so. Pathetic posting of the lowest order.

The op intention was honest, but the obsession with the Marxist threat is very strong in some.

[Basil II the B.S]

lmao. The thing that's responsible for fragmentation of societies is capitalism itself, not some liberal conspiracy . The biggest destroyer of traditional families is the economy. Modern economy demands the flexible, unbound human. Read Ulrich Beck (Risk Society) or Zygmunt Bauman's works.

https://revisesociology.com/2014/02/...ctives-family/

Feminists have been central in criticising gender roles associated with the traditional nuclear family, especially since the 1950s. They have argued the nuclear family has traditionally performed two key functions which oppressed women:
a) socialising girls to accept subservient roles within the family, whilst socialising boys to believe they were superior – this happens through children witnessing then recreating the parental relationship
b) socialising women into accepting the “housewife” role as the only possible/acceptable role for a women. Indeed it was the only way to be feminine/to be a woman. Essentially, feminists viewed the function of the family as a breeding ground where patriarchal values were learned by an individual, which in turn created a patriarchal society.
In short, Radical Feminists advocate for the abolition of the traditional, patriarchal (as they see it) nuclear family and the establishment of alternative family structures and sexual relations. The various alternatives suggested by Radical Feminists include separatism – women only communes, and Matrifocal households. Some also practise political Lesbianism and political celibacy as they view heterosexual relationships as “sleeping with the enemy.”

and

‘As an economic unit the nuclear family is a valuable stabilising force in capitalist society. Since the husband-father’s earnings pay for the production which is done in the home, his ability to withhold labour is much reduced’ (Margaret Benston, 1972).

https://revisesociology.com/2015/11/...n-family-life/

All of the above is part of sociology curricula in liberal universities, indeed the site itself is for that. Not exactly conspiracy theory but readily available material.

[sumskilz]

I understand the male imbalance in statistics, and the natove american one, but white? What’s happening there I don’t understand that.

Genetic risk factors.

Take a look at what you posted earlier:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Whites and Native Americans begin with well above twice the suicide rate of other populations. Suicide rates are increasing for all groups, but much more significantly for Whites and Native Americans.

Now consider that, with this in mind:

The recent findings of a large body of studies suggest significant heritability (h2) of completed suicide, with an aggregate estimate of h2 = 45% (3, 12, 13)...

...several studies that have shown an association of genetic polymorphisms with SBs [suicidal behaviors], in line with previous reviews (31–33). The strongest results from meta-analyses support the combination of SB with variants in TPH1-rs1800532 (43, 46, 84), SLC6A4-5-HTTLPR- (46, 84), COMT-rs4680-(67) or BDNF-rs6265 (137).

And this:

Testosterone deficiency is a widely recognized hormonal alteration associated with male aging. In older people, depressed mood and impaired cognition are associated with decreased testosterone levels (Amore et al., 2012; Chu et al., 2010; Sher, 2012; Sher et al., 2012). Older men with a testosterone deficiency frequently have depressive symptoms, and depressed men often have lower blood testosterone levels compared to non-depressed individuals (Amore et al., 2012; Sher, 2012; Sher et al., 2012).

There are a significant number of modern lifestyle, diet, social, and environmental factors which are contributing to lower testosterone levels.

[mishkin]

All of the above is part of sociology curricula in liberal universities, indeed the site itself is for that. Not exactly conspiracy theory but readily available material.

Do you think that universities are indoctrinating institutions of feminism because some textbooks mention more or less radical feminist ideas? When in a faculty of philosophy they speak of Camus, they are being indoctrinated in existentialism? Anyway, what impact do you think these ideas have had on current Western society? When have you seen a feminist commune for the last time?

[Candy_Licker]

https://revisesociology.com/2014/02/...ctives-family/



and

https://revisesociology.com/2015/11/...n-family-life/

All of the above is part of sociology curricula in liberal universities, indeed the site itself is for that. Not exactly conspiracy theory but readily available material.

So, you want to argue that the ideological tantrums of some fringe SJW's has more weight than the socio-economic changes of the last 30-40 years?

btw, excellent sociologists like Bauman/Beck didn't make prescriptive/normative statements about how society should be, they merely described with clairvoyant precision the changes we are facing today.
The last quote is the perfect example, because what in 1972 may have fit the nature of the old capitalism, that is no longer true today.

[Basil II the B.S]

So, you want to argue that the ideological tantrums of some fringe SJW's has more weight than the socio-economic changes of the last 30-40 years?

btw, excellent sociologists like Bauman/Beck didn't make prescriptive/normative statements about how society should be, they merely described with clairvoyant precision the changes we are facing today.
The last quote is the perfect example, because what in 1972 may have fit the nature of the old capitalism, that is no longer true today.

If it wasn't for the fact that this kind of hysterical screeching is echoed on the vast majority of media all the time(NYT,WaPo,CNN,USAToday,Newsweek, Vox,Vice, Buzzfeed,Wired,LATimes, Globe and Mail, Politico sometimes The Economist and the Financial Times) that it has translated to a variety of campus and corporate policies under the buzzwords of ''diversity and inclusion officers'' and the fact that the academia's political stance is overwhelmingly skewed, something that liberals love to brag all the time, then yeah it'd be insignificant.

It really isn't. It's hard to find a major organization, whether it's corporate or the academia in the US, that isn't high on this diversity/inclusion/empowerment fad.

Do you think that universities are indoctrinating institutions of feminism because some textbooks mention more or less radical feminist ideas? When in a faculty of philosophy they speak of Camus, they are being indoctrinated in existentialism? Anyway, what impact do you think these ideas have had on current Western society? When have you seen a feminist commune for the last time?

It's pretty clear given:
a) the percentage of college students that define themselves as consistently liberal
b) the percentage of female college students that call themselves ''feminist''

The discrepancy compared to people without college degrees shows that there's a heavy ideological transformation ongoing in colleges. The above mentioned race and gender Marxists are also obsessed with education, to the point that there have been attempts to push their ideas straight into the lowest level of education, out of the old playbook of ''get them when they are young'' and under the excuse of fighting gender stereotypes.

[Knight of Heaven]

The political opportunism over the suicide case of Anthony Bourdain, seems disgusting to me to be honest. The mere suggestion that he killed himself because he was social liberal, its something extraordinary Machiavellian, as rhetoric goes. ( maybe i should scratch Machiavellian as it might be an insult to Machiavelli himself.)

"Because white people are evil and all of them responsible for injustices committed 100+ years ago, and if you disagree then you are part of alt-right/Russian conspiracy".

And apparently if you off yourself you must be a self hating white man with white man guilt complexes.
And that must be the sole reason someone off himself. Because everyone knows left wingers are weak and what not.

So this thread stinks, there's a desperate attempt to politicise suicide by pretending some other faction is doing so. Pathetic posting of the lowest order.

Yes. Unfortunately it has become a trend to politicize all-most every topic, and make it a flag of political war.

[Basil II the B.S]

No symphaty for genocidal maniacs and certainly I'm not going to apologize for that either. I'm not going to wait people who think like him put me in correction camps to compensate my white privilege and fight racism. If you want to risk that, feel free.

[Knight of Heaven]

No symphaty for genocidal maniacs and certainly I'm not going to apologize for that either. I'm not going to wait people who think like him put me in correction camps to compensate my white privilege and fight racism. If you want to risk that, feel free.

From the video you posted i didn't get the Genocidal maniac thing at all... Btw and i dont agree with him that mixing is a solution for fixing racism. That is a very simplistic and i would say naive, and ignorant view of these things.
However the view that mixing is some sort of genocide is incredibly dumb as well. Imo.

Point being we dont know why he killed himself, and we will probably will never know. I also read in a newspaper that his Girlfriend was leaving him, and was also possibly cheating on him with a journalist.
She also posted something provocative in ( instagram? or facebook? i dont know) hours before the suicide, and when the news came out , she deleted the post.
Look we dont know, and honestly i dont really care. I just think because i dont agree with him politically or socially i should make his suicide a consequence for all that.
But that is me. And seeing it, done out there, cant say i credit much such things, intellectually speaking.

[irontaino]

One of the few celebrity deaths that upset me, he had his struggles and they caught up to him.

But in a country that gets excited about school shootings, can suicide not become a political football? I ask because of this article from 2013:

The only real political football that suicide creates is in right to die cases from what I've seen.

No symphaty for genocidal maniacs and certainly I'm not going to apologize for that either. I'm not going to wait people who think like him put me in correction camps to compensate my white privilege and fight racism. If you want to risk that, feel free.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

From the video you posted i didn't get the Genocidal maniac thing at all...

Don't cha know? White people are the most persecuted demographic in the history of ever.

However the view that mixing is some sort of genocide is incredibly dumb as well. Imo.

Nobody ever said white nationalists where a bright bunch .

[Basil II the B.S]

Both guys reasoning is that if there are no more white people, racism would be solved and that and I quote ''it's the only solution''. That implies an underlying reasoning that whites are inherently racists (ironically this is actual racism). They also think we should work in that direction.

I agree with you that it won't work anyway. People will find ways to divide each other into red and blue and kill each other over it anyway.
Also the example he presents, Singapore, is ludicruous since 75% of Singaporeans are Chinese, also the whole country is based on upper class individuals. The latter is not replicable in countries medium to large. You'd have to exterminate the lower classes because they give more importance to ethnic and cultural identities to have a society like Singapore in Germany.

The fundamental problem with their reasoning is that they want to eliminate differences so that people are the same and they won't fight. That should sound familiar because it's indeed typical of far-left regimes, which nonetheless always failed to eliminate differences, because everything generates differences of outcome, not just race/culture/gender but also height, weight, IQ, illnesses, interests. It's a never ending cycle. Their ideas are bad, their analysis simplicistic, and they are both racists too.

I'll leave that there since I'm going off-topic anyway.