June 8 Open Thread: Suicide Is Painless*
It’s been a bad week for suicides. First fashion designer Kate Spade, now celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain — why is it that people with a lot to contribute check out, while all the people with the best reasons for doing themselves in pass on the opportunity?
I mean, most people who have been exposed as human slime the way, for example, Scott Pruitt has — not just crooked, but small-time, two-bit crooked, a laughingstock-thief — would see that as a reason to at last disappear from public view. A boxed-in schmuck like Michael Cohen — does he seriously think every day from now on won’t be worse than the last? Same for Paul Manafort. If all you have to look forward to are prison or being stalked by Russians, wouldn’t self-murder start to seem a more appealing outcome?
The odds for these people are 99-1 against, but truly shitty people never see it as a reason to throw in the towel. If they thought the normal rules applied to them, they wouldn’t be the shitty people they are in the first place.
Instead it’s people like Spade, who worried that getting treatment for her depression would destroy her brand’s happy-go-lucky image. Bourdain had enough personal demons to stock a full circle of hell, but he had managed to overcome them to reinvent himself as an ambassador for the universality of food culture. Did one escape to torment him again?
With that in mind, here’s a story with more red flags than a May Day parade: An architect who worked on Trump projects in former communist countries was contacted by a reporter working on Trump’s business deals in that part of the world. She couldn’t get hold of him, but within hours of her phone call the architect closed his media accounts, closed his business and has dropped from sight. No, not suspicious in the least.
The rest of the news is the usual hash of “Trump said/tweeted” and sundry torments enacted by Trump’s throng of Heironymus Bosch goblins. America made this hell, but we think the normal rules don’t apply to us.
*A link to the song as it appears in the opening credits to M*A*S*H. The music is by Johnny Mandel, the lyrics to what director Robert Altman wanted to be “the stupidest song ever” by Altman’s son Michael, who was 14 at the time. Years later the elder Altman revealed that he had been paid $70,000 to direct the movie, but Michael had made over $1 million in royalties from the song.
Money, fame and success are nothing compared to it. Succumbed to the darkness.
He was a great chef, a very good writer and and cultural ambassador to the world.
Tough news. And that fucking rat Kissinger still sucks air.
On the bright side, despicable shill Charles Krauthammer ain’t long for the world.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-note-to-readers/2018/06/08/3512010c-6b24-11e8-bea7-c8eb28bc52b1_story.html?utm_term=.4e3c978f39f4
“Once you’ve been to Cambodia, you’ll never stop wanting to beat Henry Kissinger to death with your bare hands.”
https://mobile.twitter.com/jacobinmag/status/766024610051715072
The sad fact that alcohol/drug abusers are at a higher risk of suicide. He was off the drugs for a while but a heavy drinker still. And his divorce didn’t help. Kitchen confidential is still required reading
Krauthammer was Bush-era awful. As with all things awful in that era, they seem mild by comparison with today.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2009/08/the-trouble-with-charles-krauthammer
He’s awful enough for me to consider his impending demise good news.
Fuck that guy.
“America made this hell, but we think the rules don’t apply to us”- is this not American exceptionalism, writ bigly by Trump voters and some “Christians”?
The Old Testament smitings of the X-amites and Y-amites are cited with current victim names but the same rationale for treating the Other badly. Brings to mind a Bob Dylan lyric about committing atrocities because God is on our side.
“is this not American exceptionalism, writ bigly by Trump voters and some “Christians”?
Why yes, yes it is.
For all the gods humans have conjured up, they have yet to invent one who tells his worshippers, “You’re just wrong on this one. Do that and you’re on your own.”
“why is it that people with a lot to contribute check out, while all the people with the best reasons for doing themselves in pass on the opportunity?“
This is disgusting. The very idea that anyone has a good or “best reason” to kill themselves is beyond the pale. There is never a good reason to harm oneself, and suggesting otherwise is revolting. You really want people you disagree with politically to commit suicide? That is awful. Grow some compassion, please.
I hope the people who disagree with me politically all die of slowly tearing, infectious rectal fissures.
(The rhetorical flourish is dead.)
“There is never a good reason to harm oneself, and suggesting otherwise is revolting.”
If you weren’t so busy posturing you might have figured out that I was talking about cornered rats. Their politics have nothing to do with it. Paul Manafort, like Frankie Pentangeli, has valid and rational reasons for suicide. Who are you to say otherwise?
I have all the compassion I’m interested in having, thanks all the same. If I took pleasure in the deaths of people I disagreed with politically, I’d be happy about Krauthammer, which I’m not.
“There’s never a good reason” isn’t true just because you proclaim it so. It’s just your absolutist and therefore invalid opinion, and I find the moral posturing, well, full of shit. You can’t speak for anyone but yourself, so fuck off with that horseshit. There’s Another Blog where moral posturing is all the rage. I suggest you stick with them.
To illustrate the hollowness of scolding people for taking pleasure in somebody’s death, I present this story from northern Kentucky, where an active Nazi died when his car was struck by a woman driving so drunk she should have been in a coma:
https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2018/06/06/nky-white-supremacist-leader-killed-crash-newport-woman-charged/678123002/
Given that in her condition the woman was bound to kill somebody, I’m a bad person for being glad it was him?
@SW “The very idea that anyone has a good or “best reason” to kill themselves is beyond the pale.”
Uhhh. No it isn’t. It’s a perfectly reasonable analysis for nearly anyone to make, and millions do. In fact, I would argue that it’s a minority of humans who never has to face this choice.
I fully expect to end my life by suicide. In fact, I actually hope that I do. And it will be for the best of reasons.
As for the “Open Thread”, I’m surprised that no one has expressed alarm at the functional death of Obamacare, or the EPA gutting major pollution laws, no longer considering air, water, or ground pollution when approving chemicals for use.
It’s been a really bad week for progressives, in so many ways, and we’re not going to mention any of that depressing stuff… We’re debating suicide!!
For some reason thousands are committing suicide. Obviously, many don’t understand depression, or drug addiction, or medically problematic disease that will make your end of life painful. No, I would never committ suicide, only because I might miss something important, and wouldn’t want to leave the horror with my children or grandchildren. We can’t explain why people do what they do, perhaps its because we live in a for profit insurance nation, and don’t have enough counselors, or doctors who could help without charging you the next paycheck. Americans are not a happy people, we live under disaster capitalism, immoral, corrupt leaders, and live without hope the day to day grind will never change for the better. Some people have the ability to cover up how they really feel inside or like Kate Spade fearful her brand would be affected. Liberal Elite you do know the subject is all over the news today..perhaps thats why its a topic?
@LA “Liberal Elite you do know the subject is all over the news today..perhaps thats why its a topic?”
Sure. But it’s a minor issue that takes the news cycle away from major and disastrous moves by the Trump administration. And it worked!
“No, I would never committ suicide…”
So I guess you don’t think much of the Bushido code…
“…and wouldn’t want to leave the horror with my children or grandchildren.”
What about the horror of losing all of their inheritance when your medical costs exceed $1000/day as you linger on well past your time. Is that really better? Is that what you really want???
“I’m surprised that no one has expressed alarm at the functional death of Obamacare, or the EPA gutting major pollution laws, no longer considering air, water, or ground pollution when approving chemicals for use.”
Do you mean the argument that by killing the mandate the courts must declare the entire law void? I’ll worry about it when it happens. I see no reason for anxiety about something very uncertain. The courts have proved our most resilient institutional bulwark so far. Funny what lifetime employment does for one’s ability to appreciate the wheel of change.
As for the EPA, the ruling mostly just returns us to business as previous, rolling back the review of toxic chemicals Obama ordered. I live in Hockessin, so I can tell you the horses on dry cleaning solvent already have run wild, free and close to my home, so my interest in the condition of the barn door is much diminished.
If I considered all the horrors that might accrue given conservative control of government, I’d strongly consider suicide.
She ruins every fucking thread.
What Bourdain, Spade, Hunter Thompson, Hemingway, Plath, Robin Williams and my dear friend Joshua did is not the same as end of life suicide due to terminal illness or terrible quality of life.
So, for the sake of not embarrassing you’re kids, shut the fuck up.
Oh wait, you can’t embarrass them because you’re an anonymous coward. I nearly forgot.
Wait a sec. Robin Williams certainly did have a horrible disease. I had a friend die of Lewy body dementia, and it can be much worse than Alzheimer’s, believe it or not — you hallucinate and get violent, like someone on PCP.
Moreover, whatever the reason, the control of whether to continue to live is the most fundamental freedom there is. If the state can control that, they truly control your life. Literally.
Comparing say David Foster Wallace’s death with one of Kevorkian’s terminal cancer or MS patients is so fucking stupid.
Fair point on Williams, but you get my point.
OK, I’ll make this political in the best way: Bourdain and Obama eat bun cha in Hanoi, and Obama reminisces about the street food in his childhood Indonesia:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crZKCx11VKI
“Low plastic stool, cheap but delicious noodles, cold Hanoi beer.” This is how I’ll remember Tony. He taught us about food — but more importantly, about its ability to bring us together. To make us a little less afraid of the unknown. We’ll miss him.
https://mobile.twitter.com/BarackObama/status/1005117568913412098
Fuckin’ A, Bubba.
I like the way he gets Obama to reminisce about the street food without prodding. That’s a good reporter right there.
Bourdain Is a loss that will be hard to overcome for me. A fellow alumni and champion of the art, who traveled the dark side but seemed to have risen above it. a sad day indeed.
@A “Moreover, whatever the reason, the control of whether to continue to live is the most fundamental freedom there is.”
That’s for sure. There’s even a society that helps people do this. My Aunt’s an ex-member. Guess how she quit the group?
“If the state can control that, they truly control your life. Literally.”
But they can’t really control that very well. It’s really easy to kill self. A plastic bag of helium is one of the the easiest and least painful ways, and it’s fairly cheap.
And then there’s the gun. About 60% of all gun deaths are suicides, some tragic, and others not so tragic. But I certainly do believe that they ALL had the right to do so, if not legal, certainly a moral right.
As for those who wanted to live, or who died in a fit of passion, that’s really too bad. But it’s not like there isn’t a support system and several groups trying to help. If they don’t reach out, it’s probably because they didn’t really want to reach out.
If they did reach out, and those groups failed them, that’s where the focus should be.
Kill all normies!
Krauthammer …
I’m solidily in the “fuck that guy” camp.
So, all you guys are praising Bouradaine and pilling on Krauthammer in a purely politically motivated way. It’s always interesting to see the extreme left and extreme right come full circle to meet in the same place.
Anyway, I used to do work in Rehoboth for a guy who was a producer for the Discovery Channel. He once asked me which of their shows I liked the best, and when I told him Anthony Bourdain, he rolled his eyes and said something the effect that he was difficult to deal with, I don’t think at the time he realized how successful Bourdain would become.
As far as edgy alcoholic TV chefs go though, I always preferred Kieth Floyd.
Actually, I don’t despise Krauthammer the way a lot of liberals do — he made good and thoughtful arguments as long as he stuck to the theoretical aspects of conservatism.
When it came to brass tacks, though — actual world events and how America should behave — he was wrong more often than right because he backed the W horse. The link I posted above summarizes it nicely. Once he got involved in the political wars, he based his positions on exactly the kind of partisanship you decry.
Anthony Bourdain the celebrity wasn’t really a chef as much as a travel journalist. I’m sure he could be difficult to work with, but I didn’t have to work with him, so I don’t care.
I had to look up Keith Floyd, and he sounds worlds away from what Bourdain did. Here’s the meal he ate hours before he died in 2009, to celebrate the all-clear from doctors about his colon cancer:
That’s quite a ways from street food in Hanoi.
Whar was interesting to me about Bourdain is he was one of the very first who supported the MeToo movement.
As laudable as that was, it was probably the least interesting thing about him. If you read what he wrote about it, he wouldn’t have been awakened had Asia Argento not been his girlfriend. And if he hadn’t examined himself — kudos to him for doing so — he would have been looking for a new girlfriend.
Restaurant kitchens are run and staffed in large part by sexist men who foster a brutal, hierarchical environment. French kitchens are famous for their corporal punishment at the hands of the chef. Physical abuse of underlings was common even a generation ago. The natural division between the kitchen and the dining room is heightened by the gender separation it often displays — men in the kitchen, women waiting tables.
Anthony Bourdain was as aware as anyone that the power dynamics at play in the restaurant as workplace probably make it the most overtly sexist workplace in America except for strip clubs. Anybody who has spent more that one paycheck period working at a restaurant has witnessed worse than the actions that cost Al Franken his job.