To see male suicide kicked around like a political football, by a bunch of entitled brats on Instagram is extraordinarily demoralising. To watch tragic loss and bereavement be clawed at, disrespected, denied, and deliberately misunderstood; to see such pain politicised, and suffering weaponised is the pits of human behaviour, dignity and shame. You know it – “toxic” this, and “patriarchy” that. Misinformed malefactors who spout soundbites of, “well women attempt more”, or “men are more selfish in suicide”, and other stark expressions stupidity, reminds us all of the damage done when ignorance and arrogance collide inside the brain of an imbecile. I am not unfamiliar with undoing myths around men and boys advocacy, but never have I found such a process more heartbreaking than in the issue of #malesuicide. Worse – our lost men and boys to suicide are being turned into pawns to be used by a small (but growing) contingent of bunkum clinical psychologists, as they forgo their duties to prop up propaganda, to fan the flames of their own ego, and hammer the wedge of division further and further between us. They are the heroes of their own story, and nobody else’s. And no doubt these realisations of the harm they do is beyond them. But it is not beyond you. Compassion is off the table of such brittle bigots, but it is within your reach. A conversation of inclusion, of data and research, cannot be had by them, but it can be by you. Yes you. It won’t be them or I who will tell the story from here, but you, and you can do so much better. So let their poor example be a lesson for all of us. Let their low IQ, low resolution bigotry fade into the history books, and let their whines be written about with shame. Let their cries of victimhood become an embarrassing stain on their life. Let the facts that bounce off their thick skulls, swim and swirl in yours. Let their ignorance inspire you. Let’s talk about male suicide. ~ [1] [2] Study 01 Study 02 Images by Codioful, Luke Jones, Ray Zhou, Zohre Nemati, Albert Vincent We and Luke Chesser. #malesuicideawareness

2023-07-13