Paltalk: Where discussions can lead to suicide

I was curious to know what kind of discussions are being held in Paltalk. This last monht I tried different rooms and heard and read nothing but nonsense. Worse: prejudice, racism, xenophobia spiced with lectures of some few who speak most of the time imposing their views on others. This is how they moderate the rooms. The aim of the moderation is to make people feel bad. The reason? I have no idea but verbal abuse, bashing, ad hominem and ad personae attacs, and all rhetorical weapons  is the way discussions are held.



If I received one dollar for every "fuck" I heard... It is not that serious since fucking became part of rhetoric but what about "you, fucking hypocrite..." I beg your pardon? Calling someone an hypocrite means nothing in discussions rooms like these even tough some people try to fight it.

Copycatting politicians?

These are adults, not teenagers.

The bottom line is that there are no discussions. A discussion requires a topic and most of the time people jump from one topic to another. Maybe that's why it is PalTalk. Talk, no matter what. But with such pals only if you've been a regular for years as some are. Newcomers are not welcome.

I sensed a lot of resentment in some rooms. A gloomy way of seeing life and the world as if life has defeated or mistreated some in a way that little room for any good is left.

Occasionally someone interesting appears but they leave or don't talk too much.



People are so used to mistreat others that it became part of the culture. Sarcasm and other ways to put the other down and all the famous strategies used at the internet are used with the help of anonymity that brings the worse of people.  It means nothing for those who are used to pal talk.

But it meant to Mr. Kevin Whitrick:



A father-of-two hanged himself live over the internet in Britain's first 'cyber suicide'.

Kevin Whitrick, 42, took his life after being goaded by dozens of chatroom users from across the world who initially believed he was play acting.



But as they watched in horror, Mr Whitrick climbed onto a chair, smashed through a ceiling and then hanged himself with a piece of rope.



Mr Whitrick told users of web-chat site PalTalk what he was going to do two hours before he killed himself on Wednesday night.

He was logged on with around 50 other users to a special "insult" chatroom where people "have a go at each other".



They confirmed Mr Whitrick told friends in the internet chat room of his plans to kill himself but, thinking he was joking, they egged him on telling him to make sure the his webcam was on.

Whole article here.


The same happened to Simone Back but at Facebook on January, 2011 and to Claire Lin last March.




This is the room for The Rights for Whites* that has this site where it is said:



"I am outraged. You should be outraged. This is genocide by design. Whites are rapidly approaching minority status in the nations their ancestors built through blood, sweat, and tears. Wanting to preserve one’s culture, heritage, and bloodlines is not racist. It is a survival mechanism inherent to all human beings, irrespective of race. No group of people should have their homelands flooded with alien races against their will. Similarly, no culture should be subjected to the destructive forces of feminism, homosexuality, promiscuity, and forced diversity.



My problem lies not with everyday blacks, mestizos, Asians, and other non-whites. In addition, those who wish to live in a multicultural society should have every right to do so. Similarly, those who are of the opinion that a racially homogeneous society would be overall preferable to a multicultural one should be able to live in the former. Unfortunately, whites do not have this option — not in North America, not in Australia, and not even in Europe. As I have revealed in this five-part series, the Jewish Supremacists have colluded with their powerful, race-betraying co-conspirators to facilitate the demise of the white race..." (this site disappeared. I copied it fifteen days ago)

*The room Rights for the Whites was changed for White Freedom

Sometimes it's hard to distinguish quickly who is a troll and who is a true member of the room in PalTalk because in some rooms the discourse is the same. In 95% of all discussions it is all about hate, it is all about two choices. The moderation is done by professionals or compliant people.

The best rooms are those who have few people. But I don't recommend PalTalk to anybody. I heard a man saying that when he started at PalTalk his mother said that it was affecting his life and he should stop.

He kept even thou he felt confused and didn't understand. Sometimes a person raises the voice and shouts cursing and it is quite intimidating and dangerous for those who are sensitive. As he is a very nice person and compliant he is there now as an "admin", those who bounce or make a person unable to speak or write.

But there is also people to do the job of the "good cop" and write nice things. That's why some people stay.



Today I was told that because I'm Brazilian I was not aware of how to debate in such spaces. I started debating over internet in 1994 when we discussed through e-mails when nobody would waste time writing and wait for replies to troll. Anyway... This is the first time my nationality, thus my accent, was used to explain  why I was questioning the moderation of a room.

It was a topic and native speakers were saying all the flaws of the room. All of a sudden, as the moderator kept defending his acts saying that nothing of what was being said was true, I was attacked, I was the problem. It was quite instructive.



Freedom of speech is being used as an excuse to accept hostile and numerous aggressive behavior.

You find someone who share your ideas but according to the situation you'll be stabbed in the back if it's according to the circumstances.



If you have nothing to do and is tired of TV you can go to PalTalk and make any statement because "idea and opinion", the rights that are guaranteed by article 19 of UN's International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, are used in a very broad sense even if you go against the article 20:

*2. Any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence shall be prohibited by law. (emphasis added)

I heard a man from Poland claiming he was considering killing immigrants in Poland and the others in the room agreed. There were people from UK, Finland and US. I believe that we need a serious reflection about what is happening in our relationship with others. For the moment trying to respect others would be advisable.

"Don't take it personal!" is a good excuse some people use to abuse others. "You're too emotional."

No Exit: L'enfers ce sont les autres. ?

And as far as Paltalk is concerned... don't join it. In my entire virtual life it is the place where I witnessed the most offensive, hateful and repugnant behavior.

 There is nothing to do there unless you want to in a bad mood and want to verbally abuse no matter who. But this is a privilege you'll only gain after being bashed.



Update:

In 2004 this Petition Online was created and was signed by 2.120.882 people all over the world:

Author:

n/a

Send To:

Paltalk

Sponsored By:

Muslim Family of Paltalk



Mr Jason Katz,



We the following feel shocked and appalled that such a commodity as Paltalk is being used by certain people and parties to harvest hate against ethenic minorities, in particular against the Islamic faith. To us this is racist and unacceptable and a sickness that should not be tolerated for long. Racial terminology and profanity have been used in G-rated rooms by certain parties who shall remain nameless unless their nomenclature is required. A suffering to which children have been subjected and their young minds wrongly manipulated to feel hate towards certain elements. We feel it is your responsibility to put an end to this.



Hence we ask of you to correct such wrongs before the hate consumes more people and causes more pain for some. Racism is something that the better part of the world condemns and doesnt allow. We, the undersigned hope that we can soon count Paltalk, a community of four million that stretches across the globe among that better part.

2.120.882 Signatures

Now Muslims can talk but the HATING is not gone. Paltalk is a hating discussion generator. Try other ways of connecting to people. They also spy but this is not any news at the internet. Some rooms are there just to pretend they are discussing an when you pay attention non-issues are repeated over and over again. Paltalk is a nest of disagreement reapers and one suicide was committed with a little help of all this rage. 

Arthur Koestler and Cynthia's suicide notes

Arthur and Cynthia few months before their suicide

This is the second suicide note I'm publishing and I intent to post another one. Virginia Woolf's was the first. I think that the silence about suicide, a taboo topic with the explanation that only by talking about it can trigger more suicides, must be broken.

When it comes to suicide three sentences are often heard:



"S/he was weak."

 "S/he was selfish."

 "S/he didn't think about the pain of their family."



There are other cliches sentences and moral judgments that I think we have to discuss because the number of people that are facing and struggling suicide ideation, including many teenagers, is huge and the pain they are facing is very hard to endure. Silencing about it makes it harder.

 First let's read some of the explanations in some suicide notes.



Arthur Koestler's suicide note:

"To whom it may concern. The purpose of this note is to make it unmistakably clear that I intend to commit suicide by taking an overdose of drugs without the knowledge or aid of any other person. The drugs have been legally obtained and hoarded over a considerable period. 

Trying to commit suicide is a gamble the outcome of which will be known to the gambler only if the attempt fails, but not if it succeeds. Should this attempt fail and I survive it in a physically or mentally impaired state, in which I can no longer control what is done to me, or communicate my wishes, I hereby request that I be allowed to die in my own home and not be resuscitated or kept alive by artificial means.

 I further request that my wife, or a physician, or any friend present, should invoke habeas corpus against any attempt to remove me forcibly from my house to hospital.

My reasons for deciding to put an end to my life are simple and compelling: Parkinson's Disease and the slow-killing variety of leukaemia (CCI). I kept the latter a secret even from intimate friends to save them distress. After a more or less steady physical decline over the last years, the process has now reached an acute state with added complications which make it advisable to seek self-deliverance now, before I become incapable of making the necessary arrangements.

I wish my friends to know that I am leaving their company in a peaceful frame of mind, with some timid hopes for a de-personalised after-life beyond due confines of space, time and matter and beyond the limits of our comprehension. This 'oceanic feeling' has often sustained me at difficult moments, and does so now, while I am writing this.

What makes it nevertheless hard to take this final step is the reflection of the pain it is bound to inflict on my surviving friends, above all my wife Cynthia. It is to her that I owe the relative peace and happiness that I enjoyed in the last period of my life – and never before."

The above note was dated June 1982. Below it appeared the following:

"Since the above was written in June 1982, my wife decided that after thirty-four years of working together she could not face life after my death."

Further down the page appeared Cynthia's own farewell note:

"I fear both death and the act of dying that lies ahead of us. I should have liked to finish my account of working for Arthur – a story which began when our paths happened to cross in 1949. However, I cannot live without Arthur, despite certain inner resources.

Double suicide has never appealed to me, but now Arthur's incurable diseases have reached a stage where there is nothing else to do."

"Freedom" by Zenos Frudakis: A sculpture commissioned by the slave creator lab GlaxoSmithKline

The sculpture "Freedom" by Zenos Frudakis, done in 2001 for the laboratory GlaxoSmithKline, is exhibited at the Philadelphia headquarter of the laboratory.

He also did two works with GlaxoSmithKline former CEOs Joseph J. Ruvane and Sanford Altwood and painted Sir Paul Girolami, former CEO, Glaxo PLC.



I believe that the Zenos is not aware of the numerous harms caused by medicines sold by this laboratory.

The antidepressant Paxil/Seroxat alone causes addiction; suicidal and violent behavior that makes people kill themselves or others; it is tetarogenic, and all the other harms caused by SSRIs antidepressants - Prozac-like.



Antidepressants SSRIs don't help depressed people and the most common is that the person who has clinical depression takes all the brands on the market and are not helped, The numerous side effects are added to the pain. The hypothesis that depression is caused by a "chemical imbalance" of serotonin has already been proved wrong and these antidepressants  reuptakes serotonin in the brain, 5 per cent, and rest, 95% goes to other parts of the body creating a huge amount of harms.



Impotence and lack of sexual desire, inability to achieve orgasm and other sexual dysfunctions are caused by SSRIs and it can last even when the person quits the drug.

There is a Yahoo group  SSRI-sex Yahoo group created in 2005, where some people exchange their pain and try to find solutions but they didn't find any relief. 

 "Freedom" is not a concept that goes well with laboratories as many people have been saying over the internet in testimonies and in blogs. 

For GlaxoSmithKline Bob Fiddaman haa been exposing  at his blog Seroxat Sufferers:  Stand up and Be Counted. Seroxat is paroxetine that is sold in America as "Paxil" and in other countries as "Aropax".

The UK Parliament has already done a good review in 2005 , "The Influence of the Pharmaceutical Company"(click at the link to read the .pdf.) but nothing has changed.

Excerpt:

5. Problems with Seroxat and other SSRIs

Prozac and Seroxat are the best-known examples of SSRI and related antidepressants, but others are widely used. The introduction of SSRIs led to a threefold increase in antidepressant prescriptions between 1990 and 2000. Prescriptions for antidepressants now match those of the benzodiazepine tranquillisers at their peak, 25 years ago.



Almost from the outset, there was concern about two main problems with SSRIs. First, there was suspicion (initially centred on Prozac) that these drugs could induce suicidal and violent behaviour – infrequently, but independently of the suicidal thoughts that are linked to depression itself. There was also concern (centred on Seroxat) about a risk of dependence; some users found it impossible to stop taking SSRIs because of severe withdrawal symptoms.



The MCA/CSM formally reviewed these problems on several occasions. The suicidality problem was first investigated in 1990/1; withdrawal reactions were investigated in 1993, 1996 and 1998. In 2002, the MCA organised a further intensive review of both problems. This review was abandoned in April 2003, following criticism about conflicts of interest involving key figures on the review team. (emphasis added)

For a long time most artists are committed with the great causes like human rights, freedom of speech and all the problems that citizens of the world are facing. It is disappointing when it goes the other way.  

Mark Twain, Martin Luther King, Abraham Lincoln, Joe DiMaggio, contemporary governors, mayors and academical people were sculpted by Zenos creating a heteroclite and strange hall of fame.



"I'm not duplicating life. I'm making a statement about human values." said Duane Hanson a great sculpture that used hyper-realism to talk about human condition. I did two posts about him: "Duane Hanson complex's world" and here.





Update: April, 17, 2013

The sculptor Zenos Frudakis left a long comment explaining that the sculpture was not commissioned by GlaxoSmithKline although all the data I search claims that it was done for the laboratory. This is what he said:



"I am Zenos Frudakis, the sculptor of Freedom and the portraits you have discussed. I appreciate your concern about prescription drugs. The tragedies of Whitney Houston and Michael Jackson are witness to this justifyable concern. There are some things you won’t know about the sculpture if you are not standing in front of it.



The client for this sculpture was the building developer, not the pharmaceutical company. GSK is not the owner of the sculpture, nor does it have anything to do with the sculpture. The developer asked me to create this sculpture for the front of his building. The major renter of the building for some years has been GSK, who is now moving, and not taking the sculpture with it. It doesn’t belong to them. I do not have control over the renter of the building. The next client will likely be a business, because it is an office building, but it could be a non-profit organization like Red Cross or Greenpeace.



I agree that artists need to be ethically responsible, and of course I did not create the sculpture to promote drug addiction. The sculpture is about freedom. Long after many renters come and go in that building, the sculpture will remain and Freedom will endure.



Regarding the variety and scope of my portrait sculpture, I am a professional working sculptor. As such, I am commissioned to create portraits of people. I have, from time to time, declined to sculpt people I felt would compromise my ethical integrity.



This is how I make my living. On my own, I sculpt people I admire. If you view my portfolio, you will see I have created portraits of Martin Luther King, Jr., Gandhi, Margaret Sanger, Darwin, Einstein, Thoreau, Emily Dickenson, Churchill, Anne Frank, Roosevelt, Nietzsche, John Muir, Rachel Carson, Alan Turing, Harriet Tubman, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and many more. Portraits that I do on my own are my personal choice, and they are not going to coincide with everyone’s personal favorites.



I am driven to create art that promotes a better world, but like everyone, I am limited by time and financial resources. I sincerely do my best."



This is what Zenos wrote but I still do not understand  the reason he used as models two GlaxoSmithKline former CEOs:



Joseph J. Ruvane, former CEO of GlaxoSmithKline. Bronze, over-life-size sculpture. Research Triangle Park, NC



Sir Paul Girolami, former CEO, Glaxo PLC. Oil on canvas, life size. London, England.

Virginia Woolf's suicide note

Dearest,

I feel certain that I am going mad again. I feel we can't go through another of those terrible times. And I shan't recover this time. I begin to hear voices, and I can't concentrate. So I am doing what seems the best thing to do. You have given me the greatest possible happiness. You have been in every way all that anyone could be. I don't think two people could have been happier 'til this terrible disease came. I can't fight any longer. I know that I am spoiling your life, that without me you could work. And you will I know. You see I can't even write this properly. I can't read. What I want to say is I owe all the happiness of my life to you. You have been entirely patient with me and incredibly good. I want to say that – everybody knows it. If anybody could have saved me it would have been you. Everything has gone from me but the certainty of your goodness. I can't go on spoiling your life any longer. I don't think two people could have been happier than we have been.

Jeremy: Eddie Vedder's live

*This song is about Jeremy Welle who took his life at the age of 15 years-old at Richardson High School at his classroom in front of thirty teenagers like him. He did put a gun in his mouth and shoot in January, 1991. I just found this video and the way Eddie Vedder sings impressed me even thou I've always been impressed by the official clip and other performances. I'm not alone and other people left comments expressing their amazement with this interpretation.

and why Jeremy is the greatest and deepest song ever performed. This is more than Live, there should be another definition for this theatrical dramatic feeling

MARSELIMADHE

It is a very known video. Jeremy's story* is shocking and many people feel his pain and can relate to him and some teenagers sing Jeremy as if it could be their story.

"Try to forget it"... impossible for many. "I don't need no mom and dad." that is said by Eddie at the end is the first line of "Sonic Reducer" by the band "Dead Boys".



When the era many teenagers have such a story as catharsis started? This is an issue that has to be discussed not by psychiatrist that will diagnose and prescribe drugs that induce suicide, like Prozac-like antidepressants, and have side effects that can last forever even when the medicine is not taken anymore.



It seems that family is a key element here and we are no longer talking about the old "conflict of generations" when a dialog was not entirely possible. It is something deeper.

This is a problem that requires an interdisciplinary approach. We are talking about children's and teenagers existential condition and this is the period that will stay in the memory of every human being forever.



The silence about suicide must be broken because there are many people that are haunted by this idea on a daily basis.