If someone is already considering suicide, helping them contemplate the topic from many aspects will increase the probability of really doing it.
Or maybe it will increase the probability that they realize it was a bad idea. How do you know?
And anyway, for some people in certain circumstances committing suicide may be a rational action.
The article itself is not the whole risk; the comments (assuming the article starts a large discussion) would be a greater risk. The more different perspectives, the higher chance that one of them would impress a fragile mind.
So that’s another basilisk? Hmm, it seem to me that we can put the other basilisk to counter it: Don’t kill yourself or … :D
And anyway, for some people in certain circumstances committing suicide may be a rational action.
That was exactly my point. I mean, that sooner or later someone would write something like this.
Now imagine a depressed person reading that, and thinking: “even the smart people on LessWrong agree with me” (because for a depressed person if someone could be in a situation where suicide is a rational action, they believe it’s them in the first place).
OK, I give up. Seems like explaining why I believe discussing something is wrong only has the opposite effect.
Or maybe it will increase the probability that they realize it was a bad idea. How do you know?
And anyway, for some people in certain circumstances committing suicide may be a rational action.
So that’s another basilisk? Hmm, it seem to me that we can put the other basilisk to counter it: Don’t kill yourself or … :D
That was exactly my point. I mean, that sooner or later someone would write something like this.
Now imagine a depressed person reading that, and thinking: “even the smart people on LessWrong agree with me” (because for a depressed person if someone could be in a situation where suicide is a rational action, they believe it’s them in the first place).
OK, I give up. Seems like explaining why I believe discussing something is wrong only has the opposite effect.