This sucks: 11-yr-old Boy Bullied for Being A Brony Fighting for Life After Suicide A

lynski

Eleven-year-old Michael is a passionate boy. He idolizes his Uncle Jimmy, who is a proud member of the Bronies. The term Brony is a portmanteau that refers to fanboys of My Little Pony (“bro ponies”), although girls can be Bronies too.

Sucky sucky world.(link not working as I am on my phone)

http://www.chicagonow.com/portrait-of-an-adoption/2014/02/11-yr-old-boy-bullied-for-being-a-brony-fighting-for-life-after-suicide-attempt-how-you-can-help/?fb_action_ids=10202321917262967&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%5B1452517354964455%5D&action_type_map=%5B%22og.likes%22%5D&action_ref_map=%5B%5D

Urizen

Yeah, Bronies of Ireland pooled together to send the kid a care package in support of his recovery at the Saturday meetup. This fandom consistently shows the most astonishing altruism

obplayer

Copying this to the hazards of belief. Sorry mods.

'Nobody stood up for Michael, but he seemed to be doing okay'. “Michael is deeply religious, and he turned to his faith. He asked to start taking confirmation classes, and he carried a little Bible with him everywhere. He told us that he would sit at a table at lunchtime and recite Bible verses to himself, and it brought him great joy,” Suttle said.

Reciting Bible verses brought him such joy he tried to kill himself.

Urizen

obplayer wrote: »

Copying this to the hazards of belief. Sorry mods.

'Nobody stood up for Michael, but he seemed to be doing okay'. “Michael is deeply religious, and he turned to his faith. He asked to start taking confirmation classes, and he carried a little Bible with him everywhere. He told us that he would sit at a table at lunchtime and recite Bible verses to himself, and it brought him great joy,” Suttle said.

Reciting Bible verses brought him such joy he tried to kill himself.

Dude, correlation does not imply causation. There is no inference whatsoever within this article that his religious beliefs had anything to do with his suicide attempt. It's one hell of a non sequitur you're going for here, due what I can only assume is a fairly heavy confirmation bias.

Occam's razor mate, it's far more likely that the excessive bullying that began shortly before the attempted suicide, rather than the lifelong spirituality, was the deciding factor here.

obplayer

Urizen wrote: »

Dude, correlation does not imply causation. There is no inference whatsoever within this article that his religious beliefs had anything to do with his suicide attempt. It's one hell of a non sequitur you're going for here, due what I can only assume is a fairly heavy confirmation bias.

Occam's razor mate, it's far more likely that the excessive bullying that began shortly before the attempted suicide, rather than the lifelong spirituality, was the deciding factor here.

I fully understand what you are saying and I am not saying that his bible quotes led to his suicide attempt: what I am saying is that his sitting at his dinner table reading bible quotes did not help. Rather than sitting alone thumbing through an ancient book would he not have been better been spending the time learning some communication skills. To be a little more blunt, prayer did for him what it always does for anyone; nothing. Use the time in practical ways.

Urizen

obplayer wrote: »

I fully understand what you are saying and I am not saying that his bible quotes led to his suicide attempt: what I am saying is that his sitting at his dinner table reading bible quotes did not help.

Really? Because saying "Reciting Bible verses brought him such joy he tried to kill himself" is literally saying that his Bible quotes led to his suicide attempt. I'm just taking what you said as written, because there was no indication of this being some kind of bizarrely inappropriate joke or whatever.

obplayer wrote: »

Rather than sitting alone thumbing through an ancient book would he not have been better been spending the time learning some communication skills.

Because bullies who pick on people for arbitrary reasons such as liking cartoons are well known for listening to reason? Generally people being bullied try to seek out escape and comfort, not to have a chat with their tormentors.

obplayer wrote: »

To be a little more blunt, prayer did for him what it always does for anyone; nothing. Use the time in practical ways.

Prayer and belief are an important support system for many people. Granted, I really don't think it should be the sole support, but that's my opinion, and I'm not going to state my opinion as fact. You clearly don't like it, but that doesn't mean it's not very important to others. Moreover, saying that prayer never helps anyone is categorically false, as it often gives people courage and support when they need it. Even if you think that it's purely a placebo effect, it's still helping.

But I'm digressing. My issue here is that you seem to be trying to use this child's unfortunate circumstance as some kind of rally for atheism based on your own beliefs, when there is no rational reason to assume that his religion played any part for or against it. That's not only an extreme confirmation bias, and waaaay off topic, but it's just plain disrespectful to the kid and his family. Love and tolerate, bro.

silja

**** Mod note: This is NOT the forum to discuss the bible and how religion relates to suicide. If you want to discuss this, you will take it elsewhere, NOW.
This is a tragic story of a boy who loved MLP, the way the members of this forum do. It is a very sad story. RIP ****

chocoroll

Why do you say RIP? The story clearly states that the boy is fighting for his life..
Poor boy, so young...Hope all will be well again soon!

silja

Ah, I read another story saying he died. Glad that is not true.

swiftblade

It's stories like this though that shows the generosity of this fandom. Over $35,000 in a few days.

If you haven't, you should probably think about throwing a few bob his way.