User blog comment:UnderAPineapple/In Memory of McKenzie Adams: Victim of Bullying/@comment-26485526-20181216060520

This is just incredibly sad to hear, and unfortunately, I have to agree.

We live in a divided society where people are so consumed with themselves, so selfish, so concerned about this idea of being right, and struggling to be accepted, yet we are much more disconnected than ever. In a society where saying the wrong thing on Twitter or Facebook has the ability to get you absolutely lynched nearly a decade later because someone got offended, we're forgetting about the people in our own lives and what's really important. Even though I do believe the root causes of some of the more prominent social movements that have started in the last 3 years or so have good intentions with many of the guilty being persecuted, it's led us to a place in which some people are either too scared to speak up out of fear of being attacked by one side or the other, or in many cases, hunkering down and getting so defensive about their positions, and one where every word we say has to be explained to the letter, and people are getting sick of it.

The reality is as well, we are bringing our children into this madness. People are getting hooked onto social media younger and younger, and that need for acceptance is stronger than it has ever been. When people are online especially, they tend to post about how happy they are and how wonderful their lives are, whether or not that is actually the case. To someone that feels down and out as it is and goes online, seeing everybody around them having such "great" lives, it can be absolutely devastating because they want that for themselves, but they may feel like they don't fit in and can't join in on the fun, or because of all the other crap around them, they may feel like they will simply never achieve what they see their friends posting.

When I was in school, I was bullied, and it reached its height in the 6th grade - 11/12 years old (although it continued for another few years after that). I was the same age, even older than some of these kids that have taken their own lives, so this hits home to me so hard. When I was in the 6th grade, my mom has said she's called the school every 2 weeks on average because something new would happen and I'd come home crying, yet the teacher didn't give a shit - and even kept putting me on group assignments with one of my main bullies. The thing is, when I was in grade 6, that was in the 2004/2005 school year, before even YouTube existed, yet the thought of suicide honestly never crossed my mind at that time, I just felt lonely and sad. But with the way our culture has changed, and knowing the person I was back then, I honestly don't have a clue how I would've handled that situation if I was a grade 6 student in 2018, so it just breaks my heart to see these bullied children taking that ultimate step.

I posted this quote from Phillip DeFranco on one of Pineapple's blogs before, the one about User blog:UnderAPineapple/Suicide Prevention Day - Sept. 10 (What We Need to Hear)|Suicide Prevention Day]]. I fully stand by that long rant I did, but I really feel like the quote I posted in the reply bears repeating:

"Something that is not unique, that's personal struggle. Those feelings of being alone, lost, trying to overcome something that sometimes feels impossible to get past, that's actually connective tissue to so many other people."

As a collective society, we desperately NEED to take our heads out of our own asses! We need to stop reading so far into everything and policing people for every little thing we say, and for Pete's sake, we need to stop lynching people for things that were said nearly a decade ago, completely ignoring the fact that people learn, grow and mature as they get older! Seriously, were YOU the same person even a year ago? How about 5 years ago? 10 years ago? I understand that bigotry and hate speech should not be tolerated, but we shouldn't take what people say out of context and twist it around to make them look worse, and if we're going to call someone out, we need to know what we're talking about because "Outrage Culture" has become such a problem that nobody on either side takes each other seriously anymore, and the people in the middle are too damn scared to speak up because they're afraid someone's going to get offended. All this "Outrage Culture" is doing is leading towards trolls thriving in the online space, all the while people feel more and more alone and isolated, and people are feeling that at younger and younger ages. Worse yet, because society is so digital and cyber-bullying has only become more and more rampant, people more and more are starting to feel like they just can't ever escape it, and that's the worst part because that's what leads to those thoughts of suicide. As Pineapple mentioned above, our society has become so toxic that young CHILDREN are taking their own lives!

In saying that, I'm not saying that I am a pure, innocent angel in all of this, because none of us are. I know I've done, said, and posted shit that I regret, and I'm sure we all have. But this is just what I've witnessed happening these past few years, and it infuriates me.

All I can say now is that it breaks my heart that this is going on. Rest in Peace McKenzie, Jamel, Razy, Evan, and Samantha, and I'm so sorry that our society has failed you.

Thank you to all who took the time to read my monologue, I know it was incredibly long, but I needed to get that off my chest in the wake of all this.