The system is failing even for those well positioned to ride the success of (but not hold stake in) the general market. The first upper-middle class runners are coming across the line to find nothing there. How does that effect the tipping point? Is this a marker of a Late Stage?

Does anyone even subscribe to the American Dream anymore? Maybe there isn’t a big pack running behind these first place white men to find a cliff at the finish line.

Is it the last remnants of an experiment burning out, or is it just the first car to crest the rollercoaster?

Or is the suicide stat meaningless and the power structure still favors inherited white male privilege so significantly that it’s dumb to grasp at minor perceived cracks forming? If this then what’s the stat about?

  • aaro [they/them]
    3·
    4 years ago

    Bear in mind, many, possibly even a large majority, of white men don't realize that they're well positioned for success. Many view themselves as victims of things like affirmative action and "reverse racism". I don't know how this would affect suicide rates, but all I can confidently say is that the thought process isn't "I still hate my life and I'm going to do this even though I won the privilege lottery". I also don't know how the suicide rate goes with social conservativeness, so this is kind of just food for thought or inspiration for further research.

      • PlantsRcoolToo [any]
        ·
        4 years ago

        100% this. They have a relative advantage but that is often times still absolute shit

    • CementEscapist [he/him]
      1·
      4 years ago

      It's not just American white men, though. Nordic countries have long had high suicide rates, with it also being disproportionately men.

      Seems possible that many white men have a subconscious awareness that they are advantaged in Western capitalism, thus dissatisfaction comes with deeper shame.

    • phimosis__jones [he/him]
      ·
      4 years ago

      If you’re a white man who didn’t graduate college and can’t get into the trades then you’re just less underprivileged instead of privileged. I’m not sure what the income distribution of the suicide rate is but “deaths of despair” are on the rise among whites in general.