Comment on Anon reads Into the Wild
Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
From my understanding, all the locals where this happened think this dude is a colossal dumbass.
I think his legacy is slowly changing though, and people are less impressed by his antics today than when it happened.
mech@feddit.org 1 day ago
He wasn’t a dumbass, he was just suicidal.
He first left his privileged life, then his family and friends, then society.
If he actually wanted to keep living, he could have left the bus and simply walked back, 3 days before his provisions ran out (it takes 6 hours to get to the trailhead).
But he stayed, even though he didn’t have the skills to live off the land. He accepted death, until it came close, then he regretted his decision and tried to get out.
doesit@sh.itjust.works 4 hours ago
As good as all people that jumped of the Golden gate bridge and survived, regretted their decision the second they jumped.
BartyDeCanter@lemmy.sdf.org 7 hours ago
Privileged is a complicated term for his life. On one hand, yes from the outside, and especially as presented in the movie, it seems like he had a typically idyllic upper middle class life. But if you do any digging into it, you find out that his father was an extremely volatile, violent abuser and his mom wasn’t much better. That sort of childhood trauma is a hell of a thing and absolutely impacts someone’s mental state.
themaninblack@lemmy.world 1 day ago
To me, this is the simplest and most plausible explanation.
Somewhat related but it’s odd to me how many people I’ve met that feel so strongly negatively about him. Maybe as a herd instinct to warn others?
He wasn’t exceptionally selfish as he had no serious responsibilities.
Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
This BS is part of the reason, I think. Not only is he a dumbass, but he inspires other dumbasses to be the best dumbass they can.
fibojoly@sh.itjust.works 20 hours ago
Natural selection working as intended?
IronBird@lemmy.world 23 hours ago
stupid is as stupid dumb
CommanderCloon@lemmy.ml 23 hours ago
Not sure the hate is directed at him, but at people glorifying him
hraegsvelmir@ani.social 8 hours ago
Yeah, I haven’t read his book and have no strong opinions on him one way or another, but when the book came out, I remember him being presented to us as if he were some sort of spiritual or philosophical luminary to emulate, and it’s always rubbed me the wrong way.
Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
I think he was stranded because of a flooded river though? From memory there was a reason he couldn’t just walk out.
mech@feddit.org 1 day ago
The reason was him refusing to bring a map, which would have shown a bridge over the river less than a mile away.
And not scouting out his environment either, or even trying a detour along the river, or improvising a raft…
Snowclone@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
stuff you learn in boy scouts when your 12. yeah… probably the best lesson I learned in boy scouts is that if you don’t want to die on a camping trip, you have enough supplies for twice the time, enough clothes for twice the time, a map, a compass, a good understanding of where ever road out is, and a plan to bail out of your camp site for every hour of the day, and when medical problem 1 happens, you bail, and you bail fast, no one needs to die on a camping trip. I camped through a blizzard, I dug shelters in snow, I did a lot of crazy stuff, but I was never dangerously hungry, thirsty, injured, or in shock, and the tired old guys who only half wanted to do camp outs were the best, because they knew exactly how far was too far every time.
Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
Yeah, that’ll do it.
IronBird@lemmy.world 23 hours ago
i’m too lazy to look into, but did he actually starve starve to death or was there some medical complication? it takes a long time to starve to death