Logan Paul, a former Viner and current Youtuber, has been a topic of conversation lately after posting a video of him and his crew going into a “suicide forest” in Japan. There they found the body of a man who committed suicide, filmed it, and made jokes.
Logan Paul does not deserve your support. His actions were cruel and he never even considered the consequences. Under no circumstances should anyone be defending him.
Paul claims that he was going into the forest for the “haunted” aspect and to make a platform for suicide awareness, but if that were the entire case then he wouldn’t have laughed and made awful comments about it with the rest of his crew. At times he filmed close ups of the scene and the possessions of the man while asking his crew, “What? You’ve never seen a dead body before?”
To anyone that is struggling with suicidal thoughts or mental illness, this video could have been triggering. Paul and his crew showed little to no respect for the man, they were not quick to get help, and they didn’t take the suicide seriously at all. Anyone that I know would’ve screamed, ran for help, tried to save the victim, or something along those lines. Instead, they surrounded the scene like it was a curiosity and not a tragedy.
Not only was his video inconsiderate of his viewers (who are mostly younger teenagers), but it was only disrespectful of the man who thought that he needed to take his own life, his family, and his friends. Paul in no way thought of the people that would be affected by their actions, even though he had plenty of time to reconsider posting the video. He reviewed his footage, edited the video, and uploaded it, knowing full well what the content was.
Logan Paul does not deserve your support. If he was really trying to make a platform for suicide prevention, he would not have gone into the forest in the first place. Instead, he could have used his channel to perhaps post the phone numbers for national suicide prevention hotlines or for other ways to get help.
To those who may need it or know of someone else who is struggling, the phone number for the national suicide prevention hotline is 1-800-273-8255. I advise you to please reach out if you are battling suicidal thoughts and I promise you that there are people who care about your life.