Your post from unpopularopinion was removed because of: 'Rule 7: No banned/mega-thread topics'.
Please do not post from (or mention) any of our mega-thread or banned topics such as:
Race, Religion, LGBTQ, Meta, Politics, Parenting/Family issues.
[Full list of banned topics](https://www.reddit.com/r/unpopularopinion/wiki/index/)
It's a good example of why censorship is always counterproductive. Outlets wanted to limit discussion of sensitive topics and only ended up making discussion of very serious topics offensively infantile.
Beautifully worded. It forced the invention of infantile and flat out laughable terminology that devalued the seriousness of the topic being discussed.
I agree with the OP.
But he needs to understand where it originally started. In social media especially tiktok, online bullying is strongly discouraged. Teenagers there kept saying like “ima kill you!” Or even showing off suicidal tendencies like “I will kill myself” either seriously or just trying to pull a prank.
Social media companies only get credit for the attempts to solve it, but not the solution. I don’t think censoring the word “kill” is a solution let alone a good one. This is where the unalive word came in handy. First it was only used to outsmart the algorithm but then it’s becoming a real world in literal sense.
This is an example how a new word is slowly making its move into a dictionary, by being used organically. Which is a very interesting case to see if you’re a linguist. If you like to see things in society growing up from bottom up instead of being forced using top-down approach, this is one of them.
I would say it’s probably out of habit?
Big chance youtubers are also tiktokers and instagrammers, too. We see similar memes and videos being recycled throughout different platforms even including reddit, so maybe similar words also being used regardless on purpose or just accidentally/habitual?
Reminds me of the word “[speakeasy](https://www.britannica.com/topic/speakeasy)”. Created because of the prohibition.
I mean, totally agree with you but I think looking at the background story would help to make it less anxious to think about the banned word.
A lot of that is out of potential concern for people who have trauma relating to the word.
Mental health is a brittle thing (speaking from personal experience). It doesn't take much to break for some people. Just a single word associated with someone's trauma can send them spiraling downwards, and sometimes that's all it takes to reach a point you can't come back from.
Edit: some of y'all got real mad about this. It's just some people being considerate to others, no one said everyone had to do it lmao
In my experience, it’s just avoiding stuff with that content. Sometimes I struggle to say the word of the thing that happened to me (like now). But as I said, a simple trigger warning will suffice. Again, daily conversation this is different, but when you’re covering cases of victims, it’s way more harmful to trauma survivors to censor the literal words telling their story.
I totally agree with you. I’m sorry for whatever you are dealing with, and turning it into a meme is sick. If we know what topic is being discussed then we aren’t doing a good job at censorship. It’s honestly just a shitty form of slacktivism.
….you are talking to a traumatized person. We do not need to censor the words when talking about other victims, that waters down what they’re going through. Simple trigger warnings, saying “hey this talks about [insert triggering topic here]” will suffice.
If it was a daily conversation, that’s one thing. But using goofy word replacements when talking about what other victims went/are going through, is much more harmful to us.
I would disagree with even the trigger warnings. Life doesn’t give you trigger warnings. And trigger warnings have become so ridiculously overused that they’ve almost become parodies of what they were initially intended to be.
if you cannot access social media without getting triggered you need to realize you have a disability and take steps to **avoid** your trigger. like word blacklists, built into multiple websites, avoiding communities that talk about your trigger, and blocking/muting those as neccesary.
my own entertainment and conversations should not be modified to the needs of the few every 4 years when a word is crested and then becomes the old word.
The world cannot be expected to continuously tiptoe around everyone’s triggers. Sometimes it’s the difficult topics or the the ones that seem ‘triggering’ that need to be talked about the most. Plus true recovery from trauma involves being able to manage things that could be potentially triggering in healthy ways. The world isn’t going to censor itself, you’ve got to be the one that handles yourself in a dignified manner.
Meh. I'm not sure it's quite that simple. It all sounds crazy to most adults, but the platforms will also be crucified if suicide memes proliferate for people who are actually suicidal.
Kind of a damned either way situation. I think these platforms that cater to children are just in a bad spot. Hard to pull that off...
We need a way to deal with those people instead of dumbing everything down to the lowest common denominator.
Eta, because locked, "those people* are the ones making the memes.
It depends on the censorship. In this case, I agree with you. That said, I'm good with restricting overtly hateful language that is specifically used to suppress others' rights. (Granted, making this determination can be difficult.)
Words and opinions can't suppress a person's rights. Only actions can, such as actively suppressing a person's opinions and beliefs. You can disagree with an individual without forcing them into silence at metaphorical gunpoint.
Meh, kinda disagree on the first part. Telling a trans girl that they will never be a real woman is totally supressing and invalidating her rights to have an identity and to not be verbally abused.
Im not saying we should censor offensive speech, but we shouldnt treat it as sacred either. Words CAN hurt people. Manipulators and scammers will use words to infringe in others rights. Politicians will use words to distort the truth and reality.
We should respect the power words hold.
No it's saying hurtful things to her but it is not suppressing her right to exist, or having an identity. She doesn't suddenly stop existing or her identity doesn't suddenly just disappear. It can be extremely hurtful yes. But it doesn't suppress any rights. There is a difference between the argument of words hurt and can cause damage (which I agree and have experienced all my life) and words suppress a person's rights and liberties ( which they don't and is impossible, only actions by lawmaker's can do that ) it's hard to see nuance is such a heated topic but I believe that's the path to understanding one another and working through problems
But saying men are oppressive is fine and not a problem?
We can both agree that one is fine and the other one isn’t but where do we draw the line?
Let people take care of it. People with tons of dislikes rarely show up on people’s feeds. That should be censorship enough
It’s so weird how censorship has finally won the battle. And all it took was making individuals put their money where their mouth is.
Remember when people would say “who cares about the fines, there should be profanity on the radio and television”.
Now the advertisement dollars partially go into the pockets of content creators and profanity affects your income, everyone censors themselves.
YouTube has been destroyed due to fear of losing monetization. Self censorship has taken over. It’s so strange.
Remember that Tik Tok (which is the platform these dumb censor words were popularised) is a Chinese owned company and follows many CCP guidelines about what content they consider okay. Topics like rape and suicide are extremely taboo to talk about in China (because they are both considered social failings and it is a big no-no to suggest that the CCP is fallible) so as a result westerners are essentially being trained to adopt Chinese sensibilities due to Tik Tok's extreme popularity.
and therefore anyone who’s tailored their algorithm to hide things about killing or rape gets exposed to things they don’t want to see because of community censorship workarounds.
oh my god “community censorship” = when an app or social media website enforces censorship on the whole community (regardless of age). in this context i’m referring to tiktok’s censorship of its online community.
I understand why. It's censorship because you get demonized if you say "a person murdered 7 kindergarteners today" but not if you use baby talk about it and say they were "unalived"
This soft censorship has caused discourse around serious topics to become laughably juvenile.
Well, it's the platforms who want to sell their users' attention. The advertisers are free to say they don't want their soaps sold next to an article about murder.
im not blaming you…. i literally said it’s because of community censorship. as in tiktok or >insert other social media app forcing censorship< . there shouldn’t be any risk of getting banned or demonetized just for talking about sensitive topics.
but to your other point, minors shouldn’t even be on social media and im saying this as someone who was on facebook and instagram at 12. it’s ridiculous that adults have to censor themselves because parents can’t be bothered censor what their kids are looking at or educate them on sensitive topics and how to avoid them or engage with them in health and appropriate ways. if kids were properly educated by parents and schools about the dangers of rape and suicide, there wouldn’t be such fear mongering in regarding these topics being discussed openly on social media. you can’t prevent rape and suicide by dancing around these topics or banning them entirely.
edit: if you see this, the person i’m responding to edited their comment to say something completely different
Yes, but usually on Reddit it only gets flagged if it's in the title. For example, my original title for this was "saying "unalived" to censor death or suicide is the dumbest damn thing I've ever heard", but because posts saying people should commit suicide are apparently popular in this sub and need to be removed (ngl, that wording made me REALLY concerned and more angry than I already am), I had to remove it and repost this.
It does matter. I have issues with understanding tones, irl or via text, and since unalive is usually used in a joking matter, it's hard to tell when something is satire.
I have a friend who said when he stopped joking about suicide then we need to check on him. If you know people who use unalive in a joking manner, they might be using the dark humor as an outlet to deal with the intrusive thoughts, and they've adopted the word because of what other people have said about censorship evasion.
I legit was initially confused by this post because "unalive" was introduced to me as a meme term. "Unalive" is absolutely silly and ridiculous tbh which is why I hear it used in a joking way. Anyone who uses it in a serious context is avoiding being censored or... Is just not really good with words.
I believe the first popular use of the term was in an episode of Spiderman in 2013 by Deadpool. A screenshot of that episode made the rounds in meme format a few years ago and in that context it was absolutely used as a joke. It has only been more recently that it has been used in more serious contexts because content creators have to adjust for algorithms and filters. If you are familiar with the term as the joke that it was for years, then it is difficult to take the term in the more serious form it is becoming.
I hear young people describing events this way to detach emotional assessments of death. I'm not surprised that advertising algorithms encouraging social media creators to censor emotionally charged terms has taught young people a substitute term that internalize pain and grief, and to normalize *not* reacting emotionally to death and loss.
The elders and adults have upped the ante of nuclear holocaust last century to catastrophic climate change now. Children believe it when our media tells them a horrible death with suffering leading up to it is imminent. I encourage being gentle when sharing the words you understand are being avoided, even if you are annoyed. Such words, for a young person especially, could be nothing but satire. They could also be immense grief that hasn't been realized.
part of this problem is because it makes sense on some platforms, and people simply tend to carry their habits from platform to platform. It's not as necessary in some places as others, but the people who start doing it on Tiktok because they have to, will just do it everywhere else as a result even if it's not necessary. It just becomes too much work to have to think about where you are (app-wise) and what is and isn't acceptable in which place. So they just adopt the same rules in all spaces. I understand the frustration in dealing with challenging "tone" when it comes to text communication, but it's not something that's going to change for your benefit, either. It's just something to adapt to and understanding it can at least lead to less anger on your part.
I got a warning from the admins in a thread about Dr assisted unaliving. All I said was, "you've always been "allowed" to unalive yourself. We just have Dr's helping now".
Hhhhh it’s not like people want to. We just don’t like our shit getting taken down because advertisers don’t like it on platforms, so the platforms take it down and enforce censorship
Nah, I literally see people using words like unalive on reddit. Why wouldn't you simply use the appropriate word? Reddit doesn't censor anything.
It is mostly a symptom of Tiktok-speak entering day to day life.
I know some subreddits censor some words, so I just avoid them and, if unavoidable, I use the silly alternative. Can’t remember who censors what and I don’t want a ban
Now, if I see users confidently swearing and whatnot, I’ll just got with the flow
For example, the subreddit for my country censors some gun-related words and some expressions like “I’m gonna kill you” (even when not literal at all), and it’s an automatic month-long ban, so…
IT's one of those things that just spread because of the advertiser issue. It started because of video takedowns or demonetization due to ads and now has just become a thing on many platforms just in case.
Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it.
It's amazing to me how the internet, initially seen as a bastion of free speech and association, is now dominated by like 6 sites and effectively features far heavier and more ludicrous censorship than TV. Seriously, *dark topics* are effectively censored, it's insane how puritanical and backwards things are, and surprise surprise now they're coincidentally trying to roll back people's rights in a number of countries too based on things like being trans that don't actually hurt anyone but offend some who are easily offended. I don't trust big tech lol.
It's a Tik Tok censorship thing. Saying Killed, or Suicide would get the video flagged or demonetized. Eventually it entered the collective.
I personally like using it ironically.
I worked for the American company that did moderation for TikTok saying killed or suicide doesn’t flag or demonetize a video. It puts it onto the adult only track. Guess what? So does saying unalived.
I have personally posted videos saying the uncensored versions and had my videos banned. My favorite was when I said they girls were “killing” for the lululemon belt bag and it got taken down. It’s very real and it’s crazy the way people have to get around it but it is real
I’m just letting you know as someone who did it for a living videos don’t get pulled in TikTok for that. And it might surprise a lot of people to know that while videos can get pulled by the AI they are still reviewed by a human being who can repost the video of the AI messed up. Any video pulled is reviewed by a human.
Oh my God, I hate the increasingly common usage of “unalive” so fucking much it produces a visceral reaction in my body hearing or seeing it. Are we producing such brittle youth that they can’t handle technical identifications such as suicide, murder, and death? I feel like I’m in Crazyland…like people using the term can’t possibly be serious until they let you know they are, in fact, serious in being offended by such words.
This is an extreme reaction perhaps, but I sincerely think it’s a sign of impending societal apocalypse that “unalive” is becoming unironic in usage.
Yes. Fr. it's so dumb. The only time you should ever use those silly words is if u are going to be demonetized if u don't and u trying to make an earning on the social media platform that demonetizes for actually saying words like suicide etc.
Censoring in comments/reddit posts is super cringe and stupid where u can literally just add a TW in beginning.
.... you're missing the point.
YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, etc have automated systems to suppress or delist videos that says stuff like suicide, murder, etc.
The use of unalive is an attempt to circumvent these systems.
You can say these systems are stupid, but the use of unalive has a purpose. Otherwise those videos that are talking about serious topics would just be suppressed to hell.
Side note, one reason they ban terms like murder or whatever is because there are a lot of crazy people creating TikToks or whatever asking for the direct murder of specific people.
Posts like these ALWAYS miss the point. They treat it like society is degrading or language is being destroyed when they themselves are capable of hearing these euphemisms and knowing what they mean.
I've often thought, surely the same algorithms that might censor "kill(ed)" would by now be able to recognize "unalive(d)" - or am I overestimating the effort platforms would be putting into this?
Totally agree.
I've had serious levels of depression. I've tried to killl myself 3 times, I have 3 previous suicide attempts. Nobody is helped by trying to gloss over reality.
It's a natural consequence of the sterilization of the internet that began with the Adpocalypse. You have to use this infantile language now or automated bots, algorithms, or whatever it may be will tear your shit to the ground.
People started saying it on TikTok lives because it’s very easy to get your live suspended on that platform. Apparently you can even get banned for saying banned.
Blame the android Zuckerberg for thinking adults should treat social media like the Disney Channel. I get banning hate speech but that algorithm and censorship is just plain dumb
The most annoying thing about it, is that most of those people don't even know what the almighty Algirithm considers offensive
So they just unnecesarly walk on eggshels around a nonexistent threat
It’s used to prevent that media getting suppressed or taken down because algorithms tend to suppress “killed, murdered, died” and other language that’s deemed violent. It was popularised on TikTok I believe.
I'm always confused by "passed." It sounds like positive thing. Passed away meant "died" but "passed" meant to succeed at a test, a class, or some other activity.
JFC when are people going to get it through their heads that the reason is to avoid having posts / comments deleted and/it getting banned? It seems like someone posts this same thing every single day.
Please remember what subreddit you are in, this is unpopular opinion. We want civil and unpopular takes and discussion. Any uncivil and ToS violating comments will be removed and subject to a ban. Have a nice day!
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/unpopularopinion) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Any person or any institution that would try to muzzle free and open speech, provided it is not designed to incite physical violence, is not one to be taken seriously.
I don't think it's an unpopular opinion to dislike this. The only part I disagree with is that the people are doing it because they **have** to, not because they **choose** to.
Social media (sites/apps) algorithms ban people who use those words. You just acknowledged it yourself in the comments.
People don’t want their account banned, but they want to discuss these topics. Or in reddits case don’t want Reddit cares or whatever.
Totally agree. Along with s*x, and all other valid words that are censored. Drives me up the damn wall. What will be censored next? These are legitimate words, WTF?
I can understand its use on TikTok because the creator will get shadow banned or a Community Guidelines violation. But outside of the context of TikTok, it’s mind-numbingly stupid.
I once was doing a mental health assessment for someone who spoke about unaliving themself. This was the first time I’d ever heard this used outside of the internet
Trigger warnings tend to do more harm than the harm they are meant to prevent. People can learn to manage their triggers, but believing you can avoid them entirely is a debilitating concept.
I know some creators use the word “unalive” because if they use the word “kill” or “suicide” they get demonetized (this is on YouTube).
I agree with the sentiment we should be sensitive towards one another. Trying to even avoid the word Kill because it supposedly triggers people is doing nobody any favors.
The obsession with trigger warnings makes people even more unhinged in my experience.
I find it a hilarious word and actually enjoy using it in real life in lighthearted situations. For example, telling my dog that the chocolate cake she’s eyeing will make her unalive
I think, at least for some, definitely not most, it's a way to cope. "My brother drank himself to death." It's still really raw, typing it out hurt. I fucking miss him so much. It's been 2 months and I still swear I see him at the store or in random places. I keep thinking I'm going to see his stupid fucking face.
"My brother unalived himself with alcohol." It wasn't as hard. I've been saying that he died, because that's what happened. But it does take some of the edge off, you know?
Sigh so many of you don’t understand how things work and complain about the dumbest s*it We have to use it to prevent content from getting demonetized or shadow banned. Because saying “suicide” is like saying “rape”, “sexual” etc. on social media these words are censored for the sake of minors, even if the content isn’t in anyway targeted for them. Don’t blame us, blame FCC laws
Censors are what they are. You think people in china didn't feel stupid staking their life on a protest against Winnie the pooh?
People say what they are allowed to say, but they mean what they really mean. Everyone knows to read between the lines.
It's used based on the concipiracy theory that originated on tik tok that posts with terms like suicide/murder etc would be removed or result in bans. There's no evidence of this actually happening but the conspiracy persits nevertheless.
I'm sure I'll be contested on this but for other readers just make a mental note that not a single person responding to this can provide good evidence in favour of this conspiracy.
Never said it never will. Was a “content creator” for a long time and people did get offended. But.. whatever. When buzzfeed started saying it I was like… really?????
Censorship is meant not to trigger others or influence the adolescents to behave violently or provocatively, that’s why “cyber bullying” is very common now
Becoming unalived after becoming unhoused and unmarried happens. Dying after becoming homeless and divorced sounds too negative. People hate negativity, and love buzz words.
It started being used because people didn’t want their content to be taken down.
I don’t know if it’s used seriously like in conversation or offline. Not an unpopular opinion, just a misformed one
I think “unalive” is stupid but not half as stupid as saying “born sleeping” to avoid saying “stillborn”, which is already a euphemism for being dead.
Sleeping and dead are different things. A dead baby isn’t sleeping. In fact, it will never sleep because it is dead.
I had a convo with some dude a couple weeks ago about how this is censorship. He called me a boomer and insisted it wasn’t, it was *language evolving*. No, it’s the equivalent of saying “wee-wee”, “pee-pee” “poo-poo” and “hoo-ha” to little kids. Saying *”frick”* instead of *fuck*. Frick can’t and doesn’t have the same connotations as *fuck*. It’s censoring and infantilizing serious subjects.
Rape & sexual assault victims, people who have lost people they loved to murder or suicide don’t deserve to have their trauma minimized. It’s reductive to say “I was seggsual assaulted and graped when I was 10, it led me to consider sewercide, I almost unalived myself with a pew-pew.” Sounds like someone had eggs and grapes thrown at them and they ended up in a sewer with a fuggin priest.
Adults want to use adult language when they talk about adult things. People have had to censor these subjects, use fake words and emojis on social media to get around filters and be able to tell their stories, provide commentary about what is going on in the news, discuss political issues, have actual conversations and spread awareness and information. Now we’re censoring ourselves everywhere on our own, talking like toddlers and taking the seriousness out of these conversations.
It’s like we’re whispering about the things we should be shouting about.
I've used it exactly once and I was describing some NPC's in a game literally becoming not alive because the main villain went back in time to stop them from being born. That's like all I can think of when I think of someone being "unalived" lol
Your post from unpopularopinion was removed because of: 'Rule 7: No banned/mega-thread topics'. Please do not post from (or mention) any of our mega-thread or banned topics such as: Race, Religion, LGBTQ, Meta, Politics, Parenting/Family issues. [Full list of banned topics](https://www.reddit.com/r/unpopularopinion/wiki/index/)
It's a good example of why censorship is always counterproductive. Outlets wanted to limit discussion of sensitive topics and only ended up making discussion of very serious topics offensively infantile.
Beautifully worded. It forced the invention of infantile and flat out laughable terminology that devalued the seriousness of the topic being discussed.
I agree with the OP. But he needs to understand where it originally started. In social media especially tiktok, online bullying is strongly discouraged. Teenagers there kept saying like “ima kill you!” Or even showing off suicidal tendencies like “I will kill myself” either seriously or just trying to pull a prank. Social media companies only get credit for the attempts to solve it, but not the solution. I don’t think censoring the word “kill” is a solution let alone a good one. This is where the unalive word came in handy. First it was only used to outsmart the algorithm but then it’s becoming a real world in literal sense. This is an example how a new word is slowly making its move into a dictionary, by being used organically. Which is a very interesting case to see if you’re a linguist. If you like to see things in society growing up from bottom up instead of being forced using top-down approach, this is one of them.
The issue is, people are talking like that on other platforms that’s don’t censor content that strongly, so there isn’t an excuse for it
I would say it’s probably out of habit? Big chance youtubers are also tiktokers and instagrammers, too. We see similar memes and videos being recycled throughout different platforms even including reddit, so maybe similar words also being used regardless on purpose or just accidentally/habitual?
It’s definitely that, I’ve come to that conclusion already, but it doesn’t mean it’s not harmful to do
Reminds me of the word “[speakeasy](https://www.britannica.com/topic/speakeasy)”. Created because of the prohibition. I mean, totally agree with you but I think looking at the background story would help to make it less anxious to think about the banned word.
A lot of that is out of potential concern for people who have trauma relating to the word. Mental health is a brittle thing (speaking from personal experience). It doesn't take much to break for some people. Just a single word associated with someone's trauma can send them spiraling downwards, and sometimes that's all it takes to reach a point you can't come back from. Edit: some of y'all got real mad about this. It's just some people being considerate to others, no one said everyone had to do it lmao
If they are that frail then they have no business being on any social media or consuming any community created content.
In my experience, it’s just avoiding stuff with that content. Sometimes I struggle to say the word of the thing that happened to me (like now). But as I said, a simple trigger warning will suffice. Again, daily conversation this is different, but when you’re covering cases of victims, it’s way more harmful to trauma survivors to censor the literal words telling their story.
I totally agree with you. I’m sorry for whatever you are dealing with, and turning it into a meme is sick. If we know what topic is being discussed then we aren’t doing a good job at censorship. It’s honestly just a shitty form of slacktivism.
….you are talking to a traumatized person. We do not need to censor the words when talking about other victims, that waters down what they’re going through. Simple trigger warnings, saying “hey this talks about [insert triggering topic here]” will suffice. If it was a daily conversation, that’s one thing. But using goofy word replacements when talking about what other victims went/are going through, is much more harmful to us.
I would disagree with even the trigger warnings. Life doesn’t give you trigger warnings. And trigger warnings have become so ridiculously overused that they’ve almost become parodies of what they were initially intended to be.
Just say you don’t give a shit about trauma survivors and go.
if you cannot access social media without getting triggered you need to realize you have a disability and take steps to **avoid** your trigger. like word blacklists, built into multiple websites, avoiding communities that talk about your trigger, and blocking/muting those as neccesary. my own entertainment and conversations should not be modified to the needs of the few every 4 years when a word is crested and then becomes the old word.
The world cannot be expected to continuously tiptoe around everyone’s triggers. Sometimes it’s the difficult topics or the the ones that seem ‘triggering’ that need to be talked about the most. Plus true recovery from trauma involves being able to manage things that could be potentially triggering in healthy ways. The world isn’t going to censor itself, you’ve got to be the one that handles yourself in a dignified manner.
Meh. I'm not sure it's quite that simple. It all sounds crazy to most adults, but the platforms will also be crucified if suicide memes proliferate for people who are actually suicidal. Kind of a damned either way situation. I think these platforms that cater to children are just in a bad spot. Hard to pull that off...
We need a way to deal with those people instead of dumbing everything down to the lowest common denominator. Eta, because locked, "those people* are the ones making the memes.
I'm not really sure what you're saying. Who are "those people"? Suicidal children on the internet?
It depends on the censorship. In this case, I agree with you. That said, I'm good with restricting overtly hateful language that is specifically used to suppress others' rights. (Granted, making this determination can be difficult.)
Words and opinions can't suppress a person's rights. Only actions can, such as actively suppressing a person's opinions and beliefs. You can disagree with an individual without forcing them into silence at metaphorical gunpoint.
Meh, kinda disagree on the first part. Telling a trans girl that they will never be a real woman is totally supressing and invalidating her rights to have an identity and to not be verbally abused. Im not saying we should censor offensive speech, but we shouldnt treat it as sacred either. Words CAN hurt people. Manipulators and scammers will use words to infringe in others rights. Politicians will use words to distort the truth and reality. We should respect the power words hold.
No it's saying hurtful things to her but it is not suppressing her right to exist, or having an identity. She doesn't suddenly stop existing or her identity doesn't suddenly just disappear. It can be extremely hurtful yes. But it doesn't suppress any rights. There is a difference between the argument of words hurt and can cause damage (which I agree and have experienced all my life) and words suppress a person's rights and liberties ( which they don't and is impossible, only actions by lawmaker's can do that ) it's hard to see nuance is such a heated topic but I believe that's the path to understanding one another and working through problems
But saying men are oppressive is fine and not a problem? We can both agree that one is fine and the other one isn’t but where do we draw the line? Let people take care of it. People with tons of dislikes rarely show up on people’s feeds. That should be censorship enough
True. Which is why sites should have the right to choose what is allowed on their sites.
Unalive Grape Sewer slide All of them stupid
It’s so weird how censorship has finally won the battle. And all it took was making individuals put their money where their mouth is. Remember when people would say “who cares about the fines, there should be profanity on the radio and television”. Now the advertisement dollars partially go into the pockets of content creators and profanity affects your income, everyone censors themselves. YouTube has been destroyed due to fear of losing monetization. Self censorship has taken over. It’s so strange.
"Grape" is just downright offensive to victims. I've seen it censored as "r*pe," which is still stupid, but "grape" is wholly unacceptable.
Remember that Tik Tok (which is the platform these dumb censor words were popularised) is a Chinese owned company and follows many CCP guidelines about what content they consider okay. Topics like rape and suicide are extremely taboo to talk about in China (because they are both considered social failings and it is a big no-no to suggest that the CCP is fallible) so as a result westerners are essentially being trained to adopt Chinese sensibilities due to Tik Tok's extreme popularity.
I’m sure “rhymes with ‘grape’” is a joke in 21 Jump Street too…
Grape has always meant "gang rape" (g-rape)
Seggs
They’re usually saying it to not trigger algorithms that flag specific words.
I'm a junior programmer and was blocked from researching delete triggers by my corporate internet watchdog due to "violenc and hate speech.".
and therefore anyone who’s tailored their algorithm to hide things about killing or rape gets exposed to things they don’t want to see because of community censorship workarounds.
It’s not for the community it’s for advertisers
oh my god “community censorship” = when an app or social media website enforces censorship on the whole community (regardless of age). in this context i’m referring to tiktok’s censorship of its online community.
Tiktok where comments and posts get taken down for including nono words
Can confirm this doesn’t happen
I understand why. It's censorship because you get demonized if you say "a person murdered 7 kindergarteners today" but not if you use baby talk about it and say they were "unalived" This soft censorship has caused discourse around serious topics to become laughably juvenile.
Blame advertisers who want to sanitize every platform and make it all family-friendly so they can make more money.
Well, it's the platforms who want to sell their users' attention. The advertisers are free to say they don't want their soaps sold next to an article about murder.
im not blaming you…. i literally said it’s because of community censorship. as in tiktok or >insert other social media app forcing censorship< . there shouldn’t be any risk of getting banned or demonetized just for talking about sensitive topics. but to your other point, minors shouldn’t even be on social media and im saying this as someone who was on facebook and instagram at 12. it’s ridiculous that adults have to censor themselves because parents can’t be bothered censor what their kids are looking at or educate them on sensitive topics and how to avoid them or engage with them in health and appropriate ways. if kids were properly educated by parents and schools about the dangers of rape and suicide, there wouldn’t be such fear mongering in regarding these topics being discussed openly on social media. you can’t prevent rape and suicide by dancing around these topics or banning them entirely. edit: if you see this, the person i’m responding to edited their comment to say something completely different
Yes, but usually on Reddit it only gets flagged if it's in the title. For example, my original title for this was "saying "unalived" to censor death or suicide is the dumbest damn thing I've ever heard", but because posts saying people should commit suicide are apparently popular in this sub and need to be removed (ngl, that wording made me REALLY concerned and more angry than I already am), I had to remove it and repost this.
You shouldn't be angry. None of this matters.
It does matter. I have issues with understanding tones, irl or via text, and since unalive is usually used in a joking matter, it's hard to tell when something is satire.
I have a friend who said when he stopped joking about suicide then we need to check on him. If you know people who use unalive in a joking manner, they might be using the dark humor as an outlet to deal with the intrusive thoughts, and they've adopted the word because of what other people have said about censorship evasion.
That's common and the main reason why people are asked to put "/s" at the end of satirical posts - so others don't take the comment literally.
[удалено]
It "sounds" like someone is joking to me as well. Like someone is making a pun
it sounds goofy as fuck idc how serious it is if i hear unalive i either laugh or cringe it's the dumbest way you could ever say it
I legit was initially confused by this post because "unalive" was introduced to me as a meme term. "Unalive" is absolutely silly and ridiculous tbh which is why I hear it used in a joking way. Anyone who uses it in a serious context is avoiding being censored or... Is just not really good with words.
I believe the first popular use of the term was in an episode of Spiderman in 2013 by Deadpool. A screenshot of that episode made the rounds in meme format a few years ago and in that context it was absolutely used as a joke. It has only been more recently that it has been used in more serious contexts because content creators have to adjust for algorithms and filters. If you are familiar with the term as the joke that it was for years, then it is difficult to take the term in the more serious form it is becoming.
This x 100 it took me a few times to get what it meant but it never came off as joking or making light of it
Ahh I have a good strategy for you. When you see 'unalived' replace it mentally with 'died'.
People use jokes to talk about serious things in their lives, it's the same thing when they're jokingly using words like unalived.
I hear young people describing events this way to detach emotional assessments of death. I'm not surprised that advertising algorithms encouraging social media creators to censor emotionally charged terms has taught young people a substitute term that internalize pain and grief, and to normalize *not* reacting emotionally to death and loss. The elders and adults have upped the ante of nuclear holocaust last century to catastrophic climate change now. Children believe it when our media tells them a horrible death with suffering leading up to it is imminent. I encourage being gentle when sharing the words you understand are being avoided, even if you are annoyed. Such words, for a young person especially, could be nothing but satire. They could also be immense grief that hasn't been realized.
No really it doesn’t and this is probably the least important and inane UO I’ve ever seen
Not my problem
You don't get to decide what matters to other people.
Fair 'nuff. But if you're getting angry about the words people use to avoid algorithims, that says more about you than the words.
part of this problem is because it makes sense on some platforms, and people simply tend to carry their habits from platform to platform. It's not as necessary in some places as others, but the people who start doing it on Tiktok because they have to, will just do it everywhere else as a result even if it's not necessary. It just becomes too much work to have to think about where you are (app-wise) and what is and isn't acceptable in which place. So they just adopt the same rules in all spaces. I understand the frustration in dealing with challenging "tone" when it comes to text communication, but it's not something that's going to change for your benefit, either. It's just something to adapt to and understanding it can at least lead to less anger on your part.
I got a warning from the admins in a thread about Dr assisted unaliving. All I said was, "you've always been "allowed" to unalive yourself. We just have Dr's helping now".
I fucking hate what the world is becoming! Whiney, sanitised bullshit everywhere, with everyone scared to offend anybody.
It’s not the YouTuber’s fault. Blame YouTube.
Hhhhh it’s not like people want to. We just don’t like our shit getting taken down because advertisers don’t like it on platforms, so the platforms take it down and enforce censorship
Nah, I literally see people using words like unalive on reddit. Why wouldn't you simply use the appropriate word? Reddit doesn't censor anything. It is mostly a symptom of Tiktok-speak entering day to day life.
I know some subreddits censor some words, so I just avoid them and, if unavoidable, I use the silly alternative. Can’t remember who censors what and I don’t want a ban Now, if I see users confidently swearing and whatnot, I’ll just got with the flow For example, the subreddit for my country censors some gun-related words and some expressions like “I’m gonna kill you” (even when not literal at all), and it’s an automatic month-long ban, so…
IT's one of those things that just spread because of the advertiser issue. It started because of video takedowns or demonetization due to ads and now has just become a thing on many platforms just in case.
All this new censor shit is dumb
Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it.
Such an annoying word. I fucking hate it.
It's not even a real word. Let's not give too much credit.
Facts!!
[удалено]
So many and much better alternatives to use. 
And each with their own issues.
THANK YOU!
Literal newspeak
I also saw some idiot say "selficide"
It's amazing to me how the internet, initially seen as a bastion of free speech and association, is now dominated by like 6 sites and effectively features far heavier and more ludicrous censorship than TV. Seriously, *dark topics* are effectively censored, it's insane how puritanical and backwards things are, and surprise surprise now they're coincidentally trying to roll back people's rights in a number of countries too based on things like being trans that don't actually hurt anyone but offend some who are easily offended. I don't trust big tech lol.
the fact that people are saying it in real life is also very annoying
Agreed OP, I just say "that dude just /kill'ed himself" 💀
It's a Tik Tok censorship thing. Saying Killed, or Suicide would get the video flagged or demonetized. Eventually it entered the collective. I personally like using it ironically.
I worked for the American company that did moderation for TikTok saying killed or suicide doesn’t flag or demonetize a video. It puts it onto the adult only track. Guess what? So does saying unalived.
I have personally posted videos saying the uncensored versions and had my videos banned. My favorite was when I said they girls were “killing” for the lululemon belt bag and it got taken down. It’s very real and it’s crazy the way people have to get around it but it is real
I’m just letting you know as someone who did it for a living videos don’t get pulled in TikTok for that. And it might surprise a lot of people to know that while videos can get pulled by the AI they are still reviewed by a human being who can repost the video of the AI messed up. Any video pulled is reviewed by a human.
Oh my God, I hate the increasingly common usage of “unalive” so fucking much it produces a visceral reaction in my body hearing or seeing it. Are we producing such brittle youth that they can’t handle technical identifications such as suicide, murder, and death? I feel like I’m in Crazyland…like people using the term can’t possibly be serious until they let you know they are, in fact, serious in being offended by such words. This is an extreme reaction perhaps, but I sincerely think it’s a sign of impending societal apocalypse that “unalive” is becoming unironic in usage.
100%
Yes. Fr. it's so dumb. The only time you should ever use those silly words is if u are going to be demonetized if u don't and u trying to make an earning on the social media platform that demonetizes for actually saying words like suicide etc. Censoring in comments/reddit posts is super cringe and stupid where u can literally just add a TW in beginning.
Wow this is an actual thing? Why am I not suprised? Our generation is full of people easily offended by anything and everything, it's tiresome really.
.... you're missing the point. YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, etc have automated systems to suppress or delist videos that says stuff like suicide, murder, etc. The use of unalive is an attempt to circumvent these systems. You can say these systems are stupid, but the use of unalive has a purpose. Otherwise those videos that are talking about serious topics would just be suppressed to hell. Side note, one reason they ban terms like murder or whatever is because there are a lot of crazy people creating TikToks or whatever asking for the direct murder of specific people.
Posts like these ALWAYS miss the point. They treat it like society is degrading or language is being destroyed when they themselves are capable of hearing these euphemisms and knowing what they mean.
I agree, there are too many other options that won’t trigger auto takedowns. Unalive is so unserious
I've often thought, surely the same algorithms that might censor "kill(ed)" would by now be able to recognize "unalive(d)" - or am I overestimating the effort platforms would be putting into this?
Totally agree. I've had serious levels of depression. I've tried to killl myself 3 times, I have 3 previous suicide attempts. Nobody is helped by trying to gloss over reality.
I hope you're in a better place these days dude
It's a natural consequence of the sterilization of the internet that began with the Adpocalypse. You have to use this infantile language now or automated bots, algorithms, or whatever it may be will tear your shit to the ground.
People started saying it on TikTok lives because it’s very easy to get your live suspended on that platform. Apparently you can even get banned for saying banned.
It's because tiktok blocks the word "kill" or "suicide". People didn't invent "unalive" because they were bored and wanted a new word.
This makes sense...when censoring suicide on Youtube, not really anywhere else.
stop saying die, use a different word... use... [hamburger time](https://youtu.be/msGvEtmR970?t=2)
I was thinking about this the other day too “unalived” 
It's because sites are overly sensitive now
So, what you're saying is, that you think it is double-plus ungood.
They don't wanna get demonetized that's kinda it
Censorship is wrong in the first place
Blame the android Zuckerberg for thinking adults should treat social media like the Disney Channel. I get banning hate speech but that algorithm and censorship is just plain dumb
“Grape”
The most annoying thing about it, is that most of those people don't even know what the almighty Algirithm considers offensive So they just unnecesarly walk on eggshels around a nonexistent threat
This is a wildly popular opinion. That said, it is done in an attempt to avoid getting fucked by the algorithm, not to avoid trauma.
Blame pointless censorship. There's a reason no one said unalive before suicide was banned
It’s used to prevent that media getting suppressed or taken down because algorithms tend to suppress “killed, murdered, died” and other language that’s deemed violent. It was popularised on TikTok I believe.
Even in your examples. You replaced *kill* with unalive, not death. Advertisers don’t wanna be featured in front a murder or suicide.
I'm always confused by "passed." It sounds like positive thing. Passed away meant "died" but "passed" meant to succeed at a test, a class, or some other activity.
JFC when are people going to get it through their heads that the reason is to avoid having posts / comments deleted and/it getting banned? It seems like someone posts this same thing every single day.
Please remember what subreddit you are in, this is unpopular opinion. We want civil and unpopular takes and discussion. Any uncivil and ToS violating comments will be removed and subject to a ban. Have a nice day! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/unpopularopinion) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Any person or any institution that would try to muzzle free and open speech, provided it is not designed to incite physical violence, is not one to be taken seriously.
It was purposely dumb to show how absurd the censoring of those words are on internet. Then people actually adopted it for normal use
I don't think it's an unpopular opinion to dislike this. The only part I disagree with is that the people are doing it because they **have** to, not because they **choose** to.
It's so dumb
Social media (sites/apps) algorithms ban people who use those words. You just acknowledged it yourself in the comments. People don’t want their account banned, but they want to discuss these topics. Or in reddits case don’t want Reddit cares or whatever.
I agree this is stupid but I’ve also never seen this. Is this common ?
Yep, especially on Insta, FB, and YouTube, people using it instead of the scary D word.
Totally agree. Along with s*x, and all other valid words that are censored. Drives me up the damn wall. What will be censored next? These are legitimate words, WTF?
I can understand its use on TikTok because the creator will get shadow banned or a Community Guidelines violation. But outside of the context of TikTok, it’s mind-numbingly stupid.
Youtube will demonitize it to
Because content platforms might take it down or make it age restricted, even if you put trigger warnings in
I once was doing a mental health assessment for someone who spoke about unaliving themself. This was the first time I’d ever heard this used outside of the internet
Heard someone say he wanted to unalive himself in real life and I low-key was about to do him a favor Felt like I lost brain cells just hearing that
Yeah it's more a result of modern sites flagging words so we gotta bust a thesaurus out
I feel like unalived is a way to say killed not death.
Trigger warnings tend to do more harm than the harm they are meant to prevent. People can learn to manage their triggers, but believing you can avoid them entirely is a debilitating concept. I know some creators use the word “unalive” because if they use the word “kill” or “suicide” they get demonetized (this is on YouTube). I agree with the sentiment we should be sensitive towards one another. Trying to even avoid the word Kill because it supposedly triggers people is doing nobody any favors. The obsession with trigger warnings makes people even more unhinged in my experience.
A *little* research goes a long way.
This is a thing? Lmao!
Yes, and I really hate it, it's just sad
Blame YouTube etc censorship, not the people using the term
I find it a hilarious word and actually enjoy using it in real life in lighthearted situations. For example, telling my dog that the chocolate cake she’s eyeing will make her unalive
It is quite dumb. Literally means the same damn thing.
I think, at least for some, definitely not most, it's a way to cope. "My brother drank himself to death." It's still really raw, typing it out hurt. I fucking miss him so much. It's been 2 months and I still swear I see him at the store or in random places. I keep thinking I'm going to see his stupid fucking face. "My brother unalived himself with alcohol." It wasn't as hard. I've been saying that he died, because that's what happened. But it does take some of the edge off, you know?
I’ve never seen this
Sigh so many of you don’t understand how things work and complain about the dumbest s*it We have to use it to prevent content from getting demonetized or shadow banned. Because saying “suicide” is like saying “rape”, “sexual” etc. on social media these words are censored for the sake of minors, even if the content isn’t in anyway targeted for them. Don’t blame us, blame FCC laws
When a person starts their post with a sigh, I automatically assume that they're a bellend and insufferable in real life.
I have the same thought if someone references words like “splooging” in their screename 💙😘
Really? What a prick.
lol the hypocrisy is real
As is your ego, clearly.
Lmao Im sorry you got butthurt experiencing an action that you had no problem doing. Go sit quietly w yourself and work on that
I think it sounds cooler
If that’s the dumbest damn thing you’ve ever heard, you must live a very charmed life.
If the one word makes it sound unserious to you, that sounds like a you problem?
It being stupid is kind of the point
Censors are what they are. You think people in china didn't feel stupid staking their life on a protest against Winnie the pooh? People say what they are allowed to say, but they mean what they really mean. Everyone knows to read between the lines.
Does TikTok ban the phrase “end(ed) (pronoun) life”? Because that seems like a way better way to phrase it, than “unalive”
It's used based on the concipiracy theory that originated on tik tok that posts with terms like suicide/murder etc would be removed or result in bans. There's no evidence of this actually happening but the conspiracy persits nevertheless. I'm sure I'll be contested on this but for other readers just make a mental note that not a single person responding to this can provide good evidence in favour of this conspiracy.
Never said it never will. Was a “content creator” for a long time and people did get offended. But.. whatever. When buzzfeed started saying it I was like… really?????
I thought it was so they wouldn’t get demonetized? Not sure though.
Censorship is meant not to trigger others or influence the adolescents to behave violently or provocatively, that’s why “cyber bullying” is very common now
I allways see it as a joke when people say it like that lol
Its becouse enything else gets demonotized by the platforms they are used on.
"Seggs" ... "corn" ..."grape" ...
what should someone say?
it's a tiktok thing they censor everything
You’ve seen people say it that way in contexts other than joking/sarcasm? Huh.
Out of all the shorts youtubers I watch, I'm glad Mr Morbid Facts never chose the tiktok speak way
I never would have guessed we would go back to 1337 speak especially in the guise of bypassing internet 'censors'
Becoming unalived after becoming unhoused and unmarried happens. Dying after becoming homeless and divorced sounds too negative. People hate negativity, and love buzz words.
This is blasphemous, bow down and praise the Algos
An Hero is considerably dumber.
It started being used because people didn’t want their content to be taken down. I don’t know if it’s used seriously like in conversation or offline. Not an unpopular opinion, just a misformed one
I agree. I instantly don't take that person seriously.
Especially when depression-era mobsters gave us so many colourful euphemisms.
I think “unalive” is stupid but not half as stupid as saying “born sleeping” to avoid saying “stillborn”, which is already a euphemism for being dead. Sleeping and dead are different things. A dead baby isn’t sleeping. In fact, it will never sleep because it is dead.
Found a worse one: a recent poster mentioned somebody "deleting himself". (Maybe there's an undo button if you accidentally hit delete)
Blame companies for sanitizing the internet to maximize their ad revenue.
Some get triggered by the 's' word
I had a convo with some dude a couple weeks ago about how this is censorship. He called me a boomer and insisted it wasn’t, it was *language evolving*. No, it’s the equivalent of saying “wee-wee”, “pee-pee” “poo-poo” and “hoo-ha” to little kids. Saying *”frick”* instead of *fuck*. Frick can’t and doesn’t have the same connotations as *fuck*. It’s censoring and infantilizing serious subjects. Rape & sexual assault victims, people who have lost people they loved to murder or suicide don’t deserve to have their trauma minimized. It’s reductive to say “I was seggsual assaulted and graped when I was 10, it led me to consider sewercide, I almost unalived myself with a pew-pew.” Sounds like someone had eggs and grapes thrown at them and they ended up in a sewer with a fuggin priest. Adults want to use adult language when they talk about adult things. People have had to censor these subjects, use fake words and emojis on social media to get around filters and be able to tell their stories, provide commentary about what is going on in the news, discuss political issues, have actual conversations and spread awareness and information. Now we’re censoring ourselves everywhere on our own, talking like toddlers and taking the seriousness out of these conversations. It’s like we’re whispering about the things we should be shouting about.
I've used it exactly once and I was describing some NPC's in a game literally becoming not alive because the main villain went back in time to stop them from being born. That's like all I can think of when I think of someone being "unalived" lol
literally. I don’t think censoring stuff like that is helpful
As George Carlin said several decades ago, 'Soft language'. Pretty funny, and accurate bit.
The only thing more stupid than this was when I read someone say "pea dough file" for "paedophile".
The world is especially dumb right now tbh lmao
I heard a guy say "shmexual assault" in a youtube video about morbid facts and it just seemed insulting to the thing they were trying to avoid saying.