Night Demon

How do you view the incident where a 21-year-old man from Hunan, nicknamed Fat Cat, spent 510,000 yuan of his earnings on Pick Up Artist (PUA) tactics, only to commit suicide by jumping into a river in Chongqing after the failure?

In a world where social attention often gravitates not towards justice but towards exploiting the vulnerabilities of the weak, the narrative that unfolds after a tragedy is all too predictable.
When a catastrophe occurs, the full weight of blame seldom falls on those with the most responsibility. Instead, like a parched village quick to accuse a widow of witchcraft during a drought, society finds its scapegoat.

This target is often the least sympathetic survivor, singled out for mob justice. Such actions—misguided though they may be—cost little, pose minimal future risks, and give participants a false sense of having upheld virtue. They sleep soundly, convinced of their righteousness, even as the underlying issues remain unaddressed and the cycle of tragedy repeats.
To discuss an issue meaningfully, one must resist the reflex for self-soothing indignation and seek to understand the complex interplay of factors that contribute to such tragedies.
In the grim tale of a young man driven to suicide over unreciprocated love and financial exploitation, the true culprits extend far beyond the individual who accepted gifts but chose to end the relationship. One must question the societal forces that romanticize the notion of love as a necessity for a life worth living. Who glorifies the tragedy of unrequited love? Who eagerly consumes narratives that pedestalize love to the detriment of those experiencing anything less?
This cultural obsession with romantic love, the relentless pursuit of pleasure as the pinnacle of human existence - these are the ideologies that plant the seeds of despair. The creators and promoters of such ideas are the architects of tragedy, with every enabler playing a part in the unfolding drama.
To blame a single individual for a systemic failure is to miss the forest for the trees. Life’s value cannot solely be measured by hedonistic joy. Falling prey to such beliefs sets one up for a life buffeted by inevitable disappointments.
So, before casting stones in righteous fury, one should pause and reflect: are we not all, in some way, complicit? The real battle is not against one another, but against the pervasive myths that dictate our worth by superficial standards. Only by recognizing and rejecting these false idols can we hope to find resilience in the face of life’s inevitable hardships.