Hi Andrew, my partner (Ftm) and I (nb- she/they) are both 30, and have a group of friends in the community in the age group as well, but we all have nervous and panic conditions and all use marijuana to manage these. I know you don't vibe with that so that's fine, but if you ever change your stance, hit us up :) It's never pushed, only offered out of politeness because sharing is caring and we vape and use edibles so no skunk smell. I was anti-drugs upon leaving my religious and life-choking home life too, not understanding that the people using them are just trying to cope with things too. No pressure, just, if your stance changes at any point, we'd love to hear from you. We play Nintendo, PS4, d&d, have been in online roleplay communities for game of thrones, Harry Potter, etc., and tons more.

I wasn't expecting that at all, but great! I'm glad. I think being reasonable is the first step and so I always try to go into these just explaining why I, or someone I know intimately, would find this unpleasant and work from there. I'm not trying to ruin Halloween, I promise, or take anything away, just explain why it's not great. We can always improve and make more elaborate displays 🙂

Tldr; My solution: MORE HALLOWEEN DECORATIONS Lol.

Killjoy, I know. Sorry, I just love my loved ones, know that they hurt because of carelessness, and want to be the change I wanna see, right? If that means raining on careless Halloween decorations, I will. Sorry that's not very fun. I work with kids all day so I have a lot of practice saying, "Sorry, but that's not how we treat people. We can be kinder." I hope you're Halloween decor is clearly Halloween decor and that everyone in your neighborhood has fun being the correct level of frightened, not the heart-pain kind.

I think there is a clear distinction between a Halloween store, a fully decked out house with the music and the full decor, cobwebs, spiders, and other additional context is different than seeing a child-sized body hanging in a bunch of trees at a crosswalk used by children and no other contextual-building devices such as a Grandfather clock, Max's friends, Vecna, anything to say this is a character from that RIDICULOUSLY popular Netflix show, NOT a dead child. I think that is very reasonable.

That context may not be necessary for people who aren't immediately effected by what they see, for example the top comments mentioning how, upon closer inspection, they realized it was likely meant to be Max. It took time, time that people suffering loss or other traumas don't have, they'd see the body and instantly be brought back to their loved one with all of the feelings and pain at once. Building the context gives their mind time to say "Oh neat! Halloween decorations! Oh that must be from Stranger Things?... Not my jam, but I'm glad others are having fun." Rather than "Oh God! Is that child okay?!?" Which would be a sign of on-going awareness for dangers, parents, care-givers, doctors, teachers, crossing guards, etc. who are in charge of child safety, or be pushed back into old trauma.

If you saw a squished body on the pavement outside of a skyscraper with no context would that be a Halloween decoration or a tragedy? Context is KEY!

I think that if you had found a hung family member or knew someone who had, you may feel differently so perhaps wait on your judgement that this outrage is manufactured, not the natural response to seeing something distressing.

Episodes of Stranger Things alone have triggered people and made the show impossible to watch for some so even if it was more clearly Max, it could still cause distress, though I think to a somewhat lesser extent of the intention was clearer.

As it stands however, it looks like a person hanging from a tree, a visceral image for people with loved ones who have died in similar ways, which is a large number since approximately 800,000 people die annually to suicide and most of them had someone, in some cases many people, who cared for them, a person who found their body, and usually multiple people involved in the removal and care of their body. That is a lot of trauma that needs to be considered when putting up Halloween decor. I get that creepy is fun, but not at the expense of my neighbors' mental health.