> "a straw that broke the camel's back" I think you're asking people to oscillate between two poles of a continuum. The indictment of Aaron Swartz was very cl

> "a straw that broke the camel's back" I think you're asking people to oscillate between two poles of a continuum. The indictment of Aaron Swartz was very clearly, and i think uncontroversially, a life altering experience for Swartz. So I think that Taren, the OP and Aaron's GF, are probably correct on the substance. I think that even if you want to say that the prosecution wasn't the only factor, it is something that moved the needle in Swartz's life, and pushed everything not just a little bit closer (e.g. this was not a straw), but a lot closer to a suicidal event.