Its dead but since this thread was posted, it hit a new all time high in market cap. And its reddit hit a new all time high in activity.
And it's about to get it's own private beta on stack exchange, a distinction only shared with Bitcoin and ethereum amongst other cryptos. Maybe he means it's dead like Bitcoin has been pronounced dead so many times
Indeed being called dead should be considered a compliment!
GUI and RingCT coming soon.... not bad for a dead coin