- cross-posted to:
- world@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- world@lemmy.world
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While fucked up, it’s disinguinuous suggest that the news is blowing up only due to the fact that they’re billionaires. While large boat disasters are fairly uncommon, how often do you hear of a submarine disaster. Especially one where the inhabitants are missing but potentially on a timer - trapped in a submarine with no way to open from the inside, many peoples ultimate fear. The story writes itself, pile on what seems to be a neglectful company and you’ve got a story people are going to be invested in. I don’t think the coverage or the search and rescue would be any different if it were a scientific submarine with scientists.
The Thai cave boys are another good example. They were rural third-worlders, but it still became a sensation. It just has to be bloody and dramatic to attract attention. A story like “people on boat drown again” is too mundane, it becomes a statistic instead of a tragedy.
What’s really irksome is that these rich guys that pay people to put them weird but often already-explored places get called “explorers”.
Rich people think spending money is what makes them special.
My favorite lately is the rise of the ‘world traveler’ who treats travel as a moral imperative that elevates them above those who can’t or don’t have the means to spend 5-6 figures per year on international vacations.
International travel certainly does broaden a person’s perspective. It’s great if your can do it, but anyone acting superior because they can travel is just an asshole.
The problem is lack of coverage for the migrants, who are seen as “less valuable people”
In 2022 there were nearly 50,000 automobile fatalities in the US. There isn’t a big story about all of them because, frankly, they’re common.
But 5 people died in a submarine. That’s news because it’s different.
This is effectively saying, “This article is correct but for the wrong reasons”. People aren’t angry about why hundreds of migrants dying isn’t newsworthy. They’re angry that it’s not newsworthy.
I’m frankly surprised that not enough people find it disgusting that the EU passively killing hundreds of refugees is less interesting because the EU does so regularly.
People like novelty. That’s not too surprising. Additionally, a growing share of people in the EU don’t want migrants to come. Empathy is declining.
Because immigrants die in stupid ways all the time. A shit in your toilet is not newsworthy. A shit on your kitchen table is.
The way you just compared migrants to shit in your toilet rubs me the wrong way.
Username checks out I guess.
I agree. Rubbed me so wrong that a genie just shot out of a bottle next to me.
Yeah, having a shittily built submarine for a billionaire to visit the most famous shipwreck in the world while then joining those who died there 100 years ago, is a pretty unique story that we’ll now always remember whenever we talk about the titanic.
There’s a real irony in naming your submarine after a shipwreck, neglecting all safety devices like the shipwreck, and talking about how the hull was indestructible.
I think the issue is the resources dedicated to each disaster. I don’t know if all the immigrants died though, so there may not have been a point in rescuing them at all.
Ya well tragic shit happens all the time. We’re desensitized to it. This submarine is interesting and the circumstances are kind of like a movie. Of course media will cover it more. It’s what people are interested in.
Yeah, the titanic situation involved submarines, suspense, radar, underwater drones, etc.
The suspense was key, too. A race against the clock of oxygen running out. What happens if the drone finds them, but can’t free them? Stuff like that made it a very unique story.
So of course people are more interested in that one.
There are always migrant ships from North Africa traversing North across the Mediterranean that have issues or sink vs a unique one-off sub disaster
Yeah, but what was their net worth? /s
Won’t someone think of the poor billionaires?
I’m really loving your username! Was reading that book to the kids yesterday and they too are enjoying it.
Haha, glad to hear it. It amuses me too!
Well, perhaps other billionaires will see how these folks have been treated, and decide that they’d rather be remembered for doing something great for society, rather than pursuing individual/deadly hobbies.
You don’t become a billionaire without being cool with exploiting people. Modern society rewards antisocial behavior.
They found a debris field near the titanic recently. It was a catastrophic failure. RIP to those on board.
If you mean the OceanGate submarine, it seemingly spectacularly imploded after its carbon fiber structure gave in to various microfractures. If that really is what happened, the water pressure killed the crew faster than their brains would’ve processed anything.
The pressure does not kill. Whales live down there. It’s the compressibility of water. At this depth it’s about 4% compressed. The cabin has 1 atmosphere of pressure, the water around it about 100. Through a microfracture water shoots in at the speed of sound in water (3x speed of sound in air) - that’s about 100 bars. That’s like a water jet cutter. It rips the microfracture open. Within a tenth of a second they get pressed to death by the compressibility of water.
Less people on earth means we will hit the Co2 goals faster.
Ah the Genghis Khan method of environmentalism.
This is news about news, one of the most useless kinds of news. Pass.
