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.
I think this is a rather disingenuous read of the situation. The drama of the situation should not overshadow the gravity of the difference between the number of human beings in question, it's disturbing that anyone would find this even remotely acceptable because it's more dramatic. And that's not to mention the discrepancy in response and spending on each issue. It's a true indictment of our societies.
There are people dying all the time, so the ones that are "news worthy" (i.e. attention grabbing) are the unique ones with stories that set them apart, and often it's more relatable when it effects fewer people so it's less abstract. I don't think it's an indictment of our societies, it just plays off of how our brains work.
I'm pretty sure those immigrants have more interesting stories to tell than a billionaire. Just saying.
Living your entire life in a warzone or in inhospitable environments that force you to leave your family behind and getting drowned while the general society ignores the underlying problem seems more worthy of questioning than a billionaire trying to go sightseeing thinking their money shields them from nature. I'd post a clip of a movie that fits here perfectly, but the clip is not on youtube, for anyone interested, look up 'whatever works' with Woody Allen there's a newspaper scene at the beginning of the film.
Anyways, apparently they're dead. Now to move to more important issues in society.
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.
I have to wonder if these people are really getting the straight dope anyway, or going to all the tourist spots and being shown what they want to see. They're definitely not hanging out in a refugee camp if they're spending that much.
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.
The awful truth is that migrants drowning on the sea crossing to Europe or to the UK is mundane. It happens regularly, so it's not news. A sub drowning near the Titanic is newsworthy.
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.
While I don't necessarily disagree with you. It would be interesting to know what would happen if each one of those 50 immigrants paid $250,000 to be on that boat. I don't think money had nothing to do with it.
It would absolutely be different if it were scientists. The memes about billionaires and the sub are all over the place. Bezos should go on a sub and explore the titanic too and all that shit.
Also it's unfair to compare it to the migrant story. Most Americans and Europeans are very hateful towards people from MENA so they are either indifferent or supportive of such "accidents". Obviously they are going to care more about some rich idiots literally crushed by their own hubris.
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.
I’ve got no love for billionaires, and obviously this story overshadowing the migrant boat sinking in Greece is infuriating, but I’m really not a fan of the glee so many people on social media are expressing at the deaths of these five people.
Also, on another note, I seriously cannot get over the fact that the late CEO of the company, Stockton Rush, has the absolute perfect team name for a minor league football team from central California.
I agree, a lot of people in threads in the fediverse are taking way too much pleasure in 5 people dying. I get not being a fan of billionaires - no one should be - but not everyone aboard was a billionaire, and even if they were it's just so incredibly callous to take joy in people dying in an accident. Have a base level of empathy for crying out loud.
Part of the reason I loved moving to Lemmy from reddit was getting away from reddit's toxicity, I hope we don't bring it with us.
Complaining about non-existing things is a new phenomenon on the internet I guess. I haven’t seen a single person cheering about the billionaires’ death but I’ve seen dozens of people complaining about people cheering about their deaths.
It’s like those upvoted comments in reddit threads where people say “number of comments in this thread about XX is disgusting” and you look for those comments and cannot find any.
That's just one from this thread. In other news threads the top two comments were people saying "good riddance" or something similar. I'd screenshot those for you as well but I now can't find the threads in my feed because the feed updated and they got pushed down to god knows where.
I mean if you specifically look for it you can of course find them, you can find people cheering for dead puppies and kittens too, there are maniacs everywhere. Thing is it’s far from being an overall attitude, it’s really really minority.
I think worrying about people making fun of some rich ass billionaires dying for doing something stupid, is the last hill you should choose to die on. These people made their riches and wealth by exploiting normal people like you and me.
You don't have to actively root for their deaths, but I'm certainly not shedding any tears for them experiencing the consequences of their own actions.
You don't have to actively root for their deaths, but I'm certainly not shedding any tears for them experiencing the consequences of their own actions.
That's... What he said? Lol
"I've got no love for billionaires... but the glee people have for their deaths..."
Let's leave the "if you have any scrutiny whatsoever it must mean you're on the opposite side of everything I stand for" bullshit on reddit where it belongs and actually read what people are saying.
Every transport industry is heavily regulated with regards to safety for a reason. If you start a commercial enterprise on an untested vehicle you’re asking for trouble.
I have no issues with an untested tin can as a traveling device through a high pressure environment. However, I am personally going to pass if the opportunity arises for me to try this out.
Not to be callous, but why? We have four people here who willingly signed up for this knowing what the potential consequences could be and one who just threw caution to the wind as far as safety was concerned. I am sure more people have died on the roads while I was typing this. Besides, they were in international waters where according to all the news stories I read nothing you could pass would apply. I feel like this should just be a cautionary tale for others and thats as far as it needs to go. Oh, and let what's left of the company pay back the people who went out searching, assuming there are any funds left. I mean they obviously spent money on nothing but the best equipment.
I don't know what the right level of risk is, but I do agree that if you're engaging in extreme tourism, you have to understand that there's going to be a level of risk associated with it. You want to visit Antarctica, you're going to inevitably be exposed to more risk than if you visit the park down the road. Same thing with space travel. Same thing with deep undersea stuff.
Risk conservative, maybe. Political conservatism is usually gung-ho about this sort of thing.
I see the logic of that, but then again people can be real idiots when it comes to things they haven't been trained about (ask anyone that interacts with the general public for work). I also see the logic in things like mandating seatbelts. Especially if you have a situation where medical treatment will be provided at great public expense for the outcome of whatever stupid decision.
Before someone gets mad at me, I have no actual opinion here.
I think it becomes a question of what well back up and ‘insure’ as a society. Because we’re willing to back people up and insure against the risk of driving in a vehicle, we require certain safety standards, levels of training, etc.
I think people should and need to be able to make all the stupidest decisions they can possibly make. I also don’t think it’s society’s role to absorb that risk. I don’t think a major search and rescue operation should have been undertaken for people doing something that was incredibly risky and dangerous. It’s an edge that should stay sharp, and have real consequences. But I also strongly believe we shouldn’t be regulating people’s behavior to not also take that risk. That’s their business and the whole point of living in a liberal society. As a society we get to decide which corners to pad and which edges to soften. I’d like to see us padding the corners and reduce the risk for an immigrants voyage on an over packed boat to try and better themselt rather than some dipshit billionaires obviously stupid hobby.
I think both of them having the right to take that risk is a fundamental human right. But we as a society get to decide which risks well offer some cushion to.
That’s what needs to change. If there was enough support internationally, the UN could facilitate a treaty being signed between nations with uniform regulations on submersibles. Then it wouldn’t matter if it was international waters.
The company is registered in the US. US law can therefore apply. In fact USA claims jurisdiction where it's very shady to do so (for example just for payments made in USD)
I was messing around with this like sub warfare simulator game a while back and I blew up a whale with a torpedo because it showed up on my sonobuoy network as an unidentified contact 😅
Similar things have happened in other underwater rescue situations and it almost always turns out to be equipment involved in the search. The sonar bouys dropped by the planes are extremely sensitive pieces of equipment.
If I had to guess, every 30 minutes or so a boat running a grid search pattern would get close enough to one of the bouys that it was able to pick up sounds from the boat. As the grid pattern took the boat further away from the bouy it wasn't able to continue to pick up the noise, and the "knocking" stopped after about 4 hours and wasn't heard again until a few days later. Then the search pattern changed, and boats started getting close to the bouys again.
It was a fish knocking on the window and saying, 'here, billy, billy, billy, billionaire'.
It was intermittent because an orca kept swimming past and saying, 'don't do that, it's bad for them, but if you like the sound of that you're better off knocking on the bottom of the big ones up top'.
From what I heard they had two bottles for urine and a bag to deficate in. It would have been freezing and extremely humid inside after even a day as well.
A implosion would be way better than days cramped together suffocating and starving in a inescapable freezing stench filled coffin.
But isn’t the asphyxiation here on the levels of, you end up falling asleep and don’t wake up again. It’s not to the degree of you’re choking to death and can’t do anything about it.
I don’t think so. You’d feel the carbon dioxide building up in your muscles over time, it would be awful. That and the mind-destroying existential terror. I’d take the sudden crush depth exposure, thanks.
The peaceful death you are talking about is from lack of oxygen, but when you’re in an enclosed space, there is CO2 buildup, and when you get too much CO2 it makes your blood slightly more acidic, which makes you feel an intense urge to breathe and you’ll die before running out of oxygen. That’s a terrible way to die.
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