• fuzzyspudkiss@midwest.social
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    1 year ago

    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.

    • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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      1 year ago

      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”.

      • Turkey_Titty_city@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        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.

        • dustin@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          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.

          • Oni_eyes@sh.itjust.works
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            1 year ago

            I enjoy traveling but it does bring a bit of guilt that I have the ability to do it when so many people never will. Hoping there’s some advancing in vr/ar to provide better cultural sharing and better immigration reception to provide the physical interactions.

          • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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            1 year ago

            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.

    • piezoelectron
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      1 year ago

      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.

    • Licensed_to_ill@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      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.

    • Zeth0s@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      The problem is lack of coverage for the migrants, who are seen as “less valuable people”

      • atzanteol@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        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.

      • Earthwormjim91@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        The migrant boat sank in the Mediterranean off the coast of Greece. While a tragedy, it’s largely irrelevant to the US news. It’s not like it was a migrant boat from South America going to the US. Those do happen and they become huge news here.

        The Titan submersible happened off the coast of Canada and the US and Canadian coast guards were involved. The company running the excursions is American. That’s a lot more relevant to US news.

        Looking at European news, the BBC has been covering the migrant boat disaster. It’s been reported in US news too. ABC started covering it over a week ago when it first happened.

        It’s also just common, which makes it less newsworthy. Another boat sank in the Mediterranean off the coast of Italy in February. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64776621

        When things become common, they’re no longer as newsworthy.

    • econpol@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      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.

    • deaf_fish@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      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.

    • CaptainProton@lemmy.fmhy.ml
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      1 year ago

      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”.

    • Hyperreality@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Yeah.

      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.

      News = man bites dog. Dog bites man = not news.

    • guyman@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      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.

      • Earthwormjim91@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        There have been plenty of resources dedicated to rescuing the migrants. Over 100 have been rescued.

        A big issue in the news coverage is that the migrant boat sank in the Ionian Sea in the Mediterranean. The Titan submersible was off the coast of Canada. So the news coverage in America largely focused on the thing happening near America. Same with the search and rescue. The US and Canadian coast guards were deployed for the search.

        The Greek coast guard ran the search and rescue for the migrant boat since it happened off the coast of Greece.

    • Arsisaria@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      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.

      • usualsuspect191@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        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.

        • Atheran@lemmy.fmhy.ml
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          1 year ago

          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.

  • tl;dr bot@lemmy.worldB
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    1 year ago

    tl;dr:

    Greek authorities have so far recovered the bodies of at least 81 people, and more than 100 passengers have been rescued, including Pakistanis, Egyptians, Syrians, Afghans and Palestinians. Survivors and the United Nations have said hundreds were aboard the boat and many are still missing and feared dead. If a death toll in the hundreds was confirmed, it would be among the worst shipwrecks recorded in the Mediterranean. Greek authorities have further been criticized for not acting to rescue the migrants, even though a coast guard vessel escorted the trawler for hours. International maritime law dictates that authorities are obligated to conduct immediate rescue operations - with or without an explicit plea for help. Artist Oliver Jeffers shared his feelings with a cartoon on Tuesday, which marked World Refugee Day.


    I am a bot in training. Suggestions?

  • ImFresh3x@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    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.

    • penguin@lemmy.fmhy.ml
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      1 year ago

      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.

    • darkmugglet@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      More to your point, the reason we are so interested is in the uniqueness of the situation. For the North Americans this the Titanic is culturally significant. For Europe, the migrant issue is local news. The problem is that our news is blended.

    • User Deleted@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 year ago

      Well I mean the coverage on the submarines isn’t really because of their net worth (not denying that it isn’t a contributing factor), but submarines sinking isn’t really that common, as another user have said in their comment. Remember MH370? A majority of the passengers weren’t wealthy, but it still got a lot of media coverage.

  • BarrierWithAshes@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Irelevant comparison. Must have missed the part where the chilean miners and the cave kids were billionaires too. That’s why people cared about those stories. It’s not getting coverage cause of the people on it. It’s getting coverage because of how idiotic the whole situation was.

  • Steak@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    They found a debris field near the titanic recently. It was a catastrophic failure. RIP to those on board.

      • BudgetBandit@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        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.

  • Bradamir@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    I think because they were potentially still alive, it sparks interest around the world.

    And the memes are people making fun of a foolish decision by rich people.

  • BootlegHermit@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    As unfortunate as it is, migrant boats wrecking is common enough that it’s not really “newsworthy” in terms of what grabs people’s attention. Especially on a global scale. Similar to how a murder in somewhere like Maine would make the news, but in NYC it’s just another day.

  • deFrisselle@lemmy.sdf.org
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    1 year ago

    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

  • Wild_Mastic@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Unfortunately where I live we hear weekly in the news of these immigrants boats.

    Can’t do much as a small community, except sending help as soon as we know another one sunk.

  • Books@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    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.

  • riktor@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Unfortunately, these migrant ships that sink are not exactly unique. There’s at least a handful that go down every year. As someone else pointed out that this is pretty much a first of its kind disaster. Tourists dying visiting the Titanic. Before this became news I had no idea that this was even something people do… then again I’m not a millionaire with a disposable 250k.

    Migrant boat sinking with hundreds on board - tragic? Yes. Is this something new that happens? Unfortunately no.