The way I see it, making jokes about this kind of thing is a fundamentally human reaction. People often react to grim scenarios with humor, consider all the jokes about things like wars that exist- and being trapped in a failing submarine is a pretty grim thought that people might seek to distract themselves from by twisting it into humor. I don't think joking about an event like this that resulted in deaths is the same thing as wishing for people to die, they are, after all, already dead, and uncomfortable as the thought is, the dead are not as far as we can probably know capable of taking offense to anything. There is no possible harm that jokes or anything else can do to them anymore.
Obviously I would consider it pretty rude to joke about it around someone who knew one of the deceased, since you can at least cause emotional distress to those people, but I don't see a problem with joking about it on the general internet.
Another thing to consider is that some of the jokes have been mocking the quality of the sub itself, rather than the people on board (save for the ceo I guess). If you cheap out on stuff and that decision kills people, I think it's perfectly reasonable for people to mock you over it.
We're joking about deaths all the time. The Titanic itself has been used for jokes for decades.
I think the main point of all the jokes in this case is the absurdity of the situation. Like, a bunch of ultimately inconsequential people die in admittedly somewhat weird circumstances and the media seems to go haywire. Nobody should care about this, since it's not more than a weird story for anyone not related to the people. Joking about that is just a way to put the situation into its place, so to speak.
Honestly I do get why it got so much media attention. Media companies exist to make money, to do that they need to get people's attention. Submarines, especially civilian ones that go deep like this, are rare and unusual things, so this story, while of little practical consequence to most, is very good at getting people's interest.
"News" like that is absolutely worthless information, it's just used as a tool to place ads. And for some reason people still click on it? I don't get it. Maybe humans weren't a good idea.
My initial reaction to this comment was to assume you meant you hated the human for falling for the distraction. I was worried at the generalized dehumanization in general, and how difficult that might make meaningful interaction for you in real life.
But the more I thought about it, the more I thought that hating the news corp and it's almost parasitic need to feed on human attention in order to make money wasn't just what you intended, but an interesting way of looking at it. I've had that thought before but never in a conscious way. So thank you for moving that idea into a place where I can more readily interact with it.
I think it’s hard to just handwave and say “meme bad”. These are some of the people I’ve come across with it:
First the easy one, edgelords online want to rile people up. I personally don’t care, engaging them at all is just encouraging them. There are worse things to make memes about IMO, this is not one of them to get riled up over.
Second, people who genuinely don’t care about this and think it’s ridiculous the media covered it so much. I’m half in this boat, there are way more newsworthy things to cover than 5 people drowning in a custom made sub on a mission that they literally signed away their life to do. However,
Third, people who see this as a tragedy. The other half of me is here, at least one of the people genuinely wanted to see the Titanic. Which, maybe it’s hard for us to understand the price tag, but if you had a dream of seeing it since you were a child, wanted nothing more than to see it, and were offered it, would you? And if not, if someone offered you a trip to see what you wanted to more than anything else in the world, would you want to? Go step on the moon? It’s like if someone offered you the ability to literally go to a fictional place, then that 250k doesn’t seem so much, if that was your once in a lifetime must do once and exactly once, if you saved up for 20 years. Those are the people I mourn.
Fourth, and I think this is a small group, people who are legit sad but treat humor as a coping mechanism. I think a lot of people forget about them, they aren’t trying to make situations like this into something controversial, they just cope differently, and that’s okay.
Fifth, people who are sad for the pilot, think the CEO got what was coming to him, and think the loss of three ultra wealthy people isn't actually a loss.
I find myself making fun of the engineering, but I think it’s a defense mechanism. I’ve had a pretty strong interest in the Titanic since I was a kid, and if I were offered the opportunity to see it, I think I’d be more likely to go. And it’s scary to think I’d end up on a vessel that wasn’t designed to do the thing it advertised it can.
How much did the people who went actually know about the sub they were on? How common is it to sign a waiver about dying to go on a commercial sub?
It’s easy to laugh with hindsight, but it’s scary to think what could have happened if I were in the position to choose to go.
I'm not trying to say that the memes are bad, but I have come across some memes that literally wish some rich people to die and others that cross the line. I fully understand that people don't maybe have sympathy for those who lost their lives, and I get it. I'm not here trying to defend rich people, but wishin for anyone to die or making fun of anyone's loss of life, regarding their background, isn't morally right anymore. Most of memes aren't that harmful but some of them are in the gray. Thanks for your opinion :)
I dunno. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes right? Don't get me wrong, it's still tragic what happened to most of those people, but I don't have much sympathy.
Ah, that's because you're a decent human being with a conscience! I guess it depends on what you consider "making fun" of them. For me, I would want to make sure I'm being respectful to those who are now grieving., but ridiculing the stupidity and hubris of some of those involved seems fair game to me.
You're making fun of dead people too. Ever made a joke about the Titanic? Or some war related joke? Or AIDS? COVID?
Are these lives somehow less important, because they died decades ago? Or because they were anonymous?
The reality is, that each day thousands of people die. And we don't care. And that's okay to a certain degree. Why are these randos above being joked about?
I’m with you. I make fun of people who walk off of cliffs while trying to get that perfect selfie. Individually, it’s very sad. But they were also excessively stupid.
Added to this is that the occupants of the sun are not, on any way, sympathetic individuals. They weren’t doing it to feed their family, or to flee oppression, or to advance scientific knowledge. They were people so rich they paid ten years of normal-people wages for a joyride to look at a ship that is the graveyard from a hundred year old tragedy. And the leader was a fake-it-till-you-make-it slimy, rich businessman who lied about his abilities and contacts and flaunted every regulation put in place to keep people safe.
I also make light of it because my job, as a licensed professional engineer, is to make sure the places people live and work are safe. Safe in a hurricane. Safe in an earthquake. Safe in a blizzard. Safe when they’re dancing with friends in a nightclub. I see people- businessmen with greater love for money i their pocket then their respect for the lives of others- try and skirt the regulations which are written in the blood of people from our past. I fucking hate people like Stockton Rush because he’s a danger to himself and others and he lies and uses his family’s amassed wealth to circumvent the very process which attempts to give everyone a fighting chance. I can be sad for the son who was rightfully scared to go, or for the explorer who may have been duped as to the crafts safety but I’m personally thrilled that Rush is no longer living on this earth and am sad that his death, in particular, may have been painless.
I've been through multiple aggregator site meltdowns and migrations. Some will stay, some will go, everyone will eventually find a new home. No worries!
Yes. Pressure and temperature are the main factors influencing the speed of sound through water, which is very important when calibrating sonars as you need to know how quickly the sound will travel to know how far away a response is.
I'm having a great time. Lemmy is a little bit harder than Reddit but I have been on Mastodon for some time now so I know how federation works. The only thing about Lemmy I don't like is that it feels kinda buggy and unpolished as it is very early stage and the same posts often reappear. But I like the community and it actually seems to be working so that's pretty cool!
You no longer have any side effects, only things intentionally done will happen. You must now consciously think about breathing and blinking as they are no longer side effects of being alive. As this is not a side effect, but rather the effect itself it cannot be nullified.
You need to wear a ring to use it, and undead monsters hunting for the ring will instantly know where you are. It may or may not have a mind of its own convincing you to never part ways with it.
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