this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2023
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Last week, a fishing boat packed with about 750 men, women and children capsized off the coast of Greece, with hundreds believed to have died

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago

I do feel like this is an exercise in "whataboutism." The Greek ship was a horrible tragedy brought on by unpleasant geopolitical realities, the submarine was a mystery, with a wacky story, exotic setting, and eclectic cast.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

OK? You can just call attention to the migrant boat tragedy without making everyone feel bad for finding this story weirdly compelling.

Statements like these always somehow act like an entire group of people all took a vote and decided to focus on one thing over another. I don't have control over what other people think is interesting, so what is he trying to tell me, personally?

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I believe the point here is that a lot of media attention was directed to the titanic story with a lot of discussion how to rescue the victims. All while in the last couple of years there have been multiple cases of ships with refugees drowning in the Mediterranean Sea with next to no media coverage.

Millionaires doing wacky shit just seems to be way more interesting then refugees drowning.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Thanks but I understand the point. My point is, why is Obama telling me? My ability to affect the fates of the migrant refugees is the same as my ability affect the fates of the billionaires: zero.

If I could choose to save one migrant life or one billionaire from that sub, I'll pick the migrant life, every time, now matter how you phrase the question. I still think the submarine story is more interesting, in part because it makes me feel less hopeless to think about it.

And that's always how it goes with scolding people for what they watch. Tell the news networks. Tell the people who own the news networks. Use your influence to pass laws, Obama. Don't scold me, what am I supposed to do.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The news networks only do whatever gets them more eyeballs. If they see that submarine coverage will do that, then that’s what they do.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

I understand what he's getting at. The submarine was an escape story. The migrant boat is just a reminder of how fucked things are. It should've gotten more attention but the average person just wants to not be bombarded by tragic stories. The submarine was not a tragic story.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] NSA_Server_04 1 points 1 year ago

Yes because migrants aren’t news worthy but a bunch of billionaires somehow are, it’s a difficult world.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago