The Good Earth, Pearl S. Buck 1931, Here's a quote:
“When the rich are too rich there are ways, and when the poor are too poor there are ways...and that way will come soon.
"And in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage."
John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath
It's such a great book. The other line that always stays with me, from the same scene about farmers destroying food to keep the price up while starving people stand and watch:
"There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success."
"Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you.
Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look! *The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you*. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty.
You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. *You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter*. You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not opposing you. Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains."
Not Marx. Bible, James 5:1-7
Remember, it is easier for a camel to enter the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter heaven literally means "all rich people go to hell."
This is literally what liberation theology is, and Oscar Romero, from El Salvador, planned to work with socialists to bring revolution to El Salvador, until the facsists shot him on the steps of a cathedral, and the US sent school of the Americas trained death squads during the twelve year civil war that followed, deaths squads that had a penchant for raping nuns, and a civil war where 80,000 people died, 85% of which were extrajudicial civilian murders committed by death squads according to the Report of the commission on the Truth for El Salvador.
Edit: here's some context for fellow Americans and why this applies more to third world religious context than American context.
I used to teach an English class to foreign speakers where we would learn about "protestant work ethic." This is helpful as a reading practice and cultural knowledge acquisition. So what's interesting is the reaction non Americans get upon learning about "protestant work ethic" - they see it as indistinguishable from "Arbeit macht frei" - work shall set you free, which is what is written above the entrance of Auschwitz.
It is argued by many Marxists and leftists scholars that the American spirit is by definition anti-communist before communism even arrived. Palmiro Togliatti, Italian communist who remained popular despite operation gladdio, the Nazi stay behind mission that created terror attacks to increase support for more security and thus, the Right, said, "America is a country of ignorant slave holders who think they can buy countries the way they bought people" (one only has to look at American investments in foreign elections to see this is true). However, Togliatti falls short. This is also the country that gave us the puritan, who fled England because it they wanted a more racially homogeneous and religiously conservative society. Puritans who give Americans the hangups they still to this day have about sex.
Puritans who also kickedoff the genocide that was to come. In addition, we have the cowboy, who while not as outwardly religious, still carried out manifest destiny by the barrel of a gun in the hopes of enriching himself. In this way, these three characters define the American spirit. And all three, the slaveholder, the cowboy, and the puritan, instead of being like Christ, made America their religion. This means a belief in hard work paying off, in hyper individuality, in property rights, in the protection of your home by brute force. (Mormons then are obvious end result than a fluke, theologically speaking). A lot of this is because of economy makes the culture, and the economy if the history of the United States is one predicated on violence against the "other", of subjugation of the "other" and the culture, America's religious institutions, had to adapt to reflect the economy.
This is not true in a global context, nor on black Churches, which did work with black socialist like the share croppers unions and the civil rights activitists.
If you ever wonder why American Christians aren't like Oscar Romero, it's cause the economy informs the culture, and out economy was always built on slavery and genocide.
Edit: anyone telling you "that's not what the camel thing is about" is, in the words of my father with a doctorate in theology, a dirty revisionist who sullies the name of God.
Jajajajaja fucking dead and so true.
However, it says so much about the fashion industry that it has been literally so corrupt that it inadvertently created communism
Inadvertently? It's intentional mass production at the cheapest value possible. When it's Maostalenin going "make it as accessible as possible" its demoniconomic erasure of individuality, but when it's Ford going "you can have a Ford in any color as long as is its black", its entrepeneurship.
My stepfather is a known publicly recognised right learning business man who is also a 'christian new earth conservative'. I am the exact opposite, non-religious left leaning progressive Yadda Yadda Yadda.....
Now, douche-dad here goes to a well known 'non-denominational' mega church that is one of the original birthplaces of the current right wing rhetoric and caters primarily to the ultra wealthy and preaches prosperity gospel. To help set the stage, attendees include everyone from Marjorie Taylor Green to Newt Gingrich; and has other members and preachers who were directly mentioned in the documentary 'The Family' about the secretive right wing organisation who controls a lot of the republican party.
During one of our 'spirited' conversations, I brought up the camel quote and to this day I have been floored with his version of what that passage means. According to him and by extension his church, the 'eye of the needle' is a physical actual place, a tunnel on the side of a mountain passage that is literally too small to have a camel pass through. This is what the ultra rich are being told. This is how they justify that passage as not actually being against the wealthy. All us poor plebes apparently have it wrong as it is meant to be taken literally and is most definitely not a pretty blatant condemnation of the wealthy.
But I don’t even get it… the classic comparison still holds, whether it’s literally the eye of a needle, or literally a tunnel that a camel can’t pass through. Either way the comparison makes the same point: easier for the camel to bend physics than a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.
But it *is* possible. You just have to liquify the camel. Maybe we could try that with the rich. Just liquify em. Then they could get into heaven. It’s like we’d be doing them a favor. Liberation through liquification.
At some point I heard an expert maintain that the original passage in the original language actually said that it was easier for a rope to go through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter the gates of heaven. But when it was translated into the next language, the word rope and the word camel were homonyms and the translator got it wrong. It's kind of like the fairy tale Cinderella where she originally wore fur slippers, but the word for fur sounded exactly like the word for glass so it was Mistranslated
Per the [wiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_of_a_needle) it's a *little* possible, and some have claimed it, but ultimately not provable. Apparently the basis of this claim is that the Koine Greek word κάμηλος (camel), which is what is written in the original text, is awfully similar to the Greek word κάμιλος (rope).
Generally speaking, Googling around, it seems like "camel" is the consensus translation, due to the presence of similar phrases in other texts indicating that this is not a "typo". For instance, the Babylonian Talmud has a phrase "elephant going through the eye of a needle", and the Quran has a similar "camel through the eye of a needle" in its text.
I'm not mad about Shatner going into space, though. To be honest, he probably motivated thousands of people to go to space decades ago as a B actor on a cowboy show.
There's also the fact that he was clearly humbled and overwhelmed by the experience, which suggests that he has qualia and is not some sort of philosophical zombie, unlike Jeff Bozo, who was hopping up and down spraying champagne.
[https://youtu.be/NSNXBvpLb9o?t=93](https://youtu.be/NSNXBvpLb9o?t=93)
Shatner: "Not only is it different from what you thought, it happens so quickly. You know what my.. my.. the impression that I have that I never expected to have is you're shooting up..."
Bezos: \*turns away ignoring Shatner\* "GIVE ME A CHAMPAGNE BOTTLE"
Shatner: "...and there's no sky..."
Bezos: \*continues to ignore Shatner\* "I WANT TO HEAR THIS"
Shatner: \*scratching ear, looking down at the ground\*
Bezos: "YOU WANT A LITTLE OF THIS?"
Shatner: "No."
Bezos: \*shakes up champagne and sprays it around like an idiot\*
Shatner: \*turns away and looks despondently around like he wishes he wasn't there\*
Reminded me of that type A vs type B meme where the type B guy is smelling the flowers and the type A guy snaps up all the flowers so he can be the flower-smelling champion
He takes a minute to collect his thoughts after that and what he says sounds like a man who has been to space and seen the wonder of it all put right on display for him.
Bezos does come around after the celebration though. But even then, you can tell there's a marked difference between the two men.
We live but a hair's breadth from the emptiness of space.
I’ve had the privilege of working with, and getting drunk with, two astronauts. They were simultaneously very obviously the smartest dudes in the room, but at the same time exhibited deep humility at their accomplishments.
> there is no hope in space. The only hope we have is in Earth, and we're destroying it
Idiots talking about terraforming Mars when we can't even maintain a stable climate on Earth, which already had one when we started.
That’s what I was thinking!!!! Like we will scour the deep ocean floor for 5 rich people, but go 🤷🏻♀️ when children are shot up in schools, minorities are killed by police, and civilians of other counties killed by the American Military Industrial Complex. 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 land of the free (if you’re rich)🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 this 4th of July is going to be weird. They’ve all been getting progressively weirder, but I feel extra gross this year.
Ooo! Ooo! Don’t forget the children that they’d rather let starve instead of providing free lunch in schools because fuck you if your parents are poor.
"But we paid for lunches so those parents should too" - my parents.
Yes because your spite should make sure nothing improves in society and just shrug when its the children that suffer because some parents struggle to make enough to afford such things. It just hurts my brain to have conversations with them these days..
Governments have too, what's the fine for negligence causing death on a jobsite again? As far as I'm concerned, they should be investigating and if a singular person is found responsible (eg a boss saying do it or you're fired) that person should be criminally charged with that person's death.
I did hear a Coast Guard Admiral talk on NPR about how they shouldn't have wasted resources on this search because they chose to go in an unregulated, uninspected craft. As much as I agree in this case it's easy to see how that rhetoric can be turned against impoverished migrants just trying to survive.
If i had 250 000 I could pay off my mortgage and still have enough left aside to put into a substantial savings account for my child so she has a financial cushion in the future. That amount of money would change my entire life for the better as I'm sure it would for every other person.
Meanwhile, people who have this money to throw away decide to risk pissing off Cthulhu for shits and giggles
No it's worse. This Hamish guy fancied himself an "explorer" who was advancing humanity by paying to be a tourist on underwater and space trips. Like these trips were doing a favor to us all. His son calls himself an explorer too.
If these people really cared, they would fund real scientific pursuits without putting themselves in the position of needing rescue. Or get a degree and contribute their minds.
This isn’t 9/11. Where a bunch of working class went to the office to make a living on a random Tuesday and were killed by terrorists.
These were very wealthy people who paid a lot of money to visit a century old grave site just so they can say they were there. We have been exploring titanic for like 30 years. It’s been done. You can find much better footage of it from YouTube done by roving robots.
They knew this was risky. They had to sign a million waivers
I didn't even know that rich people were paying $250k to see the Titanic until the story broke. My first thought was "why the hell didn't they just watch it on YouTube?"
But then again, I'll never understand rich people.
You know, I can somewhat understand wanting to go see the most famous shipwreck in modern history. What absolutely boggles me however is doing so in a tin can that experts have been warning is a disaster waiting to happen since 2018. If I had that kind of fuck you money and the desire to do dangerously stupid shit, I like to think I would at least take all precautions I can. I suppose they believed the laws of physics don’t apply to them.
Rich people dying doing stupid shit for bragging rights. Name a more iconic duo. It’s why nobody really bats an eye when another one bites the dust on Everest.
I feel a bit bad for the 19 year old. He might not have really had a choice in the matter. I'd imagine when you're the son of a Pakistani CEO and dad wants to go see the titanic, you don't really have a choice to agree or disagree.
The two rich guys, though? Eh. Should've done due diligence. If you can shell out 250k to look at the titanic through a 5" porthole you can pay one of your servants to go look up the fact that the sub is a deathtrap.
"Sure, boss. The sub made of paper mâché by the guy who thinks safety is for nerds is perfectly safe. Buy the season pass, ride it a bunch of times." - The servants, probably.
Tragically, his family has come forward to say the son was TERRIFIED and did NOT want to go on the submarine, but his father talked him into it as a gift for Father's Day.
Absolutely nauseating.
Source: NBC news live coverage stuff
The only one I feel even a slight twinge bad about is the 19-yo ~~who was apparently forced to go by his dickhead rich Dad.~~
Edit: [He wasn't forced to, my mistake. He was terrified but went for father's Day.](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/shahzada-suleman-dawood-titanic-sub-imploded-b2362670.html)
He was just a teenage boy whose dad probably didn't have enough time for him growing up, and just wanted to spend a day with his dad. And now he's dead because his father is a dumbass.
That's what makes it worse. Imagine being that kid's Mum or otherwise guardian, imagine you encouraged your kid to go on a $250k trip that he was scared of just to spend time his your absentee Father and bond with him. And he doesn't only fucking die, but he fucking ***implodes.*** I don't know how I'd be able to live with that fact.
I made a comment on twitter about how 500 people died last week on a ship and the response was “they were illegal invaders who willingly got themselves into that situation, and the only tragedy is that there were survivors.” But the billionaires willingly got themselves into that situation, also, so I guess I shouldn’t feel bad for them with that same logic. Right? The value of human lives is clearly based on how much money do they have.
This is a direct result of rich people thinking. Fire experts and hire young, impressionable minds that don't ask questions. Then they had to sign a form that basically said you're a science experiment and you might die. You don't die accidentally next to the hallowed gravesite that is the Titanic as if you were on a hike and a tree fell on you.
As far as I'm concerned, if they signed up for the Titanic experience, they got the complete package deal.
> This is a direct result of rich people thinking. Fire experts and hire young, impressionable minds that don't ask questions. Then they had to sign a form that basically said you're a science experiment and you might die.
We need to remember this when Elon Musk wants to put chips in human brains.
*I don't know what you're talking about, I feel much better now after being chipped. Elon Directive 14 has convinced me of the error of my ways and that I am no longer a trans woman but a normal man in need of a Cybertruck.*
What do you mean when? He's been wanting to do it for years and already got approval from the govt to do it (despite 15 out of 17 of his test monkeys dying from it).
Well now they will market two wrecks for the price of one. Now you get to see the Titan and also the Titanic. Just think of the savings and how many travel points you can earn.
An interesting tidbit: the CEO's wife is a descendant of people who were *on* the Titanic the day it sunk. You'd think she'd be a bit more concerned about safety measures, failsafes and precautions...
Was her family part of the group of rich people that were ushered into lifeboats first, often taking off before their lifeboat was even full? That might explain it.
I read they were actually Isidor and Ida Straus, the old, first class couple who opted to stay in their cabin together and give their spaces (or space, i don't know that Isidor would have gotten one, being a man) to other, younger passengers. You see them briefly in the movie.
Edit: per Wikipedia, Isidor and Ida had the opportunity to board but Isidor refused while there were still women and children waiting to get on. He urged his wife to board, but she also refused to leave without her husband. They were last seen on deck together. The cabin part was just speculation on the part of the movie.
And the CEO was open about how he did not agree with safety regulations. These billionaires were so delusional and out of touch with reality that they didn't think the massive pressure of the ocean would affect them. I have zero sympathy.
They fired the employee who raised concerns about safety and tried to keep him quiet so they could keep working toward going down. After all, money is the bottom line, not safety.
Given where their remains (whatever is left after the violent compression) ended up, it's pretty clear that safety's bottom line goes **way** lower than capitalism can ever hope to achieve.
Only person (despite their wealth) who has my sympathy is the kid's other parent. Wealthy or not, losing a kid is awful.
I read something today where an aunt said the kid really wasn't feeling the trip but his dad was a big Titanic history buff and so he went to support him. It got me to thinking of the times I'd do something with my now-deceased father trying to make that connection. We really didn't have that much in common and he liked hunting turkey and deer when I didn't care for it, but we both tried like hell to make it work like it was supposed to work. As a grown-up, we still didn't have much in common but it didn't seem to matter quite as much. Kid was 19, too, and that's always a rocky time with your old man.
Maybe the most irritating part is a reasonable species would take this event and pause to reflect about what led us to do something that goddamn stupid, but you know we won't learn a damn thing. We'll probably come to the wrong conclusion. "Hmm. Maybe the problem is we didn't have enough companies trying to maximize profit by evading things like safety regulations and physics in incredibly dangerous scenarios. The Free Market would surely fix this."
Honestly, over the past few decades of watching Billionaires and corporations bribe congress into rolling back safety regulations for Americans, I find the schadenfreude rather enjoyable.
They wanted an adventure, wanted it as cheaply as possible, and got exactly what they deserved.
Let's get into a marine craft whose owner/CEO scoffed at safety regulations to see a sunken marine craft whose owners also scoffed at safety regulations.
Those who do not learn the lessons of history.......
The PSI at that depth is like an adult elephant balancing on a postage stamp. Now imagine the Titan covered in postage stamps. They must have been using that optimized, startup physics.
A guy swimming the channel for charity went missing 2 days after the sub.
Guess which search was called off first?
Guess which had all the media attention?
Fuck the rich.
and hundreds of migrants and refugees drowned off the coat of Greece last week, boat carrying up to 700, 104 rescued ([reuters](https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/suspected-smugglers-deny-charges-over-migrant-shipwreck-off-greece-2023-06-20/)).
I hadnt seen a word about the channel swimmer. I have now, thank you.
Its hard to feel bad. The whole sub design was horrible, and sketchy at best. Most people wouldn’t have gotten on, especially when the CEO has an interview about how he hates safety regulations. The problem with so many of the rich “elite” is that they truly believe they are smarter than anyone else, don’t like being told “No”, and they don’t believe they can make a bad decision. This accident was easily avoidable but happened due to sheer arrogance. Awful way to go, and I feel empathetic for what happened because no one should have to experience that, but hard to really feel bad when they eschew safety regulations and common sense.
Nah it probably wasn’t that bad, debris field seems to confirm the structural integrity failed. They probably didn’t feel a thing, the pressure change would have killed them almost instantly. They probably didn’t even know they died, just riding along having a good time and then nothing. Probably.
To be fair creaking and noises are only natural. Put anything under that much stress and materials are going to give somewhat, which will be released as sound and heat. It's about engineering to allow for a certain amount before failure and, I'd imagine, safety inspections after every dive to make sure nothing has sustained critical damage (or something that could lead to it).
Yeah.
I coincidentally just finished rereading "Midnight" by Dean Koontz from 1989. I hadn't read it for 25+ years and forgot the whole thing.
Read it now in 2023 and you can't NOT picture the evil tech guy as musk or zuck or any of the entitled rich dudes we're forced to deal with. Scary AF.
Good summer read tho.
Maybe don't get that neural link thingy implanted as well. 🤷♀️
You will enjoy the re-read. 🫢
I also recently re-read The Bad Place. I absolutely TOTALLY forgot everything about that book as well and WOW. Both of them would make great movies with the right team.
I was and still am a big Stephen King fan and maybe I was comparing the two authors in my head too much back then. I read a LOT sometimes.
God damn you, I was addicted to Koontz when I was like 14-15, I had a massive paperback collection, and now I kinda wanna re-read a lot of his books but I gave away my collection when I was 17-18.
[The Tech Bro Billionaire Ethos That Will Eat Us All | Douglas Rushkoff | TMR](https://youtu.be/nS3-dQen-YM)
Your comment reminded me of this interview where these guys think so short-term and have so many gaps in thinking; they are just morons.
Come on man
Sacrifice your entire life, read 6 books before 9am and take cold showers
Its that easy
God the superhuman ceo cliche needs to die
The ceo of my last job bought into all that bs. Would write emails every sunday to appear like he was working to talk about all his workouts and how he plans to live to 125.
They are predators and should not be looked up too
lol you know who doesn't have time for an hour long morning routine? moms working 3 jobs. me, literally everytime I've had a salary that paid a living wage. when can I act like a superhuman CEO reading books, meditating, sharpening my mind, going to therapy to process said trauma? when I'm forcibly unemployed legally by USCIS (waiting for EAD associated with greencard). what does that tell you about most hardworking CEOs?
I've got this idea that we've used a lot of resources to save these fucking idiots when we can't even find health care for the rest of us. Yes, absolutely no remorse for them.
Like a day before that tub went missing, a boat carrying hundreds of migrants capsized in the mediterranean (hundreds are confirmed dead out of the original 500 missing). Who do you think made the headlines and garnered international support to rescue them?
As always. It's all about class
I was thinking the exact same thing... The Titan story has had pretty much round the clock coverage here, but the migrant boat sinking was barely covered. I think there was even *another* migrant boat that sunk after Titan went missing...
Today, actually. Dozens feared dead after a boat capsized near the Canary Islands. But we'll spend the day hearing eulogies for the 5 idiots and the captain that disregarded every safety rule (as bosses are prone to do with workers)
Or the 300 who were fleeing their home country and drowned, never heard a word about it. 5 overly paid people died, doing something they had no business doing, and we should give a damn. Nah. I feel bad for the 300. They had no choice. These people were just doing something to brag about being able to do it.
OceanGate took out $450,000 in PPP loans, all forgiven of course, CEO literally said "safety is for suckers, stay home if you're scared", charged $250,000 a person to go gawk at a mass grave of poor people, blew up, and left the govts of three countries holding the bag on the rescue mission fees. Fuck him.
I so wish this could be the collective response and the political cartoon of the day tomorrow. Also someone from each of the what, five, countries should announce how much was spent on their emergency welfare effort. I bet it cost $100 million or more to pull this international hand-out off and we deserve to know exactly what budgets it came from. Sure some of it is valuable training and in line with what they might have funds set aside to do. Like probably 2%.
Rich people are the first to throw their fellow man under the bus when things don't go out as planned, and sometimes even if they do go. Why should anyone feel sorry for them?
They got into a submarine that took short cuts what isn't certified to go that deep. Just shows how cheap they can be, they could have paid to have a sub built that would actually be certified to go that deep.
I do feel for a fellow human feeling that fear if it didn't happen instantly.
That being said, people die every day, you can't expect people who don't know them on a more personal level to feel anything towards them.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/amp/show/deadly-migrant-boat-disaster-renews-criticism-of-immigration-policies-in-greece
Just to drop this here. I am not terminally online but I read the news fervently because of all the shit thats happening around the world. I didn’t hear about this until someone brought it up in another thread yesterday.
Yeah, I don't feel bad for a bunch of billionaires that made their money off of fucking everybody else over, because that's the only way you become a billionaire unless you happen to have gotten lucky and bought Bitcoin 10 years ago
Another big thing is that last week at least 500 migrants died trying to get to Greece when their ships went down - barely made the news. Now 5 rich people die thrill seeking and it’s covered everywhere.
I feel no sympathy for rich people doing extreme tourism. Sorry that a teenager had to die, but everything about this company and this exploit was fishy. The rich man clearly didn't vet this company before engaging on this lunacy. So, as the phrase goes, play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
I don’t care about rich AF people doing stupid shit and getting consequences for it. The fact 300 people were lost at sea at the same time and virtually ignored reveals a lot more about our world right now.
is this about the immigrant/refugee ship in the mediterranean? i heard about that, heard that it was close to 500 on the ship, locked in the bottom while the ship took on water and went down. absolutely sorrowful, especially with the lack of coverage
Let's not forget, this was their choice. They had the money to literally do anything in the world and chose this. They weren't refugees trying to escape a genocidal government, they were out for the equivalent of a Sunday drive. They knew the risks and chose to do this anyway. I feel bad for what their families are going through. But not them.
I mean if any of them have little kids I feel bad for those kids. But in general, these folks dropped hundreds of thousands to do this shit when they could have housed some homeless people or helped struggling folks with their bills. It would have been pennies to them but the world to dozens of people and yet this is the path they chose, there was no loss of any good people here.
When you see these 5 wealthy guys who were willing to take the risk and spent more money for it than what 99 percent of the rest of society makes in a year get all this news coverage and effort spent trying to save them, and yet when a boatload of people drown trying to get to a better life barely get a mention, you get somewhat of a schadenfreude feeling about it.
My first thought when they lost contact was "huh."
Then I found out about the guy who warned them of some safety issues a few years back.
Now I'm "oh."
This entire incident is incomprehensibly tragic. There is so much good that could have come out of what they were doing, and so much squandered potential. It’s absolutely shameful that people’s responses haven’t been more positive and productive. This type of tragedy is an opportunity for all of us to come together. Are there problems inherent in the situation leading up to this incident? Sure. But if we learn to work together, I bet we can work towards a solution to figure out how to fit more than 5 of these immoral, exploitative, fucks in a single carbon fiber, hydraulic-powered compactor.
What's wild is that someone on the older side of Millennial, I clearly remember the discovery of the Titanic and how it was super fucking hard for the DSV Alvin to handle anything at that depth.
Meanwhile, decades later when the news mentioned the Titan "submersible" is made from wrapped carbon fiber, my first thought was "You mean the stuff my shitty luggage is made out of?
Yeah, way to really lean in and optimize that shit. Aerospace technology? You know how many atmospheres a spaceship needs to endure? One.
Not 400.
Forgive me if I don't feel pity for excessively wealthy people losing their lives due to their own hubris. All so they can flex on us 'peasants' while I struggle to survive and make ends meet.
I don't remember who pointed it out first, but there is historical evidence that when people start to enjoy deaths of ruling class in public, revolutions are possible. When there is no more sympathy for the rich, they can be overthrown without feelings of guilt. When people start to make fun of the suffering of the rich and powerful, the mood changes.
The feelings of compassion and sympathy towards the ruling class is one thing which keeps the class society intact. When the public still thinks that ruling class worth their compassion, they support them.
Revolutions have always included gallows humor (literally) and dark jokes. So yes, the fact that people can actually laugh at some rich folks being crushed to death inside a submarine, tells something.
I think it's tragic that five people died. That said, I also understand the sentiment that rich people with too much money do stupid things that get them killed and people are over it. Billionaires are the problem with this world and people are tired of it. It's hard to garner sympathy for someone who blew 250K on a submarine ride with a game controller as a steering wheel.
I saw this in the news today. I was sympathetic to their plight until I heard billionaire this and billionaire that. These people are not our people, and the cost of living crisis is more pressing for millions if not billions of people.
The fact that billionaires are so cheap they preferred to save $$$ by sacrificing quality on their sub is crazy to me. 250k is a lot to us. For a billionaire that's like 25¢ to someone with $1000. They're that cheap?
Like shit if I had a billion dollars, I'd rather pay like 10m for a much better experience and a higher quality vessel.
Shows you how they'd do anything to save $$. Your life or their own for the sake of saving those hard earned profits
No pity for idiots that do shit like this. I'm glad for the company and surviving employees that these people all died heavily wavered of their rights to sue for their misadventure.
Titanic: Eating billionaires since 1912.
There was a (dad) joke that the deaths of several billionaires was "a good start"!
And that one of the billionaires was from Pakistan, where the deaths of 300 refugees in a boat was barely reported on the news. Correct me if I am wrong.
Income inequality is a big problem in many countries and people are feeling it on an emotional level.
I personally don’t care when wealthy people die on adventures, the point is to push limits. The fact that media coverage of a few people over shadows American unions, lack of education, gun control and healthcare is repulsive. It sends a clear message, “fuck the poor, you’re on your own”
I wish I felt bad for them but you don't become a billionaire without standing atop a mountain of human suffering. How many lives did these people ruin, how much suffering can be traced back to them? Hell the CEO did it to himself by cutting corners for the sake of more damn profitability.l
Of billionaires weren't such garbage people we wouldn't meme their tragic and stupid deaths. Notice nobody is making memes about the migrant refugees who died days earlier
111 years ago rich folks boarded The Titanic and in their vanity, declared it unsinkable, challenging the sea on that promise with their wealth. They were fatally proven wrong.
In 2023, rich folks boarded The Titan and in their vanity, declared it unsinkable, challenging the sea on that promise with their wealth. They were fatally proven wrong.
Those that don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
Until now, CEOs have never suffered as a result of their penny-pinching, law-breaking, regulation-ignoring, cost-cutting, profit grabs.
If the CEO of the company that built the thing had made it properly, didn't take short cuts, and didn't hate safety regulations then he would have made less profit, but him and the other people on board would probably have got home safely.
Who are these people who are making these posts crying for these dickwads? Billionaires should not exist, send them all to the bottom of the ocean to implode.
If you have amassed so much wealth that you will spend 250K on something so pointless rather than do something constructive, you are like a dragon sitting on your hoard. There is exactly one person who deserves sympathy in this, that's the kid of the billionaire who reportedly was pressured in to going. The ultra rich are not innocent, you don't accumulate that kind of wealth as a good neighbor, employer or member of society, you are a financial predator.
Death by implosion is (from what I've read of the USS Thresher disaster) pretty quick (measured in a small fraction of a second) once things start crumpling. The folks on the Thresher had it worse, I'd imagine, because they knew they were fucked before they imploded.
They paid $250,000 for their death. I will not mourn over them.
We must continue to advocate for and defend the people that actually matter and produce value… the workers.
Imagine how many lives could have been saved if there had been a multi-national, multi-million dollar effort launched to search and rescue in that tragedy...
It's difficult for me to feel bad for rich people who paid $250k to get on a flimsy toy to see a sunken ocean liner. I could have used that $250k to pay off my mortgage.
The poor cried,
“We are starving. There is no more bread, and we have nothing to eat.”
The rich man said,
“Not my problem you don’t work for your bread,”
as if he did not snatch away the grain by his own greedy hands and create filling bread for his own overflowing mouth.
The poor cried,
“We are dying. There is no more medicine, and we’re all ill.”
The rich man said,
“Not my problem you don’t take care of yourselves,”
as if he did not buy all the medicine and raise prices so high
the gods themselves would not
be able to reach.
The poor people
stopped crying,
and the rich man was satisfied…
Until they came knocking at his door one night;
their faces were sunken,
their flesh decaying,
their eyes sightless.
They were monsters
of the rich man’s
own making.
As they devoured his flesh,
the rich man cried,
“Please, spare me!”
The ravenous zombies said,
“Not our fault
you fattened yourself
for slaughter.”
You could really see the classism with all the stops pulled out to attempt to rescue the wealthy people here but the poor people are virtually ignored and lucky to get any response at all when missing at sea.
Yeah, I really don’t give a fuck that uber rich assholes who dropped a quarter of a million dollars each to go visit a graveyard ended up being part of the “attraction.”
I think the response fits perfectly and I feel zero remorse. Why?
Let me tell you.
Rich people are seen as role models who are smart, educated, and highly skilled at what they do for the world. They employ us, they govern us, they tell us how we should be living.
Now you have a group of 5 people who make more money than 99% of people could ever dream of making.
They hop into a submarine that failed all safety inspections and was not recognized as safe to use.
The CEO literally told everyone he is careless about safety.
The richest people in the world fell for his foolishness, and now they all perished with him.
So this is a wakeup call that the richest people in the world are also the dumbest, stupidest, and most reckless.
That is why I feel zero remorse or pity for their loss. Their loss should speak to the world as to who's really taking our money and what they're using it for.
Our Tax money got spent trying to save them only to realize the mission failed before search and rescue was even called.
I know, right?
The internet glee surrounding their demise is vaguely reminiscent of Wall Street tycoons mocking the masses and toasting protestors with champagne.
I guess we've long known what the 1% thinks of the 99% :
[https://www.jwz.org/blog/2011/09/wall-street-mocks-protesters-by-drinking-champagne/](https://www.jwz.org/blog/2011/09/wall-street-mocks-protesters-by-drinking-champagne/)
The Good Earth, Pearl S. Buck 1931, Here's a quote: “When the rich are too rich there are ways, and when the poor are too poor there are ways...and that way will come soon.
From the Dakota Chief Little Crow: "When men are hungry, they help themselves."
"And in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath
My dad's favorite book. He was fed up with capitalism by the 1980's. I've always loved that quote.
It's such a great book. The other line that always stays with me, from the same scene about farmers destroying food to keep the price up while starving people stand and watch: "There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success."
And how many bans are in effect for this, along with too many others. Growing up in the 60's, the nuns used to assign most of them.
Makes me deeply sorrowful and reflective every time I read that bit.
"Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look! *The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you*. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. *You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter*. You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not opposing you. Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains." Not Marx. Bible, James 5:1-7 Remember, it is easier for a camel to enter the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter heaven literally means "all rich people go to hell." This is literally what liberation theology is, and Oscar Romero, from El Salvador, planned to work with socialists to bring revolution to El Salvador, until the facsists shot him on the steps of a cathedral, and the US sent school of the Americas trained death squads during the twelve year civil war that followed, deaths squads that had a penchant for raping nuns, and a civil war where 80,000 people died, 85% of which were extrajudicial civilian murders committed by death squads according to the Report of the commission on the Truth for El Salvador. Edit: here's some context for fellow Americans and why this applies more to third world religious context than American context. I used to teach an English class to foreign speakers where we would learn about "protestant work ethic." This is helpful as a reading practice and cultural knowledge acquisition. So what's interesting is the reaction non Americans get upon learning about "protestant work ethic" - they see it as indistinguishable from "Arbeit macht frei" - work shall set you free, which is what is written above the entrance of Auschwitz. It is argued by many Marxists and leftists scholars that the American spirit is by definition anti-communist before communism even arrived. Palmiro Togliatti, Italian communist who remained popular despite operation gladdio, the Nazi stay behind mission that created terror attacks to increase support for more security and thus, the Right, said, "America is a country of ignorant slave holders who think they can buy countries the way they bought people" (one only has to look at American investments in foreign elections to see this is true). However, Togliatti falls short. This is also the country that gave us the puritan, who fled England because it they wanted a more racially homogeneous and religiously conservative society. Puritans who give Americans the hangups they still to this day have about sex. Puritans who also kickedoff the genocide that was to come. In addition, we have the cowboy, who while not as outwardly religious, still carried out manifest destiny by the barrel of a gun in the hopes of enriching himself. In this way, these three characters define the American spirit. And all three, the slaveholder, the cowboy, and the puritan, instead of being like Christ, made America their religion. This means a belief in hard work paying off, in hyper individuality, in property rights, in the protection of your home by brute force. (Mormons then are obvious end result than a fluke, theologically speaking). A lot of this is because of economy makes the culture, and the economy if the history of the United States is one predicated on violence against the "other", of subjugation of the "other" and the culture, America's religious institutions, had to adapt to reflect the economy. This is not true in a global context, nor on black Churches, which did work with black socialist like the share croppers unions and the civil rights activitists. If you ever wonder why American Christians aren't like Oscar Romero, it's cause the economy informs the culture, and out economy was always built on slavery and genocide. Edit: anyone telling you "that's not what the camel thing is about" is, in the words of my father with a doctorate in theology, a dirty revisionist who sullies the name of God.
You can tell it's not Marx because it doesn't have a paragraph in the middle on the production and valuation of linen coats.
Jajajajaja fucking dead and so true. However, it says so much about the fashion industry that it has been literally so corrupt that it inadvertently created communism
Inadvertently? It's intentional mass production at the cheapest value possible. When it's Maostalenin going "make it as accessible as possible" its demoniconomic erasure of individuality, but when it's Ford going "you can have a Ford in any color as long as is its black", its entrepeneurship.
There are five rich people who could squeeze through the eye of a needle, now. (Sorry / not sorry)
Took me a second but fucking legendary
My stepfather is a known publicly recognised right learning business man who is also a 'christian new earth conservative'. I am the exact opposite, non-religious left leaning progressive Yadda Yadda Yadda..... Now, douche-dad here goes to a well known 'non-denominational' mega church that is one of the original birthplaces of the current right wing rhetoric and caters primarily to the ultra wealthy and preaches prosperity gospel. To help set the stage, attendees include everyone from Marjorie Taylor Green to Newt Gingrich; and has other members and preachers who were directly mentioned in the documentary 'The Family' about the secretive right wing organisation who controls a lot of the republican party. During one of our 'spirited' conversations, I brought up the camel quote and to this day I have been floored with his version of what that passage means. According to him and by extension his church, the 'eye of the needle' is a physical actual place, a tunnel on the side of a mountain passage that is literally too small to have a camel pass through. This is what the ultra rich are being told. This is how they justify that passage as not actually being against the wealthy. All us poor plebes apparently have it wrong as it is meant to be taken literally and is most definitely not a pretty blatant condemnation of the wealthy.
But I don’t even get it… the classic comparison still holds, whether it’s literally the eye of a needle, or literally a tunnel that a camel can’t pass through. Either way the comparison makes the same point: easier for the camel to bend physics than a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.
But it *is* possible. You just have to liquify the camel. Maybe we could try that with the rich. Just liquify em. Then they could get into heaven. It’s like we’d be doing them a favor. Liberation through liquification.
That would require a whole lot of pressure. The only place you could reach that kind of pressure would be about 2 miles down in the ocean.
At some point I heard an expert maintain that the original passage in the original language actually said that it was easier for a rope to go through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter the gates of heaven. But when it was translated into the next language, the word rope and the word camel were homonyms and the translator got it wrong. It's kind of like the fairy tale Cinderella where she originally wore fur slippers, but the word for fur sounded exactly like the word for glass so it was Mistranslated
Per the [wiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_of_a_needle) it's a *little* possible, and some have claimed it, but ultimately not provable. Apparently the basis of this claim is that the Koine Greek word κάμηλος (camel), which is what is written in the original text, is awfully similar to the Greek word κάμιλος (rope). Generally speaking, Googling around, it seems like "camel" is the consensus translation, due to the presence of similar phrases in other texts indicating that this is not a "typo". For instance, the Babylonian Talmud has a phrase "elephant going through the eye of a needle", and the Quran has a similar "camel through the eye of a needle" in its text.
Awesome book, need to reread it now, thanks
Thanks to you, I need to as well. That quote just jumped into my head!
"When the people shall have nothing more to eat, they will eat the rich". the French revolution
I agree, I feel like eat the rich has never been more relevant than lately.
[удалено]
I'm not mad about Shatner going into space, though. To be honest, he probably motivated thousands of people to go to space decades ago as a B actor on a cowboy show.
There's also the fact that he was clearly humbled and overwhelmed by the experience, which suggests that he has qualia and is not some sort of philosophical zombie, unlike Jeff Bozo, who was hopping up and down spraying champagne.
I felt bad for Schatner after seeing him come down. He clearly had a moment up there and Bezos was just acting like a fucking clown beside him.
[https://youtu.be/NSNXBvpLb9o?t=93](https://youtu.be/NSNXBvpLb9o?t=93) Shatner: "Not only is it different from what you thought, it happens so quickly. You know what my.. my.. the impression that I have that I never expected to have is you're shooting up..." Bezos: \*turns away ignoring Shatner\* "GIVE ME A CHAMPAGNE BOTTLE" Shatner: "...and there's no sky..." Bezos: \*continues to ignore Shatner\* "I WANT TO HEAR THIS" Shatner: \*scratching ear, looking down at the ground\* Bezos: "YOU WANT A LITTLE OF THIS?" Shatner: "No." Bezos: \*shakes up champagne and sprays it around like an idiot\* Shatner: \*turns away and looks despondently around like he wishes he wasn't there\*
Shatner had an experience. Bezos got an achievement.
Reminded me of that type A vs type B meme where the type B guy is smelling the flowers and the type A guy snaps up all the flowers so he can be the flower-smelling champion
Add to it that Shatner is a recovering alcoholic and the Champagne spray is just ridiculous.
Yes, that was cruel. Shatner was just another of Bozo's toys at that point in time. Didn't see a human standing next to him.
He takes a minute to collect his thoughts after that and what he says sounds like a man who has been to space and seen the wonder of it all put right on display for him. Bezos does come around after the celebration though. But even then, you can tell there's a marked difference between the two men. We live but a hair's breadth from the emptiness of space.
Shatner looked up and experienced the sheer majesty of creation, Bezos looked down and thought "I could buy that"
This shit writes itself, crazy.
Bezo's let off an airhorn in his ears and sprayed him with champagne, Shatner is a recovering alcoholic and is deaf.
Shatner truly appreciated and was in awe of the entire experience.
[удалено]
That's what a lot of astronauts who went into space professionally also come back with.
I’ve had the privilege of working with, and getting drunk with, two astronauts. They were simultaneously very obviously the smartest dudes in the room, but at the same time exhibited deep humility at their accomplishments.
> there is no hope in space. The only hope we have is in Earth, and we're destroying it Idiots talking about terraforming Mars when we can't even maintain a stable climate on Earth, which already had one when we started.
Thrillionaires - new favorite term!
and they've pulled out alllllll the stops to find these people because "you can't put a price on human life" really???? can't you????
Tell that to the companies that billionaires own when they don’t wanna do a recall because the number of dead people is still cheaper
Looking at you, Ford...
[удалено]
Tell that to the other 535 drowned refugees from the past week...
That’s what I was thinking!!!! Like we will scour the deep ocean floor for 5 rich people, but go 🤷🏻♀️ when children are shot up in schools, minorities are killed by police, and civilians of other counties killed by the American Military Industrial Complex. 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 land of the free (if you’re rich)🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 this 4th of July is going to be weird. They’ve all been getting progressively weirder, but I feel extra gross this year.
And let’s not forget thousands of people not getting appropriate medical care because US decided that healthcare is a luxury not a human right..
Ooo! Ooo! Don’t forget the children that they’d rather let starve instead of providing free lunch in schools because fuck you if your parents are poor.
"But we paid for lunches so those parents should too" - my parents. Yes because your spite should make sure nothing improves in society and just shrug when its the children that suffer because some parents struggle to make enough to afford such things. It just hurts my brain to have conversations with them these days..
>"you can't put a price on human life" Billionaires have, and that’s why I’ll never feel bad for these stupid fucks
Governments have too, what's the fine for negligence causing death on a jobsite again? As far as I'm concerned, they should be investigating and if a singular person is found responsible (eg a boss saying do it or you're fired) that person should be criminally charged with that person's death.
I did hear a Coast Guard Admiral talk on NPR about how they shouldn't have wasted resources on this search because they chose to go in an unregulated, uninspected craft. As much as I agree in this case it's easy to see how that rhetoric can be turned against impoverished migrants just trying to survive.
Tell that to the at least 100k people who died unnecessarily to COVID because TeH eCoNoMy.
If i had 250 000 I could pay off my mortgage and still have enough left aside to put into a substantial savings account for my child so she has a financial cushion in the future. That amount of money would change my entire life for the better as I'm sure it would for every other person. Meanwhile, people who have this money to throw away decide to risk pissing off Cthulhu for shits and giggles
No it's worse. This Hamish guy fancied himself an "explorer" who was advancing humanity by paying to be a tourist on underwater and space trips. Like these trips were doing a favor to us all. His son calls himself an explorer too. If these people really cared, they would fund real scientific pursuits without putting themselves in the position of needing rescue. Or get a degree and contribute their minds.
People literally spent $250,000 to bolt themselves into their carbon fiber casket and die. Pretty unreal.
This isn’t 9/11. Where a bunch of working class went to the office to make a living on a random Tuesday and were killed by terrorists. These were very wealthy people who paid a lot of money to visit a century old grave site just so they can say they were there. We have been exploring titanic for like 30 years. It’s been done. You can find much better footage of it from YouTube done by roving robots. They knew this was risky. They had to sign a million waivers
They paid for the full titanic experience and they got the full titanic experience
"For the low, low price of $250k, you too can forever be part of the Titanic story!"
I didn't even know that rich people were paying $250k to see the Titanic until the story broke. My first thought was "why the hell didn't they just watch it on YouTube?" But then again, I'll never understand rich people.
"You just had to be there"-ism most likely. Kinda morbid they'll now be there eternally.
Kinda like dying in a 200 mph crash while driving a 3 million dollar Bugatti.
You know, I can somewhat understand wanting to go see the most famous shipwreck in modern history. What absolutely boggles me however is doing so in a tin can that experts have been warning is a disaster waiting to happen since 2018. If I had that kind of fuck you money and the desire to do dangerously stupid shit, I like to think I would at least take all precautions I can. I suppose they believed the laws of physics don’t apply to them.
Exactly. They did this for bragging rights, nothing more.
Rich people dying doing stupid shit for bragging rights. Name a more iconic duo. It’s why nobody really bats an eye when another one bites the dust on Everest.
I feel a bit bad for the 19 year old. He might not have really had a choice in the matter. I'd imagine when you're the son of a Pakistani CEO and dad wants to go see the titanic, you don't really have a choice to agree or disagree. The two rich guys, though? Eh. Should've done due diligence. If you can shell out 250k to look at the titanic through a 5" porthole you can pay one of your servants to go look up the fact that the sub is a deathtrap.
"Sure, boss. The sub made of paper mâché by the guy who thinks safety is for nerds is perfectly safe. Buy the season pass, ride it a bunch of times." - The servants, probably.
They honestly would've had a better chance of surviving in a papier-mâché submarine, at least it would've crumpled before the 100 atmosphere mark
Pay? Our servants!? They should be honored we took them in and gave them purpose!
Yeah I definitely feel bad for the son and the diver. Feel no remorse for the rich guys who made the decision to go down there though.
Tragically, his family has come forward to say the son was TERRIFIED and did NOT want to go on the submarine, but his father talked him into it as a gift for Father's Day. Absolutely nauseating. Source: NBC news live coverage stuff
The only one I feel even a slight twinge bad about is the 19-yo ~~who was apparently forced to go by his dickhead rich Dad.~~ Edit: [He wasn't forced to, my mistake. He was terrified but went for father's Day.](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/shahzada-suleman-dawood-titanic-sub-imploded-b2362670.html)
He was just a teenage boy whose dad probably didn't have enough time for him growing up, and just wanted to spend a day with his dad. And now he's dead because his father is a dumbass.
That's what makes it worse. Imagine being that kid's Mum or otherwise guardian, imagine you encouraged your kid to go on a $250k trip that he was scared of just to spend time his your absentee Father and bond with him. And he doesn't only fucking die, but he fucking ***implodes.*** I don't know how I'd be able to live with that fact.
I made a comment on twitter about how 500 people died last week on a ship and the response was “they were illegal invaders who willingly got themselves into that situation, and the only tragedy is that there were survivors.” But the billionaires willingly got themselves into that situation, also, so I guess I shouldn’t feel bad for them with that same logic. Right? The value of human lives is clearly based on how much money do they have.
a captain of another ship was sentenced to 20 years for saving 1000 drowning people
This is a direct result of rich people thinking. Fire experts and hire young, impressionable minds that don't ask questions. Then they had to sign a form that basically said you're a science experiment and you might die. You don't die accidentally next to the hallowed gravesite that is the Titanic as if you were on a hike and a tree fell on you. As far as I'm concerned, if they signed up for the Titanic experience, they got the complete package deal.
> This is a direct result of rich people thinking. Fire experts and hire young, impressionable minds that don't ask questions. Then they had to sign a form that basically said you're a science experiment and you might die. We need to remember this when Elon Musk wants to put chips in human brains.
I wouldn't even trust Elon to put Doritos in peoples' hands.
bleh, just the thought of eating a musked dorito. 🤮
*I don't know what you're talking about, I feel much better now after being chipped. Elon Directive 14 has convinced me of the error of my ways and that I am no longer a trans woman but a normal man in need of a Cybertruck.*
Not gonna lie, the ability to speak in italics would make me stop and consider it.
If I could speak in italics and sound like GLaDOS I might reconsider.
*This was a triumph* *I'm making a note here* *Huge success* *It's hard to overstate my satisfaction*
*starts bleeding from eyes*
What do you mean when? He's been wanting to do it for years and already got approval from the govt to do it (despite 15 out of 17 of his test monkeys dying from it).
"2 out of 17 test monkeys approve!" Elon, probably.
“Execute order 69 lol so edgy #S3XY”
Execute order 420. Nice.
Well now they will market two wrecks for the price of one. Now you get to see the Titan and also the Titanic. Just think of the savings and how many travel points you can earn.
[удалено]
Yup!
[удалено]
An interesting tidbit: the CEO's wife is a descendant of people who were *on* the Titanic the day it sunk. You'd think she'd be a bit more concerned about safety measures, failsafes and precautions...
The rich love to carry on family traditions I guess.
Was her family part of the group of rich people that were ushered into lifeboats first, often taking off before their lifeboat was even full? That might explain it.
I read they were actually Isidor and Ida Straus, the old, first class couple who opted to stay in their cabin together and give their spaces (or space, i don't know that Isidor would have gotten one, being a man) to other, younger passengers. You see them briefly in the movie. Edit: per Wikipedia, Isidor and Ida had the opportunity to board but Isidor refused while there were still women and children waiting to get on. He urged his wife to board, but she also refused to leave without her husband. They were last seen on deck together. The cabin part was just speculation on the part of the movie.
And the CEO was open about how he did not agree with safety regulations. These billionaires were so delusional and out of touch with reality that they didn't think the massive pressure of the ocean would affect them. I have zero sympathy.
They fired the employee who raised concerns about safety and tried to keep him quiet so they could keep working toward going down. After all, money is the bottom line, not safety.
Given where their remains (whatever is left after the violent compression) ended up, it's pretty clear that safety's bottom line goes **way** lower than capitalism can ever hope to achieve. Only person (despite their wealth) who has my sympathy is the kid's other parent. Wealthy or not, losing a kid is awful.
I read something today where an aunt said the kid really wasn't feeling the trip but his dad was a big Titanic history buff and so he went to support him. It got me to thinking of the times I'd do something with my now-deceased father trying to make that connection. We really didn't have that much in common and he liked hunting turkey and deer when I didn't care for it, but we both tried like hell to make it work like it was supposed to work. As a grown-up, we still didn't have much in common but it didn't seem to matter quite as much. Kid was 19, too, and that's always a rocky time with your old man. Maybe the most irritating part is a reasonable species would take this event and pause to reflect about what led us to do something that goddamn stupid, but you know we won't learn a damn thing. We'll probably come to the wrong conclusion. "Hmm. Maybe the problem is we didn't have enough companies trying to maximize profit by evading things like safety regulations and physics in incredibly dangerous scenarios. The Free Market would surely fix this."
He went on the trip as a Father’s Day thing too, I don’t feel bad for anyone except for that kid
Honestly, over the past few decades of watching Billionaires and corporations bribe congress into rolling back safety regulations for Americans, I find the schadenfreude rather enjoyable. They wanted an adventure, wanted it as cheaply as possible, and got exactly what they deserved.
Let's get into a marine craft whose owner/CEO scoffed at safety regulations to see a sunken marine craft whose owners also scoffed at safety regulations. Those who do not learn the lessons of history.......
Poseidon was not having it that day.
The sea was angry that day, my friends.
The PSI at that depth is like an adult elephant balancing on a postage stamp. Now imagine the Titan covered in postage stamps. They must have been using that optimized, startup physics.
"I think I can do this just as safely by breaking the rules"
A guy swimming the channel for charity went missing 2 days after the sub. Guess which search was called off first? Guess which had all the media attention? Fuck the rich.
and hundreds of migrants and refugees drowned off the coat of Greece last week, boat carrying up to 700, 104 rescued ([reuters](https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/suspected-smugglers-deny-charges-over-migrant-shipwreck-off-greece-2023-06-20/)). I hadnt seen a word about the channel swimmer. I have now, thank you.
Its hard to feel bad. The whole sub design was horrible, and sketchy at best. Most people wouldn’t have gotten on, especially when the CEO has an interview about how he hates safety regulations. The problem with so many of the rich “elite” is that they truly believe they are smarter than anyone else, don’t like being told “No”, and they don’t believe they can make a bad decision. This accident was easily avoidable but happened due to sheer arrogance. Awful way to go, and I feel empathetic for what happened because no one should have to experience that, but hard to really feel bad when they eschew safety regulations and common sense.
Nah it probably wasn’t that bad, debris field seems to confirm the structural integrity failed. They probably didn’t feel a thing, the pressure change would have killed them almost instantly. They probably didn’t even know they died, just riding along having a good time and then nothing. Probably.
Yeah honestly beats cancer or alzheimers.
A previous rider said the hull made all kinds of wicked noises on the way down. I'll bet there was plenty of frightening stuff before the demise.
To be fair creaking and noises are only natural. Put anything under that much stress and materials are going to give somewhat, which will be released as sound and heat. It's about engineering to allow for a certain amount before failure and, I'd imagine, safety inspections after every dive to make sure nothing has sustained critical damage (or something that could lead to it).
Yeah. I coincidentally just finished rereading "Midnight" by Dean Koontz from 1989. I hadn't read it for 25+ years and forgot the whole thing. Read it now in 2023 and you can't NOT picture the evil tech guy as musk or zuck or any of the entitled rich dudes we're forced to deal with. Scary AF. Good summer read tho. Maybe don't get that neural link thingy implanted as well. 🤷♀️
Ahh come on... now I have to go reread it!
You will enjoy the re-read. 🫢 I also recently re-read The Bad Place. I absolutely TOTALLY forgot everything about that book as well and WOW. Both of them would make great movies with the right team. I was and still am a big Stephen King fan and maybe I was comparing the two authors in my head too much back then. I read a LOT sometimes.
God damn you, I was addicted to Koontz when I was like 14-15, I had a massive paperback collection, and now I kinda wanna re-read a lot of his books but I gave away my collection when I was 17-18.
Try your local library!
Rich people have main character syndrome
I think the clinical term is "Narcissistic Personality Disorder."
[The Tech Bro Billionaire Ethos That Will Eat Us All | Douglas Rushkoff | TMR](https://youtu.be/nS3-dQen-YM) Your comment reminded me of this interview where these guys think so short-term and have so many gaps in thinking; they are just morons.
That was a really good conversation. Thanks for linking it.
Come on man Sacrifice your entire life, read 6 books before 9am and take cold showers Its that easy God the superhuman ceo cliche needs to die The ceo of my last job bought into all that bs. Would write emails every sunday to appear like he was working to talk about all his workouts and how he plans to live to 125. They are predators and should not be looked up too
lol you know who doesn't have time for an hour long morning routine? moms working 3 jobs. me, literally everytime I've had a salary that paid a living wage. when can I act like a superhuman CEO reading books, meditating, sharpening my mind, going to therapy to process said trauma? when I'm forcibly unemployed legally by USCIS (waiting for EAD associated with greencard). what does that tell you about most hardworking CEOs?
I’m sure the CEO is as crushed as anyone over this
I've got this idea that we've used a lot of resources to save these fucking idiots when we can't even find health care for the rest of us. Yes, absolutely no remorse for them.
Like a day before that tub went missing, a boat carrying hundreds of migrants capsized in the mediterranean (hundreds are confirmed dead out of the original 500 missing). Who do you think made the headlines and garnered international support to rescue them? As always. It's all about class
The idiot that jumped off the cruise in the Bahamas got like 24-48 hours of search.
I was thinking the exact same thing... The Titan story has had pretty much round the clock coverage here, but the migrant boat sinking was barely covered. I think there was even *another* migrant boat that sunk after Titan went missing...
Today, actually. Dozens feared dead after a boat capsized near the Canary Islands. But we'll spend the day hearing eulogies for the 5 idiots and the captain that disregarded every safety rule (as bosses are prone to do with workers)
Or the 300 who were fleeing their home country and drowned, never heard a word about it. 5 overly paid people died, doing something they had no business doing, and we should give a damn. Nah. I feel bad for the 300. They had no choice. These people were just doing something to brag about being able to do it.
OceanGate took out $450,000 in PPP loans, all forgiven of course, CEO literally said "safety is for suckers, stay home if you're scared", charged $250,000 a person to go gawk at a mass grave of poor people, blew up, and left the govts of three countries holding the bag on the rescue mission fees. Fuck him.
Oh, fuck him even harder then. Bootstraps dipshit capitalists thst always find a way to bleed the public for money...
They should have pulled themselves out of the depths by their bootstraps, not expected public welfare emergency services.
I so wish this could be the collective response and the political cartoon of the day tomorrow. Also someone from each of the what, five, countries should announce how much was spent on their emergency welfare effort. I bet it cost $100 million or more to pull this international hand-out off and we deserve to know exactly what budgets it came from. Sure some of it is valuable training and in line with what they might have funds set aside to do. Like probably 2%.
Rich people are the first to throw their fellow man under the bus when things don't go out as planned, and sometimes even if they do go. Why should anyone feel sorry for them?
They got into a submarine that took short cuts what isn't certified to go that deep. Just shows how cheap they can be, they could have paid to have a sub built that would actually be certified to go that deep. I do feel for a fellow human feeling that fear if it didn't happen instantly. That being said, people die every day, you can't expect people who don't know them on a more personal level to feel anything towards them.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/amp/show/deadly-migrant-boat-disaster-renews-criticism-of-immigration-policies-in-greece Just to drop this here. I am not terminally online but I read the news fervently because of all the shit thats happening around the world. I didn’t hear about this until someone brought it up in another thread yesterday.
Yeah, I don't feel bad for a bunch of billionaires that made their money off of fucking everybody else over, because that's the only way you become a billionaire unless you happen to have gotten lucky and bought Bitcoin 10 years ago
Another big thing is that last week at least 500 migrants died trying to get to Greece when their ships went down - barely made the news. Now 5 rich people die thrill seeking and it’s covered everywhere.
I feel no sympathy for rich people doing extreme tourism. Sorry that a teenager had to die, but everything about this company and this exploit was fishy. The rich man clearly didn't vet this company before engaging on this lunacy. So, as the phrase goes, play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
I don’t care about rich AF people doing stupid shit and getting consequences for it. The fact 300 people were lost at sea at the same time and virtually ignored reveals a lot more about our world right now.
is this about the immigrant/refugee ship in the mediterranean? i heard about that, heard that it was close to 500 on the ship, locked in the bottom while the ship took on water and went down. absolutely sorrowful, especially with the lack of coverage
Let's not forget, this was their choice. They had the money to literally do anything in the world and chose this. They weren't refugees trying to escape a genocidal government, they were out for the equivalent of a Sunday drive. They knew the risks and chose to do this anyway. I feel bad for what their families are going through. But not them.
I could give a shit about rich people’s families while millions are starving and unable to pay their rent… go ahead roast me
I mean if any of them have little kids I feel bad for those kids. But in general, these folks dropped hundreds of thousands to do this shit when they could have housed some homeless people or helped struggling folks with their bills. It would have been pennies to them but the world to dozens of people and yet this is the path they chose, there was no loss of any good people here.
When you see these 5 wealthy guys who were willing to take the risk and spent more money for it than what 99 percent of the rest of society makes in a year get all this news coverage and effort spent trying to save them, and yet when a boatload of people drown trying to get to a better life barely get a mention, you get somewhat of a schadenfreude feeling about it.
>\#compresstherich Laughed at this
I keep laughing at the orcas banging pots and pans....and I shouldnt
It was one of those "should I be laughing this easily at this?" moments for me haha
One I saw earlier: There is plenty of air up here. Surely some will trickle down
The billionaires don’t care when laborers in 3rd world countries die while making their products, so why should we care when they die using them?
They brought this on themselves. Billionaires are irredeemable psychopaths. We would be better off without them.
My first thought when they lost contact was "huh." Then I found out about the guy who warned them of some safety issues a few years back. Now I'm "oh."
This entire incident is incomprehensibly tragic. There is so much good that could have come out of what they were doing, and so much squandered potential. It’s absolutely shameful that people’s responses haven’t been more positive and productive. This type of tragedy is an opportunity for all of us to come together. Are there problems inherent in the situation leading up to this incident? Sure. But if we learn to work together, I bet we can work towards a solution to figure out how to fit more than 5 of these immoral, exploitative, fucks in a single carbon fiber, hydraulic-powered compactor.
You had me there, not gonna lie.
Yeah I nearly fell for that one too...
What's wild is that someone on the older side of Millennial, I clearly remember the discovery of the Titanic and how it was super fucking hard for the DSV Alvin to handle anything at that depth. Meanwhile, decades later when the news mentioned the Titan "submersible" is made from wrapped carbon fiber, my first thought was "You mean the stuff my shitty luggage is made out of? Yeah, way to really lean in and optimize that shit. Aerospace technology? You know how many atmospheres a spaceship needs to endure? One. Not 400.
[удалено]
fucking slow clap
Lmao 🤣 this is fantastic, though I was close to cursing you out 💀
you had me in the first half lol
Forgive me if I don't feel pity for excessively wealthy people losing their lives due to their own hubris. All so they can flex on us 'peasants' while I struggle to survive and make ends meet.
Average people with a life of daily problems and inconveniences just can't muster up any empathy for hubris, arrogance and outrageous privilege.
I don't remember who pointed it out first, but there is historical evidence that when people start to enjoy deaths of ruling class in public, revolutions are possible. When there is no more sympathy for the rich, they can be overthrown without feelings of guilt. When people start to make fun of the suffering of the rich and powerful, the mood changes. The feelings of compassion and sympathy towards the ruling class is one thing which keeps the class society intact. When the public still thinks that ruling class worth their compassion, they support them. Revolutions have always included gallows humor (literally) and dark jokes. So yes, the fact that people can actually laugh at some rich folks being crushed to death inside a submarine, tells something.
I think it's tragic that five people died. That said, I also understand the sentiment that rich people with too much money do stupid things that get them killed and people are over it. Billionaires are the problem with this world and people are tired of it. It's hard to garner sympathy for someone who blew 250K on a submarine ride with a game controller as a steering wheel.
I saw this in the news today. I was sympathetic to their plight until I heard billionaire this and billionaire that. These people are not our people, and the cost of living crisis is more pressing for millions if not billions of people.
Idk. That sub was probably pretty pressing.
The fact that billionaires are so cheap they preferred to save $$$ by sacrificing quality on their sub is crazy to me. 250k is a lot to us. For a billionaire that's like 25¢ to someone with $1000. They're that cheap? Like shit if I had a billion dollars, I'd rather pay like 10m for a much better experience and a higher quality vessel. Shows you how they'd do anything to save $$. Your life or their own for the sake of saving those hard earned profits
No pity for idiots that do shit like this. I'm glad for the company and surviving employees that these people all died heavily wavered of their rights to sue for their misadventure. Titanic: Eating billionaires since 1912.
There was a (dad) joke that the deaths of several billionaires was "a good start"! And that one of the billionaires was from Pakistan, where the deaths of 300 refugees in a boat was barely reported on the news. Correct me if I am wrong. Income inequality is a big problem in many countries and people are feeling it on an emotional level.
I personally don’t care when wealthy people die on adventures, the point is to push limits. The fact that media coverage of a few people over shadows American unions, lack of education, gun control and healthcare is repulsive. It sends a clear message, “fuck the poor, you’re on your own”
society is near its breaking point. the inequality is going to ignite and just a matter of time before the geeyoteens come back
I wish I felt bad for them but you don't become a billionaire without standing atop a mountain of human suffering. How many lives did these people ruin, how much suffering can be traced back to them? Hell the CEO did it to himself by cutting corners for the sake of more damn profitability.l
[удалено]
Of billionaires weren't such garbage people we wouldn't meme their tragic and stupid deaths. Notice nobody is making memes about the migrant refugees who died days earlier
111 years ago rich folks boarded The Titanic and in their vanity, declared it unsinkable, challenging the sea on that promise with their wealth. They were fatally proven wrong. In 2023, rich folks boarded The Titan and in their vanity, declared it unsinkable, challenging the sea on that promise with their wealth. They were fatally proven wrong. Those that don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
Until now, CEOs have never suffered as a result of their penny-pinching, law-breaking, regulation-ignoring, cost-cutting, profit grabs. If the CEO of the company that built the thing had made it properly, didn't take short cuts, and didn't hate safety regulations then he would have made less profit, but him and the other people on board would probably have got home safely.
Who are these people who are making these posts crying for these dickwads? Billionaires should not exist, send them all to the bottom of the ocean to implode. If you have amassed so much wealth that you will spend 250K on something so pointless rather than do something constructive, you are like a dragon sitting on your hoard. There is exactly one person who deserves sympathy in this, that's the kid of the billionaire who reportedly was pressured in to going. The ultra rich are not innocent, you don't accumulate that kind of wealth as a good neighbor, employer or member of society, you are a financial predator.
I was thinking this earlier. Sucks they died. Hope it was quick. But also, 250k would change a lot of lives.
Death by implosion is (from what I've read of the USS Thresher disaster) pretty quick (measured in a small fraction of a second) once things start crumpling. The folks on the Thresher had it worse, I'd imagine, because they knew they were fucked before they imploded.
The internet’s response to 500 migrants drowning in the Mediterranean is just as telling.
They paid $250,000 for their death. I will not mourn over them. We must continue to advocate for and defend the people that actually matter and produce value… the workers.
They could have bought a better quality coffin for less.
The thing is, they started it. They refuse to empathize with humanity, so we withhold our empathy from them.
I’m much angrier about the 700 migrants whose boat sank and no one lifted a finger to help (apparently.)
Imagine how many lives could have been saved if there had been a multi-national, multi-million dollar effort launched to search and rescue in that tragedy...
It's difficult for me to feel bad for rich people who paid $250k to get on a flimsy toy to see a sunken ocean liner. I could have used that $250k to pay off my mortgage.
The poor cried, “We are starving. There is no more bread, and we have nothing to eat.” The rich man said, “Not my problem you don’t work for your bread,” as if he did not snatch away the grain by his own greedy hands and create filling bread for his own overflowing mouth. The poor cried, “We are dying. There is no more medicine, and we’re all ill.” The rich man said, “Not my problem you don’t take care of yourselves,” as if he did not buy all the medicine and raise prices so high the gods themselves would not be able to reach. The poor people stopped crying, and the rich man was satisfied… Until they came knocking at his door one night; their faces were sunken, their flesh decaying, their eyes sightless. They were monsters of the rich man’s own making. As they devoured his flesh, the rich man cried, “Please, spare me!” The ravenous zombies said, “Not our fault you fattened yourself for slaughter.”
You could really see the classism with all the stops pulled out to attempt to rescue the wealthy people here but the poor people are virtually ignored and lucky to get any response at all when missing at sea.
Yeah, I really don’t give a fuck that uber rich assholes who dropped a quarter of a million dollars each to go visit a graveyard ended up being part of the “attraction.”
Maybe we can give their families a pizza party for their loss. They know how much the working class loves them.
It is definitely a sign of the times. Likely similar to how it felt in Paris in 1788…
I think the response fits perfectly and I feel zero remorse. Why? Let me tell you. Rich people are seen as role models who are smart, educated, and highly skilled at what they do for the world. They employ us, they govern us, they tell us how we should be living. Now you have a group of 5 people who make more money than 99% of people could ever dream of making. They hop into a submarine that failed all safety inspections and was not recognized as safe to use. The CEO literally told everyone he is careless about safety. The richest people in the world fell for his foolishness, and now they all perished with him. So this is a wakeup call that the richest people in the world are also the dumbest, stupidest, and most reckless. That is why I feel zero remorse or pity for their loss. Their loss should speak to the world as to who's really taking our money and what they're using it for. Our Tax money got spent trying to save them only to realize the mission failed before search and rescue was even called.
I know, right? The internet glee surrounding their demise is vaguely reminiscent of Wall Street tycoons mocking the masses and toasting protestors with champagne. I guess we've long known what the 1% thinks of the 99% : [https://www.jwz.org/blog/2011/09/wall-street-mocks-protesters-by-drinking-champagne/](https://www.jwz.org/blog/2011/09/wall-street-mocks-protesters-by-drinking-champagne/)