What’s your most controversial opinion? **Read OP** **Mod Note in Post #3372**

If only the Hammas attack last year would have led to a victory over the Israeli army, I'm sure Hammas thought they could have pulled it off.

Of course there was previous, if a stray firework went into Israel there would have been an over reaction. As far as I'm concerned the civilian deaths since then are considered an acceptable risk by Hammas and the various cave men that provide them support.

None of the children murdered by Israel voted for anyone.

I think it's the obvious importance that's put on a tragedy when the person is extraordinarily wealthy. Like its noteworthy because they were wealthy and wouldn't be noteworthy if they weren't wealthy I.E. we wouldn't run this story if you drowned, dear reader, but you should care when the wealthy bloke drowns.

There's also a schadenfreude built into the story because he was only on his yacht because he's so wealthy, and it was on his yacht that he died. Of course, a normal person could have died in the sea on their normal person holiday to Spain, but then we just wouldn't hear about it. Irish news certainly wouldn't cover a normal English bloke who drowned on holiday and certainly wouldn't be talking about it a week later.

So, I think it's all part of the story as it's being presented. It's designed to inform and infuriate at the same time. Not the fault of the people who died. They didn't write the headlines.

If people in the marine industry are interested then I'd expect it to be a big feature in the marine industry newsletters and journals. Not the mainstream media.

A quick Google suggests about 600 Brits go missing abroad each year. I can think of 3 this year. 1 famous and beloved tv presenter, one young lad who was portrayed as a thug who maybe deserved it, and a billionaire. There has to be an angle for it to be news, simply going missing or dieing isn't enough. So the schadenfreude is built into the story to help it sell. If every brit who went missing was worth a week's coverage in Irish news, there would be about 12 'Brit missing on holiday' stories in the news every day of the year.

I haven't followed the day-by-day updated to the story at all. I read a summary of the guy and what happened at the I figured I'll just read a smmary when they actually know what happened in a couple of weeks.

I didn't ask for a maritime industry journal. I presume the story would feature there, that's appropriate.

I pointed out the discrepancy between the coverage of the 600 British tourists who go missing each year and this guy. You didn't comment on that.

Go figure that out for yourself captain obvious.

There are always virtue signalling idiots who come out with "but 10 people drowned today crossing the channel, why aren't they getting the same coverage"

They forget that

A something that happens every few days isn't that big a news story irrespective of how tragic it is

B those people are just average joes who's done nothing particularly noteworthy so nobody outside of their friends and family care if they die (same would apply to me should I die)

The inverse snobbery around this Mike Lynch sinking and previously the Oceangate disaster which is mainly being pushed by lefties on the internet shows you that the politics of envy is what drives the modern left wing and the desire the knock people down a peg or two rather than actually any desire to uplift the working classes.

….

I wouldn't be against introducing massive penalties for phone use in cars.

I drive a bit and every 2nd car is now texting or viewing their phones. It will only get worse and I have no doubt it is the main reason road deaths have spiked.

Give people 6 points + or land them with hefty fines north of €500.

That'd put manners on people.

In much the same way I'd have my guard up in cities with a reputation for pick-pocketing, or I'd be wary engaging with tracksuited youths in Dublin at night these days, I also get a sense of worry when I see an arab/muslim looking person in the middle of a Western styled gathering. Or on a busy train or whatever.

Can't help it if I automatically stereotype. I'm sure a lot of it went on when an Irish accent was picked up in the UK in the 70s/80s, but at least that was politically motivated, not ideological backwardness.