Oh the Humanity

Some Lives Don’t Matter

I’ve experienced a real flurry of new subscriptions this last week or so. (I hope this doesn’t jinx it) So I’d like to welcome everyone new to Low Status Opinions.

To be honest I’m not sure where you all came from. I don’t push this Substack as much as maybe I should. And I tend not to even promote it on Twitter these days.- I find it a bit too shrill and unpleasant.

I can only guess that a lot of people have come from recommendations or sharing. So if you have recommended LSO to someone else then thank you so much. I’m very grateful for your support.

Thanks for coming everyone, let’s get on with it.

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The Hindenberg disaster happened on May 6 1937. The giant airship, pride of Hitler’s Germany crashed in New Jersey as it was approaching its mooring mast. 35 people died. 22 were crew while 13 were wealthy fee paying passengers. We are familiar with the crash today mainly through the newsreel footage which is usually paired with a contemporaneous radio report.

You can see a short version  of that combined newsreel here.

In the footage the Hindenberg, three times the length of a jumbo jet, is engulfed in flame, one moment an immense, truly awe inspiring, state of the art luxury air liner, the next, a crumpled inferno.

Over eighty five years later it is still moving to hear the genuine anguish in radio reporter Herbert Morrison’s voice, as he utters through his tears the famous words

‘Oh the humanity and all the passengers screaming around here’.

What he definitely doesn’t say is

‘So what?  They were a bunch of rich pricks who shouldn’t have been on a giant experimental Nazi gas bag in the first place. They deserved everything they got. So fuck em.’

But if the Hindenberg disaster had happened today. And Herbert Morrison had been a Guardian reading member of the international Twitter class. Then that’s pretty much what I would have expected.   

At least that’s the conclusion I came to after watching an internet full of ghouls genuinely celebrate the deaths of five real human beings in a submarine 13000 ft below the surface of the ocean.

I’m not talking about the gallows humour as the search for the Titan went on. I’m definitely not moaning about distasteful jokes. I’ve written enough of those myself in my time. No. I’m talking about the genuine delight some people seem to be taking in these tragic deaths.

According to some, the five people on the sub deserved to die. Because they were rich.

The victims of this tragedy don’t count. Because somehow their riches stripped them of their humanity, their right to sympathy. Their wealth an unassailable barrier, which our empathy must not be allowed to cross.

I’ve literally heard them called scum.

It’s not surprising that we mainly heard these unpleasant sentiments expressed by the ‘be kind’ crowd.

The same people who demand compassion for lipsticked rapists. Who recast enthusiastic Isil members as victims. And who are happy to excuse rioting, assault and arson when it is committed in the cause of ‘social justice’.

Though they preach compassion and kindness they increasingly seem to be driven by rage, hatred and envy.

Envy is an ugly, destructive emotion at the best of times. But in this case I genuinely don’t understand the jealousy.

How dare a billionaire and his teenage son die in an experimental submarine miles below the surface of the sea? My dad didn’t get to perish horribly in a sub on the ocean floor. It’s not fair.

Of course this whole soggy saga has become another battlefield in the culture war. With the other side blaming the sinking on Ocean Gate’s decision to diversify its team away from ‘50 year old white men’. Of course. Because clearly, if there’s one major threat facing a jury-rigged, ramshackle carbon fibre and titanium submarine at 13000 feet, it isn’t the 6000 pound per square-inch pressure. It’s women.

Personally I found Stockton Rush’s clear desire to inspire a whole new generation of explorers and oceanographers quite laudable.

It is also truly remarkable how this entire class of brilliantly self satisfied internet scolds has managed to pivot, from being pre-eminent armchair virologists, into world class oceanographers, in the blink of an eye.

I expect the nearest most of them have come to deep ocean exploration is sitting through Disney’s Little Mermaid remake. Yet that hasn’t stopped them setting themselves up as instant authorities on the construction, operation and safety requirements of a deep sea submersible.

In their instant-expert opinion the sub’s passengers deserved to perish because of their misplaced hubris. They dared embark on an adventure which was under regulated and dangerous.

Of course it was under regulated and dangerous.

It was a home made submarine diving two miles under the sea. Not a romp in a ball pit at a Harvester soft play area.

Well, they huff and puff, as they pontificate knowledglessly, studying with untrained eye the countless online info graphics laying out the obvious flaws in the blatantly idiotic submarine design. I certainly wouldn’t do it like that!

Of course you wouldn’t do it like that. You wouldn’t do it at all. Even if you had the money. You’re too risk averse, too simpering, too busy gloating on Twitter, over the deaths of people, to who you feel morally superior.

The fact that you’re finding real joy in the suffering of strangers, should perhaps be an indication, that maybe you’re not.

But maybe the wealth haters should be overjoyed, because inflation remains stubbornly high, finally wrecking the hopes of the rest of us of ever becoming billionaires. (Annoying. I was soooooo close.)

Who knew that printing £450 billion and destroying the economy during the lockdown fiasco would be inflationary?

Not Bank of England chief Andrew Bailey apparently.

This financial whiz kid is paid by you and me to do just one job. To keep inflation down below 2%. Last time I checked it was 8.7%.

Although the government prefers to use the figure for the ‘core’ inflation rate.

Of course they do.  It’s less.  Currently 6.5%. OK. Let’s go with that.

It’s not often that we can actually quantify how bad a government employee is at their job. Not definitively. Using maths. But for Andrew Bailey it’s easy.

He’s meant to keep inflation down to 2%. It’s currently 6.5%.

Which means he’s not only useless at his job. He’s useless by a factor of three.

But don’t blame Sir Andrew. (Well he’s not a ‘Sir’ Andrew quite yet. But I’m just trying to future proof this article, and as we all know Catastrophic Failure is always well rewarded. Shout out to Chris Whitty and Patrick Valance)

Because our soaring (always with the soaring) inflation is not really Sir Andrew Bailey’s fault.

It’s mine apparently.

I’m one of the 10 million people who just bought the video game Zelda Tears of the Kingdom. (10/10. And a big step up from its slightly unfocused predecessor. Recommended.).

According to experts the popularity of Nintendo’s excellent new game has caused a spike in demand, which is causing inflation. So if you can’t pay your mortgage this month. I’m to blame. Soz but I’ve got a Ganondorf to beat, and that’s more important.

But inflation is not just down to me of course. That would be silly.

According to Bailey I share responsibility for the lions share of inflation with everyone demanding pay increases. Those unreasonable money grabbers who have been asking their bosses for sufficient wages to feed their families, pay their gas bills, and service their mortgages. Selfish.

If somehow Andrew Bailey manages to get by on his meagre £600,000 a year wage. Why can’t you guys? Come on greedy guts. Be a team player.

When Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced immediate and significant relief for mortgage payers I thought he meant he was resigning. But no, he’s just asked the banks to look kindly on people struggling to pay their bills. Which is actually fair enough. Extending mortgage periods or letting people temporarily reduce their payments actually makes sense as a short term measure.

But you can already hear the clamour for a ‘furlough style’ intervention where the government steps in and pays everyone’s interest.

And why shouldn’t people expect it. Money is free right?

Gordon Brown magicked up the money to bail out the bankers in 2008.  Rishi Sunak magicked up the money to pay for lockdowns in 2020,  Liz Truss (Boo hiss!-Apart from this bit) magicked up the money to pay our gas bills in 2022. So why shouldn’t Jeremy Hunt magick up the money to pay our mortgages in 2023?

Makes sense right? Says Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey. (No, me neither) Forgetting that borrowing all this money from our great grandchildren is pretty much what got us into this unholy mess in the first place.

How can we expect to have a successful free market economy when the government’s answer to every crisis is socialism?

But it’s not all doom and gloom on the financial front.

In its gentle beneficence our government has paused its plan to ban Buy One Get One Free deals at your local supermarket, at least until 2025.

This was the government’s latest meddlesome and bone headed attempt to tackle the so called ‘obesity crisis’. Removing supermarkets’ ability to sell us cheap food.

Not any old cheap food of course. Mainly just the sort of food that the busy bodies don’t want us to eat.

Food which health experts describe as ‘ultra processed’

I’ve looked. And there is there is no agreed definition of what an ‘ultra processed food’ actually is. The term covers lots of stuff, breakfast cereals and sugary drinks can unsurprisingly be classed as ultra processed, but so can baby formula.

It’s genuinely confusing. So here’s a quick guide.

Essentially ‘ultra processed’ foods are the sort of foods that ‘poor people’ eat. Foods that middle class mums wouldn’t dream of putting in their kids’ sustainably sourced lunchboxes. Or alternatively, foods that ‘I don’t eat because I’m a vegan so you shouldn’t be allowed to eat them either’.  Or how about foods that Jamie Oliver thinks are low status.

As definitions they all work.

And maybe I’m going too deep down the rabbit hole. (Again. Sorry) But I can’t help hearing the similarity between ‘ultra processed’ and ‘ultra MAGA.’

You know, it’s ‘ultra MAGA’ food. Low information. Working class. Bordering on fascist. Unwelcome at dinner parties. Awful and distasteful. Deplorable even.

But sure, maybe that’s a stretch.

The drive to ‘encourage people to make healthy choices’ (aka pay more for food they actually like) knows no bounds. There are sugar taxes. Commitments to banning these BOGOF offers. There are even calls to stop cash strapped office workers nipping out to Boots at lunchtime for a Meal Deal.

But it’s a waste of time, sugar taxes don’t work. I thought I’d have a root around to find some maverick economist or social scientist who said so, but I didn’t have to. Google ‘sugar taxes don’t work’ and there are pages and pages of experts telling you why not. Here’s just one.

I don’t know why the Health Secretary can’t find this info. Maybe Steve Barclay uses Bing.

It would be unfair to condemn an entire government on the idiocy of just this one policy area.

But we won’t let that stop us.

This stupid government not only seems to think it should be telling us what we’re allowed to have for dinner, it genuinely seems to think that making people poorer comes with health benefits.

If that were true then Burundi would be one of the healthiest places on the planet.

I checked. And it isn’t

Of course as well as an old man’s love for Nintendo, and greedy workers’ desire to be fairly remunerated, the other cause of our sky rocketing inflation is Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

Who knows if he’s even still in power by the time you read this.

Because events are moving apace in Russia. And it’s difficult to know exactly what is going on.

Especially when trying to negotiate the minefield of lies we are constantly being told about this war.

I was talking about it with some friends recently, how it is impossible to get a sense of the conflict when you can’t believe a single news report.

I mean. I’m no conspiracy theorist, (because it turns out that half of them are actually true ) but it’s pretty clear that we are being fed a line on this conflict.

It seems Ukraine is always on the verge of winning. While Russian forces are always just hanging on, perpetually on the brink of collapse. And yet the conflict rumbles on. We get it, there’s a war, it’s propaganda. Fine.

We’ve all been here before. (Shout out to Tony and Alastair) Just don’t expect us to keep believing it.

My friends agreed that indeed, truth is the first casualty of war.

Then I mentioned the (Second) Worst Man in The World (Third if we’re still including Schofield), Donald Trump.

And how, when he was asked by an interviewer on CNN if he wanted Ukraine to win the war he obfuscated, claimed he didn’t think in terms of winners and losers (demonstrably not true, that’s literally all he thinks about), and then said what he wanted most, was for people to stop dying.

The CNN interviewer kept pressing him to get onside. To pump his fist for plucky Ukraine. Indefatigable in the face of Putin’s evil adventuring.

But Trump refused. Insisting that we should be prioritising ending the war and saving lives. Which of course he claimed he’d be able to do in just ‘24 hours’.

Then I said something that stopped my companions in their tracks.

I said I agreed with Trump. Stopping people dying should be the priority.

I had agreed with something Donald Trump had said about saving lives. And I suddenly felt like a monster.  And I’d clearly made the people around me feel awkward and uncomfortable.

Just to be clear. I fully support Ukraine’s right to be a free independent sovereign nation.

It actually seems pretty weird to me that many of the same people who hail Zelensky as a hero for wanting to preserve the integrity of his nation state, will dismiss us as gammon tainted xenophobes for wanting to preserve ours. But that’s not his fault.

If the Ukrainians want to fight on, to spill their blood to win back their own territory then so be it. We should help them if we can. There is only one villain here, Vladimir Putin. He is the aggressor and the sooner he is gone the better.

And of course British people who support the Ukrainian cause are overwhelmingly acting in good faith. I am in no way questioning their motivations.

But all those caveats aside, I still feel a bit uncomfortable that we in the West are being encouraged to stand on the sidelines, and cheer on the deaths of other people’s children in this ‘just’ war.

I worry that perhaps we have fallen for it again, and become too gung ho, too ready to sacrifice other peoples lives, for a cause which, to many of us, means little more than a flag in an Instagram bio.

Three years ago we entered a strange period in our culture when it became the height of offence to suggest that all lives matter.

Perhaps the continuing, bloody, Ukraine war, and the response to the tragic events in the Atlantic, suggest that all our lives are diminished, when they don’t.

Thank you for reading this article. I really appreciate your time.

If you liked it then perhaps you could share it, or maybe subscribe. It really does help me out. And it’s free. And I won’t spam your inbox with posts.

As ever I’ll try to reply to all good faith comments in kind.

There are an awful lot of links in this post. Sorry. But I generally like to back everything up with a source where possible.

But here’s another one. I read a lot of very good articles about the dehumanising of the Titan crew this week. Brendan O’Neil is typically very good on the Spectator. But perhaps the best I have read is from Mike Solana over at Pirate Wires. You can find his article here.

Thanks again. See you next time.