World News

That's fair as far as it goes, but there are analogous behaviors on the US side of things as well. This is just another instance in which the US government has gone to incredible lengths to rescue tourists who got in over their heads (Wendover Productions touched on this in recent video about the National Park System, if you're interested) at the same time that Border Patrol and local vigilantes have been recorded sabotaging water caches left as life-saving measures for migrants crossing arid parts of the southern border. That's a pretty clear indication of which sorts of lives our society thinks matter, and just as in the Mediterranean it more or less comes down to "which ones look and talk like I do?" rather than "which ones are most deserving of the limited resources available to help them?"

I don’t think it’s all that illuminating in any global way, except it shows the priorities in one of those places aren’t great.

but that unto itself is kind of important, is it not? these are social tragedies which do not need to happen--but they're basically allowed to happen by a mixture of social apathy, lack of scrutiny, and inhuman social and political incentives. you're demonstrating why this is illuminating, and why we should talk about it: because the alternatives you describe can happen and are happening but don't with certain groups, or from certain countries.

We are a global people. We could do more, and we actively don't. We should all be ashamed and just because it makes you feel uncomfortable or helpless doesn't mean you have to rationalize the shame of our species.

We need to face it if we'll ever change it.