It's not entirely the media's fault that people are drawn into this topic even though it's fairly unimportant as you say. Take a look at /r/worldnews, users consistently chose to upvote all stories about Titan to the top of the page.
That's too cynical. I'm sure if it was 5 unknown poor people or 5 random people the interest would have been the same. People just love following search and rescue stories, that's all there is to it. E.g. the Thailand Cave rescue, or the various mining-related rescues, the interest is always high.
No, it seems to me that Reddit broadly has a culture of hatred for specific groups they blame for most of the world's problems: boomers, and the extremely wealthy.
Who are most culpable for the decades of profiteering, coverup, and disinformation propaganda campaign of extractive industries that contribute the most to climate change? It's not you or I but the extremely wealthy. It seems more that you're white knighting for a phony "victim" class who should be both in prison and sued to recover damages they've wrought.
That’s a really scary straw man you’ve painted. Do you have access to the minutes from the meetings of the “extremely wealthy” where they all unanimously vote to do these evil things?
Or maybe is it that you’re just classist to avoid any inward criticism?
I never said anything about if I agreed with this attitude on Reddit or not- there is indeed a culture of hatred and blaming problems on those specific groups.
I actually agree with the facts behind this attitude on Reddit, those groups are totally culpable for exactly what they are accused of. Those responsible should be held accountable, and those of us that care should try to do something to reverse the damage that has occurred, even if we have limited ability to, and those responsible will not.
The situation on Reddit is a case of toxic victimhood, despite the fact that the victimhood itself is real. These people are so focused on hating some specific outgroup, it has become an entire personal identity for many, and they spend much of their free time talking about it online. They use it as an excuse for not making any effort to make the world or their own lives better, and instead wallow in self pity with others online. This makes them also complicit in exactly what they are upset about- they also possess some amount of time, power, and energy they could use to make the world a better place by taking action towards specific problems they claim to care about deeply, but are choosing to do otherwise.
These people are hypocrites. They are largely middle class American millennials, in the top 1% of incomes globally. From a global perspective, they are exactly what they hate: a wealthy leisure class that carelessly lives a life of comfort while outsourcing the negative consequences to others, while having the means to make a huge positive difference yet choosing not to.
