I mean, this particular incident might not be the worst in US history but it is genuinely horrible and part of the reason it has so much staying power in the news is because it is so directly traceable to recent deregulation and greed.

Every single disaster that happens is either A) totally ignored, B) nominally mentioned then dropped between other news items to keep the cycle going, or C) actually covered with moderate interest, but played down with pleas from industry shills and conservatives that it’s being overblown.

This same cycle applies to mass shootings, except replace step C) with “actually covered with moderate interest, but played down with pleas from the NRA/ other Russian funded GOP orgs that it’s too soon to discuss (until next week’s mass shooting).

Rinse and repeat this placative media cycle until the rich have figuratively stripped all the copper wiring from the walls and bailed on the shithole they’ve created in the depleted husk of this country, and the rest of us are left holding the bag.

You really didn’t read my comment, did you?

I happen to be a vegan anyway, so it’s not like this is some sort of “gotcha” moment against me.

And why is that? There are many reasons to be against dolphin and whale slaughter, some aligning with veganism and some not.

Trying to indict me by putting my own eating habits on trial is a weak distraction. Any answer I give will result in either ”Of course, a vegan is going to be holier than thou about killing whales!” or ”So you want to protect whales, but I assume you still eat <insert animal>?”

Saying it again slowly for the contrarian chuds: there is nothing defensible about killing such intelligent animals who play such a broad and critical role in a rapidly dying ecosystem.

I’ll add to that: there is literally no context in which killing such intelligent animals — especially ones who are critical to endangered ecosystems or are endangered themselves — is ever really justifiable in 2023. Fuck whale and dolphin hunting in its entirety.