Why is everyone so giddy about the flooding thay happened at burning man?

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• mrsemi@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

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  • deweydecibel@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    It’s also because Burning Man, at least in the last decade or more, just turned into another affluent, rich white people and influencer event. Whatever it was to start, it’s effectively glamping now.

    Sure, there are definitely some genuinely good people there, lower middle class, saved up and took their only vacation time they get all year to spend a few days there, and it sucks this happened to them.

    But the majority of them? They spent a lot of money, money most people don’t have the luxury of getting to spend, on a pointless self-indulgent festival in the fucking desert, and this time it’s come back to bite them. My sympathy is extremely limited.

    They’ll get out, dry off, and go back to their easy lives.

    It’s kind of like the Fyre Festival. Those people got fucked over hard, but those people were also not the kind I particularly pitty.

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    • donuts@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      It’s also because Burning Man, at least in the last decade or more, just turned into another affluent, rich white people and influencer event.

      I'm pretty sure it's been that way for at least 20 years...

      The only people I've personally known to go to Burning Man was a rich kid in high school who went with his dad who was a marketing high-up at a very big tech company. Always came back talking about trying drugs and seeing some crazy shit, but then on Tuesday it's right back to full days of pointless meetings I guess. I've never been and I frankly don't ever care to, but that alone gave me the feeling that Burning Man is where tech suits go to play hippie for the weekend, and that always felt lame as fuck.

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    • TwystedKynd@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I went a couple of times years ago when it was just starting to turn into what you describe. Had a great time, but it quickly priced me out. Now, it sounds like an influencer-laden hellscape. The addition of premium plug and play sites was nail in the coffin.

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    • bionicjoey@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      It’s kind of like the Fyre Festival. Those people got fucked over hard, but those people were also not the kind I particularly pitty. Spending a lot of money on an experience only to be miserable for a few days is not a tragedy.

      Blame sensationalist media on this one, but it’s a misconception. Very few victims spent a lot of money on Fyre Festival. Most got tickets which were purported to be “all inclusive” for >$1500 USD. A handful of tickets sold for the $12K price which ended up in the headlines, but the standard price was a fraction of that. There’s a good summary of this discrepancy here: youtu.be/UBPg5ftCMv8

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  • SuckMyWang@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Wouldn’t every event or festival be an exercise in waste and excess? May be e we should just stay at home forever and work

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    • scytale@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I’ve heard smaller, local burns are better experiences now and are less wasteful. Just like most things, the original intent of an event gets lost when it becomes bigger and commercialized.

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  • LapGoat@pawb.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    small local burns are more true to form in that endeavor. people clean up after themselves and are generally respectful.

    some bad actors, but it’s a nice disconnect from technology.

    I like to go and host a alternate dimension themed arcade with silly obscure games.

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    • DLSchichtl@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Hilariously, this exact thing happened to Alchemy in Georgia in 2015. The year of Alchemud. Got us kicked out of the county for a bit. Had Alchemy in Wakanda one year, but far too many fire ants.

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    • MrSpArkle@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Ooh, what games? Where?

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  • PrettyBlackDress@lemdit.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Image

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• set_secret@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Burning Man ‘promotes’ anti-consumerism and communal effort, however attending requires significant financial resources and costs that can and do exclude (most) people, it’s living hyprocracy, and an excellent example of capitalism corrupting grass roots ideals. honestly is an absolute joke of a festival.

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  • wokehobbit@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    No it doesn’t. Poor as dirt and go almost every year. So many idiots in this thread have no idea what they’re talking about. Just parroting the media.

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    • YeetPics@mander.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      What if I told you you could be less poor than dirt if you didn’t buy overpriced festival tickets?

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    • Historical_General@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      And yet you spend like Bilbo Baggins?

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  • jimbo@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    It’s like $400 for a ticket, and then the rest of the cost is getting there, food, water, shelter, etc. You can pay as little or as much as you want to accomplish those things. Plenty of people drive there and stayed in tents. I don’t see how it’s any different than camping for a few days.

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    • KyuubiNoKitsune@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Because I can go camp somewhere for less than $100?

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    • WheeGeetheCat@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      check again it was up to $575 this year

      Ive never been to burning man. I went to Coachella a LLOOONNGG time ago when it was hippies rolling around in the dust. Coachella ain’t that anymore, it’s instagram rich kids and tech bros. I assume the same thing has happened to burning man.

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  • schmorpel@slrpnk.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    There is a similar thing not far from where I live. Through an unlucky friend, then the neighbour of their festival grounds, I got to discover the organizers’ ‘ideals’ and ‘ethical and ecological approach’ first hand. In short: it was about money. And more money. And they managed to turn a large reservoir into a dying punch bowl of acid, piss and shit within only a decade. I suspect Burning Man to be the same, considering the ticket prices. The fact that some poor fools with their heart and soul intact save their little money to visit this monstrosity just makes it more sad.

    I don’t actively engage in Schadenfreude much, but I do carry a little of it in my heart. If people think flying or driving very far away for Entertainment, and bringing thousands of people into an otherwise quiet place is okay for the wildlife there, and can be in any way an ecological thing, they have understood very little about ecology. And now also ignored by most: the destruction that happens by the thousands of ‘poor humans who just wanted to have fun’ trampling through the last remnants of life in a drought stricken place.

    We are not alone on this planet. Invading a place with our idea of fun is very damaging. We can party perfectly well at home. If home happens to be bleak and sad maybe we should work on that first before invading quiet places.

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• Snapz@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Some of the worst people I’ve worked with are “burners”.

  There’s apparently a private jet at burning man this year that was taking off and landing constantly so that people could fuck on the jet - it’s fall of Rome style excess in a broken world where most people’s basic needs are not met on an enormous scale.

  Your statement is fairly tone deaf to the basic objective reality of the “party”, OP. The frustrated people at the bottom are feeling a bit of catharsis in the money burning factory closing for a day while they starve and watch.

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  • stepan@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    So like “let’s fly on private jets to a nice swiss resort to discuss climate change”

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  • ricdeh@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    So you think it’s okay to laugh at people dying?

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    • negativeyoda@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Burners by and large are dipshits, but no one reasonable is laughing at anyone dying.

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    • Cryophilia@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Hot take: fundamentally, yes. The simple fact that people are dying does not render something unfunny.

      That said, no one has died yet (well, one person, but that was ruled unrelated to the flooding).

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    • bro_munkey@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Did you miss all the memes about the billionaire dying in the submarine a couple months back? People like laughing at dark humor.

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    • bradorsomething@ttrpg.network ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Generally no, but this episode of tough hippie mudder has been great.

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    • Project_Straylight@lemmy.villa-straylight.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      If someone falls asleep inside the giant puppet and they burn him alive with everyone gathered around, I’m sorry but that’s just very funny. Dark, but funny.

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    • Apollo@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Why wouldn’t it be?

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• Battle_Masker@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  aside from the obvious “rich people exploiting the environment with their hippy party that costs $200 for their cheapest tickets,” I saw a video online that brought up a good point that I never considered. The cost of lumber has increased exponentially in the past 3 years alone, jumping to nearly $1700 per 1000 feet at its peak in 2021, but staying between $400 and $600 per 1000 feet in recent months (still high compared to say 10 years ago.) And these people are buying tens of thousands of feet of lumber solely to burn it away in the middle of nowhere where there’s little vegetation to absorb the excess CO2 waste. That, along with the climate change protesters being police brutalized just before the event, really puts a sour taste in people’s mouths. Especially in a time where “once in a lifetime” weather events seem to be back-to-back.

  economic data from: tradingeconomics.com/commodity/lumber

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  • xatlw@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Tickets cost about 10x that. I was interested back when it was a cool art exchange, freedom event. But SO many people flock to it as a giant party that it’s become restrictive unless your volunteering or bringing an exhibit.

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    • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      From old burners I have talked to, the entire experience has completely changed. Alcohol used to be frowned upon, now it’s common place.

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  • kitos@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Sincerely with rocket launches now being a daily thing i’m not very worried by that burning lumber.

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    • Apollo@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Rockets mostly use hydrogen as fuel, burning wood is way more polluting than burning hydrogren.

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  • aesthelete@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Also John Wilson tried to go shoot at the event and after compiling hours of footage was told that he couldn’t use any of it because there was some exclusive licensed coverage provider for the event.

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  • Pipoca@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    And these people are buying tens of thousands of feet of lumber solely to burn it away in the middle of nowhere where there’s little vegetation to absorb the excess CO2 waste.

    That’s not really how plants work.

    Photosynthesis turns co2 + water into sugar + oxygen. Cellular respiration turns sugar + oxygen into co2 + water.

    The total co2 absorbed by a plant is exactly equal to the amount of co2 used to make all the sugar, cellulose, etc. the plant currently has. Digestion, decomposition, fires etc. undo that.

    A mature forest or lawn is carbon neutral: new growth is balanced out by decomposition of old growth.

    Distance to plants doesn’t matter. What matters is if and how the trees they’re burning are being replanted or replaced. .

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    • Battle_Masker@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Thanks for the correction. That helps me better understand how counteracting pollution works

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  • zouden@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Burning wood just releases the co2 absorbed when growing it.

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    • Scribbd@feddit.nl ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      What are fossil fuels other than captured carbon from plants and animals from long ago?

      Rereleasing carbon is the problem now. Wood being sustainable needs the a non-surplus in carbon emissions to begin with.

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• jtmetcalfe@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Burning Man may be the epitome of the many optimistic and maybe naive qualities of the 90s that were co-opted and exploited in the early 2000s, and turned into the very things they were built to protest against - another being the free and open internet

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  • mysoulishome@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Hot take

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    • Apollo@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      You know what isnt a hot take? Think how much pollution the event generated, how much greenhouse gases.

      Seems worth it for a party lol.

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• echodot@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Because it’s a festival in the middle of the fucking desert. It’s an utterly ridiculous place to have it and totally extravagant.

  They’ll go there claiming there to be going I to some kind of getting away from civilisation, hippie commune thing but the amount of effort and infrastructure to make that environment survivable is ridiculous they actually doing more damage to the environment by being there than if they just stayed in the city.

  No one’s glad someone died but their death has nothing to do with the ultimate problem of them all being there, and without being too macabre, people die music festivals all of the time, usually because of drugs. Most music festivals are held in a field, where it’s at least reasonably possible to have basic infrastructure without huge expenses of money and effort.

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• phoneymouse@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I’ve been to burning man. I sit a little bit on both sides of the fence having not felt like I totally fit in there when I went, but also understanding the original mindset behind it.

  At this point, I feel the backlash against Burning Man generally is a bit overblown. These folks are at a festival (yeah burners, I called it a festival because that’s the word we use for such things in the English language) and they’re having a good time. Who cares. Most folks who go have good intentions and just want to connect and share something. Many artists work for years and months to have their pieces featured. Some of that art is incredible! My favorite parts though were literally just an astronomy camp where I looked through a pretty big telescope, held some billion year old meteor fragments in my hand, and listened to hours of lectures from science nerds about the cosmos. I also watched a magic show and got fed bacon by some drunk guy at his camp at 7 am who just wanted company. I personally havent drank at burning man, but it is a party. There are all manner of things at burning man, anything you might want and some things you might not… from talks on how to build a sustainable green energy house to orgy tents to camps offering free ice cream and French toast.

  On the other hand, burners can take this shit a bit too seriously and get wrapped up in the experience to the point of being annoying. One guy in my camp scolded me for asking too much about his normal life. He was a tech worker and apparently wanted to pretend that he wasn’t when he was at burning man. How ridiculous to think standing in the desert should mean you can’t talk about your actual life. Another time I pulled out my camera (aka phone) to take a photo of some art and some random chick yelled at me to put my phone away. As we all bought DLSRs and Polaroids for this event because it’s more authentic that way, and as if the folks that did totally aren’t going to go home and put it on Instagram anyway. There were plenty of women just posing on the playa for their photographer “friends.” I doubt they all just put them in a family photo album for the memories.

  That said, Burning Man is a unique event and most folks are just trying to share and view some of the most unique art in the world and connect with others. At my age, I generally find most festivals annoying and burning man has plenty of people to be annoyed at, but it is what it is and frankly I don’t know that it deserves more hate than something like Bonaroo or Coachella. At least Burning Man is full of folks trying to be more than mere passive consumers of entertainment. The mandate is for you to be a participant. God forbid you attend an event where you’re asked to do more than consume, but rather give, anything you want or feel the others benefit from.

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  • Blastasaurus@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Well put. I’ve been twice, 25 years ago and 8 years ago. Some aspects are really cool. Burners can also be insufferable, especially when they make it their entire identity IMO. I will never go back either. Also too old for that shit.

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    • Ataraxia@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Yeah my SOs mom took us and still goes. We aren’t wealthy and usually get discounts. His mom saves up every year for it. The only thing about it I don’t like is how dirty it is and how hot otherwise it’s really fun and I don’t do drugs or alcohol. Fire shooting giant metal flowerbeds and moving castles.

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  • mysoulishome@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Thanks for your comment, I appreciate it

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  • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Aren’t there smaller burning man festivals?

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    • dustyData@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      There are many copycats and smaller local versions of the same idea. The idea that it’s the most unique event in the world is marketing BS form the organizers.

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    • cubedsteaks@lemmy.today ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      there’s definitely a few different ones in Oregon.

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• notannpc@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Most people don’t even think about burning man at all.

  And well, the people of the internet tend to be less fond of more wealthy people, like those that can afford to spend thousands to party in the desert. I may not want them to die just because they went to burning man, but I will laugh at the world essentially raining on their parade.

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  • mysoulishome@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I don’t get it but ok.

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    • Exusia@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I dislike stupid shit that wealthy people do. People generally also do not sympathize with a nameless faceless entity. “70k people” is not something I can personally relate to. (As opposed to headlines like “kid with cancer” that normally gets sympathy.)

      Additionally, there was all the warning signs this festival was going to be a disaster and people spent thousands of dollars on tickets anyway. Much like the submarine these people have to have someone come help them, which yet again, takes for the form of state resources. Once again, the American taxpayer is footing the bill helping save rich people of all ages from their own hubris.

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• z00s@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  [deleted]

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  • JohnnyEnzyme@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Rain at a festival isn’t.

    That’s pretty much stripping all relevant context from the situation. The rains are absolutely a big deal for a special campout-celebration that’s held in a fairly hostile natural location, with ground that becomes disastrous in terms of movement when there’s heavy rain.

    It would be one thing if BM was just a frivolous celebration, but it’s heavily art-oriented, creative in nature, and meaningful for a whole bunch of folks who are trying to engage in something special once a year. So it’s not The Holocaust, no, but more than just the loss of the festival, there’s still some real danger going on for hundreds of folks right now.

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    • aesthelete@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      BM

      I approve of this abbreviation.

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    • spongebue@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Fine, but calling it a tragedy takes away from actual tragedies.

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    • Jax@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Brother, Burning Man is an excuse for a bunch of people to do a fuckton of drugs out in the middle of the desert.

      Burning Man has never been anything other than a monument to excess. It is, if anything, a poignant statement regarding humanity.

      Am I happy people are struggling? No. But I’d be lying if I didn’t think they deserve it. Maybe the survivors will spend their free time better. Probably not, it’ll just end up meaning poor people are allowed less and less in coming years.

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    • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I know old burners, none of them went this year, nor the last few years. They have other smaller events they go to now that retains the old feel of Burning Man. It is very much frivolous now.

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    • dipshit@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      When you camp on a lakebed, you’re going to be camping in a lake sometimes.

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• reagansrottencorpse@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Fuck these rich twats

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  • douglasg14b@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Apparently middle class Americans are now “rich teats”?

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• Deestan@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  A lot of the time, people hear about Burning Man in the context of which rivileged asshole grifter attended it. Elizabeth Holmes, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, etc other billionaires or influencers… And it is described as “tech bros’ favorite party” in the media.

  So, given that impression of it, I can see how the default reaction to it failing is unsympathetic.

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  • mysoulishome@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    So strange to me. I have never been but the people I have met who have gone multiple times and loved it have made me think it’s a force for good.

    My first exposure was a wedding I DJ’d, most of the people at there were friends of the bride and groom from burning man and they are burned in my memory as the type of people who go. Even the “pastor” who performed the ceremony. Bride is a travel writer, husband is a doctor. All of the bridal party. Extremely intelligent, kind, funny humble humans all.

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  • SnowdenHeroOfOurTime@unilem.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    All these people making piles of assumptions that if Elon Musk went once, everyone there must be a rich piece of shit, just makes me want to go even more just to spite them.

    I know there’s a lot I don’t know about it, but what I do know is that for most who go it’s about art and being free to express themselves. Really strange how much hate people have for something they likely haven’t the first goddamned clue about

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• PostmodernPythia@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I actually think a lot is the opposite. If you think an event like this, attended by the likes of Bezos and Musk, is countercultural, or even “brings positivity into the world”, I have a beautiful bridge in Brooklyn to sell you. Of course most Burners have jobs, it’s a techbro’s dream. Plus, tickets are more expensive than they were in the old days, so real hippies can’t go. If people want to laugh at the suffering of rich people who cosplay as revolutionary, I’m generally ok with that. One big caveat: I’m very sorry someone died, and I don’t think mocking that’s cool, especially if we don’t know anything about them.

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  • SnowdenHeroOfOurTime@unilem.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    The richest people on earth attending doesn’t actually mean a single goddamned thing about it. Other than they want to be seen as “cool”…

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• SnowdenHeroOfOurTime@unilem.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  This thread is wild. I suspect most of you who seem completely positive you’re right to judge thousands of people and what they deserve would be very indignant and angry if someone lumped you in with a category of people you somehow are tangentially related to.

  It’s kind of depressing. I thought Lemmy wasn’t a wasteland of humanity like reddit was, but if I was only going by this thread I’d have to conclude it definitely is not a damned bit better than reddit.

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  • happyhippo@feddit.it ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I completely agree with you, although:

    I thought Lemmy wasn’t a wasteland of humanity like reddit was

    Never had any hope for that. Humanity is what it is, shitty folks are everywhere, it’s statistics.

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  • kaffiene@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Hmm… White people privilege is funny. If you don’t see that… Well that just illustrates the joke

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  • cubedsteaks@lemmy.today ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I mean, reddit came on over here, didn’t it.

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• kttnpunk@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Well far be it from me to judge anyone at a music festival but I think for many burning man has some bourgeoisie, fake hippie sorta connotations?

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  • mysoulishome@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Yep, exactly my confusion…this makes it ok to take joy at what happened? I think the perception is wrong but even if not…it’s fucked up.

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• Kecessa@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  A person died. This is a tragedy for an event that brings positivity into the world. Kind of annoyed.

  They could take all the money it costs them and bring a whole lot more positivity into the world but instead choose sex drugs and rock’n’roll in the middle of the desert. If you want to see tragedies these people could prevent just go spend some time in the poorest parts of the city you live in.

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  • propaganja@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    By your logic, if you’re a good person but you spend your disposable income on a form of recreation that inefficiently brings positivity to the world, you deserve to be ridiculed and your suffering is justly celebrated.

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  • Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Would a resort in the Virgin Islands be more respectable? Sorry their vacation doesn’t look like yours.

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  • SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Reminds me of the hippy drum circle episode of south park where they all get stoned and listen to jam bands and declare they are changing the world.

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• Treczoks@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I'm just surprised at the sheer stupidity of those people. There have been pictures on the net, showing the festival area completely submerged just a few days before the start. Yet, they still moved there.

  At that point, when they noticed that the mud was knee deep, they could have left. They decided to stay.

  Now there is an emergency involving 70k idiots who put themselves wilfully in a dangerous place without thinking.

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• FlyingSquid@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I got shit for this in another thread, but I will stand by it- you do not go into the desert without checking the weather report, and if it says rain, light rain, heavy rain, sprinkles, doesn’t matter, you do not go into the desert. These people did not do the most basic bit of safety you could do.

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• pbbananaman@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  People are children and repeat what they hear. 15 years ago, I would spout the same nonsense about burning man because of what I read on digg/Reddit from the same voices you hear now. I then met a friend who convinced me to go and I had an absolute blast.

  For the vast majority of people in the US, let alone the world, attending the event is almost impossible due to cost, time, materials, etc. - it’s much easier for people that live nearby and most people within driving distance, the views of burning man will be more in line with your views - nuanced and reasonable. If you have no experience and no contact with the regular folks who attend, it’s super easy to bucket people into all these groups.

  The reasoning about waste and frivolity is total bullshit — don’t tel me your bullshit vacation to Murtle Beach is anymore eco friendly. Or your plane ride to Bangkok to become more worldly is “green”. Burning man is an event, a vacation. I went many times as a student, spending only about $2000 all in. It’s a relatively economical way to have a blast for a week.

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• diocan@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  You perception is fabricated and managed by social media, get off that and you’ll be happier

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• ChrisLicht@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  You’re not traveling in the wrong circles. Come to a VC fund dinner in September where junior VCs and 28-year-old “mortgage disrupter” CEOs brag about the air-conditioned plus-and-play camps they spent tens of thousands on, and play wink-wink with each other about all of the fun they had.

  I’m a multiple-time BM vet, but it’s mostly an expensive, bureaucratized drug party for tourists now.

  It’s perfectly fine to goof on it as it sinks into a physical and ethical quagmire. Forgive a poorly scaled analogy, but your logic is the NRA’s logic when there’s a mass shooting: “Now, when everyone’s attention is focused, is not the time to highlight the underlying issues.”

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• GeneralVincent@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Bunch of people here are talking about who goes to burning man. So just to be a bit objective, here’s a burning man census they’ve been doing for the past decade

  blackrockcitycensus.org

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• Kecessa@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Holy crap, I just checked the actual numbers and their mortality rate is lower than the average in the population, they’re doing fine

  www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db456.htm#:~….

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• stepan@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Strong MORALS?!?!?

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• deweydecibel@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  strong morals, personally and financially responsible, a career. Upstanding members of society for sure.

  These are extremely generic platitudes that could apply to just about anyone.

  Which morals specifically?

  What’s your definition of “financially responsible”? Because that’s frequently a watered down way of saying “well-off” while trying to attribute it their character and not their situation.

  “Upstanding member of society” is outright meaningless without context.

  So why are we supposed to take these hypothetical friends as evidence of anything?

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• SportsRulesOpinions@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Entirely ignoring who is at burning man or why, I honestly think there needs to be a line somewhere for sympathy. If you truck yourself out into the desert and things go tits up, well, shit happens. That’s the risk you took.

  I say this as a person who used to ride motorcycles, rock climb, and go backpacking. If shit ever went down I wouldn’t have expected any sympathy. I put myself in those risky situations, and there’s just plain gotta be a line for personal responsibility.

  With all that being said, when such a massive group of people continuely take the same risk over and over, it’s kinda funny when they finally get bit. It’s the same reason COVID denires getting COVID is funny.

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• snausagesinablanket@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  It used to be about spirituality and the rest including hard drugs, alcohol, and social media bringing in that crowd has ruined it permanently.

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• Coreidan@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Because we live in a society devoid of empathy.

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• PrettyBlackDress@lemdit.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Because people on the internet are miserable and disgusting creatures who hate their lives and literally anyone doing better them. So they celebrate their tragedy to get a sick sense of self satisfaction

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• cubedsteaks@lemmy.today ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Everyone I’ve ever met who was a regular burning man attendee has been a solid human being with strong morals, personally and financially responsible, a career.

  I think of two people in my past when I think of Burning Man.

  One being my ex who got in trouble for punching his ex girlfriend AT burning man. He had to go to court and she got a restraining order against him. There were also witnesses and he almost got kicked out of school for it. He should have been kicked out of school in my opinion.

  Anyway. Him and his friends were super trashy. All people who went to Burning Man.

  Then there is this girl I use to work with. She was nice. She was extremely pretty. 10/10 instagram model type, not even exaggerated. She was also super late to everything. I waited two hours for her and her friend to meet up at a cafe. That was the last time we hung out. She really came off as someone who gets away with shit just because she’s considered hot.

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• Rayspekt@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Maybe also because there were protesters blockading the road towards it because of climate change and festival goers were furious about it, so this is kinda ironic

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