• deranger@sh.itjust.works
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    5 months ago

    Yeah, just live in poverty instead. They’re practically forced to because nobody can turn down that money. You going to let your extended family starve?

    These tourists pay huge sums of money; do you think it’s fairly distributed? Do you think the rich assholes treat these highly skilled mountaineers well? Despite all that, and the danger, they still do it because it’s good money. There’s not many high paying jobs in Tibet.

    I still feel bad for the exploited sherpas. They’re in a shitty situation. This isn’t just as easy as “it’s a personal decision”, which is a fucked up perspective imo.

    • FaceDeer@fedia.io
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      5 months ago

      According to Wikipedia there’s ~600,000 Sherpas in the world. Are you seriously saying that the only thing they can do to avoid poverty is work as Everest guides (or have an extended family member doing it)?

      • deranger@sh.itjust.works
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        5 months ago

        I’m not talking about the Sherpa people, but rather the profession of Sherpa which is a subset of these people. There aren’t even 600k Sherpa (people) globally. A few hundred Sherpa (profession) handle Everest.

        And yes, that’s what I’m saying. Tibet is a poor country. What industry aside from Everest tourism do they have?

        • FaceDeer@fedia.io
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          5 months ago

          So a few hundred Sherpa (profession) would be completely unable to find other jobs, like their hundreds of thousands of bretheren have somehow managed to do.

          Look, I don’t want people to die on Everest. But nobody is forced to go there, not even the Sherpas. They choose to go there. They know what they’re getting into and what the risks are. If you’re going to feel bad for them then you should also feel bad for the climbers, and vice versa.

          • deranger@sh.itjust.works
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            5 months ago

            If you’re going to feel bad for them then you should also feel bad for the climbers, and vice versa.

            I don’t think so. This is an asymmetric relationship. It’s been documented time and time again the tourists treat the sherpas like shit. There’s also plenty of evidence they treat the mountain like shit, a mountain which is sacred to the Sherpa people. No, I don’t think I’ll feel bad for those who litter in what should be a pristine location and treat the locals poorly.

            (Side note, I don’t even know what to call that extra vice versa. It’s like a vice versa double negative. You were already in vice versa mode by suggesting I should also feel bad for the tourists.)

            • FaceDeer@fedia.io
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              5 months ago

              Perhaps the Sherpas shouldn’t be enabling them.

              And actually, my point is just that you should feel equally bad for them. They’re both people who chose to be there and they’re both people that died. If you don’t want to feel bad for them then that’s fine too.

            • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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              5 months ago

              the tourists treat the sherpas like shit.

              I submit it’s the shitty tourists being shitty, and either selection bias or toxic generalizations is filling in the rest for you .

              • deranger@sh.itjust.works
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                5 months ago

                Nope. There’s a good documentary called Sherpa you should check out. Also - why do so many people know who Sir Edmund Hillary is, but not Tenzing Norgay? They both were the first up there. Sherpas have been treated poorly as long as people have been summiting the mountain.