Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov, 24, set foot on the restricted territory of North Sentinel – part of India’s Andaman Islands – in an attempt to meet the Sentinelese people, who are believed to number only about 150.

“The American citizen was presented before the local court after his arrest and is now on a three-day remand for further interrogation,” the Andaman and Nicobar Islands police chief, HGS Dhaliwal, told AFP.

  • Komodo Rodeo@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Alright, I’m going to say it out loud, despite the risk of this being counted as uncivil (via Rule 1) 🤞 🤞

    These imbeciles don’t need stern lectures, fines, or jail - they need livestreamed floggings to humiliate or even cripple them. Hundreds of millions should see, record, archive, and openly mock their distress publicly as a stark reminder of the stakes involved.

    The Sentinelese are a genetic sub-group so isolated, and so unique that their loss would be incalculable. They’re a living, breathing, irreplaceable time capsule of human culture and genetic information, and the thought that some thrill-seeking wanker could decimate them by passing the common cold to one of their members is beyond worrisome - it’s enraging. As lucky as we were that the last worthless dick-beater - American Evangelical missionary, John Allen Chau - to make their way to the island was summarily killed, that luck may not hold out. We’re talking about a group whose immunity is such a throwback that something like Chickenpox, Rubella, or Influenza could decimate the island’s population. For next-nearest historical comparison, Smallpox, to which the inhabitants of North America had virtually no resistance due to longstanding geographic isolation from infection, is estimated to have killed 90% of the continent’s population via European contact.

    • MountingSuspicion@reddthat.com
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      I’m not on this guys side at all, but it’s kinda a weird take to talk about the potential wipeout of an entire group of people as bad because they serve as an irreplaceable time capsule of information. I’m sure you care for other reasons too, but it just struck me as odd.

    • otter@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      I don’t disagree in the slightest — other than “decimate” ≠ “devastate” yet linguistic drift naturally followed the pseudo-Calliope Syndrome that normalized this fuckup, and here we are. 🤦🏼‍♂️

      Ah, the confidently illiterate leading morphology is not on my Boring Dystopia ™ bingo card, but maybe it’s on yours?

      edit: Apologies for any hiccups in your comprehension. You can get better, though. Hint: that personal growth doesn’t start in an echo chamber, so don’t be a wart. Read more.

      • Komodo Rodeo@lemmy.world
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        I don’t disagree in the slightest — other than “decimate” ≠ “devastate” yet linguistic drift naturally followed the pseudo-Calliope Syndrome that normalized this fuckup, and here we are. 🤦🏼‍♂️

        Ah, the confidently illiterate leading morphology is not on my Boring Dystopia ™ bingo card, but maybe it’s on yours?

      • Grimy@lemmy.world
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        The Cambridge dictionary has this as it’s only definition since it’s other use is archaic.

        to kill a large number of something, or to reduce something severely

        Using the word to mean reducing by 1/10th started to fall out of use in the 1800s.

        • funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works
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          I’ll also bet that people who get pedantic over decimate will also use “myriad” as an uncountable noun instead of meaning precisely 10,000, which it used to mean.

  • MochiGoesMeow@lemmy.zip
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    Everyday I cant help but just shake my head at my own countrymen. I hate it here.

    Just nothing but selfish stupid people.

  • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    Americans continue to prove how abjectly stupid they are.

    I really hope the rest of the world is genuinely done putting up with our horseshit.

        • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          or in this case in-group homogeniety

          Yeah it’s pretty tough to be surrounded by effectively an unwashed mass of idiots in the USA, hard to not have that opinion of the majority of my fellow Americans.

            • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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              The rural part of Washington state… It’s always been a lot more backwards and racist than people would expect based on how progressive our big cities are.

              • Ben Hur Horse Race@lemm.ee
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                yeah well being from pennsylvania I would have no trouble believing it. philly is philly, and pittsburgh was barely democratic leaning, but drive 40 minutes in ANY direction and you might as well be in kentucky.

                Once, up in clinton township, I was standing in a doorway of my uncle’s house and his neighbor said “are you white?” and i said “yeah” and he demanded I come out into the light so he could see me. I was about 11 years old. I was terrified.

      • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        I got to climb Chichen Itza when I was a kid, my parents took me before they closed it off in the 90’s. It was a liability issue after someone fell.

        You have to admit that Americans are really showing their asses lately, though.

      • philpo@feddit.org
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        Don’t get me wrong here,friend, the following is not a bit meant to be related to be connected to the current state of the US,but: This special kind of “force your Christianity onto others” stupidity is very much a thing the US is world leader on.

        • Confused_Emus@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          Christians the world over are historically famous for forcing their religion on others. How do you think that batshit drivel spread so effectively?

          Also, I’ve seen nothing in this or other articles that the guy had intentions of proselytizing. Seems he’s just your run of the mill idiot.

          • Seleni@lemmy.world
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            Historically, yes. But these days almost all the proselytizing going on these days is from American groups, or groups bankrolled by American religious groups.

            But it does appear that he was just doing it for TikTok clout.

  • aeronmelon@lemmy.world
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    Imagine having no knowledge of the outside world, then you stumble upon a ghost saying, “But first I wanna thank my sponsor; Raid: Shadow Legends!”

  • adam_y@lemmy.world
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    and recorded a video before returning to his boat

    Did it for clout.

    What a prick.