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HBO ‘Chernobyl’ Creator Calls Out Influencers After These Pictures
It seems to be a natural human inclination to be fascinated by disaster and the suffering of our fellow humans – from the urge to gawp at the scene of a car crash to traveling purposefully into warzones, we seem to have a morbid need to see and experience the worst that can happen.
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The creator of the ‘Chernobyl’ miniseries has a message for people who have started visiting the tragic site
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Disaster tourism is most definitely a thing and the way it is perceived depends entirely on the motives and the behavior of the individual. People that choose to visit Auschwitz, for example, could go to pay their respects, learn about the true extent of human barbarism and come away deeply affected; using the knowledge and empathy gained from the experience to become a more caring person. Or, they could disrespect and disregard the gravity of the site, learning nothing while looking for photo opportunities to impress their Instagram followers with.
Some people were surprised by such location choices
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Because yes, influencers getting their perfect pic in Chernobyl is now a thing
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Image credits: juliabaessler
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Sadly, this story seems to lean toward the latter. On the back of the success of HBO’s Chernobyl, Instagram influencers have been flocking to Pripyat to pose for photos, giving little historical context about what actually occurred in the danger zone but pulling plenty of the usual vapid, cliched poses that we’ve come to expect from these people.
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Of course, Chernobyl disaster site is not Auschwitz; nearly all of Pripyat’s 50,000 residents were safely evacuated from the abandoned town, which is still heavily contaminated with high radiation and toxic waste from the nuclear plant accident in 1986. However, it is the site of a human tragedy that has affected the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. What possible excuse could you have for getting sexy in the site of a nuclear exposure?
This is the ugly side of disaster tourism. People cynically using a catastrophe to further their own ends, trying to give the impression of being ‘adventurous’ and ‘curious,’ but instead relegating a somber, meaningful place to just another background for endless selfies.
Sure, visit Pripyat. Read and learn about what occurred there, about the heroic people that sacrificed themselves trying to contain the accident and the realities of life under communism. Discuss the pros and cons of nuclear energy. Take pictures and share your experience with your friends! But don’t get your butt out. Your butt is irrelevant and disrespectful to the memory of the people that lost their lives there, OK?
Image credits: juliabaessler
To be fair, while there are some hideously thoughtless and tasteless pics here, some of them, like those showing the level of radiation exposure still at the site, could be considered informative.
What do you think? Is this kind of disaster tourism just plain wrong? Would you visit Pripyat to see what remains after the accident? Let us know your views in the comments below!
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Image credits: juliabaessler
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Here’s what people had to say about the antics of the ‘influencers’
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What do you think ?
Hans 6 years ago
The same bunch of idiots who take smiling selfies in Auschwitz. The reason to visit places of man-made tragedy is to keep the memory alive. This is our debt to those who found premature death (or even were murdered) and suffered.
Daria B 6 years ago (edited)
I agree. And, of course, it's also a reminder to stop us from committing the same mistakes of history.
Load More Replies...
Amber Jouer 6 years ago
This is everything wrong with people today. Rampant narcissism, and an utter lack of respect. People died. People died horrible, gruesome deaths. But gotta get them likes.
María Hermida 6 years ago
I think it's much worse than lack of respect. It's an absolute lack of EMPATHY, and that's really worrying. You can teach (or obligue) people to respect something, but you can't make them feel empathy. In my opinion, these people are "morally blind", and they can't even understand why people criticise their actions. It's a generation of entitled, selfish, self-centred psychopaths, totally incapable of seeing further than the tip of their nose.
Load More Replies...
Tyler Duffy 6 years ago
I don't understand why people follow "influencers". I don't give a f*** where you go, or what your a*s looks like.
Maxim Chervyakov 6 years ago
Because 80% of Earth population are dumb flock of sheep. They need to follow something because they don't have their own targets, opinions and principles.
Load More Replies...
Ed Souza 6 years ago
The f****d up part is these idiots had no clue what Chernobyl was until the show got popular. I know this because everyone I had a conversation with about Chernobyl, that are under the age of 25 never have a clue of what I'm talking about.
btaglln 6 years ago
Maybe dumb people. I'm 23, has not watch the series and I know what happened in tchernobyl since I was a kid :)
Load More Replies...
DP von Icecream 6 years ago (edited)
Not sure IF it helps/works, but generally I report all these kind of photos as inappropriate and also officially block all these influencer-channels while HOPING the number of people who have blocked a certain account/channel eventually will have negative effect on the revenues "influ-me-me-me's" get from Youtube, Insta etc etc. Again, not sure if this helps, but it certainly gives me some slight satisfaction to at least done something about it :-)
Shireen 6 years ago
Good, they should all be named and shamed. One of the most catastrophic events in world history that killed thousands of people, Chernobyl lost a whole generation of people and they're going there to take selfies?! That's almost the equivalent of taking selfies at Auschwitz.
Emily Keryk 6 years ago
Would they ever do this at the 9/11 memorial? I'm Ukrainian and I think these people are horse s**t.
Load More Replies...
Anna Datsyuk 6 years ago
I live in Ukraine, in just about 300 km from Chernobyl. I never had a desire to go there, to touch it, to make photos. I know few men who were there, who sacrificed their health and did what should be done. It is too painful and too tragic for me even to visit the place, leave alone to make butt photos there. People are just shallow and have weird life goals
Monika Soffronow 6 years ago
WHY is Bored Panda giving these shallow attention seekers JUST THE EXACT THING THEY CRAVE??? Iris Jans, I'll borrow this: "disrespectful egocentric attention whores". ¡Nada mas!
Jane Alexander 6 years ago
Monika Soffronow, To be publicly shamed is not what they crave, but it's what they're getting here.
Load More Replies...
Claes Gustavsson 6 years ago
Who are these people influencing? Are they supported by companies? Have they even seen the series?
Hans 6 years ago
The same bunch of idiots who take smiling selfies in Auschwitz. The reason to visit places of man-made tragedy is to keep the memory alive. This is our debt to those who found premature death (or even were murdered) and suffered.
Daria B 6 years ago (edited)
I agree. And, of course, it's also a reminder to stop us from committing the same mistakes of history.
Load More Replies... Amber Jouer 6 years ago
This is everything wrong with people today. Rampant narcissism, and an utter lack of respect. People died. People died horrible, gruesome deaths. But gotta get them likes.
María Hermida 6 years ago
I think it's much worse than lack of respect. It's an absolute lack of EMPATHY, and that's really worrying. You can teach (or obligue) people to respect something, but you can't make them feel empathy. In my opinion, these people are "morally blind", and they can't even understand why people criticise their actions. It's a generation of entitled, selfish, self-centred psychopaths, totally incapable of seeing further than the tip of their nose.
Load More Replies... Tyler Duffy 6 years ago
I don't understand why people follow "influencers". I don't give a f*** where you go, or what your a*s looks like.
Maxim Chervyakov 6 years ago
Because 80% of Earth population are dumb flock of sheep. They need to follow something because they don't have their own targets, opinions and principles.
Load More Replies... Ed Souza 6 years ago
The f****d up part is these idiots had no clue what Chernobyl was until the show got popular. I know this because everyone I had a conversation with about Chernobyl, that are under the age of 25 never have a clue of what I'm talking about.
btaglln 6 years ago
Maybe dumb people. I'm 23, has not watch the series and I know what happened in tchernobyl since I was a kid :)
Load More Replies... DP von Icecream 6 years ago (edited)
Not sure IF it helps/works, but generally I report all these kind of photos as inappropriate and also officially block all these influencer-channels while HOPING the number of people who have blocked a certain account/channel eventually will have negative effect on the revenues "influ-me-me-me's" get from Youtube, Insta etc etc. Again, not sure if this helps, but it certainly gives me some slight satisfaction to at least done something about it :-)
Shireen 6 years ago
Good, they should all be named and shamed. One of the most catastrophic events in world history that killed thousands of people, Chernobyl lost a whole generation of people and they're going there to take selfies?! That's almost the equivalent of taking selfies at Auschwitz.
Emily Keryk 6 years ago
Would they ever do this at the 9/11 memorial? I'm Ukrainian and I think these people are horse s**t.
Load More Replies... Anna Datsyuk 6 years ago
I live in Ukraine, in just about 300 km from Chernobyl. I never had a desire to go there, to touch it, to make photos. I know few men who were there, who sacrificed their health and did what should be done. It is too painful and too tragic for me even to visit the place, leave alone to make butt photos there. People are just shallow and have weird life goals
Monika Soffronow 6 years ago
WHY is Bored Panda giving these shallow attention seekers JUST THE EXACT THING THEY CRAVE??? Iris Jans, I'll borrow this: "disrespectful egocentric attention whores". ¡Nada mas!
Jane Alexander 6 years ago
Monika Soffronow, To be publicly shamed is not what they crave, but it's what they're getting here.
Load More Replies... Claes Gustavsson 6 years ago
Who are these people influencing? Are they supported by companies? Have they even seen the series?
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