back to article Oblivious 'influencers' work on 3.6-roentgen tans in Chernobyl after realising TV show based on real nuclear TITSUP

The absolute state of 2019 is that millions of vapid young people, followed by millions more vapid young people, make serious bank just by virtue of being really, really, really ridiculously good looking and posting about it online. But for your Instagram "influencer" game to be truly lit, you need that exclusive, glamorous …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    One character away from disaster ...

    For those unaware, Margaret Atwood's dystopian novel is set in a United States run by Christian fundamentalists who enslave the few remaining fertile women and turn them into baby factories for the regime's inner circle. It's horrible.

    So, natch,

    One slip of the keyboard, one more character and you would have been off to quite another controversy. Cutting it close, very close :)

  2. Moosh

    On the subject of The Handmaid's Tale...

    I would just like to say that Margaret Atwood is a hack, Alias Grace is terrible, and that she's only relevant because she's the token feminist literature option in A Level English Literature.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: On the subject of The Handmaid's Tale...

      Of course you can say it. Nobody is stopping you.

      Personally I think P D James would be a better choice, but explaining the technical stuff might be beyond the pay grade of the average English teacher.

      1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge
        Devil

        Re: On the subject of The Handmaid's Tale...

        Don't people study Barbara Cartland in English nowadays? What is education coming to!

        Not forgetting her amazing contribution to music.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: On the subject of The Handmaid's Tale...

          Here's a hint:

          Baroness James, FRSA, FRSL

          Sir Terence Pratchett OBE

          Dame Mary Cartland

          The British honours system doesn't always get it right, but it's a much better guide than the Booker Prize. (I suspect if Terry Pratchett had been less witty about establishments he might have made baron, but still)

          1. ibmalone

            Re: On the subject of The Handmaid's Tale...

            J K Rowling is a CH! Suspect PTerry got the short end of the stick as "humorists" are regarded as frivolous. Glad he got the knighthood in the end.

    2. BinkyTheMagicPaperclip Silver badge

      Re: On the subject of The Handmaid's Tale...

      'oh no, a writer has written one bad book so they're a hack'

      I haven't read Alias Grace, but I have read other Atwood books. Whilst I would personally opine that her output is variable, she's a long way from being a hack.

      I would rather read Sarah Waters, though.

  3. fidodogbreath

    Radiation tourism

    Oblivious 'influencers' work on 3.6-roentgen tans

    If Mr. Darwin's theories are correct, then this problem should take care of itself in due time.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Radiation tourism

      "... then this problem should take care of itself in due time."

      But our time is precious, we need a solution now now NOW!!!

      "And this is the start of the 'Elephants foot' tour, please form an orderly queue to pose next to it. It's very popular right now. Why am I standing so far away from it? Why because it's so popular of course..."

  4. martinusher Silver badge

    Shhhh!!!

    Think of this as just Darwin in action.....if they spend enough time there then they'll just quietly fade away.....

    As for the whole cult of the 'influencer' is really just Marketing speaking unto Marketing. Marketing groups in companies tend to swipe a lot of the budget because they're Really Important People and they use that budget to generate a sort of faux universe. This universe interacts with other faux universes leading to an entirely alternate reality where -- apparently -- ordinary people are supposed to follow trends and buy stuff. Some do, of course, but most of us ignore it -- its like filling up webpages with annoying and irrelevant pop up ads -- someone's paying someone for them because they think they work.

  5. holmegm

    "For those unaware, Margaret Atwood's dystopian novel is set in a United States run by Christian fundamentalists who enslave the few remaining fertile women and turn them into baby factories for the regime's inner circle. It's horrible."

    There *is* a culture that *somewhat* resembles this dystopian novel.

    It isn't a culture that has ever held sway in the United States though. (Not that this stops people from wanting to import more and more of it.) And it isn't "Christian fundamentalists" ...

    1. Diogenes

      .. and women losing their rights literally overnight as shown in the early episodes of s1 under the (real) regime was the inspiration.

    2. Loyal Commenter Silver badge

      Atwood based the events in her novel on things that have all happened at some point somewhere, they aren't all based on things happening in a single place, ar at a single time. Everyone thinks, "it couldn't happen here," right up to the point at which it does. The novel (and the series loosely based on it) are an exploration of those things happening in the context of right-wing Christian fundamentalism, as that was, at the time (and it seems moreso now) the way in which it could happen in the US.

      You don't really have to look too hard to find analogues of the Revolutionary Guard in US politics today (or British or European politics for that matter).

      "The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance." - John Curran, 1790

      1. holmegm

        "as that was, at the time (and it seems moreso now) the way in which it could happen in the US."

        You really think that "right-wing Christian fundamentalism"... and "moreso now" (?!) ... is more likely to impose anti-woman totalitarianism on the US than the culture that *actually* covers women head to toe, deprives them of rights and "agency", has child brides, sets up exploitation networks, etc. everywhere it goes?

        It's as though someone had read her novel and said "wait, I know where we can get some people who are actually like that!"

        I dunno, it just fascinates me that because of our taboo against seeing anything negative in the foreign and exotic, that everyone still fears their familiar old local caricatures (of people they don't like) instead of the real deal appearing right in front of their face.

  6. Inventor of the Marmite Laser Silver badge

    Influencer

    The kind of person who uses the word "leverage" as a verb

    And vice versa

    1. Korev Silver badge
      Mushroom

      Re: Influencer

      You can add "Gifted" and "Learnings"...

      Yes, from orbit -->

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "Kylie Jenner threw a Handmaid’s Tale themed birthday party.

    Because nothing says “fun” like dressing up as women who are habitually raped and denied basic human rights."

    Because nothing says delusional like SJWs who cannot differentiate between fantasy and reality.

    1. Loyal Commenter Silver badge

      And nothing says "shutting down other people's opinions" when you start labelling people with derogatory terms because they find something tasteless. You say, "delusional SJW", I say "common decency"; something that too many people seem to lack these days.

      1. Loyal Commenter Silver badge

        ...downvote me all you like, it doesn't change the fact that terms like "delusional", "SJW", "snowflake", "political correctness gone mad", et al are increasingly used in place of an actual argument in order to close down criticism of one's own viewpoint. If that criticism isn't valid, or is an overreaction, your argument should relfect that and be able to stand on its own merits.

        Personally, I couldn't care less whether some "slebrity" dresses up as a rape victim and posts it on social media, because there's zero possibility of me seeing it and / or caring about the sleb in question. However, if you don't see how doing so could be considered to be tasteless to, for instance, rape survivors, survivors of modern slavery, or indeed those who managed to escape the Iranian revolution, whose plight Atwood's novel analogues, then you are both stupid and insensitive.

        So in short, when someone uses terms like "delusional SJW", I see someone who is lacking empathy for the plight of others, and is responsible, in their own small way, for making this planet a slightly more unpleasant place. And lets face it, it's already got its quota of arseholes, so try not to be one another one.

      2. Rich0980

        Sorry, I'm with Tuesday Is Soylent Green Day on this one. You need to see the difference between fantasy and fiction. Otherwise, are we going to start banning people doing cosplay when they are dressed as bad guys i.e Darth Vader and Stormtroopers, aka Nazis in space who murder millions/billions? Yes, get outraged over real events, not fictional ones.

        Also, you are trying to shut down 'Tuesday Is Soylent Green Day''s opinion. They have every right to take the piss if they want to, especially when the person publicly published their opinion.

        1. Loyal Commenter Silver badge

          It's a subtle distinction, but one I think that does exist, between re-enactment, and cosplay, and dressing up like (albeit fictional) characters that are based clearly on real people who have had horrible things done to them, and glorifying it. You may, or may not, agree with others about whether this sort of thing is generally acceptable behaviour (it is a morality / ethics issue after all, which are notoriously fuzzy).

          However, my point isn't that everyone should be offended by this, it's that name-calling others that don't agree with you to shut them down is just shitty. By using terms like 'SJW' in a perjorative sense, it is shutting down discourse. It is saying, "if you don't agree with me, I won't even listen to your viewpoint, you are wrong," which is about as boorish as you can get.

          And just one final point: I can't say I'm particularly outraged by the actions of the sleb in question. To be honest, I'm more saddened by the fact that Margaret Atwood's subtle, thought-provoking and ground-breaking novel has been reduced to the status of "look at me, I'm dressed like someone on that there TV program" by some vacuous self-aggrandising arse-biscuit, who probably isn't even capable of understanding that she is missing the point of the character she is emulating so widely, she may as well be one of those Star-Wars stormtroopers trying to shoot a fleeing Leia Organa in a 20-foot corridor...

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So the vapid young people, who are followed by millions more vapid young people are trying to gain an entry into the Darwin awards by doing something stupid...

  9. chuck_u_farley

    The influencers will all end up on Golgafrincham Ark Fleet Ship B

  10. Rudolph Hucker the Third
    Mushroom

    We may have to wait a while though - these kind of people have never really reached the pinnacle of Social Media Idiocy (or Social Justice Warriors) until they appear on Titania McGrath's Twitter account. Or have they?

    Careful out there (down with this sort of thing).

    1. Richocet

      Not the first time I've read this

      Why do people conflate Social media influencers and SJW.

      I've never seen anything to indicate that they are they same people and it's such a left-field concept that these would be the same people I wonder where that meme (or bad assumption) came from.

  11. DuncanLarge Silver badge

    Load of science fantasy

    I started watching Chernobyl, then had to stop as it was so funny it was sad.

    Ok the acting was fine and the fantastical story seemed ok and was on par with the NIght King being able to raise hoards of dead people using magic in GOT which was effing creepy.

    But I had to stop watching as I found it hard to keep a straight face whenever someone on screen tried to science when talking about the lava and nuclear death. As entertainment it was fine but as a supporter of nuclear energy I tend to get a bit annoyed when people are shown scifi fantasy bunk knowing that they will think its real and that nuclear reactors are horrible dangerous bombs even though thats totally impossible.

    Fake science plagues real people all the time on kickstarter, who get cheated out of their money for a self filling water bottle, that turned out to be a re-invention of a dehumidifier, that was never delivered and never worked. Or the water seeker, another re-invention of the dehumidifier that simply would fail to work due to the annoying thing called science, specifically the laws of thermodynamics.

    We really need more honest programmes to go alongside the entertaining ones to help offset the lack of general knowledge of real science as its real science that will save us all, not some scifi fantasy that is only good for entertainment but will be seen by many as "real".

    I wonder how many people thought that the movie "2012" was based on real science and that the Mayans predicted it. I remember once being told that in the early 2000's all the other planets would line up on the opposite side of the sun to us and Earth would be subject to earthqakes and storms and death due to the increased gravity. The planets did line up, that was true and accurate, but what happened? I think the tides may have been a little stronger, just a little.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsdLDFtbdrA

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    OUUTTTRRRRAAAAGGGEEEEEEEE! Spare a though for the north Wales sheep farmers. What you walking about there taking photos of mountains and stuff. How very dare you!

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    they're crawling over each to snap the perfect arse shot in the Ukrainian nuclear wasteland.

    No just no.

    How can such "influencers" be so oblivious to the tragedy that took so many lives and continues to do so. I think they are very much aware but simply don't care.

    Absolutely disgusting lack of respect.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    You learn so much reading The Register

    Although I wish I hadn't.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Re: Estimates

    Upper estimates peg the death toll at almost 100,000 as an indirect result of the disaster.

    Gotta lurve those estimates.

    Actual death toll less than 100.

    You really think 100k deaths would not show up in statistical analysis, even in the former soviet union?

    These specious estimates are based on a scientifically discredited formula, that was only ever a conservative guide to setting up nuclear regulations. The LNT model of damage from chronic low level radiation.

    It behoves the Register to be more scientific and less gullible when promoting stories.

    LNT basis its predictions on the false assumption that the chance of developing cancers from low level radiation is linearly proportional to the total lifetime dose.

    In reality studies show that the chance of developing cancer is related to the peak single exposure.

    Like digital transmissions nothing much happens until you get a very high level of noise. Error correction in DNA has evolved to take care of low level natural radiation.

    So next time you hear 'there is no safe limit for radiation exposure' or 'the governments own safety standards indicate that' or 'Fukushima disaster' remind yourself that the actual facts are somewhat different.

    The worst conceivable nuclear accident in the world happened at Chernobyl.

    And less than 100 people died from it.

    Or will die from it.

    The lessons of Chernobyl are three fold

    - that nuclear power is 100-10000 times safer than previously thought

    - people believe what they are told in preference to finding out the facts at a ratio similar to the above.

    - people with deep pockets are not interested in the public knowing the truth.

    Its interesting to note that the other area where propaganda has overtaken and suffocated rational inquiry is also energy related.

    Climate change.

    Qui Bono?

  16. Scott Marshall
    Alien

    Going Viral...

    Has anyone noticed how similar "influencer" is to "influenza"?

    IMHO, many of these so-called "influencers" share many of the characteristics of "influenza", excepts that it's easier to get inoculated or vaccinated against 'flu than these other parasites.

    ET because I'm not sure that viruses influencers like the Kardashians and their ilk are entirely human.

  17. NeilHoskins

    100,000?

    I remember reading in this very journal that the death toll was around 25. I don't know what to believe any more.

  18. the Jim bloke

    Something nobody has mentioned..

    Is anyone throwing old bolts around to detect anomalies?

  19. Richocet

    The irony

    The meltdown was triggered by a safety test!

    Surely worthy of #safetytestfail

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