Idiots offended by being called mountain climbers!

[minionofmidas]

Certainly not as uncalled-for as the BBC Article.

[minionofmidas]

I think it's a class issue.

[minionofmidas]

If anyone is making light of it because 'they are rich lolz' then that's just pathetic.

Buying yourself a rather tastelessly gushing obituary on the Beeb isn't possible to the descendants of unknowns (or even D-list celebs) from the lower 98% of the population.

Al taking sufficient offense to that idiot piece to post it here is probably class-related as well. As to your taking his offense to his thead, the reasons are slightly more opaque, but knowing my Britishers taste played less of a role than intra-moiety solidarity.
[/offensive]

[minionofmidas]

I don't think you can 'buy' tributes on the BBC.

You certainly shouldn't be! (Not that I thought it was *literally* bought.)

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Well if so, I've never seen one. (I am of course assuming an earlier article on the deaths themselves, with these kinds of pieces adding no value whatsoever? Might want to check my assumptions on this piece as well... Nah. Too lazy.)

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Which was precisely why I put "moiety" instead. The Class structure of Britain is pretty complex after all. (Though still so simple that one can actually make an attempt at describing it. Which means it's one of the least complex in the world. ) You're on the same side of the biggest of the numerous curtains. (Private school education is a major giveaway here. As is political party, of course - though merely voting for that particular party isn't, really.)

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Pointing out that these deaths are hardly surprising, and that the obituary was in poor taste, is not actually quite the same thing as "making fun".
Whether it was necessary is of course another matter entirely...

[minionofmidas]

If they had died in a house firing doing nothing wrong I'd agree with you.  I don't hold much sympathy for people that die doing extremely dangerous things.  Even less for people doing something only a very small percentage of people can afford to do.

It's about having sympathy for their families and those they left behind. You couldn't honestly say that if another Space Shuttle (heaven forbid) blew up, full of people doing an 'extremely dangerous thing' you wouldn't have sympathy for those left on the ground who have to pick up the pieces?

Not a lot of it.
At least with cosmonauts, everybody involved *knows* they're basically committing suicide on taxpayers' expense, though. With mountaineers, as Al points out, that's sadly often not the case...

I went to a private school on part scholarship/charity, part Assisted Places, part fees.

So?
I don't think that's particularly relevant. Ruling castes coopt new blood and satisfy their conscience in one go by letting a few scholarship boys into the Public Schools, nothing new to see here. -_- Yeah, I understand you didn't exactly go to Eton or Winchester, which makes this not entirely fair. Cheers, mate. 

[minionofmidas]

60 year old desks

Nothing wrong with 60 year old desks, as long as their large enough and still holding upright. We had mostly 50 year old desks. Chairs, too.