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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    1 day 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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      4 hours ago

      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.

    • lumony@lemmings.world
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      14 hours ago

      Man, comments like yours are a shining example of people whose minds are too far gone because of these forums.

      It’s like your existing in a fantasy-land where upvotes and hysteria are currency, and you’re chasing after both.

      Reality and reason are not concepts you enjoy.

    • otter@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      19 hours ago

      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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        21 hours ago

        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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        21 hours ago

        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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          11 hours ago

          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.