this is a very salient point.
I guess just as we have murderers walking and living among us, capable of some really heinous crimes, we must also acknowledge that we have people willing to try and profit off of the tragedies of others. It may not be illegal, ethical, or moral depending on one’s personal perspectives and belief system, but it seems to be another disappointing but still very much a part of our human existence
and that’s not something we can just change, I don’t think at least JMO
We can't change others. All we can do is try to be on the lookout for such behaviour in ourselves. With an interest in crime, it's very easy to make choices that we can rationalise away as not being harmful. Cumulatively, hundreds or thousands making the same rationalisation is how we end up with things like this. I'm sure that most people who paid for a cup of coffee to these youtubers aren't sociopaths, but assured themself that their few dollars 'didn't matter' in the grand scheme of things. It's the same rationalisation that causes damage to stone monuments thousands of years old like Stonehenge. People want to touch it. It's not allowed, because being touched does damage to the stone. Infinitesimally small, but still damage. But every single visitor of the THOUSANDS who visit each year who transgresses that rule thinks, 'it's just me, it doesn't matter'. Whether we're talking true crime, fast fashion, littering, recycling, WHATEVER... we have to not only consider that we're doing it... but that there are countless others out there deciding their action doesn't count either.
So, make your action count. You could unfollow these people, or refuse to give them the view or the click. Unsubscribe. Boycott social media folks who by their actions show they are profiteering. Read people's reviews of books or documentaries to try to judge if they're hurting survivors or exploiting victims before giving them your money. And remember, whatever your interest, a crime is a tragedy in the lives of a bunch of people. For them it isn't a gripping story or a mystery to be puzzled out, it's their life, it's their loved one.
Here, it's an eleven year old who should be in his mid teens by now. Maybe he'd still be playing Zelda and Mario and Sonic, all the newest releases, or maybe he'd be super excited by the release last week of Diablo IV. But we will never know, and neither will his family. They'll never know how he would have grown and changed.
Of course, your choices are all up to you, and that's as it should be, and everything above is just my own opinion, and how I try to live my life. I don't always get it right, nobody does, but I do try my best to do the least harm.
MOO
