How are the Miami rescue workers heroes?

submitted by trident765 from self.nonmorons

A hero is someone who saves the day. For example, the firefighters on 9/11 were heroes because they rescued many people. But all the people in the Miami condo are dead so it looks to me like the Miami rescue workers didn't save the day for anyone. I am not saying the rescue workers are incompetent or cowardly. Maybe the conditions were too dangerous to realistically rescue people, or maybe everyone in the condo died instantly so there was no one to rescue. But no matter the reason, if you didn't save the day then I do not see how you can be called a hero.

all 3 comments
sorted by:
new (suggested)
topinsightfulfun

[–]wary_observer 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

The main character in a literary or dramatic work is also sometimes called a hero, regardless of whether he saves anyone. The rescue workers are in the limelight at this moment as 'heroes' of a dramatic narrative, an infotainment spectacle presented by the news media. Last year, medical personnel were dubbed 'healthcare heroes' as part of the promotion of another narrative.

[–]thefirststone 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

I hadn't thought of that, but it's fascinating. Self-important journalists have expanded to fill the media landscape so fully that they've blunted the inspirational or human-nature-transcendent meanings of a word, in favor of diegetic stage identifiers, as if they were the authors of life itself.

[–]thefirststone 2 insightful - 3 fun2 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

Uh, wow, are you calling our Government Civil Servants and Emergency Service Personnel unheroic? Do you want people to die? Is that what this is? You want people to die? I can't possibly fathom any other explanation, so you must want people to die.

Yikes.

Yikes.

Like, this is a yikes.

This has been a simulation of Twitter or Reddit in the few microseconds before being banned. This is provided as a public service with no warranty, express or implied.