I understand the feelings about this mess, I live in the NYC region and I see the impact up close and personal, a friend from high school who became a doctor, a surgeon, was on the front lines from the start of this, volunteered at a NYC hospital, treated I don't know how many people, and now is gravely ill with this and may not make it, and while I am very fortunate to have a job that so far looks safe, where I can work from home, I also know a lot of people I care about who have sick family members, lost jobs, you name it, I have a good friend who is at a long term care facility in the aftermath of a spinal tumor that left him unable to walk, and he is scared about being there.
That said, toy trains is a hobby, that can be a very, very expensive one, in a world where there is always suffering, where there are people who are experiencing devastation, economic insecurity, you name it, you can always look around and think like when people are dying from storms, or famine, or war, how can we enjoy ourselves, it is something philosophers have been wrangling about for years.
To put it in perspective, the 1930's were a hard time for a lot of Americans, as hard as we have seen up until this current horror story, many people were out of work or were underemployed, there were serious issues with malnutrition, homelessness, yet Lionel stayed in business by selling trains to those able to afford them, when they introduced the 700e in the late 30's the country was in yet another deep recession, it cost 75 bucks, which was a tremendous amount of money at the time (it would be roughly 3 weeks typical wages for people lucky enough to have a job), if people who had the means to buy those engines should instead of simply given that money to others in need, what would have happened to those working at Lionel? (and for the record, I am not saying all that matters is ourselves, simply saying that taking care of ourselves can also help take care of others, as always, it is a balance on helping others versus caring for ourselves).
During WWII, a very dark time for the world, where at least 40 million people died, and people in the US had to make a lot of sacrifices, including the death of its citizens, mostly young men, I can tell you for a fact that during this scary and dark time, people complained about things like rationing, of having to wear shoes until they fell apart,blackout regulations, you name it, but much of it was done the way Scott 'complained' about York not happening,. the humor of the complaining during that period was well documented. There is a difference between what Scott did and whining, humor, dark, sarcastic and otherwise, has always been part of hard times and that was the vein I think he was tapping. The humor during WWII about the sacrifices back home didn't trivialize at all the real darkness of the time, it simply was a way to get through a hard time and stay sane, people complained, told jokes with dark humor about what they faced, of having to deal with a day with only a single cup of coffee, ersatz butter, etc.
Scott's comment was done wryly and more than a bit tongue in cheek, one of the big problems with the internet/social media is that sardonic and sarcastic humor can be hard to read, since much of that depends on body language and tone of voice. People do this all the time, when they binge watch a season of a show they love on Amazon or Netflix then complain it will be another year until they can watch it again, saying things like "how can I survive", or when football fans after February groan about the 6 months until training camp, how life isn't worth living, few people are saying that seriously, if the regret is somewhat real.
We are all part of this crazy time, but talking about trains, buying stuff for our trains, making lighthearted comments about the 'misery' of things being cancelled, doesn't dismiss the very real concerns that are out there, thing about dark situations is we still need to get through each day ourselves, we still have lives of our own, it doesn't take away one bit from the very real issues others are facing, which this forum is part of in my case.