We semaphore from ship to ship, but they're sinking, too.

McLaughlin frames human communication as a desperate maritime signal—semaphore—sent between vessels in distress. The image suggests that in crisis we often look sideways for rescue or certainty from peers who are themselves imperiled, rather than toward sturdier sources of help or toward collective action. It can also be read as a comment on modern isolation: we exchange messages across distances, but the underlying conditions (fear, loneliness, social instability) remain unaddressed. The bleak wit lies in the anticlimax: even the recipients of our signals are “sinking, too,” making mutual reassurance poignant but insufficient.