Yes, I also dislike the culture in which this can be called a funny story. Such culture will cause more incidents. Worked in a laser lab for 5 years without incident in a time when eye safety goggles were not used for visible light.
Yeah, emotions are a positive factor for a memories forming. Add some emotions to a fact, and it will be remembered better and for longer. Some things are remembered for life without any repetition, and mostly it happens for things that trigger your emotions.
No. That only says something about you, not “the culture”. It’s incredibly common to laugh at the absolute absurdity of a situation. It doesn’t mean that people are making light of it. It doesn’t mean that they don’t grok how serious it is. They just react differently to you.
I agree there is more to it than yes/no making a joke of an incident. I associate it with a macho culture in which people do not feel safe to speak up in case of unsafe circumstances. Same for IT security.
