I've lived in Africa my entire life, and I've yet to meet anybody that suffers from "Spontaneously Disappearing Limb Syndrome."
Please stop using people on this continent as props.
this post was submitted on 03 Nov 2024
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Don’t you tell me how to virtue signal
you've obviously never had your name misspelled on a Starbucks cup
Just because the problem is smaller doesn't mean it isn't a problem.
The world would be fucked 10 times over if we only cared about the biggest problems.
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Our parents shouldn't have used other people's suffering to try to force us to eat, or be greatful.
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Our parents shouldn't have used political crisises, like Rawanda, or famines, or things we wouldn't comprehend as children. Don't reference geopolitical crisis and expect your children to understand.
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There was something racist in what they were doing - it implied African parents weren't responsible. When in actual fact the causes of conflict and crisis in Africa are multi-facetted, globalized, and complicated.
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Africa is far more well developed in some parts than lots of westerners assume.
Thank you for reading.
It's also being dismissive of real problems people face. It's an excuse to not address problems here and now because bigger problems exist elsewhere. But you aren't going to do a goddamn thing about those issues, so this implied triage is a lie. It's just a way of trying to act morally superior while lacking empathy.
The whole first world problem concept implies everyone has it easy in first world countries. As though we don't have poverty, mental health issues, crime, corruption, police brutality, abusive families, disease, loss of loved ones, and so on. There's no shortage of problems anywhere.
And you know what, fuck this attitude of turning suffering into competition and mocking people for being bothered by things that aren't life altering. There's nothing wrong with a healthy expression of emotion when you are disappointed or irritated, as long as you aren't taking it out on others. But being a snarky asshole to someone and judging them for having a bad day isn't helping.
If you see someone frowning and your instinct is to tear them down rather than cheer them up, maybe you should take a good look at yourself and figure out what your fucking problem is.
This is the “Africa” of first-world white-people rhetoric and AI-generated Facebook inspirational slop, a hypothetical war-torn, disease-ravaged wasteland, not the actual continent that exists.
Rwanda was a genuine crisis from the 1990s, look it up:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rwandan_genocide
People really can't handle seeing a list these days huh?
There’s more Africa than just South Africa.
It also exploits another person’s tragedy to make it about themselves taking away from the tragedy to focus on them. It’s narcissistic. And it’s reductive of tragedy. If speaking of third world problems should only be to focus on them. Not to take something from them for yourself.
“You should be grateful”
If it’s about trite platitudes and gratitude, go make a list. Find another way to teach that. When the topic is about someone else’s tragedy, get out of yourself and pay attention to those around you more.
“I have to remember so blessed when I think of someone else’s tragedy”
If you need a boost, Count your blessings against your own gamut of success. No need to compare and push yourself in front of someone else’s gamut all just to feel good about yourself.
Your points 1 and 4 are valid but the others read too much in "Eat up, in Africa kids are starving".
At least my mother never went into detail about why the kids there are starving. She also ignored me saying "well, send it to them then, I don't want it".
what message am i supposed to take away from this?
other than that OP takes an offensively bleak view of what life in africa is like?
I'm pretty sure it's a play on the whole, "eat your dinner! there's starving children in Africa!" bit parents in the 80s and 90s guilt-tripped their children with.
but that's OK, you be offended by this comic. after all, something something first-world problems.
That's certainly the inspiration, but it's not particularly good or insightful. It's really just trying to use a bleak made up stereotype to say something others have said without it. It should add to the conversation, but I don't think this does that. It doesn't give me any insight I didn't already possess, and at best it perpetuates an idea that is wrong, if not outright racist.
Just because you aren't offended by it and don't care doesn't mean critique isn't valid.
just because you're offended doesn't mean your critique is valid.
How childish. I'm a white man in the US. It doesn't offend me. I can understand how it can be offensive though. My critique isn't valid because I'm offended or not, it's because I used reasoning. Reasoning is valid, not your feelings about it.
What do you think it added to the conversation? Do you not think perpetuating negative tropes is something that should be avoided?
I think it's the equivalent of "clean your plate, there are starving children in. -country-"
I.e. you can't be bothered by bothersome things because other people have it worst.
It's a bad take
I get the humor of the comic, but I generally think it's a bad idea to compare two people in order to make a judgement, or even two groups of people. If you actually look at the groups, you'll almost always find that each community has its strengths and weaknesses. They can actually learn from each other.
I was watching a video of a lady who escaped from North Korea. There was a real food shortage, and people were barely surviving. But she also said that she missed the feeling of community that she felt in her home town. That there was a certain kind of happiness that she felt living in a poor community struggling to get by that she couldn't replicate.
Western society is incredibly isolating.
Same in the former GDR here in Germany. Part of it is sentimentality, but many people also point to specific ways in which life was objectively better for them.
Tf is this shit
edgy.
This comic should be on a shitpost community instead.
"Stop saying you have it good. Hundreds of people all over the world go to sleep every night deciding which country they should exploit for billions next, they have it SO MUCH BETTER than you, and to say you're happy while others have THAT to deal with is just wrong."
Sounds kinds stupid when you flip it around. Wonder why...
Reddit post (derogatory)
"How dare you complain about the (terrible tasting) food!? Don't you know there are children starving in Africa?"
Or...
"Don't waste water! There are people in Africa that go without water!"
Or similar such nonsense, but as a ridiculous comic.
Fallacy of relative privation
I'm just gonna say it: boooooo!
What a privileged take of an author thinking that's the base level of suffering of a person they don't know.
I understand that I'm not the intended audience since I can't afford to have my broken tooth fixed but than maybe the author should have left this as an audience of just themselves.
What a twat.