Comic Strips

Don’t you tell me how to virtue signal

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.

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

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.

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".

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.

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.