This is my maybe favorite phrase of all time, as it so clearly sums up my view on about 90% of the "issues" out there in our country. I have contended for decades they only exist b/c of people having far too much free time and far too few real problems facing their lives, so they invent problems and make mountains out of things that aren't even molehills. I've told people for a long time that if they really think America and the free market and capitalism is so bad they need to tour the rest of the world and see how real government run nations live and what the poverty is like there. They have no basis for measuring what we consider poverty in this country or how it is so much better than it was, which is key to understanding how to improve it further.
Anyway, this phrase says all of that so well, defining things that only exist in places that are so well off they see these things as problems.
A great example I just saw, the student government at Johns Hopkins has voted against allowing a Chik'fil'a on campus. this is of course due to the CEO making his personal comment on same sex marriage quite a while ago.
First, that in and of itself is a FWP. It's not store policy in any way, has no bearing on anyone, has not in any way harmed anyone in any direct way or limited their life choices, it was just a comment by one guy. The whole idea that it's worth worrying about is based on having nothing else of importance to worry about . If this is the worst slight the LGBT community faces they're sitting pretty.
But it gets better. Most important, there were not and are not any plans to OPEN a Chik fil a on the campus. It's not even come up. They just took this vote in response to those comments a year or more ago but the chain isn't even trying to be there. They might as well have voted against Kim Jong Il opening a movie theater on campus.
Last, they called those comments, which again in no way created any ACTION of any kind, a "microaggression" against the LGBT community. What the heck is a "micro" aggression, and if it is that micro, why have a vote? We are now in a world so utopian, so devoid of real threats and issues and suffering that we need to address aggressions that can only be seen by using a microscope?
It's all an aside, but every day I see story after story that is about what is essentially a non-issue, from environmental concerns like the EPA wanting to regulate swimming pools and wood burning stoves to these kinds of symbolic ego trips. None are serious enough to even warrant conversation, much less legislation and regulation.
First World Problems. so well said. Drop these spoiled kids from John's Hopkins into a real world situation and lets see how worried they get about that stuff when they have to worry about real issues and problems.
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