General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I knew - KNEW - the guilt trolls would show up before long. [View all]OwnedByCats
(805 posts)every horrible thing in the world when something new happens, I'd be talking for a very very long time and frankly I don't have time to rattle off all the things that bother me all at once. I don't condone violence no matter where it happens and to assume I or anyone else does not care about other things just because we're talking about a specific event is a very extreme assumption.
Now my mother is one of these people who thinks talking about problems should be some sort of contest on who has the worst problems. I tell her something, I immediately get some sort of response about how her life is worse. I love my mom dearly, but this drives me NUTS. I want some motherly advice and support and the conversation always ends up being about her. I listen to her problems without injecting my own into the discussion but she's not capable of the same.
However, even though this is a little different - I've been guilty of comparative statements too. Sometimes I do it to be funny - such as my husband finding an ant in the house and he goes nuts and I say "well, it could be worse - could have been a cockroach". Other times I do it to help people gain some perspective. Like if an athiest or believer feels they are being persecuted I usually jump in with "hey, be thankful you don't live in the mother country of my ancestors (which happens to be Britain) back several hundred years ago when you could have been killed, and not very humanely I might add, just for not believing in the religion their monarchy thinks they should believe in". I know it may sound like I don't have sympathy for their plight but I think it's necessary to appreciate that things could be a lot worse and we should be at least thankful that we don't live in an extremely oppressive society of which our ancestors dealt with.
The point is if I or others express horror at bombings on US soil, that does not mean we agree with drones killing kids in the Middle East. It's all bad and I wish that those who do it would knock it off, and that includes what we're doing in the ME. Just stop already!