The 'You people care about Robin Williams more than Gaza' comments

[Fieldy409_v1legacy]

So I'm sure all of you by now know about Robin Williams, he hung himself yesterday aged 63. The man had a long fight with depression which he unfortunatly lost and now the internet is filled with tributes to him and a lot of people are emotional about it, he's been in a lot of my childhood movies and always manages to make me laugh when I see one of his standups or interviews.

So I've seen the typical things come up, "You people care more about thing X than this Crisis: Garza, the war in Iraq, people starving in Africa whatever. I hate this argument, people try to seem smug and superior and label you a hypocrite just for feeling what you feel and you can't control your emotional reaction to things so that's unfair.

Here's my opinion on this. There's 7 billion people in the world and a lot of them have problems, ranging from not being able to pay the bills all the way across the spectrum to murders rapes starvation disease all that bad shit. If I could actually feel an appropriate emotional response like these people seem to want I'd go insane.

Which would you say is more upsetting to you, your dog dieing or a massacre in another country? Emotions are stronger for your dog because it's near and you've ascribed a personality to it.

We feel for Robin because we've watched him for years and even if it was just his persona we assigned a personality to him. It's kind of like losing a friend(though much less harsh, I've actually lost a close friend to a car accident and I'd never say a celebrity death was just as bad)

So this just turned into a rambling rant but I think there's a point in here somewhere. What do you think escapists?

 

[Fieldy409_v1legacy]

And can I add I know that Gaza is much more important than Robin Williams.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Every time a celebrity dies and somebody shows a little emotion people immediately roll their eyes. Look, I feel empathy towards someone that made me laugh, I feel empathy towards the world I grew up in, I feel empathy towards a childhood long gone that was marked extensively and repeatedly by this funnyman. How could I not shed a tear over his death? What am I supposed to not give a fuck because he was famous? He wasn't just "someone famous". This man brought emotion to my life, and now that which was once pure joy is now forever stained by tragedy. It's not just the death of a person, it's also the death of many beautiful things.

 

[Thaluikhain]

I'd agree in this case, but sometimes this sort of thing can be a legitimate complaint.

 

[Vault101]

you know what? yeah we probably DO feel worse over Robin Williams than we do Gaza....

and why wouldn't we? the guy was obviously incredibly talented and full of life....he was in many of some of our childhood movies, he was an icon and being such I'm sure we in some way felt a certain connection...so when he dies yes we felt it more than Gaza

whats going on in Gaza is sad yes...but its abstract to most of us, just another thing happening in one of "thosr" countries that we feel no control over

there is preasure to feel a "certain" way or the "right" way over things and I think its unfair...especially to children

...that said we shouldn't be jerks about it, thats a very important disinction

 

[Colour Scientist]

Eh, some people care about Kim Kardashian's arse more than Gaza.

People just have different priorities, I suppose. Personally, I find the events in Gaza to be more upsetting but you can't control your emotional reactions to different situations.

 

[shootthebandit]

The reason why Robin Williams death is so tragic is that a man who spent his entire life providing joy and happiness to others was himself truly miserable. That to me is incredibly tragic. He gave the world something which he could not give to himself

Im sure we all feel sorry for people in Gaza but the tragic irony of Robin Williams suicide has a real impact

I think this video is incredibly relevant

 

[EternallyBored]

It's called a fallacy of relative privation, or "whataboutism", also known as the starving kids in Africa defense. We just had a Critical Miss strip about it due to Jontron attempting to use it as a defense against people criticizing him.

It was dumb then, it's dumb now, and it always will be dumb. It falls into the same category as basically telling people to shut up because they are talking about or caring about something that that person doesn't care about. It's a dumb argument because it can be applied to pretty much anything that can't be called a crisis or "serious" issue, and the person making the argument always seems to think they are the sole arbiter of what issues are important enough to care about.

It's also an issue of presumption, it's an argument that assumes the opponents position on issues unrelated to the current topic and then casts moral aspirations on anyone that dares to defy the invokers moral standards. Its an issue that also tends to warp the concept of how much people are actually caring about an issue by trying to frame the less important issue as much larger than it actually is. I.E. people will care about and post sympathies over Robin Williams death, but far FAR more cash, volunteer hours, attention, care, and effort will go into the Gaza crisis because despite what people on the internet claim, the vast majority of people do indeed realize that the Gaza situation is the bigger crisis, and react accordingly.

I see this argument in regards to everything, pretty much any complaint that isn't the absolute worst atrocity in human history will receive an argument of "whataboutism" at some point, I've even seen it applied to murders, rapes, and kidnappings, usually with some yahoo commenting about why the news is commenting on some individual tragedy whilst wars and massacres are going on.

It's a particular pet peeve argument of mine because of just how presumptuous, inane, and useless it is.

It never works, and anyone with more than 2 braincells to rub together can pretty much see through the ruse and realize the person making the argument isn't actually interested in getting people to care about the bigger issues, they either just want people to shut up about the current topic, or they are trying to gain a non-existent moral high ground for their own self-gratification.

 

[Jamash]

I probably care more about Gazza than Gaza.

It's not that these war-torn places being bombed to fuck are less important than celebrities, or that the lives of the people suffering in those places are less important, it's just that they're less relateable and it's easier to feel empty and emotion with recognisable individuals than it is with places, war-zones and statistics.

I was more upset about Rik Mayall's sudden death than I was when I learnt about the Holocaust and the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined... hell I probably felt more emotion about a fictional character's death in a TV show in the year I learnt about World War 2 in school, but that doesn't make me a bad person who actually values the life of one celebrity over the lives of millions of people.

It's simple human nature to feel more to people we can relate to than it is to distant events which were disconnected from. Why do you think so many celebrities are used by organisations to be the relatable face of a charity or global event? Why did no one give a shit about the famine in Africa until Bob Geldof made a fuss about it? I'd bet that a fair amount of the people who are complaining about people being more upset about Robin Williams than Gaza didn't even care about Gaza until some celebrity like Robin Williams appeared on TV to make a teary-eyed awareness plea.

It's all very well in this age of 24/7 rolling news and the internet to care about bad things happening thousands of miles away, but it's stupid to try and imply that people who are upset about the death of a beloved figure are inhuman... for being human.

This almost seems like some kind of Hipster "I cared about Gaza before it was cool to do so" one-upmanship. If they really cared about Gaza so much, why don't they use the Internet or their power of protest to bother the people actually responsible, or the governments that aren't doing anything about it, rather than bother people mourning the death of a beloved person... it's almost like they think that people mourning Robin Williams are more important than those responsible for the situation in Gaza.

 

[Batou667]

I'd agree in this case, but sometimes this sort of thing can be a legitimate complaint.

...and sometimes legitimate complaints can be petty, passive-aggressive whining.

To the morally-superior "whatabout"ers, I'd say: what about Kony 2012, did that stop mattering? What about the Nigerian schoolgirls you were so concerned about a month ago? What about Syria? See, two can play at that game.

A Facebook friend posted passive-aggressive hashtags along the lines of #gazanotfootball during the World Cup... and then proceeded to go back to posting pictures of cupcakes she baked and cute animal vines. I was tempted to post #gazanotcupcakes and #gazaisntcute but despite my immense wit and objectively correct position I'd have lost a friend.

People tend to prioritise things that are relevant to them. To a majority of people in the West, Robin Williams is more relevant than (note: not more important than) Gaza. And why not? Does taking a minute to post "RIP Mork" diminish Gaza in any way? Of course not.

[edit] To massively paraphrase a Ricky Gervais quote, "People who can think of a more worthy cause tend to not support that, either"

 

[Fieldy409_v1legacy]

I honestly don't care about either of them or anyone else for that matter.

 

[Lilani]

I think last week's Critical Miss [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/comicsandcosplay/comics/critical-miss/12080-The-Gaza-Defense] addresses this quite well. One tragedy does not negate another in the minds of those who find them significant. Do some people care more about and are more willing to do something about Robin Williams than Gaza? Yes, but Robin Williams dying didn't change that. Those people care as much about Gaza as they always did. But since most of them live half a world away it's not significant to them.

And as most people here have already pointed out, the kind of people who tend to make comments like that are no better themselves. They're just looking for the appearance of moral high ground.

 

[Jenvas1306]

as if compassion was a limited resource...
I also care more about my mother than gaza.
I care about specific individuals differently than I care about all the things being wrong in this world.

any ways, why do people care more about how much others care about gaza than they care about gaza?

 

[Abomination]

Because, believe it or not, I probably could have had more effect on Robin William's life than I ever could on the quagmire of the Gaza diplomatic situation.

Swear you could set a clock by how often that area of the world re-engages in hostilities.

 

[Riff Moonraker]

So I'm sure all of you by now know about Robin Williams, he hung himself yesterday aged 63. The man had a long fight with depression which he unfortunatly lost and now the internet is filled with tributes to him and a lot of people are emotional about it, he's been in a lot of my childhood movies and always manages to make me laugh when I see one of his standups or interviews.

So I've seen the typical things come up, "You people care more about thing X than this Crisis: Garza, the war in Iraq, people starving in Africa whatever. I hate this argument, people try to seem smug and superior and label you a hypocrite just for feeling what you feel and you can't control your emotional reaction to things so that's unfair.

Here's my opinion on this. There's 7 billion people in the world and a lot of them have problems, ranging from not being able to pay the bills all the way across the spectrum to murders rapes starvation disease all that bad shit. If I could actually feel an appropriate emotional response like these people seem to want I'd go insane.

Which would you say is more upsetting to you, your dog dieing or a massacre in another country? Emotions are stronger for your dog because it's near and you've ascribed a personality to it.

We feel for Robin because we've watched him for years and even if it was just his persona we assigned a personality to him. It's kind of like losing a friend(though much less harsh, I've actually lost a close friend to a car accident and I'd never say a celebrity death was just as bad)

So this just turned into a rambling rant but I think there's a point in here somewhere. What do you think escapists?

Here is what I would suggest... ignore the people spouting that garbage. If his death, or anyone else's death upsets someone, they have every right to be upset by the situation. The folks that get on here with the gaza mess, should be ignored, as its irrelevant to that particular situation you are referring to.

I wont even go into the whole thing that if they are feeling so bad for Gaza, but not the people in Israel, that they are hypocrites, either. Anyway, even the mention of it derails the whole thread someone might have made about said loss, and should be ignored, because unfortunately, you cant stop them from doing it.

 

[Scarim Coral]

This isn't exactly new but rather the current trend on who to care more toward to, a famous person death or a crisis? Also yeah that's the thing, people will notice you more if you're quite famous.

 

[144_v1legacy]

That's very cute, but Robin Williams is more important to me than Gaza.

 

[Zen Bard]

Maybe it's just a question of perspective.

It isn't about caring more for one thing than another. I don't know how one quantifies empathy.

Maybe it's just about taking a break from the harsh reality of the world to fondly remember a man who, as indicated in most posts here, had some impact on all our collective childhoods.

We'll return our attention to Gaza eventually. And you know what? When we do, it'll still be a mess.