Thread:User talk:WaitingforGodot/Making light of thingies./reply (2)

Indeed, that's why I think PZ is probably right about the "context" thing. If the discussion is about girls in Africa suffering severe mutilation, you're being a dick by bringing up your own problem if it's minor compared to that. But that's really just a more reasonable application of the attitude that dismisses it outright. The fact is, there's this prevailing line of thought that says they're both different and cannot be brought together, ever. Oh, there'll be a paragraph 18 tacked-on statement about how it's all wrong and they're against it, but that doesn't say much. We belittle other peoples plights all the time with our First World Problems, yet this is the only issue where that sort of thing is emphatically not allowed.