I find the phrase “first-world problems” annoying, not because I am deeply offended by someone trivializing someone else’s trivial anger, but because it’s sanctimonious and stupid. If you think I’m lame for bitching about getting too many ketchups at Burger King, just say so. Don’t use it as a podium from which to sniff at the sadness of a world where AIDS-riddled orphans are dying of starvation yet someone has the nerve to complain about something as trivial as ketchup.
This is not to say I don’t approve of the mockery of trivial complaining. I do. Very much, in fact. Just not this particular method, which is fucking annoying.
Good thing I always use White People Problem then. Boy does that piss people off. If they were members of this board they’d probably come here to complain about that black bitch calling their hang nail a white people problem.
It also implies that the person who is making the “first-world problem” accusation never complains about trivial shit. Which is complete crap. Everyone complains about the small stuff occasionally.
Does it? I mean, the person saying it lives in the first world also and are subject to the same minor irritations. Totally unlike me saying white people problems. Which is why THAT understandably pisses people off.
If you seriously and without perspective rant online about stuff that other people would consider a blessing (see http://whitewhine.com/ for copious examples), you thoroughly deserve every bit of scorn heaped upon you. Including “lol! First world problems!!!1111”
See, I don’t find White People Problems particularly annoying for precisely that reason: if I’m whining about my ketchups (seriously, I only got like eight ketchups last time, wtf!) and a non-white person mocks me by calling it WPP, that’s not sanctimonious, just sort of a dig between different groups. Whereas FWP is always between people in the same group, and thus simply holier than thou.
Also, getting hit with WPP means someone not-white is talking to you, which is very exciting and can be later bragged about to other white people.
Like complaining about people complaining about people complaining about people complaining about trivial shit that other people would consider a blessing, amirite?
FWP gives off a 'yeah, we both know your complaint is kinda dumb" vibe while WPP is more “wtf, honkey? Slavery, man!”
Therefore I win the Obnoxious Award.
Thank you for starting this thread–if I hadn’t promised myself not to start pit threads, I would have done so myself!
“Ooooh, your cable bill went up and you turned your ankle? Well, boo-hoo, you’re not being raped by a soldier with cholera, so you have no right to feel annoyed!”
This. I get the desire to mock people who have to run to the Internet every time they have the mildest of obstacles in life. I just think it’s a stupid way of doing it. All my problems are fucking first world problems, because among them I do not number “I went blind due to malaria”, “My stomach is distended from chronic hunger and malnutrition” and/or “I was raped because I was a virgin and they thought it would cure their AIDS”.
Can’t we just be old-fashioned and tell people to shut the fuck up if they constantly whinge about their annoying problems?
