History Main / AppealToWorseProblems

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[[folder: Comics Strips]]

[[folder: Film ]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

--> '''Pete:''' There are children in Africa, who would love to eat this.
--> '''Karen:''' Then why don't you just send it to them. Buy an envelope and send it to them.

[[folder: Music ]]

[[folder: New Media ]]

[[folder: Stand Up Comedy ]]

[[folder: Tropes ]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

[[folder: Web Comics ]]

[[folder: Web Original ]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

[[folder: Other ]]

[[folder: Real Life ]]

* Shows up in an...[[RefugeInVulgarity unexpected context]] on the Website/{{Twitter}} parody Bleeter in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV''.

* A small development team, Glumberland, made [[https://ooblets.com/2019/07/we-did-the-thing/ this post]] regarding their exclusivity deal with the not-so-popular Epic Games store. In it, they mention more "important" things to get angry about, including climate change, human right abuse, and the [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking final season of Game of Thrones]]. Due to its tone more than its content, followers were [[https://www.vice.com/en_au/article/a35wm8/gamers-are-harassing-ooblets-developer-over-epic-games-store-exclusivity not amused]].

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* ''WebVideo/HowToBasic'' frequently uses a lot of food in his videos (which he claims is food that is already expired anyway), the great majority of which is destroyed and used to make a mess, which has caused some people to complain that the food has been wasted when it could have been donated. This has resulted in a running gag in the comment sections of the videos where people complain that some inedible part of the video could have been fed kids in Africa (ie: "Starving children in Africa could have eaten that doll!"). Mr. Basic himself adressed it with his "How to End World Hunger" video where he puts [[RunningGag two eggs]] in a paper envelope adressed "To Africa" before smashing them.

* Some political discussions [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment (we're not naming which ones)]] will often have people bringing up "less important" issues that are only loosely related to the discussion, and they will often receive a dismissive response to keep the discussion on topic.

** This is mocked in [[http://www.shortpacked.com/index.php?id=486 this]] ''WebComic/{{Shortpacked}}'' strip. "April, you SpoiledBrat! There are children starving in Africa!"

* Commonly used when an unrealistic element of fiction is being argued about; for example, if one person questions how Naboo in ''Franchise/StarWars'' can have an ElectiveMonarchy that elects a 14 year old queen, (or what the point of such an institution would actually be) the second states something like "[MST3KMantra And this is the biggest problem you have in a universe with mystic powers and spaceships as big as moons?]]"

* Commonly used when an unrealistic element of fiction is being argued about; for example, if one person questions how Naboo in ''Franchise/StarWars'' can have an ElectiveMonarchy that elects a 14 year old queen, (or what the point of such an institution would actually be) the second states something like "And this is the biggest problem you have in a universe with mystic powers and spaceships as big as moons?"

—->Kids in Afghanistan don’t have HBO!

* In social justice circles, this is derisively nicknamed "Oppression Olympics".

* Appears ''very'' frequently in ''ComicStrip/ForBetterOrForWorse'', when a character wants to shut up the complaints of another, typically long the lines of "You're sitting around complaining about a haircut when there are refugees in war-torn countries out there!"

* The Music/WeirdAl song "Eat It" opens with the lyrics "How come you're always such a fussy young man/Don't want no Captain Crunch, don't want no Raisin Bran/Well don't you know that other kids are starving in Japan/So eat it, just eat it." Keep in mind that, when this parody was written, Japan still was an economic superpower, so it's a parody of this way of thinking on top of that.

* In the book version of ''Literature/MommieDearest'', Creator/JoanCrawford does this with, "starving children in Europe." This is taking place just after UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, when postwar Europe was wracked by famine.

-->'''Katter''': I mean, y’know, people are entitled to their sexual proclivities. Let there be a thousand blossoms bloom, as far as I’m concerned. [[MoodWhiplash But I AIN’T spendin’ any time on it]], because in the meantime, every three months, a person is torn to pieces by a crocodile in North Queensland."

*** [[SelfDemonstratingArticle Psh, be quiet, there are people who don't even have computers!]]
*** [[UpToEleven All of you be quiet! There are people who are]] [[DeadBabyComedy dead babies!]]
*** ENOUGH! There are people who didn't even get a chance to ''exist'', even in dead baby form!

* The deaths of celebrities can be met with these. When ''Film/TheFastAndTheFurious'' star Creator/PaulWalker died in a car crash there was no lack of people who [[http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/652285-paul-walkers-death accused the public]] of crying over the death of one rich guy rather than worrying about people dying in wars. After the veritable ''flood'' of celebrity deaths in 2016, it got to the point where it was very hard to go on any comment-enabled newssite and read an article about the latest death without approximately 50% of the comments invoking this trope and some even straying into the territory of mocking those genuinely upset by the deaths.

* The deaths of celebrities can be met with these. When ''Film/TheFastAndTheFurious'' star Creator/PaulWalker died in a car crash there was no lack of people who [[http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/652285-paul-walkers-death accused the public]] of crying over the death of one rich guy rather than worrying about people dying in wars. After the veritable ''flood'' of celebrity deaths in 2016, it got to the point where it was very hard to go on any comment-enabled newssite and read an article about the latest death without approximately 50% of the comments invoking this trope and some even straying into the territory of mocking those genuinely upset by the deaths.

* On April 15th, 2019, the 856 year old Cathedral of Notre Dame, one of the world's most famous and historically significant buildings, caught fire and suffered widespread damage. As a reaction, several rich individuals donated millions of Euros to help rebuild it. Cue hordes of angered Internet what-aboutists claiming rebuilding Notre Dame is unimportant and that the money should be given to the poor, very nearly quoting the "starving children in Africa" phrase. Never mind that several countries and organizations continuously send millions in aid to struggling African nations, or that most countries fund projects and organizations aimed at helping the poor. Of course, none of these people volunteer their own money, or take into account that the so-called ultra rich are free to use their money for whatever they see fit.

* Some political discussions [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment (we're not naming which ones)]] will often have people bringing up "less important" issues that are only loosely related to the discussion, and they will often receive a dismissive response to keep the discussion on topic.

* Anti-feminists will occasionally bring up how women in Muslim theocracies are treated and how feminists never raise awareness for them. This is usually right after feminists start rallying around issues (similar, lesser, whatever) happening in their own countries.

[[folder: Newspaper Comics ]]

* In the ''ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}}'' book ''The Joy of Work'', Scott Adams responds to Norman Solomon's book ''The Trouble with Dilbert'' by writing a fictional interview between Solomon and Dogbert. When he has Solomon complain that ''Dilbert'' attacks {{Pointy Haired Boss}}es more than {{Corrupt Corporate Executive}}s, Dogbert's counterargument is that Solomon clearly supports teen pregnancy because he didn't write a book about that. What makes it more absurd is that, [[WordOfGod according to Adams himself in the same book,]] Normon Solomon's ''The Trouble With Dilbert'' only came about because of [[QuoteMine Solomon taking one of Adams' quotes about "Good things about downsizing" out of context]] (the original context was that, since he's always hammering on downsizing in his books and comics, if he could think of anything that is good about downsizing.)
* Appears ''very'' frequently in ''ComicStrip/ForBetterOrForWorse'', when a character wants to shut up the complaints of another, typically long the lines of "You're sitting around complaining about a haircut when there are refugees in war-torn countries out there!"
** This is mocked in [[http://www.shortpacked.com/index.php?id=486 this]] ''WebComic/{{Shortpacked}}'' strip. "April, you SpoiledBrat! There are children starving in Africa!"
* Many accusations of this fallacy are deconstructed by Creator/{{Quino}} in the form of FirstWorldProblems. For example: in one strip it shows a man walking unflinchingly through crime-ridden poverty-infested streets, until he arrives to his job as a TV host where he dedicates his program to people "With great angst and sadness caused by gaining weight and who wanted to show their figure by the pool this summer". In another it puts a side-by-side comparison of a rich woman and one from a Third World country, where they both complain about the unhealthy food their family eat (sweets and junk food in the rich woman's case and worms, rotten meat and infected water for the poor one).

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* The deaths of celebrities can be met with these. When ''Film/TheFastAndTheFurious'' star Creator/PaulWalker died in a car crash there was no lack of people who [[http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/652285-paul-walkers-death accused the public]] of crying over the death of one rich guy rather than worrying about people dying in wars. After the veritable ''flood'' of celebrity deaths in 2016, it got to the point where it was very hard to go on any comment-enabled newsbsite and read an article about the latest death without approximately 50% of the comments invoking this trope and some even straying into the territory of mocking those genuinely upset by the deaths.