the suffering olympics
The pointless endeavor of comparing different tragedies or histories of oppression to one another by attempting to quantify the suffering and/or injustice of each, so as to determine which tragedy was more tragic, or which oppressed peoples were more unjustly oppressed.
Jamie: Did you heard about the bombing in Boston?
Frank: The Arab world suffers violence like this every day as a result of US foreign policy.
Jamie: ...let's not play the Suffering Olympics.
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Alan: The fight for LGBT rights is this generation's great civil rights movement.
Rob: Their is no comparison between the struggles African-Americans faced and the struggle of the LGBT community.
Allison: Neither compare to the struggle women have faced.
Alan: Do we really need to play the Suffering Olympics?
Frank: The Arab world suffers violence like this every day as a result of US foreign policy.
Jamie: ...let's not play the Suffering Olympics.
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Alan: The fight for LGBT rights is this generation's great civil rights movement.
Rob: Their is no comparison between the struggles African-Americans faced and the struggle of the LGBT community.
Allison: Neither compare to the struggle women have faced.
Alan: Do we really need to play the Suffering Olympics?
Suffering Olympics
(1.) When someone tries to hold a contest on whose had it worse, as if suffering was a cereal box with a prize at the bottom.. And not in fact, a depressing reality with no winners.
(2.) Employing mental gymnastics to try and cement the message that your suffering is the only suffering that counts.
A suffering olympics can be held in either a one on one scenario (where the person directly compares their own suffering)...Or it could be a context where the person compares first world to third world problems, and individual vs. Systemic, (always as if one cancels out the other. )
(2.) Employing mental gymnastics to try and cement the message that your suffering is the only suffering that counts.
A suffering olympics can be held in either a one on one scenario (where the person directly compares their own suffering)...Or it could be a context where the person compares first world to third world problems, and individual vs. Systemic, (always as if one cancels out the other. )
People who try to turn other people's pain into the suffering olympics, usually have one of two goals:
(1.) They're purely seeking personal vindication, because they're too dumb to realize this isn't a contest anyone should want to win.
(2.) They're trying to police someone else's feelings, boundaries or expectations, after being called out for bad behavior. (I.E. I'm not that bad because I had it so much worse growing up. (Or) How dare you even suggest I modify my behavior in any way! Aren't you aware there are children in Africa dying of AIDS?!)
(1.) They're purely seeking personal vindication, because they're too dumb to realize this isn't a contest anyone should want to win.
(2.) They're trying to police someone else's feelings, boundaries or expectations, after being called out for bad behavior. (I.E. I'm not that bad because I had it so much worse growing up. (Or) How dare you even suggest I modify my behavior in any way! Aren't you aware there are children in Africa dying of AIDS?!)