Law of Retford - a.k.a. "Will someone think of the starving Africans/Haitians?"
tghe-retford
Posts: 26,449 Forum Member
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I'm starting a new meme, why should 4Chan and /b/ get all the credit for the memes out there? Goes along a similar line to Godwin's Law - in a forum discussion about benefits or poverty, the likelihood of a "starving African/Haitian/other third world country" being mentioned to belittle the other person approaches 1 as the forum discussion lengthens. Feel free to spread this across the Internet - Urban Dictionary and Know Your Meme would be a good start. 
:D:D
Now, this is General Discussion, so serious question. Why do people resort to using this fallacy when someone is talking about poverty in this country, when they have no idea that the reason why many people in third world countries are stricken with poverty is because of war, corrupt regimes who take money and spend it on giving themselves sports cars and mansions whilst allowing their citizens to starve and disasters which are beyond the control of the average citizen in the aforementioned third world countries?
I had this happen before, been without money before and someone told me "think of a starving African with no food or water". Now whilst that is a tragedy, it isn't my fault that the African has no food or water, blame for that should go to the (corrupt) Government of the country that the African lives in. It's a fallacy and belittling tactic of the worst and most tragic order.
Maybe people need to think about why people in third world countries are stricken without food, water or essentials before using that easy cop-out to undermine the argument of someone trying to highlight poverty in this country.
:D:DNow, this is General Discussion, so serious question. Why do people resort to using this fallacy when someone is talking about poverty in this country, when they have no idea that the reason why many people in third world countries are stricken with poverty is because of war, corrupt regimes who take money and spend it on giving themselves sports cars and mansions whilst allowing their citizens to starve and disasters which are beyond the control of the average citizen in the aforementioned third world countries?
I had this happen before, been without money before and someone told me "think of a starving African with no food or water". Now whilst that is a tragedy, it isn't my fault that the African has no food or water, blame for that should go to the (corrupt) Government of the country that the African lives in. It's a fallacy and belittling tactic of the worst and most tragic order.
Maybe people need to think about why people in third world countries are stricken without food, water or essentials before using that easy cop-out to undermine the argument of someone trying to highlight poverty in this country.
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Alot of poverty in this country is self-inflicted by people who have no money for food until payday, yet are surrounded by lovely things such as phones, playstations, TVs and a new dining table. There doesn't seem to be any 'planning ahead'.
If I have £100 and my bills come to £80, I'd have £20 left over...at least that's how I see it. Lots of my friends would see it that they have "£20 left to spend".
Is the inspiration for this my post in the politics forum about poverty ?
Oh dear oh dear oh dear.
There is no such thing as real poor in this country, if you think there is then you should do some research on Haiti and the slums of Indian cities, that is where you find real poor.
Poor to me is having no running water, no food, raw sewage, covered in flies, risk of dysentry and cholera that is real poor
In the UK being poor means having the basic Sky channels as opposed to the sports and movies channels, having a 32" plasma instead of a 42",
Oh good, I get to re-use my "oh dear oh dear oh dear" twice in the same thread.
Not sure about you, but seeing this fallacy all the time is grinding my gears:
Person A: The low paid are being exploited by employers using loopholes to pay them a meagre wage/The homeless face being turfed off the street under new Vagrancy laws and it's immoral/The poor are being taken for a ride because they can't get credit from the banks.
Person B: They're not poor. Someone in an African slum or in Haiti is poor - no food, no money, disease, shanty towns...
Person A: That avoids my point completely. Whilst that is a tragedy, isn't it the responsibility of the countries Government to help the poor of their country, instead of using money given to them to finance war or help themselves?
Person B: Will someone please think of the starving Africans/Haitians?
(and loop...)
Silly me... the hard working family™ can't afford toast... and they're economy beans stolen from the spoiled section behind Nettos.
No but a bit of perspective is in order.
I live in the London/Surrey borders and the council estate half a mile from me where the local poor live it is quicker to count the houses that DON'T have a Sky dish and several of the cars on the estate are 4 wheel drives and in one case a Jaguar, if this is how the so called poor live then they would be considered having the lifestyle of royalty in many parts of the world
The people who experience poverty on that kind of scale, it's not their fault either.
Could you elaborate on what you mean by "been without money"?
Your only options are to borrow money or sell something.
LOL.
Maybe the problem here is that Bright House™ and all of the other similar stores are only open when employed people are already at work? Perhaps if they did a couple of late nights, us workers could also be mesmerised by their sales pitch of, "This TV will only cost you £9 a week and if you ever get sick of paying for it, just give us a call and we'll come and collect it from you. Even if it's in 4 years time!"
OK.
So by this argument people in those countries have more of an excuse or reason for being in poverty than people in this country where there is considerably less excuse for being in poverty - seeing as we have a theoretically less corrupt government and greater opportunities for citizens. By that argument.
On the issue of the poor though, I think it's true that the 'poverty' here isn't comparable to that of the other nations. There's also the fact that many 'poor' people in this country are in some way responsible for their 'poverty' (minus a few obvious exceptions) where as those in 3rd world countries have little control over their life. That's not to say our 'poor' don't deserve help or compassion, but the help they need might not be just money.
In this country we often think the solution to poverty is to throw more money at people, ignoring the fact many people have/had money but choose not to spend it wisely. When they spend that money the same way, they end up just as poor.
You do have a point there to be fair.
So you have no food, water, electricity?
Or nowhere to live? Wet, cold, starving, diseased?
Couldn't have said it better! Very well put.
Oh and if you have to be conspicuous enough to mention that you want it to become a meme, it won't.
This is something a Government should be doing. I hope that other third world countries will begin to enact welfare systems to help improve the quality of life of their citizens, but I suspect many will have a vested interest not to.
Not much I can do to bring political change to third world countries, because I ain't the financial minister of Nigeria to give one example!