Oh my yes ... those "helpful phrases"...

I always laugh at the phrase "first world problems". I think if one is IN the first world, and have first world problems, that's understandable, deserving of some level of sympathy, and probably better than having THIRD world problems in a first world country! Is sympathy only valid if offered to a socially isolated, empoverished quadruplegic living in a box next to a gleaming skyscraper? Are everybody else's admittedly less drastic concerns immediately rendered completely null and void?

Another "helpful" phrase I'm bothered by is "it could be worse". Yes. I KNOW it could be worse. Don't remind me, because I'll probably start worrying about it getting worse! Anyway, I'm upset because I'm wanting things to be BETTER. Isn't that what we're supposed to do ... have ambitions and aspirations and try to better our lives and ourselves? Or should we drink the "it could be worse" Kool-Aid (TM) and eat something sweet until the feeling passes?

Worst of all (so I can get the rant fully off my chest) is hearing people vicously and relentlessly complain about ... other people complaining. What IS that? Lack of empathy? Misanthropy? Compassion fatigue? A desire to have something even worse to complain about? Being a troll?? I must know the answer.

Ahhhhh ... my snark is spent, my day now complete.

But ... melodramatic oceans of pity for literally every minor little boo-boo .... I agree, that can equally go too far.