The rule for measuring suffering

[JustSwingingTheD]

Tens of thousands of people have died this year in the Ethiopian civil conflict. But unlike with Ukraine, nobody talks about it in the media, and nobody gives a fuck, because the ethiopians are poor.

Don't get me wrong, the ukrainians are pretty poor on the european standard too, so nobody would care much if some isolated deadly incident went down in Kiev, let's say a terrorist attack. But it's a full scale war there, and it affects our daily lives through the economy (especially if you live in europe), so that's why people talk about it.

We are lamenting the things we get told about by the media. We get told about things that affect the economy. Or about things that happen to people either as rich as us, or richer. That is because as human beings we are all equally important, as long as we are not poor.

So here's the rule: Whenever people as rich as us suffer, it's a shocking reminder of the fact that we are not rich enough yet. Whenever people richer than us suffer, that is just entertaining, because fuck those rich bastards anyways.

 

[Celerity]

I mean, I would argue, but you're not completely wrong. At least for White Americans, I believe ethnicity also plays a big role in the example you gave.

 

[hamvil]

I think you are right, we in the white first world can be pretty self-centered.

 

[Dysgenic Pup]

I think it's more complicated than that. Ethiopia is not a major global player and Russia is. Russia is a major political rival to the west, specifically NATO countries. Ethiopia is pretty much globally irrelevant, which I guess is correlated with the GDP/wealth of the state. If China were to invade Taiwan in the same fashion as Russia has invaded Ukraine, there would probably be much, much more media coverage of that war in Taiwan than the war in Ukraine has been receiving. The Taiwanese are not white, nor are the Chinese. Also, what is occurring in Ethiopia is an internal conflict, which is different than a foreign invasion. The internal conflict in the Ukrainian region of Donbas wasn't on the minds of most of the west from 2014-2022. Many media companies want to receive as many eyes as possible, and people are naturally more interested in traditional wars than civil wars. There are probably many more things to consider. I honestly think we would still be interested in the war in Ukraine, even if it didn't affect us economically at all. So I would say our attention to world events relies on a large number of factors.

 

[SarRy]

It's all about proximity. Things that are more directly influential on your life are given more attention. It makes sense in some ways. I mean, depending on what stories are to be believed, the U.S.A. is heavily interested in Ukraine because they have been interfering in their internal affairs long before now, which may have influenced the start of the conflict. I mean, a lot of information on that came out through the domestic turmoils and scandals with Biden and Trump. Just like blockading Japan led to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Just like the sinking of the Lusitania, that was being used to ship weapons to Britain, led to the U.S. entering the Great War. A fake attack on a warship led to the U.S. going to war in Vietnam. So on and so on.

Smedley Butler had some interesting things to say about the nature of war after seeing first hand in the Great War what was going on. It stands as a historical fact that the rich profit from war while the common man who fights goes home with nothing gained. But, that's just my view. The Christmas Truce should have taught everyone that if they would just refuse to fight, the rich and powerful couldn't make their silly wars for profit. A family squabble amongst cousins brought the world to war once. We should have learned by now.

 

[not4us]

people are naturally more interested in traditional wars than civil wars.

There was no "civil war" in Ukraine, The Donbas war was started and perpetuated - through funding, heavy weaponry, supplies, and troops - by Russia. It was not a civil war. Moscow established direct military command there. Russian propaganda is very powerful.
I'm Ukrainian.

 

[JustSwingingTheD]

I think it's more complicated than that.

Sure it is. Doesn't change the fact that while roughly about the same number of people have died in these conflicts this year, the other conflict gets talked about and the other doesn't.

 

[Pluto]

Sure it is. Doesn't change the fact that while roughly about the same number of people have died in these conflicts this year, the other conflict gets talked about and the other doesn't.

"All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."