relative privation fallacy
20 Dec 2025 - 21 Dec 2025
- X is not a problem because there exists a problem Y which is worse.
- This doesn't seem so much a "fallacy" is a rhetorical move, albeit kind of shitty. Dodging the problem.
- Ah yeah the expression First World problem - Wikipedia is definitely partaking of this.
- Except when it is used for scaling rather than denial. It's kind of a moral lesson. Not a very good one because it is based on shame, but the intention is good. Your problems which seem so large are pretty easy given what other people have routinely dealt with.
Classic example: "You can't complain about your headache when people are dying of cancer."
- Not a useful thing to say. Doesn't alleviate any pain, that's for sure. What if it is code for:
Your headache must be very unpleasant and difficult for you, although forgive me if I reserve my sympathy for those who have suffered quite a bit more.
- That's also a bit shitty.
- Huh, I agree with Claude: the example from Ben Kamphaus is not really a relative privation fallacy, more like "perfectionist fallacy"
- Actually easily solved by beware of "exist"
- An example from fiction: In Deadwood, Sol Starr, in response to antisemitic jibes, says something like "I've been called worse by better", as a way of shrugging it off (no doubt a good adaptation).