Basic Trope: A fallacy wherein one argues that being concerned over one issue means you don't care about some relatively larger issue.
- Straight: When Sharon complains about not being able to find the perfect prom dress, her mother Shannon asks why she isn't more interested in helping to clothe homeless and destitute people instead.
- Exaggerated:
- Sharon eats some of her vegetables, but stops before clearing her plate, prompting an immediate "There are children starving in Africa!"
- Sharon lives in a crummy apartment with cracked walls, no heating and electricity that goes out a few times each week, for which she must pay the rather high rent on her minimum-wage job. When Sharon complains about her living conditions, she is told that her apartment and job are luxurious because children in Africa have it worse.
- Downplayed:
- Sharon complains about her prom dress hunt, but stops short of calling it her worst problem since she remembered a conversation she had with Shannon about bigger problems earlier.
- Sharon complains about the abnormally hot and dry weather that has been happening over this season and the ensuing water restrictions in their city. Her mother Shannon agrees that this is a big problem, but also speculates how much even worse the situation is for the following:
- Their relatives struggling in the farm with outright droughts and crop failures from the same weather;
- The homeless who don't have the luxury of air conditioning and clean water to drink to stay hydrated;
- The essential workers who have to keep working no matter what, unlike Sharon and Shannon.
- Justified:
- Sharon really is whining over some extremely minor issue.
- Shannon is rather self-righteous and quick to criticize using this trope.
- Shannon comes from a less privileged background. Unlike her daughter, she might not have the privilege of picking her prom dress, let alone attending prom when she was Sharon's age.
- Shannon is passionate about helping the destitute and homeless. Or she works/volunteers with the destitute and homeless, and is thus familiar with what they have to endure every day.
- Sharon's complaints frequently cast judgement on other people who aren't really doing anything to harm others. Such as when she complains about how one of her friends no longer cares about being fashionable.
- Inverted:
- Sharon concerns herself only with the plight of others, ignoring her own problems, leading Alice to try and convince her to focus on sorting her own issues out, no matter how small they seem in comparison.
- Sharon is worried about the starving children in Ruritania, and Bob shows his own Skewed Priorities by responding, "How can you talk about that when we're running low on nachos!"
- Sharon tells Shannon that she is graduating from college, only for Shannon to tell her that she shouldn't be happy about that because other people have it better than her.
- Subverted:
- When Shannon asks why Sharon isn't more interested in clothing the homeless rather than thinking of herself, Sharon indignantly retorts that she donated a whole load of her clothes to the local homeless shelter that morning, and that just because there are serious problems in the world doesn't mean she's not entitled to consider her minor problems as well.
- It turns out that Sharon does not have the money, because she donated it to a charity intending to help Africa.
- Double Subverted:
- Upon hearing that Sharon donated her clothes to a local homeless shelter, Shannon begins to criticise her for not considering people suffering in Africa instead.
- Alternatively, Shannon leaves satisfied, and it is revealed that Sharon did no such thing — she only said that to stop Shannon's criticism.
- Shannon then gets on Sharon's case for not making sure the charity is honest and effective. She takes that criticism further if it turns out the charity is corrupt and/or ineffective.
- Parodied:
- While Shannon is working, she leaves her children in the care of a robot who responds to everything with a pre-programmed phrase among these lines.
- Sharon gives away all her money, clothes, food, and other possessions and gives a dozen homeless people the run of her apartment. She still gets this having voluntarily made herself broke, naked, hungry, overworked, and cramped in the name of The Needs of the Many.
- Zig-Zagged: Shannon appeals to worse problems in all arguments. Sharon challenges her to explain why it's relevant, and Shannon surprisingly gives some very good reasons in at least one case. Then later she complains that Shannon is getting distracted by the big issues and should concentrate on her own personal issues, again for no reason other than the writers wanted her to say such a thing. Then Shannon starts indulging in the fallacy all over again.
- Averted:
- When Sharon complains about not being able to find a perfect prom suit, Shannon doesn't ask her why she isn't more interested in helping to clothe homeless and destitute people instead.
- Sharon doesn't complain at all.
- Enforced: "We can have Sharon get over her own self-centeredness by having someone else point out the plight of others."
- Lampshaded: "You know, just because I have problems and I mention them, it doesn't mean I'm not aware of others' problems."
- Invoked: Shannon is losing the argument, then thinks: "Aha! This will stump her!"
- Exploited: A charity uses the fact that people say these things a lot so that way other people come and donate them.
- Defied: Sharon: "Yes, Mom, I know what you're going to say, but it's got nothing to do with this, so don't say it."
- Discussed: "Isn't it weird how Mom keeps going on about those starving kids in some country I've never heard of, about a problem I have no idea how to tackle, and accuses me of not doing enough when I haven't seen her so much as send a quarter to charity? Meh."
- Conversed: Sharon watches someone on TV appeal to worse problems and asks, "Worse? How could it be worse?"
- Deconstructed:
- Constantly hearing that her own problems are insignificant compared to others' takes its emotional toll on Sharon, leading her to believe that nothing is wrong with her and that it's not significant. She later develops several medical problems and starves to death, but doesn't see it coming because she doesn't view it as important enough to deal with.
- Altenatively, Sharon then confronts Shannon about how to address the bigger problem, only for Shannon to admit that she has no idea how to start.
- Reconstructed:
- Sharon channels that energy into a lifetime of community service, eventually telling Shannon off later in life by saying, "Yeah, there are worse problems ... and, unlike you, I'm doing something about them."
- Shannon realizes that not everyone has the same emotional/mental tolerance and acknowledges that every now and then, Sharon has a right to complain, and learns to respect and address that. Sharon, on the other hand, grows in her perseverance and her selflessness, and actively channels herself in doing charity work. Both happily appreciate each other as good mentors, inspiring the family's grandchildren.
- Plotted a Good Waste: Shannon's over-reliance on these fallacies is meant to illustrate the disconnect between her and her daughter.
- Played for Laughs: Shannon replies with these so often that Sharon can finish the thought alongside her, word for word, rolling her eyes at the tired old cliché.
- Played for Drama:
- Shannon's insistent self-righteousness and overreliance on this trope give Sharon a complex, in that she is led to believe that even her serious problems are insignificant. Because of those very problems, and the fact that nobody, not even her, seems to care about them, she is eventually Driven to Suicide.
- Jamal overhears the conversation, and is offended by his home continent being stereotyped as being poor and desolate while America is free of those problems.
- Implied: Sharon is packing her unused possessions and emptying her wallet into a box labelled "For People Who Need It More Than I Do" while frowning and muttering, "Thanks, Mom," to herself.
You want a link back to Appeal to Worse Problems? Why are you concerned about that when there are poor, disease-ridden children starving in Africa?
