The text above has been circulating on Facebook a lot lately. I get annoyed every time I see it for all of the reasons listed below.
1. You can be annoyed or upset about high gas prices while also understanding the reasons the gas prices are high and also realizing it is better than being invaded by Russia. Most people have the capability to feel multiple things at once. Also, Comparative Suffering sucks.
2. People can choose to travel less, yes. People who live paycheck to paycheck and whose only “travel” is back and forth to work can’t just “travel less” Check your privilege.
3. Yes, many people can choose to carpool. Some people won’t be able to based for various reasons. They may live and work in places where they aren’t traveling at a time and direction as other people.
4. I used to work 20 miles from my house. Google Maps says it would take me 2 hours and 17 minutes to bike there. That is not an option. It would take some people that long to bike to their closest grocery store. We don’t all live in bikeable communities.
5. Sure, we can choose to walk. That would be 34 minutes to my closest grocery store. Double or triple that for other people. 7 hours to get to work. Maybe people should just sleep at their jobs? Again, that’s easy to say for people who work from home and live in a city. Not so simple for most people in the country.
6. Can we choose public transportation? I can take a train to get to DC or Baltimore. There was no public transport option to get to work. Walking to the grocery store would be a faster option for me, Maybe people live in a place with no public transportation. Most of the country does not live in cities with subways and buses.
It’s nice and easy to share a meme like this on social media. It sounds good. You think it makes you look good. You are much too good of a person to think about gas prices when a war is happening. Everyone else should be more like you, right? Isn’t that the point? To show everyone you are better than them?
Next time, maybe stop and think about the meme before posting. High gas prices are a killer for a good portion of the country. They can’t just stop driving. They have to drive to survive. Higher prices likely mean less money for staples like food and shelter.
Maybe next time before you decide to post something lecturing people on what they should care about you should check your privilege and bias and consider
The World's Common Tater 
Omg I saw this yesterday and got outraged!! This will be part of my post for Friday. Do not be grateful for an accident of birth. Don’t people think about what they share?
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I’m pretty sure all they think is “this will make me look like a better person than everyone else”
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But that’s a problem. Yeah…I’m beating those people up soon….
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I agree 150%. It is definitely a privilege to not worry about a lot of things…gas, food, shelter prices etc. Or to have the ability to adjust your life to reduce the impact an increase in price has. It drives me batty that people post this kind of crap.
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Especially when so many of them are always saying everyone else needs to think about others more. I guess only certain others.
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Well said Tater. There are so many types of privilege that people are absolutely blind to. I get that our natural inclination is to view life through our own lens, but take a step back and think first. No wonder you were annoyed – I’d have been raging. It’s nothing more than virtue signalling 😦
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I keep waiting for someone to comment where I shared this on Facebook to defend the meme but I think they will all just ignore it so they can keep feeling superior
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Amen!
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I was thinking today how thankful I am that I’m not driving to commute 30-minutes each way to work, like I did when my daughter was in high school. Then driving all over So Cal for swim meets. I’m thankful my husband is working remotely. I’m thankful my daughter quit her job that was $15 an hour, was an hour drive each way — and involved driving a lot on the job.
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Yeah. We are fortunate we don’t have to drive much
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We drove so much more a few years ago. I don’t know how some people can afford to makes ends meet if they have a big commute.
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