A recent piece of sad news is that Cecil the lion has been killed. He was killed by a trophy hunter and, understandably so this has provoked a negative reaction from many people across the internet. However, this negative reaction itself has provoked a negative reaction from people who think there are more important things to be worried about. I don’t like this.
The targets of these “there are more important things” arguments tend to be individual social media users who have expressed their sadness. The fact is there are more important things (racial murders committed by the American police force, atrocities happening in Syria being the two most commonly cited) but people are in no way wrong for expressing their feelings about Cecil. If they knew about these other situations they would likely be doing the same, but the problem is our media: they wouldn’t report on such controversial topics as that, or, if they do, will not make a big thing of it, but they will make a big deal of the killing of a lion. The fact is that people are busy and not everybody can be expected to keep up with all the goings on in the world, so nobody is in a position to judge somebody because they said something about Cecil and not about something else. What happened to that lion was bad and I am pleased that it is being acknowledged. It is sad that other stories do not get much coverage, but it is better that people comment about Cecil than if it were another thing that went on ignored.
The targets of these “there are more important things” arguments tend to be individual social media users who have expressed their sadness. The fact is there are more important things (racial murders committed by the American police force, atrocities happening in Syria being the two most commonly cited) but people are in no way wrong for expressing their feelings about Cecil. If they knew about these other situations they would likely be doing the same, but the problem is our media: they wouldn’t report on such controversial topics as that, or, if they do, will not make a big thing of it, but they will make a big deal of the killing of a lion. The fact is that people are busy and not everybody can be expected to keep up with all the goings on in the world, so nobody is in a position to judge somebody because they said something about Cecil and not about something else. What happened to that lion was bad and I am pleased that it is being acknowledged. It is sad that other stories do not get much coverage, but it is better that people comment about Cecil than if it were another thing that went on ignored.
(Here is an extra good Sellr blog post I wrote.)
