Save the Whales, Save your Self-Worth

Hi, I hope you're enjoying this gloooorious snow day of ours (yes, I'm writing this much in advance). Not to attack you or anything, but on today's post, I'm here to tell you that you're selfish. I'm selfish. Hell, we're all selfish. OPA!

As Joy Williams says it, "it seems as though far too much attention has been lavished on you lately" (935). People generally think in their self-interest; okay, we've all known that. But what about the good deeds we do? What about donating to charitable causes, holding the door open even though the next person about to enter is ten feet away? Am I selfish then too?

So, last year, I went to this school club called The Space. While it sounds ambiguous and almost mystical, essentially we just talked about concepts and societal institutions that interested us. Most of our discussions ended up being about the education system or selfishness. Whenever we talked about selfishness, I automatically got on the offensive. "People donating is still selfish, because they do it to make themselves feel better", "at the end of the day, everything you do is inherently to benefit your circumstances, opportunities, or self-worth". To that, I did and still do react like this: 

Ok, and????

 In my opinion, analyzing the intention of good deeds is tiring. If someone donates to a charitable cause, why does it matter if they do it to make them feel better about themselves? At the end of the day, a donation is a donation, and those on the receiving end surely won't care what anyone's ulterior motive is. This is why distinctions need to be made on the different variations of selfish; it's too broad of a term. One form of selfishness is the negatively connoted one, the greed that expands to lack of consideration and empathy for others. The other form is more low key, and shouldn't necessarily have an unfavorable connotation- a selfishness that isn't paired with material self interest, but mental- when you do something to enhance your self worth.

Anyways, back to the earlier question: Am I selfish when I donate? According to 16 year old Eliya Imtiaz, "yes". But is that a bad thing? No. Since selflessness is almost impossible, this holiday season, I want YOU to employ the 2nd form of selfishness, and donate when you see the Santa hats outside your local Kroger.

Discomfort

Sometimes, satire can be uncomfortable. If you have to sharply inhale or even wince while reading or watching something satirical, you're not alone. While going through some of The Onion article titles, I looked a little something like this:

Like it was funny, but... yikes.

Oftentimes, satire does go a little too far. Occasionally, satire can cross the line. When it does, however, there's that classic retort of the first amendment protecting freedom of speech. This results in a sort of sunken place area (if you get that reference, we're friends) where people really really don't like what others are saying, but can't censor or stop it due to the first amendment. 

Anyways, as is common on social media, the production of memes are increasing. And with the increasing polarization of the right versus the left, memes are becoming more and more extreme. For example, take Pepe the Frog. I remember the good ol' days when this meme was sent on group chats and posted on social media in a wholesome, good natured way. However, people started using Pepe for alt-right memes, going wayyy too far. This resulted in Pepe the Frog being deemed a hate symbol by the Anti-Defamation League. Interestingly, a campaign has been started partly by the creator of Pepe to reclaim him from the depths of white supremacist memes. 

Now the question comes: how far is too far? It's interesting that although the image that symbolized alt-right was banned, its presence is still running rampant on all forms of social media. Although the first amendment guarantees protection, just because you can say something, does that mean you should?