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False Positivity reeks of Privilege.

By Mat Jefferson Richter

The pandemic has been continuously causing the loss of many lives and the deterioration of global economy. While it is ideal to incur positivity amid such crisis, the most affected ones, particularly the socially-disadvantaged, the underprivileged, and the frontliners, cannot just simply "pray away" the growling of an empty stomach.

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These people then are in need of money to suffice the necessities of their family, and you cannot force them to just stay at their homes and abide by the law, as they are fighting for their means of survival each day. To stay at home reeks of privilege; how a privileged individual already has food provided on his table, regardless if he stays at home or not, unlike the poorest of the poor.

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Many artists and social media influencers such as Vice Ganda and Gary Valencianohave also voiced out their opinions regarding the pandemic. Most of them reeked of false positivity and elitism, telling people to just pray, stay at home, and abide by the law. Have they even thought of people who are residing on the streets and in slum areas? The less privileged who are reliant on their daily income?

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If you perceive them as merely disobedient and ungrateful people; someone who merely lacks self-discipline, then you have to work up on your thinking and view the crisis through different lenses. What they lack is a competent government that can provide effective solutions to flatten the curve and can implement laws that do not merely favor the privileged.

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The poorest of the poor are incapable of digesting positivity for their breakfast and dinner; it will not fill up their empty stomach. One cannot be optimistic when tomorrow is uncertain and all that is left on the table is an empty plate. False positivity is when you see the famished suffer from hunger and you try to feed them with bible verses and pretentious optimism. Staying positive then has its limitations, too.

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Acknowledging your privilege is one thing you have to work on if you loathe the ways on how the less privileged find ways to survive amid the pandemic. It is not merely due to the lack of discipline; a person whose privilege is less oftentimes forces him to stand firm at the end of a cliff.

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To you, this pandemic is mere boredom as you are just mandated to stay at home and stay to optimistic, but to some, each day that has passed by and will pass by is a battle deciding between the need to survive and the need to abide by the law.

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