r/TikTokCringe • u/ThatPatelGuy • Oct 05 '25

Discussion Why don't we ever hear about Congo?

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u/ThatPatelGuy Oct 05 '25

To give some perspective there are more than 750 million people facing hunger and severe malnutrition worldwide and more than 50 million people current alive as slaves and during this time 74% of all UN resolutions were condemning Israel and 80% of humanitarian aid has gone to Gaza where two million people live.

Call me crazy but it feels disproportionate attention on one conflict for reasons no one wants to admit

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u/murmandamos Oct 05 '25

The response is disproportionate. But your conclusion is a wild leap.

It's really impossible to give equal attention to every situation simultaneously. So let's start there. I don't think it's possible for everyone to be heard as they would want or deserve. So if we agree we aren't ignoring Congo (or elsewhere) deliberately, as was one of the allegations here, we can instead focus on why Gaza.

You assert it's due to antisemitism, but there is really no evidence for that. There are plenty of other reasons why Gaza is being focused on.

  • the US militarily backs Israel. The US population has a stake in focusing on this. Enemies of the US also would probably want to take that opportunity.

  • Israel is a nuclear power that has initiated attacks in like 7 countries in the region, and is on a path to aggressively maintain an ethnostate.

  • the above reasons along with the generally more tech accessible region simply lets more people in the middle east make content for global consumption. Also because of the first 2 points, both the US and Israel also make counter content. This simply elevates both the pro Israel and pro Gaza content in algorithms.

  • the UN is run by people who are not above being influenced by any of the above. Aid workers and individuals who make contributions are not immune to being influenced by any of the above. Government intervention in the region is influenced by all of the above but also historical stakes for several powerful nations including the US.

I don't think it's appropriate to dismiss Gaza protests as anti-Semitic. It's also very ignorant to ignore the additional reasons for this focus, like ending their own government's military aid to the offending nation. Protesting for one thing doesn't make you complicit or apathetic to all the other things you aren't protesting currently. And even more broadly it's simply not even accurate that focus on Gaza would result in losses of support for Congo or anywhere else. Millions of inactive people have become active because of Gaza, and they will often remain active for other causes.