Not talking about thanking others, but like a way of thinking that I find often especially with religious people, the whole “oh you’re sad you can’t afford good food? Be thankful you have legs” etc… I don’t like it and I don’t feel comfortable about it, is there like research to back it up or deny it, do you have any personal experience with it?
Nothing wrong with being thankful, but what you mention does seem to increase drastically with the actual circumstances.
“I have terminal cancer and I’m in agony every day, but at least I’m not (insert somehow worse circumstance)”
I think it’s a form of copium, where we feel like our circumstances are really bad, but there is actually probably somebody going through something worse. It’s like how some people going through some drama in their lives will watch shows about serial killers to see that the drama is lower in comparison to that.
It would certainly be inappropriate to say that to someone else, but if someone going through circumstances wants to cope this way, it also feels wrong to say that they shouldn’t be able to.