REAL problems = expressions of identity

When discussing companies, the term “real problem” is misleading because even though people who use the term will offer some cliched examples (climate tech, world hunger) the point of the term is to point at the thing being criticized, not the thing being aspired to.

Space exploration may not have less to do with real problems than a yacht with torture chambers. For evil dictators who can party and torture dissidents at the same time.

All "problems" are real. Real problems are actually an expression of identity. Evangelizing “real problems” is a way to do identity politics by indirect means.