There is nothing more depressing than “positive news”

https://theoutline.com/post/7552/the-danger-of-positive-news

by paulpauper • 7 years ago

20 15 7 years ago

Positive news is categorized not just by content but by framing and prominence...

Just like news news.

Just because you have a terrible attitude on life composed of torturing yourself with extreme mischaracterizations of reality and denying yourself any reprieve, doesn't mean you have a firmer grasp on reality. If you can't handle the status quo, you have an illness.

It's one thing to live in a little bubble where you don't need to confront what's wrong in the world; it's another to avoid getting dragged into the culture war by a torrent of stories framed entirely to embitter.

Yes, there are immigrant children in concentration camps on American soil...

No, the U.S. government isn't reoriented toward a goal of "gassing the kids". You need to take a chill pill.

You seem to have no trouble criticizing "positive news", and sure, some of it is just as delusional; but don't kid yourself and think for one second that it's any more insidious than your favourite extreme rage-bait nonsense, fueled by the far-stronger sharing impulse for angry news.

dexen• 7 years ago

While the parent comment is getting downvotes, probably due to the somewhat accusatory form, the facts behind it are universally true: our civilization is improving. If you took several metrics and weighted them by people's concern, you would see a positive trend [1]. Any "good news" is a statement of the fact, and should be a duh moment to everybody.

Granted, we need the "bad news" too, as certain things still need fixing. However living with a negative impression of the world is living in denial.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sm5xF-UYgdg

lurker458• 7 years ago

Civilization has improved _so far_. The underlying reason for that is the cheap and abundant energy source (fossil fuels). The bill for that is due and it will materialize by those metrics going down again.

comicjk• 7 years ago

Historical correction: no one is saying the US is gassing kids, that's confusion about what "concentration camp" means. Not every concentration camp is a Nazi death camp. Anytime you gather up the population in camps to keep control of them is a concentration camp (that's what the "concentration" part means). They were used by the British in the Boer War, by the Spanish in Cuba, and by the US in the Japanese internment.

The current US refugee camps may qualify, because the point is to end the previous policy of letting them free until their hearings - thus, concentration in the classic sense. On the other hand, there is a legitimate legal process for getting out eventually; in that sense they're more like ordinary prisons.

Anyway, take your own chill pill first.

zandjager• 7 years ago

Disagree. A constant stream of news unbalanced towards the negative doesn't necessarily reflect what is "reality". Reality contains as many positives as negatives!

Angostura• 7 years ago

Reality contains as many positives as negatives!

That's an interesting hypothesis, but is it true. There are actually two separate suggestions here:

1. Reality contains as many positives as negatives - possible, interesting philosophical assertion

2. Reality contains as many newsworthy positives as negatives - seems unlikely to me. No-one is really that interested in 'Kitten doesn't die, continues living as normal'.

sametmax2• 7 years ago

There is a huge difference between positive news, and news represented with an overly positive tone.

A new tech/drug/math/specie/dino bone is, to me, positive news. It don't need the reporter to scream "awesome" and add kittens when presenting it.

The problem is not positive news. It's that the US is becoming a parody of a 1960 sitcom, like in the excellent movie "Pleasantville", where everything is "fantastic".

Everybody is "so excited" about their new project, or "passionate" about their work. Their "best friend" is "amazing".

Everybody wants to hype up everything, and there is no more space for appreciating reality as it is. You can't say chicken wings are breath taking. What will be left to talk about your greatest achievements or the birth of you child ?

This is what depresses people.

Not positive news.

sysbin• 7 years ago

I agree with mostly everything except when it comes to drugs I’m not impressed.

My perspective is that a large crowd of potential buyers must need the “researchers find the new drug results exiting” to actually make their transactions. Similar for a mindset of clicking on ads. The marketers would prefer ads on content making a person genuinely excited.

sametmax2• 7 years ago

A person should say "excited" when they are in the same state a 5yo is when taken to ice cream.

You can be excited about a new drug you created. But I don't know many adults that would feel 5yo-excitement about anything. They may be proud. They may feel happy. But genuine excitation is rare, not a ten times a week event, even if your life is great.

So they should keep "excited" for those rare occasions when they are, indeed, excited.

We don't communicate anymore. We do PR. PR is fake, fake is depressing.

It's like with sugar. We figured that adding a fake excitement to something sells it better. So we added it everywhere. And now we need enormous doses of it, nuances are lost and it's not healthy.

eeZah7Ux• 7 years ago

Spot on. However, rather than a parody, this is quite orwellian.

Even more so when people who don't adopt this communication style are shunned for being "negative".

Nasrudith• 7 years ago

Fake or forced positivity is really the most depressing thing to deal with from my experience with depression. It suggests that the positive is fundamentally a lie.

On some level it is seen through as fake and dystopian - turning even being yourself into a luxury for the sake of delusion of others - either some high up who thinks it will aid metrics or the casual cruelty of a community who asks if you tried just not being depressed and clearly sees you as the "troublemaker" for not going along with their bullshit because you literally lack the motivation.

treerock• 7 years ago

What a bizarre website. Not sure if it's parody?!

RickJWagner• 7 years ago

If you look for depressing news, you'll find it. And you'll end up depressed.

If you look for good news, you'll find it. And you'll end up... thinking better of people.

drinfinity• 7 years ago

Everything is going to shit and we are all going to die in a horrible, horrible fire while being trampled by giant T-Rexes.

hackeraccount• 7 years ago

I don't think this person is complaining about what they think they're complaining about.

There is nothing more depressing than “positive news”

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