Jezebel 
Enter your username and password.
-
posts about #brightsided more → 
Bright-Sided: The Negative Consequences Of Positive Thinking
New York, 11:38 AM
Thu Dec 10
68 posts in the last 24 hours
Tip your editors:
Editor-in-Chief:
Anna Holmes
| Twitter
Deputy Editor:
Dodai Stewart
| Twitter
Senior Contributing Editor:
Tracie Egan
| Twitter
Contributing Editors:
Anna North
| Twitter
Sadie Stein
| Twitter
Reporter:
Irin Carmon
| Twitter
Editorial Assistant:
Margaret Hartmann
| Twitter
Contributors:
Rich Juzwiak
Email | Twitter
Latoya Peterson
Email
Jenna Sauers
Lizzie Skurnick
Interns:
Katy Kelleher
Twitter
Weekends/Commenter Moderator:
Hortense
| Twitter
| posts about #brightsided more → |
Bright-Sided: The Negative Consequences Of Positive Thinking |
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
10/22/09
The most eye-opening theme of the interview for me was the notion of other people being intolerant to your experiences if they are not framed in a positive light. Her example was of feeling isolated when she tried to communicate to others her fear and anger over her cancer. However, people in general are intolerant of people who express "negative" thoughts in all areas of social interaction. Sure, your close friends will try to comfort you when you are feeling down, but try giving the grocery store cashier a response other than "good", or "great!" when she asks you how you're doing. People are rendered almost speechless, and squirm with discomfort if you deviate from the positive or fail to mention a silver lining to your troubles.
And don't even get me started on the subject of workplace positivity. Having worked at Amazon.com - with a corporate culture like a cult of optimism, where anyone who spoke out against the 60 hour work weeks and lack of advancement opportunities was blacklisted and labeled a malcontent, and "not a team player". #brightsided
10/22/09
10/22/09
I also hate the business-speak idea of not referring to things as problems but calling them "opportunities." If you put a positive spin on everything it belittles the real problems that need to be addressed. #brightsided
10/22/09
10/22/09
As someone who has suffered from CFIDS for 12 years, I find that hard to understand. I have given up a wonderful and glorious life to live like a vegetable because I have low self-esteem? I think not. #brightsided
10/22/09
Honesty, seriously- am I the only one who can't stand being lied to by the people they work for?
Seriously, this whole topic is something that has been buzzing in my brain for the last year or so and I'm really glad Ehrenreich put it to paper for everyone to read. #brightsided
10/22/09
"With the result that workers are less likely to complain about their employers' increasingly capricious control over their lives."
Good God... how many times have I heard from my co-workers that my pointing out the horrible way that the company treats us is me being "negative" and "you must be so unhappy hating your job." I don't hate my "job" necessary I just can't blind myself the the horrid way they treat us.
It really gets me angry because I want the others to start getting angry about this stuff. People these days are so freaking passive about being treated like crap by their employers. This is part of why so many companies have no health plans or why people work 12 hour shifts without getting overtime because people got so pacified with "be grateful you have a job" and "being negative only makes the situation worse" that they don't GET angry anymore.
Sorry. I just needed that out of my system. #brightsided
10/21/09
Collective action against layoffs? Layoffs, from a strictly macro-level perspective, can be good for the economy. If a firm can't lay workers off, it can't hire them either, and then you end up in situations where there is widespread youth unemployment (ex- France).
On the individual/family level, layoffs are indeed terrible. I think it's fine to try to reframe them positively from that perspective #brightsided
10/21/09
10/21/09
10/22/09
10/22/09
10/21/09
10/22/09
Then they usually cried. It was awkward. #brightsided
10/22/09
10/22/09
10/21/09
10/21/09
If someone's going through a serious illness, when people say, "You can fight it, you're strong, you'll be fine!" they're devaluing both the emotions of the person going through it, but also the lives of anyone who died of the same thing. Just weren't strong enough fighters or positive thinkers, I guess. 'Cause otherwise they would've been fine. No pressure, though: be happy OR DIE. #brightsided
10/21/09
10/22/09
10/21/09
10/21/09
I have a boss that, despite it being a SHITTY day, loves to say "well at least you have a job!"
I've been trying to figure out how to describe how annoying it is when people say that, beyond the fact that I think THEY have a shitty attitude.
I guess it just seems so...complacent. And that's one thing I'm not. #brightsided
10/22/09
I feel like it was mentioned it in The Grapes of Wrath but I haven't read it in awhile to be sure... maybe I'm thinking of another piece of lit about the Depression? #brightsided
10/21/09