My girlfriend is vegan which forces me into some unusual restaurants. Yesterday for lunch we went to this granola place and there was a round table discussion of 7 Gen Zers, powerful ideas being exchanged.
One guy drops this gem, he complains about toxic positivity. My brain shut down immediately but my girlfriend was able to listen in. He explained it as somebody who’s always sharing positive experiences, he’s so positive that he sucks out your own positivity and makes you miserable. My girlfriend had to explain this to me twice, think my brain was rebooting the first time. If I had one more beer in me I would’ve pulled up a chair and partaken in this fascinating discussion. Probably for the best I didn’t.
I put this under humor because the whole damned thing is hilarious to me. Anybody else heard of this?
To touch on the “vegan restaurant” thing.
My daughter is not a vegetarian, but eats zero red meat and some poultry.
A couple of years ago she came to my work for the day and we went to eat at this vegan/organic restaurant (she loved it) and to be frank, my body rejected that shit!!!
The only thing I can even remotely compare this to is the “always has a similar story” guy. You know, the one guy who no matter what you say always has something to match it.
I’ve heard of it and that description isn’t very accurate. Toxic positivity is more about people trying to force others to “just be positive” as though it will solve all problems. It is an issue when, for example, they pretend positivity can do things like cure cancer, or when they deny reality because anything negative isn’t allowed to be discussed.
Maybe you’ve never encountered it. There are people who have been diagnosed with cancer, only to be told that they have to be positive all the time in order for their treatment to work. It gets ridiculous sometimes.
Jeez, I’m guilty of one of those things in the graphic. I rarely get depressed for long because I remember that a lot of people are worse off than I am.
In the same family as Body Positivity where you convince yourself that you are not fat despite being a hundred pounds overweight, then you expect others to accept the alternate reality that you have created for yourself.
Shit, I’ve done that too. My girlfriends mother has cancer. She’s been feeling great for a few days after chemo treatments but my girlfriends sees that as a negative because it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s working. My advice was to stay positive and think it’s working until it’s not.
Thinking maybe I should just shut up and not spread my toxic positivity.
Guilty of it here too. You’ve called me naive and stupid several times because i trust a situation as represented. I’m generally trusting until I have a reason not to be.
Yep. My old roommate, who is 10 days older than me, has to use a walker to get around. Every time I throw my leg over the saddle of my bike, I look up and say thanks.
