Community Chat

[GrailSeeker]

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@kitcat51 wrote:

woke nonsense.

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I thought of another example:  the child who acts out but is never called out on it or receives any kind of reprimand, to me would be an example of toxic positivity.  

[deepwaterdotter]

Is this an offshoot of the term 'cancel culture'?

[GrailSeeker]

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@deepwaterdotter wrote:

Is this an offshoot of the term 'cancel culture'?

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I wasn't thinking of that, but I think that might be true!

[GrailSeeker]

Also, maybe, related to the so called ad hominen or personal attack:

Ad hominem (Latin for 'to the person'), short for argumentum ad hominem, refers to several types of arguments, some but not all of which are fallacious. Typically this term refers to a rhetorical strategy where the speaker attacks the character, motive, or some other attribute of the person making an argument rather than attacking the substance of the argument itself. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem

[willdob3]

@GrailSeeker 

I wasn’t familiar with the term so I researched it a bit. It is something that I see a lot of in posts all over the internet and it has always bothered me that people really blindly think that way. 

“We define toxic positivity as the excessive and ineffective overgeneralization of a happy, optimistic state across all situations. The process of toxic positivity results in the denial, minimization, and invalidation of the authentic human emotional experience.”

[J Town Girl]

To me an example of positive toxicity would be telling someone who just told you of a dire situation that they are having and your response would be to tell them that they should be grateful that they still have a roof over their heads.  

I think the idea that we should always maintain a positive attitude no matter what difficulties we are encountering is just not realistic nor healthy for us.

Many times people just want to be able to share their emotions with us and by giving them the idea that they should always see the silver lining in every situation it just makes them feel ashamed and guilty.  

I'm one who has always hidden my feelings and tried to always keep a smile on my face and throughout the years I believe that has hurt me.  I guess I believed that sharing my feelings were a sign of weakness and I always wanted to appear strong.  

I believe when we push the idea that things could be worse or that others have more substantial problems it makes people unwilling to share their feelings for fear of being shamed or being viewed as ungrateful for what they have.

[Foxxee]

A pessimist's label for someone with a positive attitude.

[willdob3]

The term may be new but the behavior is not. 

[GrailSeeker]

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@willdob3 wrote:

@GrailSeeker 

I wasn’t familiar with the term so I researched it a bit. It is something that I see a lot of in posts all over the internet and it has always bothered me that people really blindly think that way. 

“We define toxic positivity as the excessive and ineffective overgeneralization of a happy, optimistic state across all situations. The process of toxic positivity results in the denial, minimization, and invalidation of the authentic human emotional experience.”

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and thus discourages reponse

[GrailSeeker]

@Porcelain 

That was good.