America's obsession with happiness

ToALonelyPeace

ToALonelyPeace

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America is obsessed with happiness — and it’s making us miserable - Vox

I find this part particularly true and funny:
"Part of this is that Americans seem to have a deep cultural aversion to negativity. This can be a welcome change, but the pressure to remain positive at all times often results in some complicated mental gymnastics. My son’s report card at preschool divided his performance not into strengths and weaknesses but into strengths and emerging strengths.
American problems are routinely rebranded as “opportunities”; hence the filthy bathroom in our local supermarket displays a sign saying, “If this restroom fails to meet your expectations, please inform us of the opportunity,” as if reeking puddles of urine are merely an inspirational occasion for personal growth."
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"If someone suggests that a given activity is going to be 'empowering,' I know it is almost certainly going to be undignified or mildly humiliating, or involve heights. As a rule, 'empowerment' appears to be the consolation prize for those of us who will never have any actual power, and you can safely assume that no one in any position of genuine authority will be joining in."

Haha.

Generally, regarding the whole positivity thing, I'm reminded of the line from the Dao De Jing: "He who stands on his tiptoes does not stand firm."
 
I rather blame the Boomers with this, as well as corporate Overlords.
Boomers started with the every child is special nonsense.
Even if Jonhhy cant spelk, he still gits a "I CAN VELCRO MY SHOES!" acheevement plack.
And corporate, especially in retail, force feeds the "I'm so chipper I wanna vomit" ethos among drones to sell and upsell.
Those of you who never worked retail missed out on pep training videos from some smugly grinning owner telling you how easy and fun it is.
I associate much of that article with California.
Out in the rust belt, grain belt, coal belt, out where happiness comes from opioid enjoyment, the eager smiles are diminished.
Happy citizens did not elect 45.
Then again, I am a 70s burnout, and that decade produced a very cynical subset.
Oh yeah - - have a nice day.
 
@Zaharoff: I agree the whole "every child is unique" has been going on since the Boomers, but positive psychology is relatively new. It was started in the '90s by Martin Seligman, author of numerous self-help books, developer of the theory of "learned helplessness" (which CIA would later used for enhanced torture techniques) and former president of American Psychology Association.

Yes it has a VERY strong hold in California. You see buzzwords like happiness, meditation, mindfulness, unique, exceptional, positive vibe everywhere. It's only been stronger since Trump got elected.
 
ToALonelyPeace said:
@Zaharoff: I agree the whole "every child is unique" has been going on since the Boomers, but positive psychology is relatively new. It was started in the '90s by Martin Seligman, author of numerous self-help books, developer of the theory of "learned helplessness" (which CIA would later used for enhanced torture techniques) and former president of American Psychology Association.

Yes it has a VERY strong hold in California. You see buzzwords like happiness, meditation, mindfulness, unique, exceptional, positive vibe everywhere. It's only been stronger since Trump got elected.
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The irony is that Jordan Peterson, who vehemently rejects the "religion" of happiness, is so popular in America. For some reason his Kantian/Nietzchean philosophy appeals to a lot of people in America with a conservative background.
 
Jordan Peterson is popular because there are a lot of stupid people who dislike challenging their most basic of assumptions, so the message all their prejudices are right, not worth questioning and that no further learning is necessary is an easy one to swallow. That and he's part of the billionaire-funded chain of scummy grifters that is the IDW. I'm still waiting for his and Rubin's careers to bomb hilariously like Milo's.
 
James said:
Jordan Peterson is popular because there are a lot of stupid people who dislike challenging their most basic of assumptions, so the message all their prejudices are right, not worth questioning and that no further learning is necessary is an easy one to swallow. That and he's part of the billionaire-funded chain of scummy grifters that is the IDW. I'm still waiting for his and Rubin's careers to bomb hilariously like Milo's.
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I take it you are basing this off the self-help book? I only know of some of the Maps of Meaning material and his lectures on the same. The one time I saw him speak I enjoyed it (despite having to listen to Dave Rubin giggling about lobsters through the opening, an experience I'd rather blank from my mind) though I don't think he is anywhere near as original as people think - a lot of what he says is in the tradition of meaning-making therapy (Frankl and Rogers) and psychoanalysis of mythology (Jung, Eliade and Voegelin). My biggest disappointment then was that he didn't straight out admit that Ayn Rand's fiction was crap when asked about it (it was painfully obvious that he wanted to answer that question without offending anyone).

His achievement is just to present the ideas of these older psychologists and anthropologists in bite-sized pop-culture form. I don't know, and to be honest am not sure I really want to know, why the media is so keen to present him as this proposed surrogate father figure to a generation of young men. Maybe they have a lot of lobster dinners to sell...
 
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He got famous through stoking transphobia. A clique of online reactionaries who ascended through the disgusting pile that was GamerGate then promoted his work as some sort of expertise due to his title and the flawed mode of YouTube algorithms means such material becomes ridiculously prominent. It wouldn't surprise me if he thought Ayn Rand was a great fiction writer because the man is wrong about absolutely everything as far as I can tell, and his popularity is a sign of the current rise of anti-intellectualism in society becoming so bad that nonsensical clickbait becomes seen as education.

Rubin's comedy is truly cutting edge stuff:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXCp_zCGnxo

Regarding Peterson I recommend Contrapoints' video on his work. Actually I just recommend her stuff in general.
 
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I don't find this neurotic, phony American version of "happiness" the author of the article decries much more obnoxious than the studiedly reserved, "plucky" British stiff-upper-lip attitude of pragmatic optimism she affects in criticizing it. Both approaches wholeheartedly embrace all manner of lies and comforting illusions in order to make reality appear more palatable, but only the latter seems to have an air of smug self-satisfaction about it.

But then clearly I'm not part of the target audience here, as a card-carrying member of the Union of Life-Leeching Negativists.
 
James said:
He got famous through stoking transphobia. A clique of online reactionaries who ascended through the disgusting pile that was GamerGate then promoted his work as some sort of expertise due to his title and the flawed mode of YouTube algorithms means such material becomes ridiculously prominent.
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He protested against a Canadian law requiring employers to recognize new names and gender identities their employees took on correct? This was what made him flavor of the moment with the US Right, but a lot of the Maps of Meaning stuff was already online, the vids I mean.

James said:
It wouldn't surprise me if he thought Ayn Rand was a great fiction writer because the man is wrong about absolutely everything as far as I can tell, and his popularity is a sign of the current rise of anti-intellectualism in society becoming so bad that nonsensical clickbait becomes seen as education.
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Rand *should* fall squarely into his definition of an 'ideological' thinker in the negative sense. Ironically the question came not long after he was talking about the multi-facted aspect of Dostoevsky's characters. He, I'm certain, knows this, but feels uncomfortable about saying anything too condemnatory least for fear of offending a large portion of his audience who like both Rand and Peterson's theories and fail to see the tension.

Much of what he says about personal responsibility, meaning and motivation is rational, it's just not unique to him (you'll find it taught in the Humanistic Psychology section of most Psychology and Counseling graduate degrees).

James said:
Regarding Peterson I recommend Contrapoints' video on his work. Actually I just recommend her stuff in general.
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I've only seen the vid where one of her personas has lunch with their Cat-Girl Antifa friend and tries to explain to them why their approach to combating fascism is off-putting ('stop attacking Centrists'). It's Culture Warrior stuff so I tend to avoid it just as I have the 'crisis on campus' stuff with Peterson.
 
Isn't everyone who spends a lot of time arguing the pressing issues a kind of culture warrior? I also like Contrapoints, I think she's very skilled at presenting positions of different groups in an accessible way and occasionally very funny. I get the impression that some people who normally dismiss feminists find her approachable and likeable.
 
Robert Adam Gilmour said:
Isn't everyone who spends a lot of time arguing the pressing issues a kind of culture warrior? I also like Contrapoints, I think she's very skilled at presenting positions of different groups in an accessible way and occasionally very funny. I get the impression that some people who normally dismiss feminists find her approachable and likeable.
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I used 'Culture Warrior' as a catch-all pejorative for edgy internet meme driven political sloganeering types (essentially an umbrella to capture both Alt.Right and SJW). It refers more to a certain mode of rhetoric and context than subject - of course one can be a serious political or social thinker without being a Culture Warrior, in fact I'd even say it was necessary (just like one can be a serious journalist without being a tabloid hack).
 
Another recommendation for Contrapoints videos here. If you've never watched any of her videos before than I highly recommend you do so.
 
She's brilliant. By some distance my favourite YouTuber. If she's a culture warrior then it doesn't bother me because at least she's on the correct moral/intellectual side and makes pretty things while Dave Rubin makes nasty uninformed crap that has less flair than the dregs of daytime television.
 
Among the progressive YouTube community that sort of fake 'edginess' is actually looked down upon aesthetically, which is another reason reactionaries such as UKIP goons Sargon and Paul Joseph Watson are ridiculed, aside from being wrong about everything.
 
As a matter of great sociological importance I present to posters the proto-type CW-Scale. It needs a little fine-tuning but I am confidant it captures most of what is at stake.

Culture Warrior Scale

1. Do you habitually use any of the following terms: ‘commie’, ‘Nazi’, ‘mansplaining', 'cuck', 'cis-gendered', 'soyboy',' Alpha/Beta', 'Institutional Racism', 'dindu', 'white privilege', 'Big Government', 'heteronormative', 'White knighting' and '4-Chan'. +2

2. Do you think one of two US 2016 Presidential candidates is a decent human being? +1

3. Do you spend a lot of time commenting on the number of coloured people in advertising? +2

4. Vlad did nothing wrong am I rite? +1

5. Kayne did something wrong am I rite? +1

6. Do you often address articles or blog entries to whole races e.g. ‘Dear White/Black people...’ +2

7. Do you make frequent non-medical references to testosterone in your conversation? +1

8. Do you believe Black Panther was a culturally significant phenomena? +1

9. Do you care that the role of the Doctor in Dr Who is currently played by a woman? +2

10. Do you frequently draw analogies from fantasy novels to describe the European refugee crisis? +1

Scores

Each positive answer nets you the + score following it. Your overall score determines your Culture Warrior status or lack of.

0-1. Do you even America bro?

2-4. Not culture warrior but the wokeness is starting to creep in.

5-8. You’re a Culture Warrior all right. Start polishing that sword and march out into the battlefields of the Youtube combox.

9-10. Veteran Culture Warrior standing in the breach hewing down dozens of cis-gendered white privileged Beta cucked Commie-Nazis.
 
I don't really think there is an equivalence to be made as white privilege and institutional racism are things that actually exist, even if some people might call them out when they're not there or ignore intersectionality and class awareness, while dindu is a racist slur. There are annoying/horrible people on the left, but everything about the right is terrible.

Most people on the YouTube left don't care much for Hillary and just see her as the obvious lesser of two evils given the terrible choice between continued acceleration of neoliberal capitalism vs the rise of fascism combined with the acceleration of neoliberal capitalism. That and 99% of what the right-wingers say is wrong with Hillary is weirdo red peril conspiracy stuff not based in reality. Everything wrong with Hillary is what you would also get, on top of a bunch of other awful things, with a GOP candidate. Culture warriors favour Bernie, who despite obviously not being fully Marxist is clearly profoundly superior to both final candidates. Also why I support Jeremy Corbyn over here, despite disagreeing with his position on Brexit.
 
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