from author of this video…
“We live in a world plagued with toxic optimism where people are pressured into taking the position that “life is good”. Those who claim otherwise are labeled “negative”, “defective”, or “mentally ill”. We are programmed to feel ashamed for even entertaining the idea that life may not be worth living.
This is why I came up with the “honk experiment”. A part of TRTNLE is to create an environment where people can speak honestly about their distaste for life without judgment… even if it is communicated by a simple car horn.”
Here is the video:
What do you guys think?
5 comments
This is awesome! Thanks for posting and sharing this video. I would want to do something like this if i ever got the courage. Awesome youtube chanel as well, I’ll be watching the other videos on there also.
You’re welcome! 🙂
Life just is, neither being good or bad, but everyone making the best of it they can. I agree that toxic positivity is a thing and a problem though. It’s part of why I am philosophically where I am right now, I won’t accept any words to cheer me up that promise a specific outcome without proof.
Getting my hopes up has become most of the problem. When I lie to myself I stop trusting myself. Still in the process of rebuilding that trust, as it so happens.
Worth living though, the question is to who? To the person living it? that’s so ego centric, and I’m pretty sure my life has never been worth it just for my pleasure. Other people though, they seem to need me….. and the damage I’d do by going…
we need to rethink how we talk about death, and treat it. If life is any good at all, it should be cherished while it is, but death can be good too, and has equal capacity to suck.
“Worth living though, the question is to who? To the person living it? that’s so ego centric”
Exactly, people can’t seem to think outside of their own life and perspective. Sure, it’s great that THEIR life is great, but not everyone else’s life is. Some ppl get very defensive about that. Maybe they aren’t all that happy themselves, and they can’t acknowledge that some ppl have shitty lives and are miserable bc it’ll burst their bubble of illusion that their life is great, or that there’s no hope it’ll get better.
I didn’t watch the whole video but the opening concept is cool, if the idea is catharsis. My gripe with him is the quote you cited where he looks like he’s going off on a subjective rant. I agree with heartlessviking that life is neither good nor bad, and we should be allowed to express what we feel, but if he starts attacking optimism & happy people, then isn’t he just as guilty of intolerance as what he’s accusing them of?
A hot girl on the side of the road smiling with a sign that says “Honk if life sucks” hell yeah… catharsis. Get it out, feel good, even smile as you’re honking as I’m sure many people were. But if his point is that we aren’t supposed to listen to optimism, and we’re supposed to somehow think less of those who push optimism with good intentions, then he’s just injecting more bitterness into the mix. Like I said, I didn’t watch the whole video so maybe he’s not going that far, but it’s a delicate razor to walk.
Despite me being on this site ranting about how disgusting the universe is, believe it or not I’m mostly an optimistic person. I like movies that end happy, I like songs that make me smile. My negativity is my own private hell and while I find comfort in knowing others agree, I don’t want anyone encouraging it.
I’ve never encountered toxic optimism, and I think that term itself reflects a sour grapes mentality. Optimism is great, it feels wonderful if you can latch onto it. Those grapes tastes awesome if you can reach them.