Am I a negative person? Part 1

Am I a negative person? If I were to describe my world view, some may say so. I will go through some of my main philosophies in life. I will start by describing my life philosophies. I am a cynical, nihilistic, misanthropic, pessimistic, logical, realistic, and nonchalant person. You might say that most of these things are negative in nature. I will be tallying up what I consider to be negative and comparing that to what most people would consider negative. The score will go in this order them-me. I will be using the oxford dictionary for definition. Normally, I would use my own definitions; however, I feel that it would be best if I were not allowed to call the shots here. It stops me from being disingenuous without realizing that I am. Most words have multiple definitions, so I will choose the first one that makes sense no matter what it says. Now, let's dissect them.

To start, we have cynicism. It is defined as an inclination to believe that people are motivated purely by self-interest. Firstly, this is definitely true of me. I definitely believe that people are almost always motivated purely by self-interest, so the definition is fine. Is this negative? I believe that most people would say that essentially assuming the worst of people is not good. I disagree. Being motivated by self-interest is part of being a living human being. Saying that is negative is equivalent to saying that arms are negative. I see no problem with being motivated by self-interest. I don't think it's why you do something, but what you do that matters. Due to the fact that being motivated by self-interest is just the way we are as humans, I cannot view it as negative.

Score

1-1

Next, we have nihilism. It is defined as the rejection of all religious and moral principles, in the belief that life is meaningless. This is mostly accurate of me. I don't reject ALL moral and religious principles. Killing is wrong yo. But I feel that this definition is talking more about the principles that impose meaning. I do believe that life is innately meaningless, which would still make me nihilistic. So is nihilism negative? Most people would say yes. Once again, I say no. I don't feel the real need to explain this here. I have a previous post titled "why nihilism comforts me" that should clear things up here. But to summarize, It makes me feel better. It comforts me. I like to adopt the term "optimistic nihilism" to explain how I view it. I consider it positive. If life were to have meaning, it would be negative to me. It would make me feel much worse.

Score

2-2

Next, we have misanthropic. Misanthropy is defined as a dislike of humankind. As you may have guessed, this is accurate. I will give this one to others, it is negative. Humanity as a whole is horrible. Why should I like people? To use a quote that fits here "You know something? I really hate people! They're selfish, ignorant, loud obnoxious pricks, with basically no redeeming qualities whatsoever. I mean really, look at all they've achieved! Genocide, global warming, reality TV, and just a never ending parade of failures and fuck ups! They are, without question, a complete write-off of a species, and how dare you make me care about them!" This is from SAO abridged kirito. It pretty nicely summarizes my thoughts on people. I dislike them, yet care about them at the same time. It is quite the contradictory condition: humanity.

Score

3-2

Next, we have pessimism. Pessimism is defined as a tendency to see the worst aspect of things or believe that the worst will happen. This is obviously accurate given previous rounds. This time around, I am not gonna give it to others. Most people may see it as negative, but I don't. I think that pessimism is about as positive as it comes. It helps you not be as disappointed. Why hope for the best only to be disappointed when you can prepare for the worst and be either pleasantly surprised? In case that was too complicated for you, i'll simplify. If you hope for the best, you will be disappointed if something worse happens. If something good actually happens, you won't be surprised as you already expected that. If you expect the worst, then you will already be prepared when something worse happens. But you will always be pleasantly surprised when things turn out well. That's why pessimism is actually the positive mindset.