Are depressed people more realistic?

[Something completely different]

[junkyardboy]

so your optimism is based on your immediate circumstances
not a very sound foundation for optimism

Isn't it the only valid foundation for optimism? The homeless guy who is sitting on a street corner may be feeling quite pessimistic, even if the headlines on a nearby newspaper say that the economy is booming. Our mood can be lifted and dropped most easily by those around us and by our particular circumstances.

granted, but not a very firm foundation except for immediate optimism
says nothing toward the future

[thesummerqueen]

I have optimism in part for the same reason a lot of people seem pessimistic: humanity.

Because humanity produces people like James Cameron (Just donated his submersible to science, because science), Norman Borlaug (saved a billion people, didn't sit on his ass about the world hunger crisis), Elon Musk (doing better at getting us back in the space race than our government is doing), James Randi (rooting out bullshit everywhere and providing for education while he's at it), Jacque Fresco (trying to rethink society and engineering so everyone benefits), Neil deGrasse fuckin' Tyson (do I *really* have to qualify him?), Carl Sagan (If you said yes to the previous one, this one will make me smack you upside the head), etc. If you look past your Bible and Fox News, there are tons of famous people working FOR GOOD out there, and tons more who aren't famous working in the background for the same thing.

If you ask me, you have to be intentionally turning a blind eye on all this in order to be pessimistic.

[junkyardboy]

I have optimism in part for the same reason a lot of people seem pessimistic: humanity.

Because humanity produces people like James Cameron (Just donated his submersible to science, because science), Norman Borlaug (saved a billion people, didn't sit on his ass about the world hunger crisis), Elon Musk (doing better at getting us back in the space race than our government is doing), James Randi (rooting out bullshit everywhere and providing for education while he's at it), Jacque Fresco (trying to rethink society and engineering so everyone benefits), Neil deGrasse fuckin' Tyson (do I *really* have to qualify him?), Carl Sagan (If you said yes to the previous one, this one will make me smack you upside the head), etc. If you look past your Bible and Fox News, there are tons of famous people working FOR GOOD out there, and tons more who aren't famous working in the background for the same thing.

If you ask me, you have to be intentionally turning a blind eye on all this in order to be pessimistic.

and what have any of them done to halt man's warlike impulses?
has it had an impact on man's ability to destroy himself?
NKorea has 20,000 hardened artillery and rocket sites looking down on Seoul and a doomsday prepper leading them.
so which is it?
optimism v. deluded pessimism?
pessimism v. deluded optimism
they both can't be correct.

[thesummerqueen]

1) reducing hunger helps lift people out of portions of poverty that would increase violence/war

2) technology from Musk and the space race helps improve everyone's lives

3) education and skepticism (Sagan, Randi, Tyson) encourage people to put aside less civilized responses

I shouldn't even be answering you, because those were stupid ass questions.

America and Russia had a nuclear arms race. We're still fucking here.

---

Also, those people were merely a list westerners are familiar with. We probably have no idea who's working on the inside in places like Korea.

[junkyardboy]

1) reducing hunger helps lift people out of portions of poverty that would increase violence/war

2) technology from Musk and the space race helps improve everyone's lives

3) education and skepticism (Sagan, Randi, Tyson) encourage people to put aside less civilized responses

I shouldn't even be answering you, because those were stupid ass questions.

America and Russia had a nuclear arms race. We're still fucking here.

---

Also, those people were merely a list westerners are familiar with. We probably have no idea who's working on the inside in places like Korea.

you live in a dream world
poverty and famine are increasing
war and terrorism is increasing
financial collapse looms
is the world safer since the nuclear arms race?
your world is a cocoon
the real world is lead by governments of ultimate doomsday preppers
the uber rich and powerful preparing to survive the inevitable.

[thesummerqueen]

And you live to spout nonsense. I think we've been over this already.

[pocaracas]

I have optimism in part for the same reason a lot of people seem pessimistic: humanity.

[...]
If you ask me, you have to be intentionally turning a blind eye on all this in order to be pessimistic.

Or go on youtube and search for "fail compilation".... that's one way to lose all optimism for this humanity thing...

[Creed of Heresy]

you live in a dream world
poverty and famine are increasing
war and terrorism is increasing
financial collapse looms
is the world safer since the nuclear arms race?
your world is a cocoon
the real world is lead by governments of ultimate doomsday preppers
the uber rich and powerful preparing to survive the inevitable.

Did you seriously just use the word "uber?"

What are you, fucking 13??

I wish you knew the definition of "irony" (I won't hold my breath and hope that you do, you don't seem very intelligent by any definition of the word, you can't even grasp basic punctuation and capitalization on a fucking forum board) so you could realize how hilarious it is when you say "you live in a dream world". A dream world. This coming from the guy who believes in Invisible Sky Daddy and Floating Zombie Jeebus In The Clouds. Yeah, ok, buddy. WE'RE the ones living in a dream world. RIGHT.

Do you have any sources to cite for any of your claims thereafter, or is it just a bunch of shit you're pulling out of your ass? Because if you don't have any credible sources to cite, then all your claims are fictional delusions. Just like your religion, in fact.

I think you're full of shit. You won't be able to bring up any sources. I expect any sources you DO bring up will be as credible as the Daily World News tabloid magazine...if not taken directly from it. I'll still give you one chance, though, to prove me wrong. Everyone deserves that. Even the hopelessly barely-literate.

---

Date of Birth: Not Specified

Yeah, you're probably 13.

[Tonus]

I recall reading an article about how the JWs talk about the way things are getting worse and worse and that it was a sign of the "end times." The article quoted from texts and letters and books going back centuries, and showed that for the last, like, 1,500 years, people were bitching about how things were getting worse and worse and there was no way humanity could survive at the pace that things were going. And of course, this meant that god's fiery vengeance was just around the corner.

Turns out that the universe has a billion million trillion corners, or something.