When I look at the kinds of articles people post on social media and the comments under them, it feels like there’s an overwhelming amount of hate and anger in the world - or at least among the people posting and commenting. (Maybe it’s just that non-angry people don’t spend much time in this kind of spaces.)
In contrast, when I think about my own life, I realize that I’m almost never angry. I feel many other negative emotions, sure, but anger isn’t one of them, and even when it arises it’s usually quite short-lived. I can’t even name a single person I hate - neither in my personal life nor in the media. I simply don’t spend time dwelling on people I’m not interested in or being angry at the world for not meeting my expectations.
This makes me wonder: is my experience rare or unusual? Or is hate and anger simply overrepresented in the media because those emotions motivate people to engage, making them seem far more widespread than they actually are?
I’m trying to understand rather than criticize. I can’t take credit for not being angry because whatever tha skill is doesn’t translate into other things like anxiety. I’m anxious about equally trivial things and I can’t help myself. I guess I’m just glad I don’t need to deal with this constant anger too.
Hate is an extremely strong emotion. To me, it means basically that you wish they were dead. That I do not feel of anyone. However, I can’t say I intensely dislike anyone either. It’s not quite compatible with the way I see the world. Hating a person, to me, is like hating a hurricane or a volcano. It simply doesn’t make any sense.
Well that’s not the definition, so you’re probably not understanding because that’s not what most people mean.
Even so you can’t imagine why someone would want somebody else dead? Why someone would or could feel that way?
Explain how, please. Because one is uncontrollable nature and the other has free will and chooses to do terrible things.
I’m not asking how you do it. I’m asking how your comparison makes any sense to you? I can understand not getting upset about things, choosing to, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t find them upsetting.
I don’t believe in free will or the self. That’s the difference for me here. Just like the hurricane couldn’t have done otherwise, I don’t think that a human could have either. I wouldn’t get angry at a bear attacking me in the forest either - that’s what bears do. Doesn’t mean I like it, or approve of it but I just don’t pretend as if they could have acted any other way.
I’m kind of enjoying the fact that your post is coming off increasingly angry.