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Writer and podcaster Matt Taibbi recently published a piece on Substack entitled “Optimism, the last taboo.”
Before I even read the essay, I could relate.
Since Donald Trump shocked the world by winning the presidency again, there has been an unrelenting drumbeat of doom, both on certain left-leaning cable stations and in my inbox. Many of these missives come from conservatives who dislike Trump, his policies, or both.
The Bulwark, in particular, has made opposing the president its mission, with a team of legacy Never Trumpers like Bill Kristol. You can like the writers there and respect their convictions while still growing weary of the persistent gloom and doom. A sampling of some of the Bulwark’s headlines over the past two months include: “Meet the Worst People in America,” “This is a Shameful Way to Make Law,“ The Republican Party is a Deluded Middle-Aged Man” and “It Was Worse Than You Think.”
“It is worse than you think” has been pretty much a mantra for those who oppose Trump over the past year, whether they’re Republican or Democrat. And I don’t know, but “the worst people in America” are still my fellow Americans.
On the one hand, thoughtful criticism is fine — all presidents need pushback, and this president needs more pushback than his predecessors, many believe.
On the other hand, it’s a terrible time to be an optimist in America. Which is a bad thing, because optimism is good — or used to be, anyway.
But Taibbi notes that “toxic positivity” is now a thing. He ticked off recent articles that have warned of excessive positivity, which The Los Angeles Times described as “a tendency to put a ceaselessly positive spin on everything, even when it’s not called for.” He also noted the LA Times’ profile of Justin Baldoni, in which an anonymous critic complained of the actor and director, ”It was constant positivity all the time.“
Of course, as the Times noted, uttering cheery platitudes when someone has lost everything is counter-productive and can make people feel even worse. Optimism is not needed in Texas this week; prayer is.
But the drumbeat of negativity over politics has made Eeyore the symbol of the Democratic Party and is making some people unnecessarily terrified — just witness the woman crying at a No Kings rally, or the seniors in line at Social Security offices, convinced they’re about to lose their benefits. Kamala Harris tweeted on Independence Day, “Things are hard right now. They are probably going to get worse before they get better.”
Just try to point out the positive these days — say, for example, that you personally found the military parade inspiring, or Social Security recipients might actually receive more money — and you’ll quickly be shut down by people who believe that if you’re not scared, you’re not paying attention.
“If you’re like me and feel more alienated from American society every day, this might be the reason,” Taibbi wrote. “In a world where nothing is just a problem, everyone is Hitler, and the dumbest controversies are framed as ultimate showdowns of Good and Evil, optimism makes sense as the last taboo.”
Trump grew up in a household that respected Norman Vincent Peale and his “power of positive thinking," and thinking positive right now can get you branded MAGA even if you think it’s a terrible idea for a president of the U.S. to be selling fragrance.
So if you’re a glass-half-full kind of person, like I tend to be, just be careful spreading happiness and positivity out there.
Is Fetterman in the wrong party?
I’m no fan of the casual wardrobe of Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, but he has won me over in other ways, including this Fourth of July social media post, which stands in sharp contrast to what Kamala Harris wrote.
“Perhaps you are in the wrong political party,” more than one commenter quipped.
That seems clear from his favorability ratings in Pennsylvania. TribLive reported this week that Fetterman has a 45% approval rating among Pennsylvania Republicans and a 40% approval rating among Democrats.
Recommended reading
Holly Richardson knows what it’s like to grieve, and she has advice for all of us as the nation reels from the devastation of the Texas floods.
“A couple of words of caution: If you are going to say something that starts with the words ‘At least,’ please don’t. And please avoid the temptation to find positive meaning out of their loss. If there are positive lessons to be learned from tragedy, those suffering will need the room to find them on their own.
Meagan Kohler looks at the troubling rise of the ‘godbot’ — AI chatbots that offer advice on moral and ethical questions.
“The doctrine of an embodied God is controversial in Christian thought, but it forestalls the idea that God is explainable as a superintelligent AI. If God’s perfection includes a physical body, then the physical aspects of our existence contain essential truths.”
Some are relating to AI as a God-like God, but not me. Here’s why
Although the national conversation about immigration has lately been about immigrants who have committed crimes, Jacob Hess argues that the reality is quite different from the perception.
“At a time when a majority of Americans now believe migrants are worsening American crime rates, it’s important to check on the broader research. While consistently less likely to commit crime, undocumented migrant and refugee populations in the U.S. are at greater risk of being victims of violence and other kinds of crime, which is the reason many have fled to the United States in the first place.”
Migrants aren’t more likely to perpetuate crimes. But they are more likely to be victimized
End notes
There have been many calls to prayer in the past week, first in the catastrophic flooding in Texas, and then in North Carolina, where more people have died. Here’s a look at what C.S. Lewis and others have to say about how to hold on to faith when our prayers seem to go unanswered.
As always, thank you for reading and being part of the Right to the Point community. You can email me at Jgraham@deseretnews.com, or send me a DM on X, where I’m @grahamtoday.