Are you an optimist or pessimist?

@randomdude4 & Quag: Yeah, he is sour and bitter, I'm afraid. :( He doesn't like my optimism just because it doesn't match up to his "realistic" worldview.

That seems really reductive.

I used to be a pessimist, but I find it to be unbelievably boring to have such low hopes nowadays, so, as long as I draw breath I am optimistic that with effort, the future gets better.

Optimist. I actually find excessive pessimism to be (forgive me if this comes across as mean) kind of...childish? In an "edgy teenager" kind of way. But most because I figure, if I consider the world to be a fundamentally good place, then I'll be happy, and when something goes wrong I'll try to fix it.

Pessimist usually. I don't go so far as to say Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!, but I question the notion that optimism always helps people and pessimists don't care or actively exploits others. Just world thinking is inherently optimistic (imo), but in it's more extreme forms can be pretty hateful.

I'm the biggest optimist I know. It's funny... No matter how low I get, no matter bad things get.... I never lose hope. And I always, ALWAYS go back to being bright and happen with some time.

I'm sort of like a Happy Phoenix, you could say.

Pessimistic but a little idealistic and really stubborn.

On a more serious note, I don't know if I could classify myself solidly in either category so much as I can classify myself as excessively cripplingly paranoid.

@Aespai: Really? Could have fooled me with that avatar of yours

I consider myself a cautious optimist. The world has been turning into a much better place for quite a while now, but there are still several ways for that trend to reverse or undo itself.

Cautious optimism seems like probably the most realistic line of thinking one can have while maintaining a veneer of hopefulness.

I definitely come down heavily on the idealistic end of the Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism. I believe the best about the future of the world as a whole (I find that the arc of history tends towards progress, however slow it may be), and that most people are at heart just people. They don't make bad decisions because they're bad, they make bad decisions because they have wants and needs that they try to get in ways that sometimes end up harmful. But when it really comes down to it, everyone wants to be a good person (everyone I've met who tried to be a Card-Carrying Villain was actually a good person who happened to think that Evil Is Cool, despite being kind and helpful), they just get lost.

I also kind of tend to be an The Anti-Nihilist. Like, even if every good thing I did ended up being pointless in the long run, well, Good Feels Good, and it made someone else smile for a little while.

At the same time, though I always find myself trying to prepare for the worst in my own life, and I tend to believe myself to be at a disadvantage in any situation (that someone I'm playing a game with is better than me at it, or that the person I'm debating with is smarter than me, etc). Of course, this kind of just inspires me to try harder, so at my worst I'm a Determined Defeatist...

edited 8th Jul '15 10:32:38 PM by VerityCandle

I used to have the sort of angry optimism that's commonly confused for cynicism. Now? Now I'm bitter.

edited 10th Jul '15 11:33:39 PM by Yewleaf

I'm an optimist for practical reasons only. At least I can have some fun this way.

edited 11th Jul '15 2:28:27 AM by OhBoyTime