Nothing Good To Say

I'd prepared a somewhat long post for this evening, critiquing an NPR story about online petitions asking that when Jeff Bezos takes a sub-orbital spaceflight next month, that he not be allowed to return to Earth.

But after thinking about it, I realized that it's just another thing that bugs me, and as much as I dislike hearing about what bothers other people, why should I waste people's time grousing to them about what bothers me?

But I understand about why people don't talk as much as could be hoped about what they want and like out of life, rather than a constant litany of complaints and worries. After all, according to the BBC, political trolling gathers twice the engagement that being positive does. Putting people and institutions down pushes people to respond. It's a rehash of the old statistic that people were more likely to complain about a business that they felt hadn't served them well than they were to praise one that had. (Although, if I remember correctly, the ratio was 7 to 3, as opposed to 2 to 1, but its close enough.)

Nobody in Particular will have been around for 15 years by the end of 2021, and none of the complaining that I've done in all that time has changed anything. And I know this. It's part of the reason why I stopped labeling things as "Rampant Idiocy" three years ago. Simply running around calling people stupid wasn't making anything seem to be any smarter. It was just me telling myself how smart I was, at other people's expense.

I suspect that in order for Nobody in Particular to develop a more positive outlook, I'm going to have to read less news and commentary and more, well, other stuff. Develop a new hobby, as it were. I suspect it will do me good.