How To Deal With Negative People. "They are like human black holes which suddenly come out of nowhere and just suck the life out of you." Via The Presurfer.
posted by amyms on May 24, 2007 - 132 comments

Snark. In the newest issue of Bookforum, critic Sven Birkerts ruminates on what he considers to be the regrettable rise of the snarky book review, taking as his starting example Dale Peck's hatchet job on Rick Moody, written in 2002. "Psychologically [the literary] landscape [is one that is] subtly demoralized by the slash-and-burn of bottom-line economics; the modernist/humanist assumption of art and social criticism marching forward, leading the way, has not recovered from the wholesale flight of academia into theory; the publishing world remains tyrannized in acquisition, marketing, and sales by the mentality of the blockbuster; the confident authority of print journalism has been challenged by the proliferation of online alternatives. [...] All of this leads, and not all that circuitously, to the question of snark, the spirit of negativity, the personal animus pushing ahead of the intellectual or critical agenda. Snark is, I believe, prompted by the terrible vacuum feeling of not mattering, not connecting, not being heard; it is fueled by rage at the same."
posted by Prospero on Apr 4, 2004 - 27 comments

Low self esteem leads to negative moods..... People with low self esteem believe sadness is part of life and you shouldn't get rid of it.
posted by Espoo2 on Aug 11, 2002 - 53 comments

'Angrybot'. It's very negative. Can I call you 'Misdirected Energybot'? ('We Are Robots' is a Flash comic about robots. Via JREF.)
posted by obiwanwasabi on Apr 2, 2002 - 1 comment