‘Chronic complainers.’
They’re the type of people who see the negative first and only, in everything.
They’re the type who complain about technology. ‘It dehumanizes us,’ they complain. But if the power goes out, or the Internet goes down, they’re the first to complain about the loss of Facebook and whatever else. ‘I feel so disconnected from everyone,’ they complain.
They’re the type who complain about government—not the presence of government, but its absence. Everything that ails the world can be traced to the fact that there is no law to—fill in the blank. ‘There oughta be a law.’ Yes, that’s the problem with America as we know it. Too few laws.
They’re the type who complain about people discussing politics, but then complain when all the laws we pass make society more political than it ever needed to be.
They’re the type who complain about the quality of movies and television, but they’re usually the type who talk throughout the whole movie, never having the opportunity to form an objective or valid opinion.
They’re the type who complain about the price of food in restaurants, before even tasting the food. They’re the type who always might have had a better item on the menu—whether it’s a restaurant, or simply anywhere in life. Chronic complainers resent the ‘burden’ of having to choose—and no matter what they choose, they always regret it and you will always hear about it. They blame their dissatisfaction not on their own erroneous choices, but on the fact that they are required to make choices at all. And then they are the first, and the loudest, to complain whenever choices are restricted.
They’re the type who never take the time to consider supply and demand, and how prices are determined by a very simple principle: How many people want something relative to the availability of that ‘something.’ They blame the airlines for creating lines and causing delays at airports, airports subsidized and regulated by governments—not by the private sector airlines who must struggle with the government as well.
They’re the type who complain about the cost of gas, while emphatically supporting efforts to ban drilling for oil—well, just about anywhere on the planet. They call this supporting ‘the environment,” an all-purpose term of the urban religionists designed to end all debate or discussion before it ever begins.
They’re the type who complain about ‘hate speech’ while exhibiting uninhibited hatred towards anyone who disagrees with them about anything.
They’re the type who complain when you’re too gentle, too nice, too harsh or too ‘mean-spirited.’ Nothing is ever good enough, and heaven forbid YOU complain. Complaining is always wrong, except when chronic complainers do it.
They’re the type who complain about doctors who are greedy and ‘make too much money,’ but usually are either lawyers themselves or (more often) married to lawyers who face no real limits on making money. (No offense here to rational, decent lawyers since some do exist.)
They’re the type who complain about waits at the doctor’s office, and fail to consider what the doctors say in hushed tones (to people like me, who aren’t afraid to agree with them) that government has ruined the practice of medicine, and ‘Obamacare’ is about to finish the job.
A friend of mine introduced me not long ago to the phrase, ‘He who knows the least, knows it the loudest.’ This immediately rang true, especially when I think of all the wrong people I encounter, or hear about, who are so profoundly wrong about so many things—and feel compelled not only to speak loudly about it, but assume that all in their presence of course agree with them.
These chronic complainers are the ones who erode or break the spirits of those around them—those who let them, that is. They’re in a never-ceasing mode of scanning the horizon for instances of real or alleged victimization, and they mean to complain aloud about it in your presence. It’s almost as if the fact of you hearing the nonsense and negativity they utter somehow makes it true’merely because of the fact you hear it.
The chronic complainers don’t really care about the victimization of others, but they pick sides in causes to win the approval of those they seek to impress. They seem opinionated or even principled (to some), but in fact they’re nothing more than sycophants in search of an excuse to follow.
The good thing about the chronic complainers is you need not listen to them. Through the power of volitional choice—something the chronic complainers do not recognize, at least in themselves—you need only turn off the ‘power’ button on your mind and give them the only recognition they deserve: None.
Do the thing a chronic complainer fears above all else: Leave him alone with his thoughts.
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