Capitalism's toxic positivity

Some things in this world truly suck. Talking about them is good.

Psychology Today defines toxic positivity as “avoiding, suppressing, or rejecting negative emotions or experiences.” We all need a sense of hope and optimism to push our lives forward, but some people act as if the world is all sunshine and rainbows, and that any mention of the more difficult aspects of life is bad and to be avoided. 

Here’s a quick explainer on why that’s not good, from Psychology Today:

“Denying negative feelings long term is harmful because it can prevent people from processing their emotions and overcoming their distress…Emotions contain important information; they can point the way toward changes that lead to fulfillment, happiness, and meaning. Genuine emotional expression also fosters authenticity, which is an essential ingredient of well-being.”

Success in the corporate machine requires a certain kind of toxic positivity as well. We live in a world that assumes making money is always good, no matter how it’s made (we can thank neoliberalism for that). Success in one place, or for one person, should always be celebrated, no matter what the consequences of that success might be. The podcast bros, the execs profiled in Forbes and the LinkedIn power users love this way of thinking. Any negative aspects of this or that company’s incredible achievements are, well, not there. There are no bad things happening in the thought leadership space. Good vibes only.

If only life was that simple. Some jobs truly make the world worse. Success for the oil industry means more melted glaciers and more forest fires. Success for tech billionaires means you and me spending even more of our lives staring into our phones.

Toxic positivity emanates especially strongly from the communications industry. The whole purpose of the ad guys, the PR agencies and the strategic comms consultants is to make things look good, even if they’re actually bad. You don’t pay an agency a few hundred grand to dig out all the skeletons in your closet. You pay them to own the conversation, to drive engagement and cultivate authenticity. This is pretty benign if you’re hired to sell one brand of deodorant over another, but very bad if you’re hired to make corporate shitheads look like they’re saving the planet.

You find toxic positivity everywhere in fashion too, and that’s a big reason I left my old job as an editor. Having to pretend that every runway show was fantastic and every hyped designer was a genius cost me too much. Spending years in the heart of an industry that’s obsessed with rich people slowly eroded my sense of self. I couldn’t silence the voice in my head asking what the point in all of these new clothes was, or what they were doing to the world.

It was a similar story in last week’s interview with Rory Fortune, who quit his old job in corporate fashion to start a shoe repair business with his wife.

“You just get to this point where you're like, not only is none of this important, but it's actually hurting the world. It's causing damage. It sucks. Most people get into it because they like product, they're passionate about it, but when you get to mid thirties, late forties or whatever, you hit this phase where you're just like, God, it's a terrible industry. It's abusive, polluting, it's all these things, but you're still passionate about product.

So for us it was like, how can we do a business, do something that's our own thing, but not contribute to the problem?”

Now, this does not make you or anyone else a bad person for working in fashion or any other problematic industry. These things are complicated. There are many talented people who have no choice but to take a corporate paycheck. Success in the depths of the capitalist machine is often the only way for people to build a secure future for themselves. Working at a shitty company does not make you a shitty person. The same goes for the freelancers — some people have no choice but to work on fast fashion campaigns or shill skincare online.

I am not going to pretend that I am more righteous than you are just because my job is to write about important topics. Behind the words you see on this screen are a lot of very big, difficult questions I don’t have the answers for yet. Is this lifestyle something that can sustain me for years to come? How do I stay inspired when my 9-to-5 is just me sitting in front of a computer? It’s a total headfuck at times, and I would absolutely not resent someone for choosing a stable corporate job over the precarity and uncertainty of freelance life. But the freedom to speak my mind has brought me a huge sense of purpose. I do not have to spend a minute of my day pretending that everything is great and awesome when I’m just as scared of the future as you are.

And the future is really scary. The collapsing climate. The insane billionaires. The rise of fascism. Not only are these crises inescapable, but our lives are tangled up in them in so many ways. We should not be afraid to talk about our role in it all, about our place in the world. How can we be part of a better future while still taking care of ourselves? We do not have the ability to solve any of the world’s problems on our own, but we’ll never make a difference to any of them if we pretend that they aren’t there.

Toxic positivity means discarding our emotions so that they rage under the surface, instead of bringing them into the light. We should be open and honest with the complexities, compromises and consequences that come from existing in this particularly troubled stretch of human history, not hiding them away and letting them eat away at our souls. A great deal of our humanity comes from accepting the world for what it really is — deeply flawed, unjust and chaotic, but still a place worth living in.