Hi, I’m 21/male from Germany and to me it seems like people here are constantly negative and complaining compared to people from other/non-Western countries who seem way more chill.

I assume this is probably the worst here in Germany since this is also a stereotype about Germans that they constantly complain about things and in my opinion this is very true from experiencing real life here every day. But I would say I’ve also noticed this from other western countries, maybe not as extreme but for example in America people also seem to be pretty hateful and seem to make a drama out of everything (at least from what I can tell on the internet).

I just wonder why these people unnecessarily spread this negativity because in my opinion here in these western 1st world countries we have so much luxury compared to other places. For example other countries have wars, people live in terror and extreme injustice/corruption, people starve to death, get abused, raped and tortured and need to seek refuge in other countries. But we complain that eggs are too expensive and that we have too many migrants, which goes so far that America is deporting all illegal migrants including those who might’ve fled from the things mentioned earlier such as violence and rape.

Why do people waste all this time with complaining and being negative if they could use this time to be grateful, enjoy life and make the world a better place? To me this seems like people are destroying their own life and make it unnecessarily harder/unhappy with that behavior. I think I’m noticing this particularly in older people including my parents. It almost feels like they’re unable to be positive and only know how to complain.

  • wildncrazyguy138@fedia.io
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    3 days ago
    1. When you’re chasing your next meal, you don’t have time to complain. Western society enables us to shift our priorities to higher levels on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
    2. Feelings project differently in different cultures. For example, Spanish speaking people often align depression with physical exhaustion.
    3. You many not know the people well enough to know their most intimate thoughts and intentions. Complaining in autocratic societies could be considered dissent and get you killed.
    4. Similar to 3, they may be treating you as a D-list celebrity or a tourist because they have something to gain from doing so. Refer to point 1.
    5. Consider the audience. Who are the kind of people who have frequent access to Internet in these countries and would want to talk to Western citizens?