I find the latter can be divided into two categories. Those who have had something bad happen and need to vent and those who just like to complain. You can usually tell the two apart because the person who just likes to complain will never find anything good to say about the place.
I find the people who complain about the complainers can also be divided into two categories. The kind of person who has been subjected to too much venting and is doing some venting of their own and those who tend to ignore anything bad and act as if the place they are in is perfect. The first type I can understand, the second is usually trying to ignore reality, often they are apologists. When someone is running into the bad on a daily basis it can also get to you and may make you vent too much.
I find the people who complain about complainers can be worse than the initial complainers. I understand needing to vent. It is good for a person to vent. Those who never see the good, or refuse to see it, do irk me at times. Refusing to acknowledge the good is just as bad as the idiots who refuse to acknowledge the bad.
Hilda tended to fall into the complaining about complainers while refusing to acknowledge the bad. I remember once some of us were having a discussion about the Cheongju-Cheonan Rapist and how the English media in Korea never reported it. Hilda had a little diatribe about us only focusing on the bad, she knew about it a few years ago because a Korean co-worker told her (so there complainers), so why not talk about good news. Someone greased her out a bit because a) it is a subject we chose to discuss and was important, b) it was so nice that SHE knew and never told anyone, and c) why the hell chime in if you really have nothing to add. That ended that.
Of course it was always a different story when something happened to Hilda and she needed to vent.
Ah, people. They always find a way to drive others crazy. :)
The people who complain about the complainers are almost always people who couldn't possibly have the same experiences as the person complaining. In fact those people usually enjoy some sort of privilege over the person that is complaining.
ReplyDeleteThey do tend to come off that way a lot of the time don't they? As if their not having that experience makes them better than the other person, or that it means it couldn't possibly have happened because it didn't happen to them.
ReplyDeleteAfter thinking about it some, and Hilda in particular, the ones who complain about the venters often ignore the times the venters have talked about the good they see.
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