Published by: Lloyd Agbulos
Date published: January 09, 2023
Time published: 9:00 AM
Toxic positivity is indeed one of the worse traits of Filipinos. It happend when there's an excessive and ineffective view of an optimistic mindset to all circumstances, even if it is inappropriate and negative. It is not right wanting everyone to deal with it like you are in the same boat, while some of us lack support and privilege.
"Bakit may sad dahil back to work na? Diba dapat masaya ka kasi may chance ka na pagandahin buhay mo at ng pamilya? Trip ko pa nga may work ng January 1 dahil superstition ko may work ako buong taon pag ganun. Dapat grateful kasi may work. If work makes you unhappy, I hope you find a job that will. Yung pakikiligin ka and sheet Anyway, this is just a reminder that having a job is a blessing bessss change mindset, it’s 2023!!" the post read.
That post from a celebrity-influencer Donnalyn Bartolome gathered a lot of hate as it lacked empathy and sympathy, and it was full of privileged statements, but that did not stop there. She posted another statement that showed her experience in commuting and how "privilege was nothing to experience".
Bartolome has all it takes to be called a privileged person. She invalidated the minimum wage earners who worked hard just to earn money enough to survive. She lacked empathy as she always used the words "ako nga..." forcing everybody to look at the situation the way she looks at it.
Keeping in mind that as a minimum wage earner, you have to wake up early in the morning to commute for hours because of the poor public transportation the Philippines has, and waiting in line just to get to your work where you barely earn money. Then you have to commute for hours again at night just to go home and the cycle repeats every day. You do not even have time to talk to your family because of how early you get up and how late you go home.
But what about our lovely local farmers? If the experience was really the basis of having a good life, why are they only barely surviving? They love their work and they were grateful because of it, but they should not complain about how tiring it is and just barely earning? They also push themselves to see the good in their work, that is why they are grateful, and they have the right to be stressed, to be sad, to feel burnt out because they also put effort into their work but still do not receive as much as Bartolome do, mainly because of her privilege.
As you see, the "choice" was really for the privileged. Being grateful does not mean you have no right to get tired and be sad. The least we can do to help them was to stop the spreading of toxic positivity.
"Kung sipag lang ang kailangan para umangat sa buhay, bakit may mga kababayan parin tayong naghihirap?"
Cartoon by Sofia Nicole Boston
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