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Anger
(thelemmy.club)
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this post was submitted on 29 Jul 2026
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Nah, this is bs.
Plenty of people are fueled by anger, motivated by anger, focus better when they're angry. Anger can already be cold and calculated, no transformation necessary.
But aside from all that, emotions don't have to be productive. They aren't productive or unproductive, they simply are. Emotions are largely involuntary reactions to our surroundings and circumstances, a lense that colors an individual's world. They're all valid, regardless of whether or not they're productive, and pointing out that "anger is not productive" makes you part of the problem the post is describing.
The word productive scares me sometimes.
It's an obsession born out of capitalism. They want you focused on "productivity" because it makes the line go up. Sometimes you need to be unproductive.
My thoughts exactly. Maybe I dont want to produce, maybe I want to sit on my ass and play Gothic 1 for 7 straight hours.
'Productive' can be be recontextualized.
Reclaimed.
You can be productive at developing your skill at a hobby you simply enjoy partaking in, for no monetary benefit.
You can be productive at researching or learning something you are simply curious about.
You can be productive in many contexts other than 'producing profit for your boss'.
You can be productive at setting up a literal house of cards, and then knocking them over for fun.
You can be productive at coding a silly little tool that probably only you will ever use.
You can be productive at teaching a dog how to play catch.
The following is a current and valid definition of productive:
Basically just means: you accomplished something, or took meaningful steps toward accomplishing something.
Doesn't need to have anything to do with producing profit, performing a role/task for some other person.
You can have a productive therapy session where you succesfully confront/express something you hadn't previously, fully experience your emotions about that, and come to terms with them, gain better understanding of yourself.
You can be unproductive by daydreaming.
You can be unproductive by taking a nap.
You can be unproductive by eating a bunch of snacks and watching videos.
You can be unproductive by being bored, which... might not sound fun, but that's the time when I do some of my best cogitation. And I find myself bored less and less these days.
Or, I dunno, maybe you think all of those things are productivity, too, in which case---what are we even talking about?
You should do things because you want to do them. And if you want to do nothing, you should do that, too.
Your examples are true and important as well, people also need down time, relaxation, decompression.
You are correct that 'being bored' is the kind of ... mental space or mind state that often, seemingly accidentally leads to new ideas or a kind of 'lightbulb' moment.
You seem to be thinking I am fully disagreeing with you? I am not, your last two sentences are spot on.
I am just saying that you can reclaim the concept of 'productivity' away from your pay master, that 'productive' doesn't need to be a dirty word, per se.
I still also completely agree that... you should not feel compelled to feel any kind of productive, all the time, constantly. It is indeed fine to just... want to be unproductive, want to relax.
Correct.
Anger can be very productive, when controlled, channeled, used as fuel for justified, reasoned and motivated action... or even, can compel you to act decisively when stakes are extremely high and full thoughtful consideration will waste time and lead to harm.
Anger also can be uncontrolled, unrestrained, and broadly destructive, and can compel poorly thought out knee jerk responses to misunderstood situations.
Its nuanced. Its complex.
A blanket 'ick' at the concept of anger is a sign a person is laughably priveleged and inexperienced, coddled, either that or basically brainwashed, maybe both.
It is entirely normal to be angry sometimes.
Learning how to understand and control your own anger literally is a significant part of maturity, becoming a mature person.
And yes, you are totally right; anger, other emotions, feelings, are... just things that happen to humans, experiences they have, given certain situations, certain stimuli.
They don't need to do anything, other than be experienced.
Yeah, I got so angry at AI slop code that I started doing research for a video essay, and found the original form of AI coding, in the 60's and 70's. It's called "natural language programming", and it's the reason why SQL's syntax looks ass.
Emotions have to be not damaging. When they are, you feel like shit and it reinforces the cycle of you feeling like shit. They are "valid" whatever that might mean, but they can absolutely wreck your entire shit up. So we learn to properly process them so that doesn't happen.
Your not recognizing that is actually part of the problem, you reinforce people being total wrecks, under the misguided veil of trying to appear helpful.
You missed my point completely, and are arguing something I'm not actually saying.
You don't help someone process an intense emotion by telling them their emotion isn't helpful. That's the whole point of the post.
Well, you wrote that, so if your point was different, you should've done that.
You do actually. Recognizing that an emotion that a person is obsessing with is harmful is a first and necessary step in trying to help.
Telling someone their emotions aren't helpful is a great way to train them to either bury them or go to someone else to help them process them
Good thing that the therapy isn't just telling people that their emotions are bad. It's guided discovery, it's helping you to realize the unhelpfulness of the emotion hurts you.
Not doing that is a great way to ensure that people have no idea how to process their emotions and spend their whole live in misery and hell of their own making.
Ah, now you're arguing against something I never said again, nice
I'm arguing with your words. If you write one thing but mean another, that's a you problem.