Disclaimer: I'm a pessimist. >But today, you can be stressed out about Trump or COVID-19 Stress has nothing to do with it. I can agree that stress rarely has

Disclaimer: I'm a pessimist. >But today, you can be stressed out about Trump or COVID-19 Stress has nothing to do with it. I can agree that stress rarely has application in our modern day lives. You can be a stress-free negative thinker and also it is possible to be a stressed positive thinker. (positive thinkers fail more, it is possible for that to have an impact on people) >becomes grief - denial, anger, bargaining, depression Again, none of these are necessities to be a negative thinker. >Most things to be negative about are not actionable. That is correct. It is undeniable that negative people are not very effective in our world. Even further - all negative philosophies and religions (Buddhism, stoicism, western pessimism, etc.) focus people on enlightenment and perfecting the person's inner world. A monk has zero interest in changing the world at scale. However it seems to me that there are certain practicalities about negative thinking. You can be smart with it. If you take it at face value - negative thinking is kind of a superpower, it allows you to think what can possibly go wrong and frequently you more cautious than you had to be. You can use that to minimize risks and if successful - you can take actions, because the risk is no longer that high.