4 ms·

> but it often doesn't fail. Is it wrong that a child was forced into something that gave them a great life? I've seen it fail more often than not fail. Maybe

> but it often doesn't fail. Is it wrong that a child was forced into something that gave them a great life? I've seen it fail more often than not fail. Maybe from the outside the person has a great life but on the inside they're not actually happy. > It just feels weird hearing a millionaire, rather successful, badmouth his parents and throw a pity party because they made him do something he was good at as a child. The vast majority of people would likely trade their position for his, childhood be damned. I'm not that sure. What good does it make to be millionaire if you're deeply unhappy? Of course, if someone is starving right now they might want to swap places, or if they're unhappy already they might as well be unhappy with more money. But I don't think that state is something people really want.

MisterBastahrd 4y ago
I'd rather be unhappy that I lost a few life experiences as a kid than being unhappy now because I can't pay my rent, I'm living off ramen, and my apartment has bedbugs, but that's just me.
- gjulianm 4y ago
  It's not "I wish I didn't lose a few life experiences". Will Wheaton has expressed several times that he has severe chronic depression and anxiety. There's a lot of range between "can't pay rent" and "severely depressed millionaire" and I don't think people want either of those extremes.
  - MisterBastahrd 4y ago
    Millions of people have severe chronic depression and anxiety. Most of them don't have the resources to get treatment, they don't write memoirs that get republished, they don't end up getting an interview on Access Hollywood to talk about what a shit childhood they had, and they don't have a megaphone to throw their parents under the bus while enriching themselves from the legacy that was only possible because of their supposed trauma. It's one thing to say "hey, this is my experience, many people didn't know, I thought it sucks, I want to warn people about it, and I struggle with the results." It's another to say "I hated my childhood, I never got to do anything, here are ten thousand reasons why I hate my parents, and I'm gonna continue to throw them under the bus until people stop paying me to talk about it." It's normal to dislike some people. Even your parents. It's flat out unproductive to be perpetually bitter about things that happened 30-40 years ago when you're about to be 50, and I'm a person who would know given my own childhood... and my own (which I thought was fairly traumatic emotionally) was a cakewalk compared to my SO's. If those people care about him as little as he says, then the only person he's hurting by continuing to revisit it is himself. There's a difference between being upset that it happened and being so angry at the people who have long since either forgotten or forgiven themselves that you need to go on TV about it and then follow it up with a blog post. I don't think it helped him, he comes off as petulant, and it definitely didn't hurt anyone else if his narrative is accurate.
    - matthewdgreen 4y ago
      What he's doing is calling attention to a particular pattern of child abuse that still occurs today.
      - MisterBastahrd 4y ago
        He's also being hyperbolic in order to sell a book.

MisterBastahrd 4y ago

I'd rather be unhappy that I lost a few life experiences as a kid than being unhappy now because I can't pay my rent, I'm living off ramen, and my apartment has bedbugs, but that's just me.

gjulianm 4y ago
It's not "I wish I didn't lose a few life experiences". Will Wheaton has expressed several times that he has severe chronic depression and anxiety. There's a lot of range between "can't pay rent" and "severely depressed millionaire" and I don't think people want either of those extremes.
- MisterBastahrd 4y ago
  Millions of people have severe chronic depression and anxiety. Most of them don't have the resources to get treatment, they don't write memoirs that get republished, they don't end up getting an interview on Access Hollywood to talk about what a shit childhood they had, and they don't have a megaphone to throw their parents under the bus while enriching themselves from the legacy that was only possible because of their supposed trauma. It's one thing to say "hey, this is my experience, many people didn't know, I thought it sucks, I want to warn people about it, and I struggle with the results." It's another to say "I hated my childhood, I never got to do anything, here are ten thousand reasons why I hate my parents, and I'm gonna continue to throw them under the bus until people stop paying me to talk about it." It's normal to dislike some people. Even your parents. It's flat out unproductive to be perpetually bitter about things that happened 30-40 years ago when you're about to be 50, and I'm a person who would know given my own childhood... and my own (which I thought was fairly traumatic emotionally) was a cakewalk compared to my SO's. If those people care about him as little as he says, then the only person he's hurting by continuing to revisit it is himself. There's a difference between being upset that it happened and being so angry at the people who have long since either forgotten or forgiven themselves that you need to go on TV about it and then follow it up with a blog post. I don't think it helped him, he comes off as petulant, and it definitely didn't hurt anyone else if his narrative is accurate.
  - matthewdgreen 4y ago
    What he's doing is calling attention to a particular pattern of child abuse that still occurs today.
    - MisterBastahrd 4y ago
      He's also being hyperbolic in order to sell a book.