Gaslighting the weather

Yes, let's get the clouds to turn into giant balls of fire!

They should love and accept the rain cloud for who it is.

Yeah... Well, try calling me sunshine when in a grumpy mood and see what happens, I dare you.

Refreshing rain > deadly laser

cringed so hard it burst into flames

Hey if people kept touching me, I'd develop flames too

While some people identify possibly problematic themes with this, for me it was quite moving. My family in particular have always seen this version of me that I never saw, especially not when I was suffering from depression and only seeing myself as someone who didn't deserve happiness, and once I started therapy it made it easier for me to start appreciating myself more. They saw the person it would take me a very long time to give myself permission to discover.

This reminds me of that.

Deadly laser? The sun is not a deadly laser, for one thing the emmision band is far too wide for that. It's more of a deadly heat ray.

Me telling the 6” of snow that it’s going to melt at 17° because it’s sunny outside.

Screw that, make it rain! I love the rain!

And thus began the drought that wiped out 95% of terrestrial species. The other 5% learned to like salt water.

Yeah this seems to be more “even when you’re feeling down about yourself, you’re still loved and valued.” At least that’s the message I got from it.

Though I can see how it can be interpreted as toxic positivity for others.

Is this just manipulation?

🎶Not anymore, there's a blanket...🎵

A majority of human interaction is some form of manipulation. I think the question should be what degree the manipulation serves the manipulator versus the mark. For example, my wife compliments me for not looking like a total piece of shit. This both helps diminish tendencies in me she dislikes (helping her) and encourages me to not be a piece of shit, which given that my wife generally looks out for my best interests, helps me as well. From the opposite perspective, gaslighting is a form of manipulation that only benefits the manipulator... Hence why it's frowned upon.

It’s strange to see how some people took this completely the opposite way than I did.

To me, it just shows that even when we’re at our lowest, a little bit of encouragement and a reminder on how much you mean to them can really drag you back from those dark depths.

People being nice to you is not always an ulterior motive.

Plasmalighting.

If the raincloud wasn't dour and clearly unhappy I'd agree.

It's like what people seem to be going for with "you could so much better if you just applied yourself", except it's actually focusing on what's good instead of drilling in the idea that you've failed and it's worse because you should have been able to do better. On the other hand, maybe the specifics would be a little more on point if they were thanking the cloud for the rain that makes their garden grow rather than trying make it be something else.

Clinical depression is a thing.

i think you're reading too deeply. people tend to associate sunshine with happiness. i like the rain personally, but if we're applying common imagery, there's probably a message. pour enough love and happiness into something that is struggling to see love and happiness and it too may eventually start giving out love and happiness. i mean, it worked with my cat (she was a fiesty little semi-feral thing when we got her. i probably got two hours of playtime, half an hour of biscuits, and an hour of lap naps today. it took a lot of love to get her that trusting)

all i can do is pour some tea for two