Negative persona (mask) inhibits learning

‘To be negative’ is not the same as ‘to be critical’.

The dictionary has many definitions for this word, “critical�, but I would choose the critical (decisive) meaning, as regarding learning, to be—exercising or involving careful judgment or judicious evaluation.

A negative persona is an attitude of non-acceptance.

I think that part of the problem is that too many of us have only an accept button and a reject button.

Accept or reject are not the only options one has. The most important and generally overlooked, especially by the young, is the option to ‘hold’.

It appears to me that many young people consider that ‘to be negative is to be cool’. This leads them into responding that ‘X’ is false when responding to an OP that states that ‘X’ is true.

When a person takes a public position affirming or denying the truth of ‘Y’ they are often locking themselves into a difficult position. If their original position was based on opinion rather than judgment their ego will not easily allow them to change position once they have studied and analyzed ‘Y’.

The moral of this story is that holding a default position of ‘reject or accept’, when we are ignorant, is not smart because our ego will fight any attempt to modify the opinion with a later judgment. Silence, or questions directed at comprehending the matter under consideration, is the smart decision for everyone’s default position.

Our options are reject, accept, and hold. I claim that ‘hold’ is the most important and should be the most often used because everyone is ignorant of almost everything.

Do you accept, reject, or hold judgment regarding my claim?

I think it's a reasonable claim. Any semi-seasoned debater can effortlessly argue both the pros and cons for myriad issues of interest, without seriously committing to either side. Committing to a side can be a serious handicap as it can lead to immobilization and often irrationality. There is an art to becoming fluid versus becoming solid through taking a stand. We are all morphing elemental primordial things at the core, though sometimes we forget.