Citations:hopium

Noun: "(informal, derogatory) irrational or unwarranted optimism"

 * 1988 — David Chidester, Salvation and Suicide: An Interpretation of Jim Jones, the Peoples Temple, and Jonestown, Indiana University Press (1988), ISBN 9780253350565, page 57:
 * This was the practical God in distinction to Sky Gods, Buzzard Gods, and the unknown God worshipped by those who were addicted to the "hopium" of myth.
 * 2008 — John Kass, "Favre and bribe talk sound right for Illinois pay-to-play", Chicago Tribune, 1 August 2008:
 * It's the last time I ever want to hear McCain whining about the liberal media loving Barack Obama more. He knows it. And I know that many reporters are helpless Obama hopium addicts. But somebody lofted him a perfect pass and he fumbled it.
 * 2010 — W. C. Augustine, Atlas Rising, Tate Publishing & Enterprises, LLC (2010), ISBN 9781617393297, page 206:
 * "I think you are unconsciously smoking hopium. I'm putting the odds less than twenty percent.
 * 2011 — Carolyn Baker, Navigating the Coming Chaos: A Handbook for Inner Transition, iUniverse (2011), ISBN 9781450270878, page 105:
 * About one year after Barack Obama became President, I noticed on one radical left website the words "the hopium is wearing off."
 * 2011 — Chris Lytle, The Accidental Sales Manager: How to Take Control and Lead Your Sales Team to Record Profits, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (2011), ISBN 9780470941645, unnumbered page:
 * Salespeople like Michael are hooked on hopium. They present and pray hoping they have done enough to win the business. And their sales process ends there.


 * 2013, Kimberly Foss, Wealthy by Design: A 5-Step Plan for Financial Security, Greenleaf Book Group (ISBN 9781608325740), page 34:
 * To sit back and wait for somebody else to solve your problem requires an attitude I refer to as “hopium”—foolish hope. Hopium allows individuals to ignore new and sometimes unpleasant financial realities, and hopium is what keeps ...
 * 2016, Tracy Schorn, Leave a Cheater, Gain a Life: The Chump Lady's Survival Guide, Running Press Adult (ISBN 9780762459056), page 114:
 * Spackle is the gateway drug to hopium. When you can&#39;t spackle any longer, you have to hit the harder stuff—delusional hope, or “hopium.” It&#39;s a powerful hallucinogenic. Hopium can make you see potential in the grimmest set of ...
 * 2020, Jack Adam Weber, Carolyn Baker, Climate Cure: Heal Yourself to Heal the Planet, Llewellyn Worldwide (ISBN 9780738765129)
 * In response to the doomsayers&#39;s pattern of rejecting hopeful evidence, I coined the term reverse hopium. I define the term hopium as "unrealistic positive hope to make us feel better in the face of bad news; a cognitive opiate to reduce existential angst."