How can atheists be optimistic or pessimistic? What will be will be. Why do atheists have egos? Nihilism is the default. How do atheists get loaded up with nostalgia so great that they defend the indefensible?
I used to fluctuate between optimism and pessimism. I used to consume the counter culture. I used to be an absurdist. Where do you fall on the fantastic thoughts scale?
None of this has anything to do with being an atheist
Don't believe in god(s) you're an atheist end of discussion
Anything else you may or may not believe in is up to your own choice or taste and is irrelevant to your professed atheism.
I'm mostly a pessimist but that has nothing at all to do with my atheism. I was pessimistic (though I somewhat prefer the term realist) long before I became an atheist. I'm a pessimist because that's my personality.
Nihilism is only the default of someone who is a blank slate (such as an infant or small child). We learn morality as we grow and develop mentally. Why would I be nihilistic?
No clue what you mean about nostalgia and defending the indefensible. You'll need to elaborate on that.
I really have no idea what is considered "counter culture" these days. These days there's a club or movement or lifestyle for just about everything (and I don't necessarily mean anything bad about that). Eventually most everything that is "alternative" becomes mainstream or irrelevant.
It has long been a common assumption that there's something bad in your future, and there is. Illness, accident, heartbreak, tragedy, natural disaster. Something bad is bound to happen, and most of us assume that.
But there's just as good a chance that something good is in your future. It's just as likely as something bad.
Life is a mixture of good and bad. So, I expect some of both.
How can religious people be anything but pessimistic? Gawd knows your every dirty secret(s), you are DOOMED!