The author is a liberal; one of the founders of Vox media, no less, and yet he's at least honest enough to see the problem, even if he can't accurately categorize it or present meaningful solutions. Liberals are unhappy. Relative to conservatives. And liberal girls are the most unhappy, while conservative boys are the least unhappy.
https://www.slowboring.com/p/why-are-young-liberals-so-depressed
Among the questions he asks, paraphrased in some cases by me:
- Does liberalism present itself as a "more congenial home for people who are miserable"?
- Does the bad behavior of progressive adults contribute to depression among liberal teens?
- Is there really any evidence that the systemic problems liberals rail about are actually true, or that liberalism is failing?
- Why are conservatives more concerned about the obviously deleterious effects of social media on teens than liberals?
- Does the progressive focus on negativity (racism, sexism, etc.) contribute to depression?
- Does progressivism present a toxic behavior pattern of "catastrophizing" which is the opposite of therapy counsel for dealing with depression, where all of our problems are someone else's fault?
In other words, does liberalism cause people to be miserable, because it's such a toxic mix of ideas and behaviors and attitudes that that's an inevitable end result? Or are liberals miserable because miserable people infect liberalism? Or, is it a nihilistic purity spiral where at this point both of those are happening and reinforcing each other?
To someone who's not a liberal, like me, the answers seem obvious. Stop overly dramatizing your imaginary trials and tribulations. Stop interpreting the normal act of living as evidence of racism or sexism or whatever. Most of those same things happen to everyone, even white guys like me. In fact, they tend to happen MORE often to guys like me, because nobody takes guys like me seriously if I throw a tantrum when I don't get my way about something, like a black woman or a Indian man can do. Unless I can layer on some bizarre fetish, like I'm gay or trans or otherwise dysfunctional in order to give my "oppression" gravitas in the court of progressive thought. Stop looking for someone else to blame for your problems. Even if your problems are really someone else's fault, which is actually unlikely, sitting around being angry and bitter about it and demanding that someone come along and make you happy for free is an entitled, narcissistic approach that will never produce happiness. And stop pretending like you should be able to do whatever you want and force everyone to accept that. If you can't grow up and stop being a demanding, bratty little princess Karen, then the problem is you. You don't need to try and force society to conform to your delusions, you need to get some help to deal with them.
And most importantly, just go live your life. Find a nice person to date. Get married, start a family. Work a job. Find some hobbies that are more fulfilling and normal than activism. Geez, it's really not that hard. The secret to happiness has been right in front of you all along, and for childish reasons, you've rejected it.
On a completely different note, I may play around with the banners for a while. I have a few alternatives, and I'm trying to decide which one I prefer.
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