Posted on 05/06/2023 8:16:22 AM PDT by DoodleBob
We know America is experiencing a mental health crisis, but the Youth Risk Behavior Survey recently released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) illustrates just how serious the problem has become for America’s young people. In 2021, almost three in five teenage girls felt persistent sadness. Girls are twice as likely to be depressed as boys, and one in three girls said they seriously considered suicide. This is a real crisis, and several factors are relevant.
Social media had negatively impacted mental health long before the response to COVID-19 made the problem worse. But a new, perhaps surprising factor, has emerged. It seems a teenager’s political views impact their levels of depression as well.
The study, released in December of 2022, found that liberal teens are more likely to be depressed than their conservative peers. In fact, liberal boys are more likely to be depressed than conservative girls, which suggests that political beliefs are more predictive of depression than gender.
The authors attempted to explain the depression of liberal teenagers in two ways. First, they suggest liberal teens are depressed because they live in a world dominated by conservative values. “[L]iberal adolescents may have therefore experienced alienation with a growing conservative political climate such that their mental health suffered in comparison to that of their conservative peers whose hegemonic views were flourishing.” Few conservatives would agree with the suggestion that conservative political attitudes have achieved cultural dominance.
Alternatively, the authors of the study suggest that progressive kids might be more depressed because they are being targeted — directly or indirectly — by conservatives. “[H]eightened awareness and experience of conservative actions to restrict their rights may have compounded emotional distress.” Is the world simply kinder to conservative teenagers? They offered no evidence of that.
Absent proof that liberal teenagers are a new category of oppressed minority, we should pause to consider whether the modern, liberal worldview might cause depression. There are reasons it could.
In the recent past, the gap between conservatives and liberals was much smaller. Partisan differences were defined by prudential disagreements over the size of government, foreign policy, marginal tax rates, the scope of appropriate regulation, or the most effective way to help the poor. Today, political tribes argue about the ability of men to get pregnant, which is really a disagreement about whether humanity is supposed to make the rules or follow the rules. What we once thought of as political differences have functionally become religious differences and the data confirms the connection. Atheists and agnostics are almost always on the political Left, and the more religiously observant you are, the more likely you are to be on the political Right.
As a result, the thing that makes young people liberals is not so much their belief in a social safety net, but their belief that we are in charge of ourselves — my body my choice. While it’s nice to be in charge, for liberals the situation is complicated by the fact that everything is going terribly: the American dream is a sham, climate change will kill us all, and systemic racism is eternal, they would argue.
Not only does modern liberalism require awareness of problems, it demands a fixation on them and a conviction that they can all be fixed through political action. The Prayer of Serenity has been replaced by “If you’re not angry, you’re not paying attention.” It’s not enough to simply treat people well because, “If you’re not anti-racist, you’re racist.” Simply doing your part to make the world better is insufficient because “injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere.” It’s exhausting, but the exhaustion is proof that you’re doing it right.
The Left’s perpetual outrage has turned anger and depression into a form of virtue. As Yglesias notes, “[A]dult progressives … valorize depressive affect as a sign of political commitment.” As a result, a good liberal knows only the ignorant and apathetic can afford the luxury of gratitude or contentment. Therein lies the problem. Since the world’s crises will never end, the moment for contentment, rest, and gratitude will never come.
Christians have a way to understand a broken world that leads to joy despite the pain. Jesus promised us that we would have trouble, but He told us to take heart because He has overcome the world (John 16:33). Our worldview demands joy despite the circumstances because our hope transcends the circumstances. Today’s secular progressive has no such hope. Their joy will come once they’ve worked hard enough to fix all the problems. No wonder they’re depressed.
Originally published at The Washington Stand.
.... What (liberals) really want is liberal Sharia law, a secular theocracy. The minimum wage, gender equality, nationalized health care, and global warming—whatever their practical virtues—are not just expedient policy prescriptions. They are essential aspects of the liberal fatwa. Feminism, deconstruction, and gender theory are not just academic abstractions up for discussion among liberal academics: They are articles of their religious creed. Question them and you are not just wrong—you are a heretic.
You wonder why the left is having a nervous breakdown in the wake of Trump's election? It is because, for them, politics is the means to secular salvation. This means that, to them, political failure is not just a setback on the road to a more stable society—it is a blow to their very worldview. Opposition to their program is not just wrong-headed, but evil.
This is why all of the excesses of these demonstrations—death threats, looting, violence—can be excused by CNN and MSNBC: They are the necessary extreme measures, justified in light of the threat to their ideology.
Because they’re “trapped in the wrong body”, at least that’s what we’re told. Because they’re the product of a broken educational system, failed nuclear families, and progressive-dominated culture and media - would be my guess.
A huge factor is the nihilism taught by the eco priests who preach "we have eight years left, then we are all going to die when the earth burns to a cinder."
Add in absence of religious faith, and you’ve got some pretty desperate people.
They’re not getting laid. Don’t you know that? Sex with girlie men? Karens?
They hate everybody including themselves.
Is it too late? I’m too old to care.
Today’s secular progressive has no such hope. Their joy will come once they’ve worked hard enough to fix all the problems. No wonder they’re depressed.
—
Trouble is that their ‘Fixes’ create more problems, and often, worse problems that the one they ‘Fixed’.
They will be depressed in perpetuity.
They are unhappy because they don’t know Christ as their Lord and Savior; therefore they have no hope.
No.
You have the wrong end of the stick.
Liberals believe that they are not in charge of themselves as long as one person does not agree with them. Every unhappy thought, every less then magnificent outcome, every drop of rain is because of the actions or thoughts of some one else.
Nothing is just chance. Nothing that is different from their ideal is to be met with a shrug. If it is different it must be evil and it must be destroyed.
They do not have a relationship with Jesus Christ. Period.
probably because they’re not getting all of our $hit fast enough.
Where’s this communism they learned about in school and voted for? Houses still cost money! Damn...
Well said.
That is absolutely right!
That is correct!
Who knows? Who cares? But they’re going to be a lot more unhappy when reality dawns on them.
almost three in five teenage girls felt persistent sadness. Girls are twice as likely to be depressed as boys, and one in three girls said they seriously considered suicide. This is a real crisis, and several factors are relevant.
___________________________________________________________
...and yet most of them will embrace vapid Left-wing philosophies and vote Democrat the rest of their lives.
Progressives wallow in grievance, anger, and fear. Nothing in their psyche produces happiness or positivity. It’s not a matter whether the glass is half empty or half full, but rather that the cup is, in somehow or someway, a symbol of oppression.
They usually have a Public School Indoctrication.
Because they are liberals. Liberals are perpetually outraged about everything. they would fall all to pieces if they didn’t have thing to rage about. They think th3mselves morally superior to others, even thouhg everything deep inside them keeps trying to tell them how wrong they are (its the holy spirit trying to convict their consciences- but they ignore him by raging at others in hopes of drowning out his convicting message to their hearts)
They think they are unhappy now? Just wait until they succeed in getting everything they are fighting for, then they will really be unhappy
Absolutely.
They unknowingly are at War with God.
.
‘Abandon Hope All who enter Here.’
.
The abyss awaits.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.