Posted on 08/03/2021 4:15:00 AM PDT by Kaslin
In my last column, I published comments written by New York Times subscribers about how proud they were of their children for deciding not to have children of their own. Though they acknowledged how much they ached to be grandparents, they nevertheless reveled in the fact that this would never happen.
Why did these parents take so much pride in their children's decision not to give them grandchildren?
Because of climate change.
You read that right. Better not to have grandchildren than to have grandchildren who will suffer and quite possibly die because of global warming.
I described these people as deranged because it takes a deranged person to think climate change is a reason to celebrate never being a grandparent.
And who, I asked, produced these deranged parents?
The media and the universities.
What could better prove the power of the media and the universities to pervert the mind than their having convinced people to be proud of the fact that they would never be grandparents?
Just a few days later, The New York Times and their subscribers (you have to be a subscriber to comment) provided more proof of the psychopathology that pervades the left.
New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote a column titled "What's Ripping American Families Apart?" Though Brooks offered no answers to his question -- "I confess, I don't understand what's causing this," he wrote -- he did cite important data. For example, he linked to a 2015 study in the Journal of Psychology and Behavioral Science, which reported that at least 27% of Americans are estranged from a member of their family. Having addressed this subject regularly on my national radio show for 20 years, in print ("Adults who do not speak to a parent," Jewish Journal, July 19, 2011) and on video (PragerU Fireside Chat No. 72, March 6, 2019), I can attest to the prevalence of the catastrophe of an adult child who has chosen to sever all contact with a parent. Men as well as women have wept on my show when talking about their alienated son or daughter.
Moreover, given that the statistic Brooks cites comes from a 2015 study, there is no question things have gotten a lot worse (because of the Trump presidency and, now, wokeness).
Why has this been happening?
In a nutshell, and in no order of importance, I would posit the following causes:
Narcissism: Many Americans were raised to believe they have innumerable rights but few obligations.
Radical secularism: The belief that one is commanded to "Honor your father and mother" has died along with other core Judeo-Christian values.
Naivete about life: Many Americans -- especially among the religion-free and the well-educated -- think life is supposed to be pain-free. And when it isn't, it is someone else's fault (usually parents or white people).
Incompetent psychotherapists: If most psychotherapists were ineffectual, their patients would only be wasting their money. But many are not merely ineffectual; they do harm. Every time I speak to a parent whose child refuses to communicate with them, I ask the parent if their child discussed this issue with his or her therapist. Nearly always, the answer is yes. And nearly always, the therapist encouraged the patient in their decision to sever relations with their parents.
Now, back to Brooks' article. I once again read what New York Times subscribers had to say, this time about "What's Ripping American Families Apart?"
Like the Times readers who wrote about their pride in not becoming grandparents -- their child having decided not to have children because of climate change -- I again encountered derangement among New York Times readers.
That virtually no Times reader took issue -- let alone judged -- the sons and daughters who removed themselves from their parents' lives was bad enough. What pushed the responses into the mentally unbalanced category was that many readers actually explained these life-crushing decisions by blaming capitalism, poverty, former President Donald Trump and, believe it or not, climate change.
Of the scores of examples, here are a few:
Peter, Chicago: "That's what global capitalism does best. Social destruction."
Boone, Wild West: "My wife is estranged from four of her five siblings, and it's totally due to Trump, who they continue to support, which is simply inexcusable. I totally agree."
Susan T., Brooklyn, New York: "Fox and Trump are the main reasons for estrangement at this time."
Mike, Fort Smith, Arkansas: "Trump and Fox News created an entire generation of crazy people who nobody can relate to."
Yog_Sothoth, USA: "Poverty is ripping families apart. It isn't complicated."
SB, New York: "If my mother or father became a murderer, terrorist, (or a) Republican ... would I still love my parent. Here the answer is less sure."
Tubbercurry, USA: "Please Mr. Brooks, educate yourself about this climate crisis."
GBR, New England: "In the past several years, my view of them (my parents) as people dramatically changed. Can you guess what did it? His initials are DJT. Sometimes one can have loving parents who treated you well, advocated for you, gave you opportunities, encouragement, and support ... but who are just not good people when viewed with an adult ... "
Thomas Zaslavsky, Binghamton, New York: "What's Ripping American Families Apart? Lack of decent jobs, or any jobs. The correlation is too strong to ignore."
RP, California: "Feminism freed women from being dependent on men, and we celebrate that ... Let's celebrate that no one is bound to anyone who causes them pain."
If you want to know how the left has screwed with people's minds, hearts and consciences, just read the comments sections accompanying New York Times articles. Then read comments accompanying Wall Street Journal articles. You may not agree with them, but you will encounter nothing so comparably irrational or mean, let alone deranged.
Trump Derangement Syndrome #TDS is real.
It sure is.
Although I have seen people on Free Republic indicate the opposite of this, I will say that I do not personally know any Conservative who has “cancelled” Liberals out of their lives. I think, to a large degree, Conservatives take a Live and Let Live attitude and tolerate the Liberals around them in families, neighborhoods, and work places. The Liberals are stupid, but what are you going to do?
But it’s different on the other side. Liberals really hate Trump supporters. Want them gone. Out of the family, out of the neighborhood, out of the work place. These people seethe with hatred — and they think it’s our fault. Because we are awful.
The truth of the New York Times article is more likely that all the respondents were actually New York Times staff.
My otherwise smart sister has been indoctrinated by the leftist media. She’s turned into a hateful person that I don’t know anymore.
Living in Montgomery County Maryland and seeing lots of liberal democrats on a daily basis I can tell you that most leftist families are dysfunctional.
Wives, husbands and children dislike each other.
Many are estranged from other family members. Divorce and homosexuality are common.
Children in their late teens and twenties are particularly unhappy.
For a while they focused their energy on hating President Trump. Now they are left with hating each other.
Given 99% or more of NYT readers are Liberals and looking at their being on board with NOT having children, I view this as a wonderful thing.
I have said for years, and I see it in my own extended family, that our side does not understand nor comprehend the hatred the Left has for us. It started long before Trump. Everything to them is political and theirs is a politics of hate. This why we lose to them. We think, like normal people, that everything is negotiable. They are so driven by hatred towards us that they think everything is a zero sum, death match in which one side has to die, often times literally. You hear it from CNN, MSNBC and others every day.
Prager omitted Feminism. Interesting he would do so.
He omitted degeneracy -meaning not producing the next generation.
He omitted that psychotherapists are products of modernity and their “unconscious” mission is to brain wash people into believing there is nothing higher than self fulfillment not building a family as an institution.
Prager is often naive - he doesn’t see that a letter to the NYT proclaiming moral superiority of no grandchildren for the cause of global warming has, perhaps, been written to by some clever activist (or even CIA operative), to brainwash grandparents into believing it and corrupting the nation. Prager has no comprehension that very wealthy secular Jewish families are funding such efforts to undermine the morality of the nation and have been for decades.
Prager fails to see that family alienation is mainly one-sided by those members of the parasitic Knowledge Class who must project their hatred onto even other family members who are makers not takers because they are guilty about their parasitism. This is the source of their derangement.
While the intelligent, well educated and successful eschew having children the stupid, uneducated and ignorant have no such qualms. We are on a suicide course as a nation.
Prager has two children and is now on this third marriage, based on what I’ve been able to research online. I don’t judge him, but on this topic I think it would have been instructive for him to share a little bit about what has affected HIS family relationships over the years.
....hmmmmm, I don’t think you know much of anything about Prager based on your comments. Spend some time at Prager U on any subject and you will understand how wrong you are. Dennis hasn’t been naive about anything for decades... ymmv
We have yet to grasp just how evil Democrats have become, or what they will do to us with enough power.
My otherwise smart sister has been indoctrinated by the leftist media. She’s turned into a hateful person that I don’t know anymore.
—
Ditto, sadly
Doesn’t matter...... NYC is no longer America.
NYC is one of the City States that have effectively become nonAmerica
It’s The constant bleeting of social media telling people that they MUST get likes on Facebook and retweet’s on Twitter in order to exist. I removed myself from all social media, save FR for news and to give my 2cents every know and then, and I am much happier, the sky is blue once more and my sheets are lavender fresh. 👍🏻
Talk to any member of the Clergy - Money is by far #1 reason families are torn apart. A Priest once told us that 90% of of his family councilling sessions involved fights over money.
There is always a sibling who thinks they are being shortchanged in the will - especially if the Parents have money.
I’ve seen it several times based on religion.
My sister-in-law (brothers wife) converted to Judaism from a strict Protestant Church from Missouri. Her family effectively disowned her, and her parents never met their now-teenage grandchildren. Her brother is OK.
And I’ve seen it the other way, too, but not in my family.
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