That's not to say that the loss of faith in institutions, especially the news, isn't a big deal, but personally I think this problem is 10 to 100 times bigger than that. It's an economic collapse, a pandemic, growing income inequality, climate change, the effect of technology on our minds, what we put into our bodies, and a thousand other things I can't even begin to name.
The more I read and think about the world today, the more I think that mental health is the problem of the 21st century, and that the previous list of issues is actually all secondary to the problem of mental health. There are enough resources and enough intelligence to solve all of those problems and more if we had the will.
Is that surprising when educators are pushing a deconstructionist approach to so many topics? Young people are just ending up confused and rudderless, and with the rise in single-parent households, kids aren't necessarily getting a comprehensive and emotionally-balanced upbringing either. I'd argue that a lot of this stuff will manifest as mental health issues, but those will be the symptoms, not the cause. The causes are failures to adequately train and mentor our youth, and that begins with how we are failing to train young adults to be parents.... partly because we're failing to hold them accountable for even basic "be an adult" responsibilities and an understanding of consequences to their actions.
However, I'm wondering if people on the other side feel the same way about me.
I'll tell you what gives me hope though: podcasts like the Joe Rogan Show where Joe, who is very progressive, will talk with ANYONE in order to discuss and understand differences. And this is one of the biggest weakness of mass media these days: if it cannot be condensed to a sound bite it's ignored. A thriving democracy is supposed to be a place where differing points of view are debated vigorously but with mutual respect between the parties debating. Unfortunately, these days it seems to be a race to get to the point where you can dehumanize your opponent, and this is a fault of both the left and right.
You ask who people on the other side think about you: I'm not a progressive but I don't think it's black and white either. I think we could probably agree on 80%+ of RELEVANT political issues... assuming we don't let a polarized media exaggerate what is actually relevant. We all want to be happy, we all want to be loved, we all want the next generation to prosper... I think that's universal.
Generally, identifying as <political label> usually involves ignoring the parts of reality that go against the narrative. Each group has a story, which is a simplification of a selection of real life, optimized to be viral (otherwise they would never have become a large group).
If you realize this:
- first, your former allies will denouce you as a traitor;
- then your former enemies will offer you membership, because it seems to them like you want to switch sides;
- you refuse, now both your former allies and your former enemies are angry at you;
- you spend some time alone;
- then you find people who are not playing the game, and they become your new friends;
- finally you realize that people not playing the game are actually a majority of the population.
My grandfather would watch italian news on RAI TV. The news there had an anchor. The show started with the anchor reading headlines. Then they went into each headline with more detail. Very limited ads. Straight, to the point. We need more of that.
It’s probably not worthwhile discussing this particular case in HN, but it’s not rare for me to scroll my Facebook feed and see completely different interpretations of the same event.
Simple. A lot of people are not having their needs met by "the system" while simultaneously feeling the resources are there to have their needs met.
People in third world countries seemingly deal much better in many ways in my experience. Although their needs aren't being met, they see no path to their needs being met, that just feels like reality to them.
People in the US who's needs aren't met have the thing they want thrown in their face to the point of absurdity constantly.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_D._Putnam#Diversity_and...
It's just the flu for 90% of people.
So this constant you are a 'survivor' for everything that happens to you can't be helping.
We now take pride in anti-stoicism.
