Article: why are young liberals so depressed?

[Mercenary]

Social media has brought about a whole new level of anciety among Gen Zs. I suppose liberals on average devote more time to social media.

[Horus]

Are conservatives actually less depressed or do they just think they're less depressed?

[Del Tachi]

Are conservatives actually less depressed or do they just think they're less depressed?

What’s the difference?  Lol

[Horus]

Are conservatives actually less depressed or do they just think they're less depressed?

What’s the difference?  Lol

My point is the survey is entirely self reported. One can fit the criteria for clinical depression but would never in a million years call themselves depressed if asked.

Also liberals, especially gen z are in my experience more likely to falsely diagnose themselves with disorders they may not have.

[Isaak]

Having a growing climate crisis, an existing gun crisis, not being able to find employment, and having all your rights stripped away with seemingly nothing done to stop any of it will do that to a person.

Well, the previous generation had to deal with the financial crisis, the Great Recession and the war on terror. The generation before with the ozone hole, the Chernobyl disaster, the permanent fear of nuclear annihilation, etc.

There are always crises, and there are always reasons to worry about the future – if you're the type of person that is inclined to do so. But in no way is the situation in 2023 worse than it was 20 or 40 years ago. By contrast, people today, young people included, are healthier, wealthier, better educated, and have more life chances than any other generation in human history. They should be grateful to be born in a time that offers them everything and demands very little in return, at least in the developed world.

And "not being able to find employment"? The U.S. unemployment rate is 3.6%, the lowest in almost six decades. (Here in Germany, it's 5.7% and people already get crazy because of "labor shortage"). Granted, not all jobs are super high-paying and not everybody can become a lawyer/doctor/professor/CEO, but this has never been different. If anything, people are unhappy because they hold unrealistic expectations about themselves and their abilities, which is indeed a trend that has been greatly reinforced by the internet/social media.

[HillGoose]

bcuz a red chinese bioweapon ruined the world 3 years ago and Article 5 wasn't even invoked

at least in my case thats why

[หมูเด้ง]

Are conservatives actually less depressed or do they just think they're less depressed?

What’s the difference?  Lol

Ever heard of Alexithymia?

[หมูเด้ง]

Having a growing climate crisis, an existing gun crisis, not being able to find employment, and having all your rights stripped away with seemingly nothing done to stop any of it will do that to a person.

Well, the previous generation had to deal with the financial crisis, the Great Recession and the war on terror. The generation before with the ozone hole, the Chernobyl disaster, the permanent fear of nuclear annihilation, etc.

There are always crises, and there are always reasons to worry about the future – if you're the type of person that is inclined to do so. But in no way is the situation in 2023 worse than it was 20 or 40 years ago. By contrast, people today, young people included, are healthier, wealthier, better educated, and have more life chances than any other generation in human history. They should be grateful to be born in a time that offers them everything and demands very little in return, at least in the developed world.

And "not being able to find employment"? The U.S. unemployment rate is 3.6%, the lowest in almost six decades. (Here in Germany, it's 5.7% and people already get crazy because of "labor shortage"). Granted, not all jobs are super high-paying and not everybody can become a lawyer/doctor/professor/CEO, but this has never been different. If anything, people are unhappy because they hold unrealistic expectations about themselves and their abilities, which is indeed a trend that has been greatly reinforced by the internet/social media.

So people are sad because  their disabilities are holding them back from who they other would be without them? I mean, there’s Occam’s Razor and then there’s   ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. What’s this. Honest question.

[Ferguson97]

Are conservatives actually less depressed or do they just think they're less depressed?

What’s the difference?  Lol

Conservatives really lack object permeance, don't they? "If I don't see it/know about it, then it might as well not exist."

[Vosem]

Your party is basically an authoritarian personality cult worshiping an orange lump of hate, grievance, bigotry, and conspiracy theories.  With all due respect, the idea that today's Republican Party is the party of optimism and folks with "sunny dispositions" doesn't really pass the laugh test.  

I sort of agree that it is a counterintuitive finding; I think the present leadership of the Republican Party doesn't really believe that it is leading a party of optimistic people. (This might be part of why the present leadership of the Republican Party has not actually been terribly successful; I have predicted before that most of the elite 'populists' will end up in the Democratic coalition, and this is part of why). That said, this is an incredibly consistent finding; the last time there was even a tie among self-reported happiness between Republicans and Democrats was in the 1970s, and since then the gap has only been growing, particularly in the 2010s.

(I wonder if part of the answer isn't the gender gap? Women used to be happier than men, but since circa 1970 men have reported greater happiness than women and today the difference is pretty large. More generally, I think there is a greater tendency of left-wing Americans to believe in enormous crises -- like that COVID is very dangerous, or that climate change is very dangerous, or that lots of regulations are needed for a safe society -- while I think right-wing Americans blow these things off, which is very likely a healthier attitude for any specific individual.)

I tend to be more skeptical of surveys like this than most people on the forum -- I think a great deal of issue polling is simply not reconcilable with the actual outcomes of referendums and elections between candidates in the US, so I would take seriously findings that are more than anecdotal suggesting this isn't true. But I think when you actually look pretty closely at the liberal and conservative worldviews/demographic breakdowns/track records it makes a lot of sense that the conservatives would be happier.

Wait, someone actually said the Republicans are the optimism party?  For young people?  Have you ever met a politically-active young Republican?  They're almost entirely driven by grievance and revenge against their annoying peers.

I say politically-active because 80% of young Republicans are only Republicans because their parents are Republicans, and will mindlessly repeat Fox News talking points for about 30 seconds and then get indignant and pretend to take things personally if you try to push past those.

People really, really don't want to admit that people might vote Republican because they like the party's agenda and find the idea that it will improve their lives more credible than the Democrats' agenda.

The 80% number is interesting, though -- while lots of old studies suggest that the number of people inheriting political beliefs from their parents is low in a free society (in the 1960s/1970s it may have even been under half), lots of studies show inheriting political beliefs is likelier under conditions of high polarization, and in the 2020s it may be the case that ~80% of politically active Americans simply inherit their beliefs from their parents:

https://twitter.com/DegenRolf/status/1622957035397517314

I feel like my own experiences suggest a lower number -- I've met plenty of quite left-wing people who grew up in conservative households, or libertarians who grew up in quite left-wing households. (My old observation is that Ayn Rand is particularly hated not because she's the most extreme figure ever, but because she is preternaturally effective at converting formerly left-wing Americans).

Are conservatives actually less depressed or do they just think they're less depressed?

What’s the difference?  Lol

Conservatives really lack object permeance, don't they? "If I don't see it/know about it, then it might as well not exist."

'Permanence'.

Isn't the point of effective therapy, and many kinds of non-pharmaceutical interventions for depression, to trick your mind into believing that it's less depressed? This seems like the sort of thing that would, in fact, work. (To take things to an extreme level, having a worldview where mental illnesses don't exist at all would probably lead you to be unkind to others, but might on average be good for your personal mental health.)

[TheReckoning]

Young people have been lied to, and been told they are something great by themselves, which is of course complete bull. When they go out into the world and realize everything they were told was a complete lie, they naturally lose it.

[Ferguson97]

Isn't the point of effective therapy, and many kinds of non-pharmaceutical interventions for depression, to trick your mind into believing that it's less depressed? This seems like the sort of thing that would, in fact, work. (To take things to an extreme level, having a worldview where mental illnesses don't exist at all would probably lead you to be unkind to others, but might on average be good for your personal mental health.)

No, that's not how therapy, medication, or mental illness works at all.

It's not like Tinker Bell. It doesn't go away because you stop believing in it.