Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt has noted that since 2012 there has been an epidemic of depression among young liberal women in the US. Neo-Marxist girls suffer from severe depression many times more than any other group.
Haidt noted that the culture of radical political correctness (woke) contains many elements exactly opposite to what people are taught in the treatment of depression. It seems as if the goal is to cure life’s optimism and bring depression on. Psychiatrists teach their patients to stop “catastrophizing,” the act of looking for the most negative scenario and filling one’s brain with it over and over again. Young radical students, on the other hand, compete to see who can come up with the most depressing scenario and who can let it affect them more. The earth will surely perish from the heat of global warming, the far right will surely kill everyone, etc. Psychiatrists teach their patients to focus on the part of reality they can control. Young activists compete to see who can pay more attention to Trump, Putin and other villains that are completely out of their reach. Psychiatrists teach their patients to focus on the future. In “sensitivity training,” people compete to see who can feel more damaged by past experiences. And so on. In short, treating depression inside out.
Only it’s not the only group with this approach. In the radical political opposition (the so-called alternative) you will find exactly the same thing. From any banality the most catastrophic scenario is derived. Any inconvenience is seen as part of a plan to destroy civilization. People are led to believe that everything is controlled by a worldwide conspiracy against which they are powerless (and to ignore what they can change and influence). Or they are told that they can easily overthrow the government, which is a naive lie that will be exposed within days (again, something that contributes to the development of depression). And, of course, the constant focus on the perceived or actual harm that government power has done to them in the past.
Not only is this detrimental to mental health, but it has political implications as well. In short-term clashes, pessimists can defeat optimists because they fully experience the weight of adversity, which spurs them to extraordinary performance. In long-term conflicts, however, the winner is the more persistent and creative. That is, the one with a positive mindset. While the pessimist has the advantage of spotting risks more easily, his depressive disposition will still prevent him from doing anything about it.
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