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.
I do see the rise in single-parent households being an issue, but there's something confusing about that. I would expect kids to "act out" more if there was more psychological pressure on them, but the rates of things like teenage pregnancy and underage drinking is down over the past decade. This is in contrast to rates of depression increasing dramatically, even by 50% (around 8% to 13% in about a decade) in that exact age group (12-17).
Finally, as a young person myself, my (relatively recent) experience of highschool and being a teenager was quite the opposite - it's not that adults aren't holding them accountable, it's that they are holding themselves hyper-accountable. Both in the fact that they are comparing themselves to world-class performers on social media, and that there is now a permanent record of their social interactions online which can lead to politically correct woke mobs going after them. Being young in the US feels like walking on a tightrope while there's an earthquake going on.
I think this statement is a bit vague. Could you elaborate what you think those responsibilities that are not correctly communicated are and how an adequate training would look?
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.
He's probably more libertarian than progressive. He was quite open about his support for Ron Paul in the Obama-Romney election and then went for Gary Johnson in 2016. When Sen Sanders lost the nomination, he was quite open about saying he would vote for Trump over Biden.
He's very good friends with Alex Jones (of Sandy Hook denial infamy) and has hosted numerous other rightwing guests with a great degree of empathy for some of their positions.
Add to that his thoughts that perhaps "the Man" has had some grand conspiracies at work (e.g. him wondering if we really did land on the moon) and he's probably more identifiable as a liberal libertarian.
He definitely has a pleasant voice and can engage in conversations but I'm not sure how much some of the above-mentioned positions align with the majority of progressives.
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.
I think our epistemic agreements are gone, yes, but it feels like we’d be polarized today even with epistemic agreement.
It is true that Amazon has caused some bad things in the world, which has some factual basis, and we all might agree. But our ethics of eradication of obstacles to personal happiness has turned toxic.
[0] https://mobile.twitter.com/ctulocal1/status/1299101069163859...
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.
You need investigative work by journalists and to trust them even if you disagree.
This twitter thread proves that there is no such thing as an unbiased interpretation of raw footage of that kind.
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.
