Philosophy Why the Mental Health of Liberal Girls Fell the First and Fastest

Bear Ribs

Well-known member
This fairly long essay rambles a bit on details but I found it fairly insightful. Summing up the basics:

There are a set of specific thought processes called "cognitive distortions," which will cause depression if the patient isn't taught to rigorously avoid thinking that way. Some of these include catastrophization, black-and-white morality, fortune telling, and reasoning from emotion rather than logic. The basis of drug-free curing depression relies on a person recognizing when they follow these behaviors and then studiously avoiding them.

Since 2013 the left in general and colleges and social media in particular have heavily encouraged people to instead actively indulge in these behaviors and it's had a telling effect on the mental health of everybody.

These depression-encouraging thoughts have been boiled down in recent years into three Great Untruths which are essentially the exact opposite of all traditional wisdom.

1. What doesn't kill you makes you weaker
Rather than seek adversity, the liberal youth are told even hearing scary words is violence and they must studiously avoid and cancel anything that remotely disagrees with them in the slightest.

2. Always trust your feelings
Logic and fact are heavily pushed aside in favor of a nebulous belief in some greater "harm" that can't be quantified but is really bad.

3. Life is a battle between good people and evil people.
Fairly self-explanatory.

As these Great Untruths are most prevalent in colleges that have more liberal female students than any other demographic and on Tumblr which has more liberal females than any other social media, it's had the most pronounced effect on young liberal women.
 

The Whispering Monk

Well-known member
Osaul
This fairly long essay rambles a bit on details but I found it fairly insightful. Summing up the basics:

There are a set of specific thought processes called "cognitive distortions," which will cause depression if the patient isn't taught to rigorously avoid thinking that way. Some of these include catastrophization, black-and-white morality, fortune telling, and reasoning from emotion rather than logic. The basis of drug-free curing depression relies on a person recognizing when they follow these behaviors and then studiously avoiding them.

Since 2013 the left in general and colleges and social media in particular have heavily encouraged people to instead actively indulge in these behaviors and it's had a telling effect on the mental health of everybody.

These depression-encouraging thoughts have been boiled down in recent years into three Great Untruths which are essentially the exact opposite of all traditional wisdom.

1. What doesn't kill you makes you weaker
Rather than seek adversity, the liberal youth are told even hearing scary words is violence and they must studiously avoid and cancel anything that remotely disagrees with them in the slightest.

2. Always trust your feelings
Logic and fact are heavily pushed aside in favor of a nebulous belief in some greater "harm" that can't be quantified but is really bad.

3. Life is a battle between good people and evil people.
Fairly self-explanatory.

As these Great Untruths are most prevalent in colleges that have more liberal female students than any other demographic and on Tumblr which has more liberal females than any other social media, it's had the most pronounced effect on young liberal women.
I think I've internalized all the conclusions about how damaging choosing to give up agency can be.

Well done article that I can't really disagree with.
 

ATP

Well-known member
This fairly long essay rambles a bit on details but I found it fairly insightful. Summing up the basics:

There are a set of specific thought processes called "cognitive distortions," which will cause depression if the patient isn't taught to rigorously avoid thinking that way. Some of these include catastrophization, black-and-white morality, fortune telling, and reasoning from emotion rather than logic. The basis of drug-free curing depression relies on a person recognizing when they follow these behaviors and then studiously avoiding them.

Since 2013 the left in general and colleges and social media in particular have heavily encouraged people to instead actively indulge in these behaviors and it's had a telling effect on the mental health of everybody.

These depression-encouraging thoughts have been boiled down in recent years into three Great Untruths which are essentially the exact opposite of all traditional wisdom.

1. What doesn't kill you makes you weaker
Rather than seek adversity, the liberal youth are told even hearing scary words is violence and they must studiously avoid and cancel anything that remotely disagrees with them in the slightest.

2. Always trust your feelings
Logic and fact are heavily pushed aside in favor of a nebulous belief in some greater "harm" that can't be quantified but is really bad.

3. Life is a battle between good people and evil people.
Fairly self-explanatory.

As these Great Untruths are most prevalent in colleges that have more liberal female students than any other demographic and on Tumblr which has more liberal females than any other social media, it's had the most pronounced effect on young liberal women.
1.Logical explanation No.1:They are groomimg voters
2.Logical explanation No.2 : they are making clients for Big Farma.Including Abortion Industry.
 

Marduk

Well-known member
Moderator
Staff Member
I think there is something to this. In some leftist activist instructions and other leaks there is a distinct theme in that empathy and sensitivity are virtue, particularly if unrestricted and taken to extreme degree, while people being thick skinned, stoic and cynical or even informed impassionately in general before said activists manage to make their case to them is something unfortunate and to be avoided.

It would make sense that they would want to try turn as many people as possible into something as close as possible to a stereotype of sheltered and highly emotional teenage girl.
Suddenly the catastrophic, overacted, emotion and distress saturated, information free pleas of the green doomsayers, gun control activists and refugee advocates make some sense. That's who this propaganda is targeted at. Not you, not people who have already thought through thousands of controversial scenarios thousands of times in fiction, history, real life, or all of the above separately before the overacting clown shouts at you that PEOPLE ARE DYING and so you need to believe everything they say and do what they want.

Not to mention that you are more likely to empathize with the plight of some gender bender tumblrina getting mean comments on the internet when you're not much different from one in terms of interests, emotional stability or norms of your social circle, than if you are some gamer shitposter who sees exchanges of mean comments over the internet as a perfectly normal part of his daily life.
 

Bear Ribs

Well-known member
One interesting thing to me is that as Jon Haidt continued to develop his research, it didn't appear so much to be intentional on the part of elites as a natural consequence of Tumblr culture and their tendencies. I'm not sure if that's really true as he's assuming there wasn't some backdoor heavy-handed moderation or canceling going on, but if so it suggests this is a natural consequence of their kind of thinking. His blog in general is dedicated to the notion that it's actually the nature of social media to cause mental illness.

Also relevant:
 

Cherico

Well-known member
One interesting thing to me is that as Jon Haidt continued to develop his research, it didn't appear so much to be intentional on the part of elites as a natural consequence of Tumblr culture and their tendencies. I'm not sure if that's really true as he's assuming there wasn't some backdoor heavy-handed moderation or canceling going on, but if so it suggests this is a natural consequence of their kind of thinking. His blog in general is dedicated to the notion that it's actually the nature of social media to cause mental illness.

Also relevant:
Wow 56 percent that's a lot lower then I expected. This is pretty great news overall
 

colorles

Well-known member
Young women and, in particular young teenage zoomer girls and the even younger generation alpha, are in very bad shape mentally. They are addicted to smartphones, media, tiktok and attention since the time they are little girls. They are - both mentally and physically - aging terribly because of this, and put on displays of glamour to hide the emptiness they feel inside.

I know men and young boys don't have it easy in an increasingly feminist-centric society; but it is important to remember that young girls are being destroyed and are being enabled to seek out their own destruction like addicts.
 

ParadiseLost

Well-known member
I think a lot of this is more simply explained by the fact that a liberal is much more likely to visit a psychiatrist or psychologist than a conservative.

Most conservatives I know would be more likely to consult a pastor or Bible study group leader than a psychiatrist.
 

Bear Ribs

Well-known member
I think a lot of this is more simply explained by the fact that a liberal is much more likely to visit a psychiatrist or psychologist than a conservative.

Most conservatives I know would be more likely to consult a pastor or Bible study group leader than a psychiatrist.
It is true that consulting a pastor or bible study group can improve mental health but I don't think that's really a catch all.

Correcting for confounding factors actually makes Liberals suffer at a worse rate.


And it's not just medical diagnosis, Liberals self-report symptoms of mental illness and a higher rate than conservatives do absent any doctor's opinion.


When adjusted for only those diagnosed with mental illness, Conservatives close the gap significantly with Liberals but still report fewer total mental illnesses.


The thread continues with a lot of data for quite some time, ending with the original dataset. The interesting bit is that young white liberal women are so much higher in their rates of mental illness than other groups. I find the connections to heavier use of social media and its incredible correlation with mental illness concerning.
 

ParadiseLost

Well-known member
It is true that consulting a pastor or bible study group can improve mental health but I don't think that's really a catch all.
I think you missed my point.

The crux of what I'm saying is: liberals are more likely to visit psychiatrists at all. If 6/10 liberal women have, in the last 5 years, visited a psychiatrist or psychologist, I'd expect that to be more like 3/10 for conservative women.

So of course liberal women will have more diagnosed mental illnesses: if 50% of women, period, get diagnosed, then you'll end up with 3/10 liberal women and 1.5/10 conservative women.

Of course, those aren't really figures and I'm not suggesting the effect is that strong. But I do think part of the difference between the number of diagnosed mental illnesses among liberal vs conservative women is the fact that liberal women are more likely to see a psychiatrist/psychologist.

The thread continues with a lot of data for quite some time, ending with the original dataset. The interesting bit is that young white liberal women are so much higher in their rates of mental illness than other groups. I find the connections to heavier use of social media and its incredible correlation with mental illness concerning.
And I still absolutely agree with all of this, fwiw. Nor am I surprised by it. Anyone with a functioning brain can understand why things like Twitter or Instagram or TikTok could cause a variety of psychological issues.
 

Bear Ribs

Well-known member
I think you missed my point.

The crux of what I'm saying is: liberals are more likely to visit psychiatrists at all. If 6/10 liberal women have, in the last 5 years, visited a psychiatrist or psychologist, I'd expect that to be more like 3/10 for conservative women.

So of course liberal women will have more diagnosed mental illnesses: if 50% of women, period, get diagnosed, then you'll end up with 3/10 liberal women and 1.5/10 conservative women.

Of course, those aren't really figures and I'm not suggesting the effect is that strong. But I do think part of the difference between the number of diagnosed mental illnesses among liberal vs conservative women is just the fact that liberal women are more likely to see a psychiatrist/psychologist.


And I still absolutely agree with all of this, fwiw. Nor am I surprised by it. Anyone with a functioning brain can understand why things like Twitter or Instagram or TikTok could cause a variety of psychological issues.
I'm not sure how much more liberals visit psychologists though, do you have data on that? I will say psychologists are overwhelmingly liberal, something like 14 liberal psychologists for every conservative one.

As I said above though, even adjusting for that liberals still have higher rates of mental illness, both self-reported and from only those who are already diagnosed and thus are guaranteed to have seen a doctor.
 

ParadiseLost

Well-known member
I'm not sure how much more liberals visit psychologists though, do you have data on that? I will say psychologists are overwhelmingly liberal, something like 14 liberal psychologists for every conservative one.
No, hard to find data on that sadly, even a good thirty minutes of google and google scholar turn up nothing.
 

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