American Liberals and Their Discontent

If you want something to be really concerned about, how about shedding some worry on the mental health of American liberals. We do not know whether it is correlation or causation, whether people with mental health issues are drawn to leftist politics or whether buying into the current leftist dogmas makes you mentally ill. Either way, the correlation is clear.

Of course, we should also note that most of today’s so-called liberals are anything but liberal. In the past, liberal used to mean that one is liberal minded, thus, open minded, strongly in favor of free and open deliberative debate. Liberals favored free markets and free trade.

If such is the definition of liberalism, most of today’s liberals are really radical leftists. We recall during the Russian collusion hysteria that some true liberals, from Steven Cohen to Matt Taibbi to Glenn Greenwald to Alan Dershowitz stood tall to defend liberal principles. For most of the rest, including the mainstream media, it was all propaganda all the time. The goal of getting Trump far superseded the liberal goal of engaging in a free and open discussion and debate. We can hardly be surprised to see that this mania undermined their mental health.

Besides, today’s American left has long since gone off on its very own guilt trip. For those who are white, feeling guilty about being white, being willing to engage in manifold acts of self-chastisement has produced an orgy of moral self-flagellation.

We will also add, before reporting the Pew poll results, that the responses did not quite measure mental health. They represented the people who had consulted a physician for mental health concerns or who had been told by a physician that they had mental health issues. Link here.

Considering that the mental health field has been infested with leftist politics, one might imagine that those who consult mental health professionals might be more likely to lean toward the political left. Then again, given the absurd interest that such people have in “leaning in” one is not surprised that many of them have leaned too far and have fallen over.

The first statistics involve white liberals and white conservatives-- and whether they have ever consulted for a mental health issue.

Nearly half of self-identifying white liberals between the ages of 18 and 29 reported telling a doctor or a healthcare provider that they have a mental health condition.

Only 20.9% of white conservatives in the same category reported as such.

Caveats aside, the difference between 50% and 20% is stark, indeed.

As for which group of white liberals was most likely to report mental health issues, the answer is: female white liberals. We recall that feminism was sold by Betty Friedan, among others, as a solution to the problem that had no name. Said problem involved mental illness. Now, nearly six decades after Friedan launched a revolution, liberal women, those most likely to be on board with feminism, show up with the worst mental health outcomes.