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Anxiety as well as other mental illness has been found to be more prevalent among people who identify as "extremely liberal"[0]. Extremely liberal people tend t

Anxiety as well as other mental illness has been found to be more prevalent among people who identify as "extremely liberal"[0]. Extremely liberal people tend to have a world view that global warming is going to kill everyone within a few decades. Coincidence? [0]https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/unique-everybody-else/202103/personality-traits-mental-illness-and-ideology https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/unique-everybody-els...

hn_version_0023 3y ago
This feels like another way of saying "ignorance is bliss"
- willcipriano 3y ago
  Only if they are right, if they are wrong we are subjecting people to what is essentially psychological torture. This many mentally ill people walking around probably causes a lot of negative knock on effects. The "We are all gonna die" view isn't a scientific one, at least not one that survives any rigorous peer review.
  - skeaker 3y ago
    There are plenty of things to be anxious about that aren't the extreme belief that you are mistakenly attributing to a whole group.
    - willcipriano 3y ago
      I disagree, the future is bright. I also lack any mental health issues.
      - skeaker 3y ago
        The same is true for me, yet I can still recognize the issues that people would be anxious about and empathize with why they might be anxious about them. I suspect you might be speaking disingenuously, thinking more about what you wrote here. You really can't think of one reason besides extreme climate panic to be anxious? The ongoing war in Europe would have been an obvious thing to say. It should be plain to see that this wouldn't sit well with a lot of people.
        willcipriano 3y ago
        I don't have zero anxiety, I have a appropriate level of anxiety. If someone had zero anxiety across an entire life that would be mental illness. For the war in Europe, I'm in the US so the only thing I'm likely to be bleeding is tax dollars. Now the media wants me to be very afraid about it, but they also give key note speeches at conferences hosted by weapon manufacturers[0] so that's literally their job. Thinking further if I knew WW3 was going to start I'm not sure that I would behave any differently than now, I'm near Appalachia and they didn't even nuke that place in the Fallout games. If I lived in Europe I'd have reason to be more worried. If in Russia more still, if in Ukraine more than that. In those cases I'd likely have some action that I'd be able to channel that anxiety into, some way to prepare, some way to fight back, something to do. [0]https://www.trumancenter.org/news-posts/truman-center-announces-rachel-maddow-as-trucon-keynote-speaker https://www.trumancenter.org/news-posts/truman-center-announ... [0-1]https://www.trumancenter.org/news/trucon https://www.trumancenter.org/news/trucon
nullc 3y ago
Global warming is just one of several issues with little opportunity for personal impact that I've observed people melting down over to the point of apparent dysfunction. The fact that there are political line correlations may be partially due to cliquey communications mediums acting as a contagion vector for mental illness.
throwaway22032 3y ago
I think it's more that anxious people are essentially overthinkers. Sometimes that makes sense and leads to good outcomes, but sometimes it leads to things like taking traditions built up over millennia and deciding that you can, via back of the envelope reasoning, treat them as being irrelevant.
lockhouse 3y ago
Excellent point. I think the other side of the coin could be a factor as well. Extremely conservative individuals tend to be quite religious. As the “opiate of the masses” I would imagine a strong faith in a higher power that will reward the good and punish the wicked, combined with the strong sense of community and belonging that comes with religion would form a prophylaxis against anxiety.
- willcipriano 3y ago
  The article I posted suggests that theory may be incorrect: > Kirkegaard suggested that the relationship between mental health and ideology might reflect that conservatives tend to be more religious, and being religious is associated with health benefits (Koenig, 2012), while admitting that a cross-sectional survey is not very informative regarding causality. However, other research has found that the apparently beneficial relationship between religiosity and health is not universal but appears to reflect the fit between the individual and their culture (Stavrova, 2015). That is, in cultural contexts where religiosity is well-respected, religious individuals gain social benefits that seem to improve their health. On the other hand, in cultural contexts where religion is not as well regarded, these benefits disappear. This finding applied not just between different countries but even within different regions of the US with high versus low levels of religiousness. Hence, it may be worth considering other factors, such as personality traits that are known to be related to both ideology and mental health

hn_version_0023 3y ago

This feels like another way of saying "ignorance is bliss"

willcipriano 3y ago
Only if they are right, if they are wrong we are subjecting people to what is essentially psychological torture. This many mentally ill people walking around probably causes a lot of negative knock on effects. The "We are all gonna die" view isn't a scientific one, at least not one that survives any rigorous peer review.
- skeaker 3y ago
  There are plenty of things to be anxious about that aren't the extreme belief that you are mistakenly attributing to a whole group.
  - willcipriano 3y ago
    I disagree, the future is bright. I also lack any mental health issues.
    - skeaker 3y ago
      The same is true for me, yet I can still recognize the issues that people would be anxious about and empathize with why they might be anxious about them. I suspect you might be speaking disingenuously, thinking more about what you wrote here. You really can't think of one reason besides extreme climate panic to be anxious? The ongoing war in Europe would have been an obvious thing to say. It should be plain to see that this wouldn't sit well with a lot of people.
      - willcipriano 3y ago
        I don't have zero anxiety, I have a appropriate level of anxiety. If someone had zero anxiety across an entire life that would be mental illness. For the war in Europe, I'm in the US so the only thing I'm likely to be bleeding is tax dollars. Now the media wants me to be very afraid about it, but they also give key note speeches at conferences hosted by weapon manufacturers[0] so that's literally their job. Thinking further if I knew WW3 was going to start I'm not sure that I would behave any differently than now, I'm near Appalachia and they didn't even nuke that place in the Fallout games. If I lived in Europe I'd have reason to be more worried. If in Russia more still, if in Ukraine more than that. In those cases I'd likely have some action that I'd be able to channel that anxiety into, some way to prepare, some way to fight back, something to do. [0]https://www.trumancenter.org/news-posts/truman-center-announces-rachel-maddow-as-trucon-keynote-speaker https://www.trumancenter.org/news-posts/truman-center-announ... [0-1]https://www.trumancenter.org/news/trucon https://www.trumancenter.org/news/trucon

nullc 3y ago

Global warming is just one of several issues with little opportunity for personal impact that I've observed people melting down over to the point of apparent dysfunction. The fact that there are political line correlations may be partially due to cliquey communications mediums acting as a contagion vector for mental illness.

throwaway22032 3y ago

I think it's more that anxious people are essentially overthinkers. Sometimes that makes sense and leads to good outcomes, but sometimes it leads to things like taking traditions built up over millennia and deciding that you can, via back of the envelope reasoning, treat them as being irrelevant.

lockhouse 3y ago

Excellent point. I think the other side of the coin could be a factor as well. Extremely conservative individuals tend to be quite religious. As the “opiate of the masses” I would imagine a strong faith in a higher power that will reward the good and punish the wicked, combined with the strong sense of community and belonging that comes with religion would form a prophylaxis against anxiety.

willcipriano 3y ago
The article I posted suggests that theory may be incorrect: > Kirkegaard suggested that the relationship between mental health and ideology might reflect that conservatives tend to be more religious, and being religious is associated with health benefits (Koenig, 2012), while admitting that a cross-sectional survey is not very informative regarding causality. However, other research has found that the apparently beneficial relationship between religiosity and health is not universal but appears to reflect the fit between the individual and their culture (Stavrova, 2015). That is, in cultural contexts where religiosity is well-respected, religious individuals gain social benefits that seem to improve their health. On the other hand, in cultural contexts where religion is not as well regarded, these benefits disappear. This finding applied not just between different countries but even within different regions of the US with high versus low levels of religiousness. Hence, it may be worth considering other factors, such as personality traits that are known to be related to both ideology and mental health