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The teen mental illness epidemic is international (2023)

afterbabel.com

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Re: The teen mental illness epidemic is international (2023)

#491
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you elaborate on this? From what I can tell, the outcome that you’re speaking of has occurred for the opposite reason. Looking at the data for the US, there seems to be an even more exponential curve between 2015-2020, which would imply that these trends could have been further exacerbated by the reduction of government regulation. The same is likely true for the concentration of wealth, the loss in small busines…

Do you really believe that government regulation has been reduced?

Regulation and government involvement in economy very much so. This was/is the core of the neoliberal turn.

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic is international (2023)

#493

People blame social media, but they never ask why social media is like that. I think that the cultural changes that lead to that have been running for far more time than people give credit for, and that social media is just the proverbial canary on the mine that made things explicit. Those changes are multi-generational changes, and more probably there are a multitude of factors behind it. Family structure, economy f…

Please explain to me how The War In Vietnam is causing a mental health crisis today

I'm really not sure how OP meant with the "Reaganomics"; In regard to the Vietnam War, it caused a major mental health & drug crisis in the U.S. that greatly increased homelessness, addiction rates, issues with child rearing that is being felt today now that those kids are adults, etc.

Vietnam was terrible on the home-front.

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic is international (2023)

#494

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People are quick to blame social media because there are exceedingly plausible mechanisms by which social media could cause such a phenomenon, and there is tremendous profit in doing so and not just of the money variety. State level actors run secret influence campaigns on facebook, and more recently, just create and control whole social media platforms without oversight. The time for skepticism about the scale of th…

People made the same arguments about violent video games (a major panic in the 1990s), about youth literature, about Dungeons and Dragons, and so on. All about depraving children and getting them hooked on smut for profit. Social media is "adversarial" in the sense that yeah, most platforms want to maximize engagement, and maximized engagement might not be best for you. But that's also the relationship you have with…

They aren't the same arguments at all. All of those things are about the occasional indulgence of a hobby vs the time sink of constantly sitting on your phone and spending time with companies that want ALL of your time. Companies that, themselves, have lots of internal reporting concluding their platforms increase division and cause mental health issues.

I don't see how you can compare it to Chocolate? It's in our pocket and it's infinite.

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic is international (2023)

#495

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a possible explanation would be that the increasing desire for more government regulation, or at least functional government, runs counter to the world, which is increasingly ruled by inhuman, (even anti-human) forces. This breeds a desperation in people as they realize that humanity is viewed as a resource, not an end in itself, for the inhuman forces (call it capital, technology, whatever) to consume and mo…

Are you saying that capitalism and technology are inhuman forces? That humans were in some idyllic state before 1800?

Probably not in 1800, but the post-war "big government" era from about 1950's to 1980's (depending on the area) was relatively idyllic in many places.

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic is international (2023)

#496

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Capitalism solved many problems, like regular famines.

It also created other famines.

Example?

Even if it did, the average height increase the world over shows that capitalism has been an enormous win in food production and elimination of starvation.

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic is international (2023)

#497

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do Danes, Norweigans, Swedes, and Finns agree with you? I doubt it.

Danes, Norwegians*, Swedes, and Finns will have the opinions that their governments tell them to have. Pretty much everywhere in the world and at any year of history, the average citizen will say that his government/president/king/warlord/chairman/pope is the best that has ever been. So "popular opinion" doesn't mean much.

Nowadays it's mostly commercial outlets and interests that tell us what opinions to have.

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic is international (2023)

#498

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you saying that capitalism and technology are inhuman forces? That humans were in some idyllic state before 1800?

Probably not in 1800, but the post-war "big government" era from about 1950's to 1980's (depending on the area) was relatively idyllic in many places.

The government has gotten enormously bigger and more pervasive since then.

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic is international (2023)

#499

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All this talk about “community” - what “community”? It simply doesn’t exist anymore even if you wanted it - short of arranging to stay near your extended family and in laws, what else is there in the modern western world? Churches, I guess is the only other true community left…

Churches aren't for everyone. I'm bisexual, and they mostly don't exist for me. Furthermore, I shouldn't have to pretend to believe in some invisible god just to have community.

For some people community is a furry discord server.

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic is international (2023)

#500

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably not in 1800, but the post-war "big government" era from about 1950's to 1980's (depending on the area) was relatively idyllic in many places.

The government has gotten enormously bigger and more pervasive since then.

Ok, if you say so.
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