Distortion Field

I was listening to a recent episode of the Plain English podcast, one that was investigating the question of "Why are Conservatives happier than Progressives?" Guest Greg Lukianoff put forward the theory that much of Progressive culture works on what he calls "Reverse Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy." In effect, instead of combating the cognitive distortions that lead people to become anxious and depressed, Progressivism stokes them, and in ways that Conservatism manages to avoid, even when it engages in some of the very same behaviors.

One question that host Derek Thompson asked, that would have liked to see more time spent on was the nature of the problem that Progressive culture had set out to solve with this Reverse CBT regimen they'd started on. And that's kind of a shame, because I think understanding what circumstances a behavior is attempting to adapt to is very important in both understanding why it is maladaptive and what a better option would be.

I suspect that a lot of it deals with self-esteem and self-worth, given that those are prime drivers of many cognitive distortions. While I suspect that it's really no different than any other time, the modern world seems to be a particularly difficult place for people to maintain positive images, some people of themselves, and some people of others. While I agree with Mr. Lukianoff that the political utility of fear leads to the political establishment using it as a tool, I think that it politics doesn't create fear so much as find and amplify it. To paraphrase Dahlia Lithwick, if you scare people's faces off, they will vote.

But it occurs to me that just as I replaced "click" in Ms. Lithwick's original with "vote," one coiuld replace with any number of other actions. The more I think about it, the more institutions in the world around me come across as being invested in people's fears, and thusly in the cognitive distortions that feed those fears, as a way of looking out for their own interests. Perhaps the question isn't why Progressives have such high rates of depression and anxiety, but when those maladies are coming for everyone else.