"How Liberals Can Be Happier" by some extreme Conservatives.


That was the NYT Opinion section today main article. This of course comes with the assumption that liberals are not happy is built right into the headline. Leading , , , ? Perhaps a smidge?

The article postulates that Conservatives are happier than Liberals by far. This because conservatives embrace "Faith, Family, and Friends" while Liberals do not.

Huh?

My favorite quote from the article

"Aristotle understood we are social animals. When liberals throw themselves into social institutions--from family to faith to local civic organizations--they have just a great a shot at happiness as people on the right."

You can't scrape that much "smug" off the page even if you try.

Not kidding. They said that. And beefed it up by insinuating Aristotle no less, was on their side. Always helps to call in the troops to reinforce your position---Aristotle or an Einstein will always be handy, right?

The proof is, however, not in the pudding but the polls. Like this YouGov poll commissioned by two very reliable sources who have absolutely no reason to be anything but totally objective on this subject: The Institute for Family Studies (with ties to extreme right wing organizations, extreme religion, and tax exempt organizations) and The Wheatley Institution (of BYU--enough said).

The articles goes to great lengths to paint liberals as unhappy and conservatives as happy with the difference being that conservatives still go to church a lot and liberals don't. They throw in family and civic as well, but you don't have to read between the lines much to see they are only back up dancers for Faith and the article makes clear that Faith is Organized butt in the pew Religion.

So I look to see who wrote it:

Brad Wilcox--Director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia and Senior Fellow at IFF

Hal Boyd-- Executive Director of the Deseret News National and a fellow at the Wheatley institution at BYU

Wendy Wang--Research director for IFF Studies


Could you ask for a more objective lot?

LOL. That article is sitting as an open tab in my browser, to be read later today. I wonder if I would have picked up on the religious/BYU connection. I know Wilcox is a fairly common Utah name, not sure about Boyd. Wang, not so much, but you never know.

Utah's reputation for both suicide and antidepressant usage tells a different story.

Wouldn't Institute of Family Studies be IFS, not IFF? Or is there a secret decoder ring involved?

Maybe if you were happy, you wouldn't be so skeptical.

We need a poll on polls. How do you trust a poll asking about something as subjective as happiness?

I see the religious in general and the Mormons in particular as feeling they have an extreme obligation to present themselves to the world as the happiest so as to prove the value of their religion which they have a vested interest in proving. The Mormons aren't the only ones with the facade.

AND . . .what the article is really saying is that wanting to make improvements to the world will make you unhappy, but accepting the status quo and not questioning will bring happiness.

They are confusing happiness with selfishness. They often do.

I am highly suspicious of polls like this, including polls that ask if you believe in God. There is a huge bias toward giving the socially acceptable answer that the results should be taken with a barrel of salt.

That sounds exactly like what an unhappy liberal would say. ;)

Another pathetic attempt at shoring up need for religion.

Why won't they leave us alone to stew in our juices?

Don't we deserve the comeuppance due us?

Why they gotta be so mean to Satan?

You're not used to people being jealous of you yet?

It’s dark where I am . . .

All I know is that if I move towards the light, I’m gonna get run over!







I literally don’t know what it means but I like how irrational it sounds!!

All I know is you liberals keep triggering my amygdala.

I'm too lazy to check, but is this the same Brad Wilcox who is currently "functioning" as the 2nd counselor in the YM presidency?

Or is being a dishonest, fatuous tool a required characteristic of all men named Brad Wilcox?

Some self righteous soul demanded a while back that Utah Governor Spencer Cox change his last name because you know "Cox".
What are we to make of a last name like Wilcox?

Elder Brad Dontcox ?

Methinks those responsible for this article (whether they be writers, researchers, or editors) either do not, personally, know any Jews (extremely hard to believe from the NYTimes!!!), or are unaware of Jewish culture and life.

Since neither of these possibilities are probabilities [NEW YORK: the center of Western Hemisphere Jewish life!!!], my only possible supposition would be that those responsible for this article are acquiescing to some kind of advertiser/sponsor pressure--which is equally improbable in regard to this particular newspaper and the geographical location, but is the only possibility I can think of which could make any sense at all.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/27/2021 08:20PM by Tevai.

I think it is just Thanksgiving, a better time than most to pander to the white Protestant crowd. Thanksgiving is basically a Norman Rockwell Protestant holiday.

. . .stuck with the Lamanite meat again!!

And Lamanite squash, and corn, and pumpkin, and cranberries, and I think even the pecans. I think the undocumented immigrants brought the green beans with them.

Even Norman Rockwell renounced his smug, jingoistic Americana shtick in his later life. Google around a bit. He realized- or found a publisher who would let him express it- that life even in America was unfair and brutal to the lower castes. Just a thought.

The only unhappy time in my life was when I was trying to fit the conservative Mormon mold and conform, conform, conform. But that's just me.

Me too. But during that time I would have claimed to be the happiest of all because ---Mormon Gospel. That's why I don't trust the polls.

My mission farewell talk was based on the fact that we were so much happier than anyone else on the planet and I was off to share that happiness with the people of Argentina. They sort of shared their with me instead. Serendipity struck again.

That article was published in the D-News 2 days ago.

https://www.deseret.com/2021/11/25/22801912/deseret-national-editor-discusses-how-to-turn-liberal-frowns-upside-down-in-new-york-times-essay

stillanon Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> That article was published in the D-News 2 days
> ago.
>
> https://www.deseret.com/2021/11/25/22801912/desere
> t-national-editor-discusses-how-to-turn-liberal-fr
> owns-upside-down-in-new-york-times-essay

Okay...the puzzling-to-me mystery is now solved.

Thank you, stillanon!

:D

Life is too short to care.

Sadly the article underlines the tragedy of American politics today. It is more about defining the character, attitudes, motives, and labeling of the other person than about the merits and demerits of their position. That and reactionary sound bytes have replaced fact checking. Insults, too, have been elevated to substance. JMV

There seems to me to be a tendency among conservatives to divide the political landscape into conservatives and liberals. Instead, there is also a vast middle ground that is often ignored. And some people might best be described as eclectic, agreeing with conservatives on some issues, and liberals on other issues.

The "we are happier" narrative is both ludicrous and insulting.

It’s the same old pissing match. What’s happened is the media has changed. It’s become specialized. Everyone used to watch Walter Cronkite. He was everyone’s news anchor. Now it’s Fox News and MSNBC. The nation goes into separate echo chambers and that has divided the country more than anything.

People always disagreed. It’s nothing new. It’s why the people who wanted to avoid a pissing match never talked about religion or politics. Maybe people had better manners in the past. There are no manners on Twitter. Ha! Ha!

Rubicon Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
Everyone used to watch Walter
Cronkite. He was everyone’s news anchor.


And why was Walter Cronkite America's News Anchor? Because of the FCC Fairness Doctrine.

"The fairness doctrine of the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC), introduced in 1949, was a policy that required the holders of broadcast licenses both to present controversial issues of public importance and to do so in a manner that fairly reflected differing viewpoints."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FCC_fairness_doctrine

The real problem though is that happiness can't buy you money.

And speaking of happiness . . .


Wife: I'm going shopping, do you need anything?

Husband: I'm looking for inner-peace and happiness, an answer to my doubts, a sense of fulfilment, a medium through which I can transcend consciousness and reach true spirituality, calmness and...


Wife: Be specific; Smirnoff or Absolut?

Money can’t buy you happiness but it can buy you a yacht to dock next to it.

Rubicon Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Money can’t buy you happiness but it can buy you
> a yacht to dock next to it.


So yes, after liberalism is maybe called onto the carpet and good vigorous conversation is perhaps erased and canceled (they can't deal with it) is there one thing hopefully remaining?

Is maybe happiness still a direction to be striven for?

Ooohh yeeesss, now I remember!

'The Pursuit Of Happiness'

OK. I'm owned. Now what ?

It reeks of the usual fair/farm circle jerk. Start with a conclusion then only consider what supports that position. What a waste of space.

At least my phone wasn't seized by frogs.


https://twitter.com/i/status/1463777833851961347

That is hysterical! Great start for my day.

Done & Done Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Could you ask for a more objective lot?

I wonder if they had to live their United Order if they would sing the same songs?

Just because Mormonism got remade by ETB&Co into a conservative bastion today, in the early 20th and late 19th Centuries it was far from it.

I would say liberals are more unhappy, because they are usually (present admin is an exception) the ones concerned about changing the system, think about a classic example Gretta from Denmark, does she seem happy? I don't think so liberals are sad it's part of the act...

How would conservatives recognize happy? After all, they're always whining...

See? Everyone can play at clichés :-)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/29/2021 01:30PM by Soft Machine.

Typical macaRomney. . .


---------------
> I would say liberals are more unhappy, because
> they are usually (present admin is an exception). . .

A little ass kissing to keep on the admin's good side, always a good idea.


-----------------
> . . . the ones concerned about changing the system,

Ignoring the run-on sentence, notice how macaRomney thinks the system is good--always good--and hence needs no reform. How, one wonders, does he reconcile that with his constant whining about how society must change, de-emphasizing education, reversing what he sees as the welfare state, returning the US to the good old days of Manifest Destiny and Anglo-Saxon dominance?

In truth he sounds unhappy with the "system." Could he be a grumpy liberal wanting reform? Or is he that rarest of creatures: an unhappy conservative?


---------------
> . . .think about a classic example Gretta from Denmark,
> does she seem happy?

Ignoring the misspelling, is Greta more or less unhappy than macaRomney? Which of the two is the sadder creature? Which, given the coincidence of dissatisfaction and liberalism, is the more liberal?


--------------
> . . . I don't think so liberals are
> sad it's part of the act...

Ignoring the grammatical error, is macaRomney's unhappiness proof of his inner progressivism or is it just an act?

Greta is from Sweden, not Denmark. What, do they all look alike to you?

-----

Finale, "Manifest Destiny! the Musical"
♪♫ (This Land Was Your Land) ♪♫

[normal tempo] ♪♫
This land was your land but now it's my land
From San Diego up to Rhode Island
From Okeechobee to the Puget waters
This land I stole from you for me

[bouncy and upbeat] ♪♫
I level mountains so I can strip-mine
And clear-cut forests from sea to tree line
Then choke the rivers down to a trickle
This land I rape because I'm free

[back to normal] ♪♫
As I was strolling that mountain meadow
Blood spilled by heirs of Joe Smith the Pedo
Then blamed by Brigham on a band of Paiutes
I knew this land was made for me

[slow build to triumphal crescendo] ♪♫
This land’s for me and only meeeeeeeeeee

      Cliché!   The perfume that says you've given up thinking!

Hahahahahahahahahahahahah as usual

Explicative - The Perfume that says it all so simply.

Funny, the happiest places in the world are overwhelmingly social democracies with strong protections for women, minorities, and members of the LGBTQ community, and with very low rates of religious participation. The most unhappy places are overwhelming conservative oppressive theocracies.