The next time you find yourself referring to the Loony Left, Good Oil readers, you’ll be pleased to know that you’re stating more than just your opinion. We’ve all seen the hilariously sad sight of leftists shrieking, crying, shaking and indeed screaming helplessly at the sky. Those are not the actions of sane people.
Nor do sane people aver, with utter conviction, that women can have penises and men can give birth. But, that’s the modern left for you.
Well, I have good news: it’s not just your opinion. It’s a scientific fact and we have the data to prove it.
Respect the science, as the left love to say.
According to a number of studies, conservatives are happier and have better mental health than liberals. A 2006 public opinion survey found that 47 per cent of Republicans in the United States said they were “very happy” compared to only 28 per cent of Democrats. Since 1972, conservatives have consistently reported greater levels of happiness compared to liberals [8]. This ideological gap in happiness exists in the United States but there is inconsistent evidence for its presence in other countries.
So, there you have it: leftists are twice as likely to be barking mad as conservatives.
The mainstream media being dominated by the left, naturally they’re trying to explain their way around it (in between visits to their therapists, of course). The go-to excuse is that conservatives are just ‘hostile’ to the ‘concept of mental health’. Except, as the study authors admit, “even controlling for a wide variety of alternative factors the ideological mental health gap still persists”.
The other excuse is a weirdly circular argument that “it may be that factors correlated with ideology are actually responsible for the mental health gap rather than ideology itself being the culprit”.
If that sounds like a cop-out to you, that’s because it is. The simple fact remains: conservatives are much happier than leftists, no matter whether the ideological chicken comes before the mental health egg.
Conservatism is positively correlated with a number of traits that are traditionally associated with better mental health and well-being, such as religious faith, patriotism, marriage, higher incomes, and old age. To provide one example, religion can provide a source of social support, a purpose in life, positive life choices, a coping mechanism for when things go wrong. It is also true that conservatives in the United States are more likely to be religious than liberals. Thus, at least some portion of the ideological mental health gap may actually be caused by religiosity.
Yet, still, the gap is there.
Not only that, but the attempts to explain around the result only solidify the argument that conservatism is good for your mental health.
Under this view, conservatives are happier than liberals because conservatism is associated with numerous factors that complement a more positive psyche. In addition to being more religious, conservative Americans are also more likely to get (and stay) married, more likely to be financially secure, and tend to be older. Each of these factors also tends to be associated with positive mental health.
Note that these factors are not just ‘associated’ with conservatism, but are part and parcel of its ideological foundations. So, conservatism is good for you, in and of itself.
More notably, leftists are literally driving themselves crazy.
Liberals are also more engaged in politics, participate more, and more likely to find meaning in political activism, but involvement in politics appears to have a negative impact on well-being.
As I’ve written many times, leftists live for protesting, marching and activism. It’s just about all they do. It’s the focus of almost their entire social lives. Where conservatives might spend their weekends with family, going to church, doing outdoorsy stuff, leftists are at their weekly ‘pro-Palestine’ march, or whatever nonsense is their cause of the moment.
Conservatives promote family and religious values and pro-community messaging. The left is the party of grievance politics and “Yes you can’t” messaging […]
The stark lifestyle differences between the two are illuminating.
Let’s just call a spade a spade: leftism makes you sad, angry and crazy.
