Why Do We Find Modern Life So Hard?
For FAIR’s Substack, Julian Adorney and Mark Johnson write about navigating the paradox of progress and well-being.
So what can we do to ameliorate the malaise of modern society and get back to the emotional peace and well-being that our ancestors experienced? One key is to get back into the rhythms from which we evolved. Cultivate idle time. Develop a closer circle of friends, and spend more time in person with other human beings rather than trying to connect through a keyboard (as far as our evolved brains are concerned, the latter is mostly pseudo-connection anyway). If you're in conflict with someone else, get together in person and physically move through it. Once we start working with our biology instead of against it, we might be surprised at how much better we, and our society as a whole, start to feel.
The Damage Caused by Trans ‘Inclusion’ In Female Athletics: a Massachusetts Case Study
For Quillette, FAIR Advisor Jonathan Kay writes about a biologically male high-school student participating in female categories in at least four different sports.
Once the ideological movement to undermine the reality of sexual dimorphism has run its course, and it’s (once again) become settled policy across the sporting world that turning “he” into “she” should not be a magic ticket into female leagues (or locker rooms), the question will become: How did we allow this to happen?
For my own part, I’m not particularly interested in laying blame on the likes of Clark—young, confused, gender dysphoric males whose actions are being encouraged by others. What’s more interesting is why people who should know better—adult politicians, educators, administrators, scientists, and doctors such as Dr. Ackerman—have lent their names and reputations to this movement. One hopes that, at least in their private thoughts, they’ve begun to understand the disastrous effect of policies that prioritize the sanctity of male delusions over female safety.
Generation Anxiety: smartphones have created a gen Z mental health crisis – but there are ways to fix it
For The Guardian, FAIR Advisor Jonathan Haidt writes about the toll smartphones have taken on young people.
The other explanation I often hear is that gen Z is anxious and depressed because of climate change, which will affect their lives more than those of older generations. Their concern is legitimate, but impending threats to a nation or generation (as opposed to an individual) do not historically cause rates of mental illness to rise. When countries are attacked, either by military force or by terrorism, citizens usually rally around the flag and one another. They are infused with a strong sense of purpose and suicide rates drop. When young people rally together around a political cause, from opposing the Vietnam war in the 1960s through peak periods of earlier climate activism in the 1970s and 1990s, they become energised, not dispirited or depressed.
Mónica Guzmán’s guide to thriving across differences
For Deseret News, Hanna Seariac writes about Mónica Guzmán and her approach to thriving across differences.
Avoiding assumptions is a key part of asking questions that will elicit better understanding, Guzmán said.
While teaching these skills to your children can be difficult, Guzmán advised that you introduce friction in a low-risk way. This can also benefit adults. When thinking about the work of depolarization, it’s common to see it as always trying to span the divide between Republicans and Democrats, but she said it also should apply to small divides that may exist within each individual party.
Instead of finding a person who you disagree with on most issues, Guzmán said to start small and invite over for dinner someone with whom you only have one disagreement.
An Utterly Misleading Book About Rural America
For The Atlantic, Tyler Austin Harper writes about the best seller, White Rural Rage.
White Rural Rage illustrates how willing many members of the U.S. media and the public are to believe, and ultimately launder, abusive accusations against an economically disadvantaged group of people that would provoke sympathy if its members had different skin color and voting habits. That this book was able to make it to print—and onto the best-seller list—before anyone noticed that it has significant errors is a testament to how little powerful people think of white rural Americans. As someone who is from the kind of place the authors demonize—a place that is “rural” in the pejorative, rather than literal, sense—I find White Rural Rage personally offensive. I was so frustrated by its indulgence of familiar stereotypes that I aired several intemperate critiques of the book and its authors on social media. But when I dug deeper, I found that the problems with White Rural Rage extend beyond its anti-rural prejudice. As an academic and a writer, I find Schaller and Waldman’s misuse of other scholars’ research indefensible.
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I wish FAIR would warn readers when their links direct to a site behind a paywall (or demands an account - which means paying by providing information rather than money). I often do not continue reading the newsletter after hitting a paywall or two.
Note: the other side's views are provided free of charge - in fact, it's difficult to avoid them online.
One comment: When I click on the “Take the Pro-Human Pledge”, the site comes up with a 404 “page not found” statement.