At the heart of modern liberalism is the belief that we belong to ourselves. The “my body, my choice” worldview offers a sense of control but provides no solutions when things are out of control, and liberals are convinced of nothing if not the fact that things are going poorly: The American dream is a sham, climate change will kill us all, and systemic racism is eternal. Not only does modern liberalism require awareness of the problems, both real and imagined, it demands a fixation on them. 

We know America is experiencing a mental health crisis, but the Youth Risk Behavior Survey released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) illustrates just how serious the problem has become for America’s young people. Almost three in five teenage girls felt persistent sadness in 2021. Girls are twice as likely to be depressed as boys and one in three girls said they seriously considered suicide.

Several factors are relevant. Social media had negatively impacted mental health long before the response to COVID-19 made the problem worse. Perhaps most surprising data concerned the CDC’s conclusion that a teenager’s political views impacted his or her levels of depression.

The study, released in December of 2022, found that liberal teens are more likely to be depressed than their conservative peers. In fact, liberal boys are more likely to be depressed than conservative girls, which suggests that political beliefs are more significant than gender when it comes to depression.

The authors of the study attempted to explain the depression of liberal teenagers in two ways. First, the authors suggest liberal teens are depressed because they live in a world dominated by conservative values.

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