We Are Not Just Polarized. We Are Traumatized | Hacker News Reader

We Are Not Just Polarized. We Are Traumatized

newrepublic.com

19 pointsMilnerRoute15 comments

Counterpoint: We are not traumatized, we are polarized.

You can layer paragraph upon paragraph about how things are bad, but they've often been far worse, and far more tumultuous. Segments of post-civil war, post-WW1, post-WW2 populations were in fact traumatized, from real loss. As have families from the pandemic. Throughout US history, politics has been fractious and at times violent, even in congress itself.

But no, we -- the average person -- are not traumatized. We do not need therapy. Author starts by winking at the self-medicalizing seen on social, trying to separate her serious argument from the frivolous ones on "TraumaTok." But then just dives right in and does the same thing, but with lots of words.

So the difference is modern online life and the firehose? These products are designed to be addictive, compulsive, manipulative, they freely admit. These tools are in widespread use, and we aren't sure the consequences psychologically other than advertising generally works and propaganda generally works, even if you're aware of it. I remember the attitude that the general population just didn't get the internet, but now an eternal September later many malicious interests really do get it and use it against our interests at large.

Certainly an interesting read. I seem to see a distinction between reality based trauma and fictional. I'm more left leaning and my trauma/fear comes from being a healthcare practitioner during COVID and getting constantly abused, being a cyclist and being constantly harassed and abused, watching climate change have tangible and increasing consequences, watching cars and guns kill cyclist friends and children at increasing rates, etc... All while the rightwing says none of those things are real and pushes completely made up crap constantly. Almost more frustratingly is the media's "both sides" horse race reporting of it all.

> watching cars and guns kill cyclist friends and children at increasing rates

This chart doesn't break out the data for cyclists and children, but motor vehicle deaths per capita seem to be decreasing over time:

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

Gun suicide rate (per 100K people) seems to be approaching its historical peak from 1977, while murder rate is approaching the local peak from ~1992:

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/04/26/what-the-...

It's still drastically higher than Canada's however.

That’s for passengers in a vehicle. Pedestrian deaths are at a 40 year high with no signs of that growth slowing.

> being a healthcare practitioner during COVID and getting constantly abused

I'm really sorry to hear that! People on the frontlines of COVID really deserve support and gratitude.

Recently I talked with a nurse who had to take a break from work, not due to abuse from other people (fortunately), but just from the overwhelming and ever-present death and suffering during the pandemic.

So, to summarize, in a thread about polarization ... you're listing out the political issues that affect you that you think the other side of the aisle doesn't care about, while using emotional/alarmist phrasing, accusing the other side of lying, and complaining that the media isn't biased enough towards your brand of politics.

How can you not see that you yourself are a huge part of the problem?

Yes, I care about facts. Sorry that offends you.

It's still shocking to me that more people in San Francisco died from drug overdoses than from COVID in 2020. ;-(

Silly doomer needs to visit ourworldindata.org

Reply on news.ycombinator.com