Posted on by Californiacontrarian

Trying Not To Be Judgmental

The following is not meant to be judgmental … as Jack Webb used to say, “just the facts, please.” In addition, in advance I want to go on record that I do not regularly read ‘Evie Magazine,’ and I fact never knew it existed before today. Be that as it may, I just read an article in Evie Magazine that referenced a Pew study of March, 2020, titled Pew American Trends Panel: Wave 64. 

After I read the entire Evie article, the first question that I asked and that you may also ask when you finish this essay, is …”Why have I never heard about this before?” After all it was published well over a year ago. Again, as I earlier stated, I am trying not to be judgmental, even though, to me, the answer as to Why?… is intuitively obvious.

Apparently it took a Ph.D. candidate in political science posting about the study on Twitter for it to garner even a smidge of attention. The most likely answer as to why “nobody” was interested in this Pew story should be obvious from the title of the summary article in Evie:

“Over 50% Of Liberal, White Women Under 30 Have A Mental Health Issue. Are We Worried Yet?”

With the risk of repeating myself too often, I am just reporting what this Pew study found … again, not trying to be judgmental.

The study, which examined white liberals, moderates, and conservatives, both male and female, found that conservatives were far less likely to be diagnosed with mental health issues than those who identified as either liberal or even “very liberal.” What’s more, white women suffered the worst of all. White women, ages 18-29, who identified as liberal were given a mental health diagnosis from medical professionals at a rate of 56.3%, as compared to 28.4% in moderates and 27.3% in conservatives.

conservative_liberal_women_mental_health_graph.jpeg

Still from Evie:

Zach Goldberg, the doctoral candidate in question, consolidated the study’s info in a set of visuals and posted them to a thread on Twitter. But it’s important to note that he clarified the following: “I didn’t write this thread to mock white liberals or their apparently disproportionate rates of mental illness (and you shouldn’t either). Rather, this is a question that’s underexplored and which may shed light on attitudinal differences towards various social policies.” He’s right.

From my point of view … trying not to be judgmental … the question is which is the chicken and which is the egg? (which came first?) Or perhaps more apropos, another phrase from the “trite sweepstakes” … which is the cart and which is the horse.(which is leading and which is following?)

I am certainly not a Ph.D candidate, and would not dare to try to identify which is which, visa vi, the chicken versus the egg, or visa vi, the cart and the horse. However, I will say that this Pew study makes things a lot clearer for me, as in “Aah … perhaps an explanation!”

7/21/21

www.californiacontrarian.com

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