CSNbbs

Quote:Last weekend AEI’s Arthur Brooks published an interesting piece on happiness in the New York Times’ Sunday Review. I’d encourage you to read the whole thing, but this observation (taken from the comprehensive work of the University of Chicago’s General Social Survey) was particularly interesting and runs counter to perceptions fostered by pop culture:

For many years, researchers found that women were happier than men, although recent studies contend that the gap has narrowed or may even have been reversed. Political junkies might be interested to learn that conservative women are particularly blissful: about 40 percent say they are very happy. That makes them slightly happier than conservative men and significantly happier than liberal women. The unhappiest of all are liberal men; only about a fifth consider themselves very happy.

Fascinating. While I’ll let others comment on the happiness of conservatives, let’s address liberal men. Why are they so much less happy?

A core component of modern leftism is its comprehensive attack (and accompanying redefinition) of masculinity. This attack poisons how men experience their own nature, relationships, and purpose.

First, the Left attacks the very idea of what it means to be a man. Here’s a shorthand version of the Left’s view of masculinity (to borrow from a column my wife wrote): Men and women are the same, except when women are better. So when a young boys does what young boys do — play rough, show aggression, gravitate towards contact sports and more violent games and movies — they are greeted with howls of “No.” No talking. No pushing. No running. No fighting. No toy guns. No drawings of tanks and guns. No. No. No. Again and again, young boys are shoved into a quiet, more relational, submissive box. As the father of an active young teen boy, what I’ve seen from other parents — the unbelievable stifling — seems cruel.

Next, the liberal male often spends his relational life walking on eggshells, dating women and living in cultures that are constantly calling out any kind of behavior subjectively perceived as “male” or oppressive. So if a man gets angry at a woman, he’s just “mansplaining.” A man who asks for fidelity is “slut-shaming.” Assertions of will are subject to “privilege checks.” To enter the world of academia, for example, is to enter a world of social rules and customs that are impossibly complex because propriety is always dictated by the subjective feelings of the most traditionally powerless person in the room. The language of equality is a mere mask for a new hierarchy that explicitly seeks to place the male (especially the white male) at the bottom.

Finally, as a result of upbringing and relationships, liberal men often lack a distinctively masculine purpose. Ask most conservative men to define their roles — whether they’re firefighters or accountants — and they’ll often respond with words like “protector” or “provider” — even when they’re married to capable, strong women with their own careers. They’re glad for their wife’s success, but they view that success as independent of their ultimate responsibilities. Many liberal men would actively scorn such labels. Indeed, at the end of the day, many men are left with nothing distinctively male about them, aside from their biology. And they often feel a hole in their heart. Indeed, a cottage industry exists to reconnect men with manly pursuits — often centered around experiencing real adventure for the first time in their lives.

These are hardly original observations, and Christina Hoff Sommers, in her 2001 book, The War Against Boys: How Misguided Feminism is Harming Our Young Men, and Helen Smith, in this year’s Men on Strike: Why Men Are Boycotting Marriage, Fatherhood, and the American Dream — and Why it Matters (among others) have made a much more comprehensive case against the Left’s treatment of young men.

In its quest to destroy the patriarchy, the Left hurts mainly its own. We conservatives, on the other hand, oblivious to the latest trends in critical gender theory and content with complementary and mutually supporting gender roles, sail blissfully on as the happiest people in the land.

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/366...vid-french

Great points. But he skips another obvious one: envy. Leftists by definition are envious.

Because they reject all the requirements to be happy. They feel they are revolutionaries when they are simply trying failed alternatives many have tried before them.

Easy. Because normal society rejects them so they join the group of irregular people and instead of focusing on being happy, they focus on making life miserable for Conservatives.

Edit: Which rarely works, so it infuriates them even more.

If you went thru life being envious of other's success, jealous of the have's, living in high crime urban dumps and hanging out with women who look like Rachel Maddow......................... wouldn't you be unhappy?

How can a liberal man be happy when he believes the earth is going to burn up, minorities have been abused for centuries and it's his fault, animals are being pushed out of their natural habitat and dying off, the oceans are rising, there's income inequity, their vote is disenfranchised, we've pissed off the Muslims - again, they're raised to be victims, they were born the wrong sex, and they're typically married to liberal women like Hillary Clinton.

Life without a set would be depressing.

While others here have done a good job putting some of it together, I'd like to add, swallowing your own bull****. Have you ever met a liberal that didn't believe the useless drivel, platitudes, and story book half-assed ****, coming out of their own mouths?

If you had to live with the fact you voted and politicked for Obama, would you be happy?

(09-09-2014 12:23 PM)HeartOfDixie Wrote: [ -> ]While others here have done a good job putting some of it together, I'd like to add, swallowing your own bull****. Have you ever met a liberal that didn't believe the useless drivel, platitudes, and story book half-assed ****, coming out of their own mouths?

So............by contrast, conservatives don't believe what they say?

Thanks for clearing that up!

(09-09-2014 12:41 PM)gdunn Wrote: [ -> ]If you had to live with the fact you voted and politicked for Obama, would you be happy?

(09-09-2014 12:46 PM)Redwingtom Wrote: [ -> ]

(09-09-2014 12:41 PM)gdunn Wrote: [ -> ]If you had to live with the fact you voted and politicked for Obama, would you be happy?

That moment after you pull your head up and are clueless to what is going on around you.

What's going on around me? You have no idea what is going on around me.

Nearly every place I go into is hiring. Within a half mile of my house there is a new speedway gas station going up...a new Rally's going up...a new 24 hour medical facility going up.

My job is going great and I have more disposable cash then I've ever had. My wife just got a great job recently at a pizza place that just opened up a brand new location and their business is booming.

I'm a finalist for a great promotion at my job.

And no, I'm not oblivious to the plight of others less fortunate and the challenges of the world, but if you live your life like Ted Nugent, in constant fear and basically instructing his followers to load the weapons in preparation to "killemall" to anyone who looks different. Sure, things aren't going to look so hot.

Life's too short pal!

(09-09-2014 01:04 PM)Redwingtom Wrote: [ -> ]What's going on around me? You have no idea what is going on around me.

Nearly every place I go into is hiring. Within a half mile of my house there is a new speedway gas station going up...a new Rally's going up...a new 24 hour medical facility going up.

My job is going great and I have more disposable cash then I've ever had. My wife just got a great job recently at a pizza place that just opened up a brand new location and their business is booming.

I'm a finalist for a great promotion at my job.

And no, I'm not oblivious to the plight of others less fortunate and the challenges of the world, but if you live your life like Ted Nugent, in constant fear and basically instructing his followers to load the weapons in preparation to "killemall" to anyone who looks different. Sure, things aren't going to look so hot.

Life's too short pal!

You're married?

(09-09-2014 01:07 PM)LSU04_08 Wrote: [ -> ]

(09-09-2014 01:04 PM)Redwingtom Wrote: [ -> ]What's going on around me? You have no idea what is going on around me.

Nearly every place I go into is hiring. Within a half mile of my house there is a new speedway gas station going up...a new Rally's going up...a new 24 hour medical facility going up.

My job is going great and I have more disposable cash then I've ever had. My wife just got a great job recently at a pizza place that just opened up a brand new location and their business is booming.

I'm a finalist for a great promotion at my job.

And no, I'm not oblivious to the plight of others less fortunate and the challenges of the world, but if you live your life like Ted Nugent, in constant fear and basically instructing his followers to load the weapons in preparation to "killemall" to anyone who looks different. Sure, things aren't going to look so hot.

Life's too short pal!

You're married?

I was thinking the same thing. There's no reason why he shouldn't suffer like the rest of us.

(09-09-2014 01:19 PM)smn1256 Wrote: [ -> ]

(09-09-2014 01:07 PM)LSU04_08 Wrote: [ -> ]

(09-09-2014 01:04 PM)Redwingtom Wrote: [ -> ]What's going on around me? You have no idea what is going on around me.

Nearly every place I go into is hiring. Within a half mile of my house there is a new speedway gas station going up...a new Rally's going up...a new 24 hour medical facility going up.

My job is going great and I have more disposable cash then I've ever had. My wife just got a great job recently at a pizza place that just opened up a brand new location and their business is booming.

I'm a finalist for a great promotion at my job.

And no, I'm not oblivious to the plight of others less fortunate and the challenges of the world, but if you live your life like Ted Nugent, in constant fear and basically instructing his followers to load the weapons in preparation to "killemall" to anyone who looks different. Sure, things aren't going to look so hot.

Life's too short pal!

You're married?

I was thinking the same thing. There's no reason why he shouldn't suffer like the rest of us.

That was the only interesting thing I saw in that entire post.

(09-09-2014 01:04 PM)Redwingtom Wrote: [ -> ]What's going on around me? You have no idea what is going on around me.

Nearly every place I go into is hiring. Within a half mile of my house there is a new speedway gas station going up...a new Rally's going up...a new 24 hour medical facility going up.

My job is going great and I have more disposable cash then I've ever had. My wife just got a great job recently at a pizza place that just opened up a brand new location and their business is booming.

I'm a finalist for a great promotion at my job.

And no, I'm not oblivious to the plight of others less fortunate and the challenges of the world, but if you live your life like Ted Nugent, in constant fear and basically instructing his followers to load the weapons in preparation to "killemall" to anyone who looks different. Sure, things aren't going to look so hot.

Life's too short pal!

Wow.. Didn't realize there was a spot above "Grocery Carrier Technician" at the local Wal Mart

(09-09-2014 01:22 PM)LSU04_08 Wrote: [ -> ]

(09-09-2014 01:19 PM)smn1256 Wrote: [ -> ]

(09-09-2014 01:07 PM)LSU04_08 Wrote: [ -> ]

(09-09-2014 01:04 PM)Redwingtom Wrote: [ -> ]What's going on around me? You have no idea what is going on around me.

Nearly every place I go into is hiring. Within a half mile of my house there is a new speedway gas station going up...a new Rally's going up...a new 24 hour medical facility going up.

My job is going great and I have more disposable cash then I've ever had. My wife just got a great job recently at a pizza place that just opened up a brand new location and their business is booming.

I'm a finalist for a great promotion at my job.

And no, I'm not oblivious to the plight of others less fortunate and the challenges of the world, but if you live your life like Ted Nugent, in constant fear and basically instructing his followers to load the weapons in preparation to "killemall" to anyone who looks different. Sure, things aren't going to look so hot.

Life's too short pal!

You're married?

I was thinking the same thing. There's no reason why he shouldn't suffer like the rest of us.

That was the only interesting thing I saw in that entire post.

I didn't even know they legalized gay marriage in Michigan.

(09-09-2014 01:04 PM)Redwingtom Wrote: [ -> ]What's going on around me? You have no idea what is going on around me.

Nearly every place I go into is hiring. Within a half mile of my house there is a new speedway gas station going up...a new Rally's going up...a new 24 hour medical facility going up.

My job is going great and I have more disposable cash then I've ever had. My wife just got a great job recently at a pizza place that just opened up a brand new location and their business is booming.

I'm a finalist for a great promotion at my job.

And no, I'm not oblivious to the plight of others less fortunate and the challenges of the world, but if you live your life like Ted Nugent, in constant fear and basically instructing his followers to load the weapons in preparation to "killemall" to anyone who looks different. Sure, things aren't going to look so hot.

Life's too short pal!

Some of us don't think ignorance is bliss. Many aspects of our society is crumbling and you may not be able to enjoy that disposable income for much longer.

In addition, I'm not so sure things would be all that bliss for you if we had a GOP in the White House and GOP controlled congress.

(09-09-2014 01:26 PM)EverRespect Wrote: [ -> ]

(09-09-2014 01:22 PM)LSU04_08 Wrote: [ -> ]

(09-09-2014 01:19 PM)smn1256 Wrote: [ -> ]

(09-09-2014 01:07 PM)LSU04_08 Wrote: [ -> ]

(09-09-2014 01:04 PM)Redwingtom Wrote: [ -> ]What's going on around me? You have no idea what is going on around me.

Nearly every place I go into is hiring. Within a half mile of my house there is a new speedway gas station going up...a new Rally's going up...a new 24 hour medical facility going up.

My job is going great and I have more disposable cash then I've ever had. My wife just got a great job recently at a pizza place that just opened up a brand new location and their business is booming.

I'm a finalist for a great promotion at my job.

And no, I'm not oblivious to the plight of others less fortunate and the challenges of the world, but if you live your life like Ted Nugent, in constant fear and basically instructing his followers to load the weapons in preparation to "killemall" to anyone who looks different. Sure, things aren't going to look so hot.

Life's too short pal!

You're married?

I was thinking the same thing. There's no reason why he shouldn't suffer like the rest of us.

That was the only interesting thing I saw in that entire post.

I didn't even know they legalized gay marriage in Michigan.