.. it burns. A few years back I devoted multiple posts to the Upper Class Twit of the Century, delusional moron Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He returns unwelcomed to our consciousness in the midst of the measles epidemic, which as a reader points out is even more rampant in Europe, particularly Ukraine, than in the U.S. This is a disease which could have been eradicated from the earth, like smallpox, if not for idiots like Kennedy and scammers like Andrew Wakefield.
Unfortunately there are people who assign credibility to celebrities, including people whose only claim to fame is their parentage, so Kennedy's anti-vaccine campaign, founded entirely on lies, has undoubtedly contributed to the horrific damage done by Wakefield, Jenny McCarthy, and other cultists. Now members of his family have come forward to condemn him, and it's long past time. If there were some way to exile this slimeball to a remote island without telecommunication, and remove him entirely from any interaction with the public, I would vote for it.
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I hope there are vacancies on that island for a few other slimeballs.
https://www.realclearscience.com/journal_club/2014/10/20/are_liberals_or_conservatives_more_anti-vaccine_108905.html
In 2012, we co-authored a book, Science Left Behind, in which we argued that the anti-vaccine movement began with the political Left, but spread to religious conservatives and libertarians. However, because the most visible public spokespeople for the anti-vaccine movement (e.g., Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Bill Maher, and Jenny McCarthy) are mostly on the political Left, we continue to believe that the Left should bear most of the blame.
Oh come on. I'm not aware that Jenny McCarthy is associated with "The Left," Andrew Wakefield has never, as far as I know, articulated any political philosophy, and Bill Maher is a libertarian contrarian, not a "leftist." In any case, these are individuals, they are not speaking for a movement or for a political party, or for anybody other than fellow anti-vaxxers. To ascribe blame to "The Left," when the overwhelming majority of people on the political left completely reject these lunatics, is ridiculous.
After this last school shooting near Denver, people came to speak to the students. It was the usual gun control stuff and in the middle the students started chanting:
"Mental Health...Mental Health...Mental Health..."
I found this very interesting that the students at that high school did not think the answer was gun control, but rather people control.
Well, this is off topic but what the heck. These are not mutually exclusive, obviously. I expect that high school students are seeing a lot of classmates with unaddressed mental and emotional problems, and experiencing it themselves. Unfortunately, however, it is very difficult to predict who will commit violence and little correlation between mental illness and violent behavior. If we had a way to prospectively diagnose the propensity for violence it would be helpful, but right now we don't. I will say, though, that while we don't yet know any details of this recent incident, Harris and Klebold had both received psychiatric evaluations after committing petty crime and were given a clean bill of health.
None of this will stop until the culture changes.
How do we change the culture of a country founded on violence and genocide?
Real education. Open our eyes to the rest of the world. Be open, flexible about solutions, instead of digging in in slavery to our disparate ideologies, which leads to confrontation and war.
It's THE culture.
While we acknowledge the sharp rise in mental illness in young people, few are looking into the reasons behind this phenomenon.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/suicide-depression-anxiety-mental-health-issues-increase-teens-young-adults/
Twenge says shifting cultural trends over the past decade, including increased use of electronic communications and digital media, may have had a larger effect on mood disorders among younger generations compared with older generations.
"Recently, there's been a number of studies showing that those who spend more time on digital media are more likely to be depressed and unhappy," Twenge said.
For example, she points to a study of nearly 11,000 adolescents in Britain published earlier this year that found those who were heavy users of social media were two to three times more likely to be depressed as those who did not use social media.
Teens are also not getting as much sleep as much as they did in previous generations and spending less face-to-face time with family and friends, both of which have been associated with depression.
Mary Fristad, PhD, Vice Chair and Director of Research & Psychological Services at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, says the study's findings and researchers' conclusions mirror what she sees in her clinical practice.
I think the link between excess screen time and depression and unhappiness is supported by research. Less clear that there's a connection to violence. Adam Lanza obsessively played video games, but he was already deeply disturbed. His mother encouraging his interest in firearms and taking him to shooting ranges seems like a more direct connection to his actions. But we do need to learn more about the consequences of social media and obsessive video game playing.
BTW, this study finds the association between use of social media and adolescent life satisfaction to be very small.
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