Political Observer comments, briefly!
Jan 05, 2025
Recall that Haidt used a riff on Bloom’s ‘The Closing of the American Mind’ to sell his ‘The Coddling of the American Mind’. Note his title as ‘A professor of ethical leadership at New York University’ call this being ‘ kicked uptairs’ equal to a vaucious honerific. It should not surprise that he is a staunch New Democrat: He’s Hillary Clinton wet dream: maufaturing crisies on order, for the New Democrats/Republicals/Neo-Consertatives, to screech on command, about the various, and myraid threats to the Natural Political Order of a toxic Centrism. The first paragraph is riddled with unintentional comedy, name it vulgerised political kitsch, which I will highlight!
A professor of ethical leadership at New York University, Haidt made his name with The Righteous Mind, a 2012 book that explained the deep psychological impulses that lie behind our political choices. His 2018 book with Greg Lukianoff, The Coddling of the American Mind, drew a link between the rise of hyper-woke “snowflakes” on university campuses and the mental health crisis caused by safety-first childhoods that have been swamped by technology.
The Anxious Generation is in many ways a sequel. In it he traces the abyss into which our children have sunk since 2010. Last year, a report from NHS England found that one in five children and young people aged 8 to 25 had a “probable mental disorder”— where poor mental health has affected their daily lives — including problems with hyperactivity, concentration, emotions and behaviour.
Caroline Scott’s 2207 word essay/propganda featuring Haidt as would-be expert , on the vexing question of phones, and the possible/probable dangers to children, and other political actors, like parents. The question is where are the Parents of children who are, after all the guardians of their own children? Mr. Haidt is simply a self-promoting ‘expert’ with something to sell, his self-ascribed ‘expertise’ is about politics by other means!
Haidt rejects this criticism, saying he has collected “dozens of correlational and longitudinal studies” that “reveal a fairly consistent relationship in which heavy users of social media are at much higher risk of mental illness or poor mental health than everyone else”.
For many parents, the academic debate is just that: academic. They have the irrefutable evidence of their own eyes. Since my son started using an app called Opal, which limits his YouTube habit, his screen time has reduced from four hours a day to one and a half. He’s joined the debating society at university and a gym. And he’s definitely happier.
Political Observer
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