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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]There's been plenty of studies showing conservatives are happier than liberals. The progressive response is to usually sneer that conservatives are happier because they are content to be ignorant and ignore the suffering and pains of others. When you look at the actual data for why conservatives are happier it's because they have stronger networks of family and friends, including being part of faith organizations or living in smaller town settings where people look after each other.

I do agree the progressive mindset is trapped by its blind belief in the proper inevitability of the right side of history, and when it fails to happen, they get frustrated and unhappy. It's a classic metaphysical concept studied in political theory and one that has dominated the left in its various guises and results in an environment where things are never, ever good enough and there always needs to be a new battle to be fought. We do see this with wokery. Despite the staggering improvement in the wellbeing, material and political, of African Americans since the 1950s, progressives still go around acting as if nothing has changed since, well, 1860.

I suppose the conservative mindset is more realistic.
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First of all, my eyes/ears grate at the world "liberal." I'm a leftist. I hate liberals almost as much as conservatives do.
That being said, I don't disagree that conservatives should be happier than liberals.
One counterpoint is that studies in human happiness repeatedly show that Nordic countries are happier than the United States by every metric. Now, I'm not here to debate the Nordic model (yes I know they aren't all the same, yes I know they aren't "socialist") but the fact is that there is data that shows that other countries with different economic systems show more happiness. Of course, former Soviet countries show the least amount of happiness, and some of the happier (relatively speaking) countries are dirt poor countries in Africa. But all in all, the US is kind of meh compared to other developed countries in terms of personal satisfaction with life.

So, that's a counterpoint grappling with the idea that I might assume, that conservatives should be happier with the way things are going. [/quote]
NP.  Wapo (I think, maybe it was another newspaper) had an article some months ago that one of the reasons Nordics are happier is that they have different (comparatively lower) expectations in life, that from an early age they are inculcated with the belief that they as individuals are not individually special.  Maybe change your expectations about what you can and can’t control.[/quote]

Fair point.

Interestingly, I guess the same could be said about developing countries that have relative levels of happiness. If expectations are lower, or if you don't have a sense of missing out on something, then maybe you're happier. This checks out with the studies of social media causing misery among youth as well.

But this also bolsters my argument that the so-called "American Dream" creates misery. It is an objective FACT that achieving the American Dream is not the same as it was 100 years ago or 50 years ago or even 20 years ago. American corporatism is not a meritocracy;  the people who benefit from the good life do not do so from an honest day's work, they do so from investing pre-existing financial capital. Our system rewards irresponsible speculation and dishonesty, not actual value production. This is where Marx was right. Add to this the toxic positivity that infected us '90s kids who were told we could be anything we wanted to be if we just stayed in school and did our homework, and you have people waking up from the American Dream realizing it's actually a Corporatist Nightmare.

I'd rather be told from the getgo that we're all just nothing special and live without the pressure of the rat race. It seems like a much more serene existence, and maybe then we'd be more inclined to care for each other and the environment.[/quote]
If your happiness is based primarily on the material you’ll never be happy.[/quote]

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