I won’t disagree that loneliness is an issue in our society. But I don’t think it is the only “problem”. Anecdotally for me: I wasn’t ready to have sex, a relationship or for dating for a long time. So I’m mostly happy to have taken that time. In previous generations you’d marry and have kids for a while at that point. I think we have a lot more room to grow individually today.
We also have more room to fail individually today. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not proposing that we go back to where western societies were in the 50s, but there are definitely downsides to our current societies that need to be dealt with. Lonely people aren’t just individual people who are having a bad time, they are IMO a huge threat for societal cohesion. e.g. they’re much more likely than non-lonely people to politically radicalize.
To the contrary, on a party level the democrats seem to be failing to capture any radical energy at all. They’re broadly playing to the center, and alienating progressives in the process, whereas the right is very effectively turning the radicalization pipeline straight into support for the Republicans. Unless you mean to imply the Democrats’ goal is to radicalize people away from their own platform.
I won’t disagree that loneliness is an issue in our society. But I don’t think it is the only “problem”. Anecdotally for me: I wasn’t ready to have sex, a relationship or for dating for a long time. So I’m mostly happy to have taken that time. In previous generations you’d marry and have kids for a while at that point. I think we have a lot more room to grow individually today.
We also have more room to fail individually today. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not proposing that we go back to where western societies were in the 50s, but there are definitely downsides to our current societies that need to be dealt with. Lonely people aren’t just individual people who are having a bad time, they are IMO a huge threat for societal cohesion. e.g. they’re much more likely than non-lonely people to politically radicalize.
And both US parties deliberately intend to radicalize young adults, especially young middle-class white men.
To the contrary, on a party level the democrats seem to be failing to capture any radical energy at all. They’re broadly playing to the center, and alienating progressives in the process, whereas the right is very effectively turning the radicalization pipeline straight into support for the Republicans. Unless you mean to imply the Democrats’ goal is to radicalize people away from their own platform.
In what direction does the DNC try to radicalize people? Being a “liberal” doesn’t strike me as radical.