| HN Mirror

Right, that was lazy, I try to pick less biased websites in general to illustrate points. Although to be honest, I myself prefer to read both sides of an issue from biases sources, as they are more diligent. See my reply to the sibling comment for that.

Yeah, ADD is the new hysteria in my opinion, although you can also split hairs and say it’s different because kids really DO bounce around and have more energy, vs saying all women have anxiety or whatever. It’s close enough, in my mind, to discuss the general attitude by analogy.

Whether it’s something intrinsic to the person, or something that society makes them do, is an interesting question. But every time I object, it is because is framed in words that evoke the former, that something is “inherent” in kids and women and men, such as “masculinity”, and it can go too far.

That is not so much a critique of society, at least because of the choice of words, as say if we said:

Schools are the reason more kids experience ADD (sit down and shut up for 10 hours a day, learn to work for corporations)

Conditions women were kept in were the reason for their anxiety (eg yellow wallpaper short story)

How society uses men to do physically demanding and risky jobs / go to war / make the first move leads them to act the way they act.

Instead, it says “boys were taught masculine trait X, and that leads to wife battering” but that’s a short hop skip and jump from that to “it leads to sexist behavior” to “it leads to microaggressions” and “it leads to unwanted advances in the form of a compliment or asking someone out who you barely know based on their beauty alone”. In short, it can be weaponized to further eliminate what has until now been considered “normal masculine” behavior, because gender dymorphism does actually exist, etc. So many men are threatened and many women feel also that “all the real men” have disappeared. But really, it’s because of all the uncertainty about whether traditional gender roles (I’m talking about a man making the first move or holding open a door or planning a date, say) are desirable or not.

Anyway, I just feel when it comes to ADD, Autism, Depression, Hysteria, Toxic Masculinity etc. I’d rather focus 90% of my efforts on what society is doing NOW, and not use words like “bitchy woman” or “toxic masculinity” and excuse it by saying you’re just talking about what was done to boys in the past, because a lot of time the solutions lie in the present. And society can make it a LOT easier for people without putting them in these situations NOW. With changing society, NOT just medicating or doing psychiatric interventions.

Obese? Consider what society is doing, systemically, subsidizing sugar, putting antibiotics in factory farm animals.

Depressed? Consider the family structure, living alone, social ties, physically meeting, exercise regimen and societal expectations.

ADHD? Consider whether the public school system has become a glorified daycare because BOTH parents have to work full days at corporations just to pay the rent.

I feel a great model of what I do support is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americans_with_Disabilities_Ac...

And so on. The answer is to change society, not blame the individual. I am a progressive in the sense of technology! But I am more of a social conservative in that I think the individual is constantly being blamed to keep up with the latest plan for normal behavior, when in reality society can improve. I would even be so bold as to take it to race as well:

Black targeted more by police?

Blaming individuals: “Recognize your white privilege”

Blaming society: “Useless drug war incarcerates Blacks disproportionately, Contraception availability leads to premarital sex instead of early marriages and more single parent homes, Failing schools face no market discipline because parents have no vouchers or choice, police are unaccountable”

Solutions: School vouchers, UBI, abolish minimum wage, end drug war, body cameras for all cops

Notice that all these solutions are race/gender neutral and may work far better!! But we suck all the political capital out of the room when we start talking about this new kind of bashing the individual, which is sometimes derogatorily referred to as “the regressive left” or “cultural marxism”.