May 15, 2025 • 48 mins
It's an unfortunate fact that the heated rhetoric of modern politics has had a negative effect on our mental health. The level of anger, hostility and division in the air has damaged or ended relationships and fractured families. It makes many of us want to curl up into a ball. Liana walks us through the motivations behind the rancor and how we can process it and get past it. And it all starts with an angry Kenny Rogers lookalike.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The views expressed in the following program are those of
the participants and do not necessarily reflect the views of
SAGA nine sixty AM or its management.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
The following program is a peer to peer advice show
and does not diagnose mental health conditions. If you're seeking
social services, please call or text two to one one
or go to two one one dot CA. Hello listeners
around the world on radio, streaming and podcast services, This
is just not therapy. I'm Meanna Kersner, and I am
(00:29):
not a therapist, but I am your source for navigating
the madness of mental health. He's my top ten sayings
for going good crazy. This week, I'm doing another list.
I haven't done a ten list. I'll say top ten
because that's ranking and that's too hard. But I think
it's time to do a list and you can and
(00:51):
the topic but is why modern politics is terrible for
our mental health health. And you can thank a guy
coming out of my local Canadian tire while I was
there to buy cleaning products for this, this guy was
wearing a shirt that had a word that rhymes with
duck with a maple leaf instead of the you in duck.
(01:17):
Directed it, Mark Kearney. That's Canada's Prime minister for those
who don't live here. So duck maple leaf Carney without
the D two letters after yeah at a hardware store,
and by the look on this guy's face, he wanted
(01:38):
people to notice that he was saying duck kearney on
his chest. He was stomping out of the store, scowling,
chest puffed. You look like an angry Kenny Rogers. Okay,
like Ted Dbassi from wrestling in his biggest heal moments.
Right now. I reference this guy's appearance because I don't
(01:58):
want you thinking he was this, you know, stereotypical angry
young man based on data the gen X cohort of
men fifty five to sixty four, where you know, I'm
maybe the guy was in that. That's my guess. Anyway,
that demographic, they are the most conservative demographic out there,
(02:21):
so it's not like this dude to some sort of
persecuted minority, though I'm sure he feels persecuted, hence him
out looking for a fight on a Saturday afternoon with
anyone but those overly aggressive people. The fall you around
the store is trying to talk to you into another
credit card. That was a joke. Please, don't pick fights
with those people. Yeah, it just really strikes me whenever
(02:44):
I see these profanity laced political statements, because, first of all,
very political people, people like that type are the first
people to invoke there are children, think of the children
as a reason, and something's offensive and therefore other people
shouldn't be allowed to do it. But also, okay, come on,
(03:06):
Mark Carney has been Prime minister for you can count
it in weeks and these guys already have shirts. Come on,
that's not civic participation based on issues. That strikes me
as a hatred of anybody with the particular political identity.
(03:28):
You know, it was duck Trudeau before it was duck Carney.
The word is not duck. Okay. Now, gen Z men
tend to get blamed in media for this sort of behavior. Again,
the data doesn't bear that out. And I'm going to
be really clear about this. Gen Z men are about
(03:49):
as politically polarized as gen X women, which are consistently
split around fifty to fifty on various issues. For the
contentious issues, give or take a few points. Gen Z women,
on the other hand, gen Z women, as opposed to
gen Z men, are strongly polarized to the left, and
(04:13):
the reason might be obvious attacks on reproductive freedom. But
no matter who you are, there are pro and anti
social ways to express your pro or anti political opinions.
And if you're just using politics to pick fights, you
can stop listening to this show now because it's not
for you. It would help you to see why it's
(04:37):
not working, but those particular people, they're not in a
listening mood. If you want to be effective in promoting
your cause, though, you will want to stay tuned. Similarly,
if some things bother you about the way politics is discussed,
you may find words to explain where you're coming from
in this episode, or you might find something useful in
(04:59):
more general in terms of being persuasive in conversations. Either way,
I'm doing this because a lot of clients are really
stressed about politics and you feel it in the air.
Even though Canada is through our election cycle, there's still
everything else. So without further ado, here are ten ways
(05:21):
modern politics are really bad for our mental health. Starting
with the reason inspired by the Mark Kearney fan at
the Canadian Tire number ten people are way too aggressive.
Shirt Guy is evidence that this isn't just a problem online,
and it isn't just drunk uncles at dinner tables. There's
been a stark increase in anti Semitic and anti Islamic
(05:43):
activity because of a war happening thousands of miles away.
Celebrities are getting harassed for wanting to stay out of
political debates, as if a singer's opinion on global geopolitics
is in any way really useful. I know, I'm relieved
that this year's Eurovision. Yes, I'm planning on watching Eurovision.
(06:04):
I'm super excited about it, especially because it's not the
politicized dumpster fire that last year's was. Yet they've had stuff,
but it hasn't hit that fever pitch. But other issues,
other things, those are still running really hot. And if
you can't talk about something, especially something that's important to you,
(06:25):
without exploding, especially if you're out there actively looking for
a fight the way Canadian Entire Angry Man was, that's
a sign of a deeper problem that might need professional help.
And let's face it, being around those people who are
actively looking to fight, that's exhausting, if not downright scary.
(06:46):
So it's not good for anyone. Someone has to live
with that guy in the duck Carny T shirt and
that's what he's like in public. Even if people don't
actively pickfights, you know, I think people are going, well,
that's an extreme thing, and you're starting to think of
all the other things that were lower than that threshold.
(07:07):
Don't worry. This is just number ten, right, because even
if people aren't actively picking fights, they can get a
different kind of aggressive. They can fight dirty in fights,
and it often manifestss being too unyielding or too personal.
And I'll get to those after the break. Do you
have a story you think would be good for the show?
(07:27):
Are you interested in sponsoring the show? Leanna Atnoththerapyshow dot com.
Not Therapy Show dot com is the website at not
Therapy Show on social media. Be back after this How
modern politics is bad for our mental health.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
No Radio, No Problem stream is live on SAGA nine
six am dot CA.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
The following program is a peer to peer advice show
and does not diagnose mental health conditions. If you're seeking
social services, please call or text two one one or
go to two one one dot ca. We're back in.
It's not therapy. I'm still on a cursor. I'm still
not a therapist. We're still talking about ten things that
(08:15):
are making politics terrible for our mental help. Number ten
was people being too aggressive. Now, numbers nine and eight
are closely connected, but they're not quite the same thing.
All of these are connected, but number nine is people
engaging in black or white thinking. Number eight is people
(08:39):
getting way too personal. And it's not a personal appeal
based on someone's good nature, right, it's somebody making personal attacks.
So let's start with blacker white thinking, the idea that
someone or something is totally good or totally bad with
no nuance. And there's a brilliant example of this. It
(09:00):
doesn't involve well, it's adjacent to something dicey, but the
issue itself is not dicey. So yay. Protesters are vandalizing
buildings at Columbia University again yay, this time Butler Library.
But at least this time they have clear demands. They
want the Butler Library renamed because it's namesake Nicholas Murray
Butler was, as they said, a Nazi sympathizer. Now I
(09:25):
look this up. I'm one of those people that even
if I don't agree with someone, I look it up, like,
what is this There's a grain of truth to it,
but Like I said, there's a reason I'm using this
as an example of black or white thinking. Nicholas Murray
Butler was the president of Columbia University for forty three years.
Forty three years, somebody makes a lot of decisions and
(09:47):
has a lot of opinions, right, starting in nineteen oh two,
that's right, nineteen oh two, nineteen oh one, if you
count as tenure as just acting president. Now. Nicholas Murray
Butler was instrumental in creating the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace,
and he was a Nobel Peace Prize recipient. He was
(10:11):
also privately pretty anti Semitic, as many people of the
time were, and did refuse to condemn a lot of
what was going on in Europe with the Nazis until
after Kristelnacht again, unfortunately, like a lot of people at
that time. In nineteen thirty six, though, he expelled a
(10:33):
class president for leading an anti Nazi protest on campus,
which what the president of that class got expelled for
leading an anti Nazi protest, Right, that's hardcore, and it
shows his admiration for Mussolini was showing through there. Yes,
(10:58):
that's true too. What the student protesters in condemning Murray
Butler failed. A factor in though, was that Nicholas Murray
Butler completely changed his mind after Crystal Knock in November
of nineteen thirty eight, I think it was November ninth
into November tenth, nineteen thirty eight. After that he went
(11:19):
all the other way. He expelled anyone who opposed US
intervention in World War Two. Now I mentioned that he
won the Nobel Peace Prize, right, well, he did that
for his work. He won the Nobel Peace Prize for
his work establishing the Permanent Court of International Justice, which
(11:43):
was the precursor to the International Court of Justice. You
probably know it better as the Hague. And that's the
body these student protesters are ultimately appealing to regarding their
claims of genocide against Israel. And this is why I'm
(12:04):
saying this is an excellent example of black or white
thinking regarding politics. You know, maybe maybe if they're giving
them no points for anything he did, right, you know,
establishing this body, so that because the ICJ the International
Court of Justice that goes after entire countries, So there
(12:28):
Israel is genocide thing. Yeah, Okay, Israel's not a member.
The US isn't even a member of the ICJ, but
the ICC it's sister court that can prosecute individuals, and
that's what led to the warrants for Benjamin Etna. Who
would know I of glant So you know, maybe if
these protesters are giving Nicholas Murray Butler no points for that,
(12:54):
that's affecting their ability to be terribly persuasive. Right, Not
only do they not have a balance perspective, and they
don't have a balance perspective of a guy who you know,
nineteen oh two. This is stuff that happened in the
nineteen thirties. It's ninety years ago, a little less. Okay, Okay,
(13:19):
maybe if they don't have a balance perspective on that,
can you question their judgment on other things? Yes, of
course you can, right, But it's also nobody wants to
be around someone who has that kind of black or
(13:40):
white thinking. Ironically, Nicholas Butler's biggest cautionary tale is that
he himself was too black or white and is thinking himself, now,
I'm expelling you for being against the Nazis. No, now
I'm expelling you for being not enough against the Nazis. Right,
if you weren't with him, you were against him even
(14:03):
when he completely changed his mind, and you know, his
admiration for fascists is not strange in that regard. You know,
he had a pretty authoritarian attitude, but that comes out
when you only look at the bad someone's done, as
(14:29):
opposed to factoring the good and the bad. Never Mind,
looking back at the opinions you know from the nineteen
thirties regarding Jewish people and indigenous people and black people, Mexicans,
basically anyone who didn't count under manifest destiny. These popular
(14:50):
opinions of the time are awful based on modern sensibilities.
But first of all, in my opinion, the desire to
erase these men from our modern awareness. It doesn't solve
the problem of false certainty and stereotyping. These are useful
examples to learn from, but also it doesn't help our
(15:13):
individual mental health. Black or white thinking gets turned inward
too much. Instead of judging things and people as okay,
did some good things, did some bad things, it's bad
thing equals bad person. Good things will never be enough
(15:34):
to cancel out that list of bad things, and that
thinking tends to get turned on ourselves when we make mistakes,
you know. Never mind, people normally don't want to talk
to someone who can't see the slightest bit of humanity
in the people who don't agree with them. And that's
(15:56):
number eight. Right, let's move on to number eight. I
had other things, but time. Okay. If you know, if
you really care about a cost, you'll stick to your cost,
not your assumptions about other people's reasoning for disagreeing with you.
That's when number eight comes in, getting to personal right
(16:17):
off the top. You lose your ability to persuade when
you get personally nasty. And I know, I you know,
called out the Columbia protesters and that last example, but
those tactics go both ways. On the Gaza thing. You know,
being a Jewish person that doesn't think the Conservative Party
of Canada is the only good option isn't really fun
right now. It's kind of lonely. I just stay out
(16:40):
of it, because hey, no one should be required to
vote a certain way because of their religion and stuff
going on there. And you notice I said, I'm just
shutting up. I'm staying out of it. And that's what
happens when you get that personal. You know, as well
as being very black or white, you're with us or
against us. People don't want to talk to the issue,
(17:02):
and they don't want to talk to you. And usually
usually on issues like this, it gets so polarized. It's
not just one side doing it, both general sides. And
I hate it being pro. I hate it being against
because even that that black or white throws away the
(17:24):
good personal part why someone an individual thinks the way
they do. And if everybody's thinking independently, everybody should have
a somewhat different reason for that, right, But that's not
what you're seeing. You're seeing very clear, you know, pro
(17:44):
against talking points that are eerily similar to each other.
And if you don't check every box, you're just a
bad person. Right. Similarly, a lot of the tactics on
the debate on transgender people have gotten deeply personal and
really really nasty. The people who are very afraid of transactivism.
(18:06):
When you talk to them, it's not about the issue
so much as bad experiences they've had with somebody, usually online, right,
And most trans people and I tell these people this
(18:26):
and they don't believe it because they have to take
my word from it for it as opposed to a
startling and hurtful experience that they had themselves. Most trans
people just want to live their lives without obsessing about
what bathroom they use. Now, I acknowledge that you wouldn't
know that from the loudest transactivist online, And I'll tell you,
(18:49):
I truly believe that a lot of these activists are
mostly well meaning, even though they hate me. Now, because
I wouldn't say Harry Potter is immediately anybody who likes
Harry Potter immediately hates trans people and want them to die. No,
I won't sign on to that. I won't know. That's
blacker white thinking and way too personal and it's really
(19:12):
not helping. And that's the point. It's not helping, right,
being trans, You know, just because of the body's trands
doesn't mean they should have to be perfect. Nobody can
be perfect. That's not fair, right, When you're speaking only
for yourself, one, it's just this is me. I'm just
(19:33):
you know, speak in my mind, have at it, right.
But when you call yourself an activist or an advocate,
you're not just speaking for yourself anymore. Your behavior reflects
on the people you're advocating for. So when you do good,
(19:55):
it's good. When you start name calling and personally, it's
people and making negative assumptions with no facts and evidence
that that hurts the people you claim you're trying to help.
If I gave more examples on the Harry Potter thing
of some of the petty gutters, the trans debate has
(20:17):
gone into all around. Right, nobody's hands are clean on
this one. You know, some of these petty gutter moments,
they won't even make sense because they never made sense
what we're hung up on regarding trans people. The core
of it is something really tender, that gender is the
(20:38):
only identity characteristic that we still consider acceptable to segregate
people on. Because of that, people have very strong feelings
about it. People may feel very connected to their race,
people may feel very connected to religion. But outside of religion, marriage,
(21:01):
we don't segregate based on those things like we used to.
We do still separate based on gender. We use different bathrooms,
we use different change rooms, so on and so forth. Right,
and people have turned public bathrooms something that well, it
(21:21):
started as for men only and was designed to cut
down on gay sex and drug use. That's why they're
saloon door style stalls, so you could see how many
feet are under that stall, yep. But then it turned
into a question of modesty. Right, it was unladylike to
use the facilities around men. Right, that's morphed into this
(21:46):
was retroactive issue of safety. And the thing about the
whole safety argument, Oh, we need safe spaces for women
to be safe from men. Statistically, the most dangerous place
for a woman regarding abuse by a man is her
own home. That's where the vast majority of these assaults happen.
(22:11):
But that's because we have single sex spaces. Ladies, where
do you think trans women were using the bathroom before
this all became a thing, the ladies room, it was working.
There was no uptick in public assaults. I get why
(22:34):
people are uncomfortable with the pace of change on this issue.
I get it right, This is deeply sensitive. It's deeply personal.
Using the bathroom, you know, you have to remove clothing,
so it's vulnerable. It's personal, and the emotional overrides intellect.
I also get that the whole issue of trans women
(22:56):
and sports scholarships, trans women in competitive sports, even youth transition,
these are personal things. And I'll get to the scare
tactics later. It's gonna take time to work through, especially
the sports stuff. But can we please please stop harassing
(23:21):
people over where they pee and sometimes poop. You know,
this isn't some you know, not yet develop country where
women have to use the bathroom in a dark field
and so they're in danger. These are brightly lit, very
(23:42):
public places, and this jump to harm and safety. I'm
getting ahead of myself on this one, but seriously, bathroom
harassment isn't good for anyone's mental health. I'd like to
not feel the need to escort my translady friends to
the washer in case they have a problem. Now, even
(24:02):
though it hasn't gotten as bad in Canada, you're always
on guard. You're hypervigilant, and that's not good. Hypervigilance is
a PTSD symptom for a reason. Right now, just because
you have that doesn't mean you have PTSD. It's only
one of the four pillars. But yeah, now, you can
think someone with a different opinion than you on an
(24:24):
issue is making a bad choice. I do all the time,
right But jumping to assuming that these people are bad
people based on a single issue or just a handful
of issues, well one, you're probably wrong usually, I find
(24:45):
with this particular issue, Yeah, there are some bad actors
out there, absolutely, but it's more fear, it's more not
being able to ask questions. It's more not understanding than
anything else. And if you're gonna break off friendships, if
you're gonna automatically decide that someone is quote unquote unsafe,
(25:08):
if you're gonna be that deeply personal over not even
individual trans issues, but products that are by products of JK. Rowling,
who has terrible opinions on trans people. Like I said,
she's making really bad choices there, right, But assuming someone
(25:33):
wishes you harm because they play a Harry Potter video
game that Hogart's legacy, even as a transgender character in it,
but no, it became this big thing that's getting too personal.
It's not gonna do great things for your relationships, and
it speaks to deeper issues with someone's frankly ability to trust.
(25:58):
And you know, those trust issues probably come from a
very very real place. But people aren't going to stick
around for very long if you are constantly testing them,
if you are constantly making them give up things that
you know is just nostalgia for the movies when they've
(26:19):
never even touched a book, If you're constantly making them
prove themselves to you, rightly or wrongly, they have the
choice to not want to be around you anymore, and
isolation isn't good. Don't just slam that personal hand grenade
(26:43):
into things. Talk to them, Listen to their reasons. People
are persuaded by people who listen. And on that note,
let's take a break, come back, talk about that idea
of harm and safety right, because these are big, big triggers,
and they're used, they're weaponized by modern discourse, questions, comments, concerns.
(27:06):
Leanna at not Therapyshow dot com. Not Therapy Show dot
com is the website at not Therapy Show, on Twitter, Instagram,
and threads. When we come back more on why politics
is so bad for our mental health. We'll see how
many we get through after this. And It's Not Therapy.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
Stream us live at SAGA nine six am dot CA.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
The following program is a peer to peer advice show
and does not diagnose mental health conditions. If you're seeking
social services, please call or text two to one one
or go to two one one dot ca. We're back
in It's not therapy. I'm still Leana Kursner. I'm still
not a therapist. I'm still talking about why modern politics
(27:51):
is having such a terrible impact on our mental health
Top ten list, well ten list. You'll have a different reasons.
Probably it's impossible to get them all in. But number
ten was people are too aggressive. Number nine people engage
in black and white thinking. Number eight it gets too personal,
and that personal is never positive. And number seven is
(28:14):
sort of a tie into that. The whole harm and
safety thing. A lot of political rhetoric, the stuff that
comes out of the actual political parties, uses either things
that prey on your disgust or things that prey on
(28:36):
your fear, especially fear for your physical safety, your well being,
and the well being of your family, which is why
they tend to leverage women and kids, right. And this
is it's like inducing trauma in p people. When you
(29:02):
stumble across an image from a war zone and it's,
you know, dismembered bodies, dead children, you're not gonna stop
and diligently research whether it's a modern clip. And a
lot of these they're from like twenty twelve, or they're
not even from the country that they've identified, but they
(29:24):
know people are not gonna check. They know they're just
gonna be disturbed and walk away or run away and
feel bad about it and just want it to stop,
and people don't act in their best interests when they're
in that state. We know this. That's why the propagandas
(29:47):
use it, right. The idea, you know, it's it's impossible
to not feel empathy, you know, unless you got some
pretty soonarious disorders. For images or especially video of starving
(30:07):
and injured children, it's heartbreaking. The suffering is real, the
harm is real, and we get into do something thinking
when those buttons are pushed. You hear it whenever somebody
(30:28):
talks about mutilation of body parts rather intimate body parts.
When it comes to trans kids. You know, you see
the most dire awful images and they're on social media.
You're not planning to see them. They take you by surprise,
(30:49):
and again you're so horrified you don't decide to research
the origin of these images. Heck, most people wouldn't even
look into this idea that a man who was president
at Columbia starting at nineteen oh two was a Nazi sympathizer.
They probably just wouldn't care no skin off their nose, unless,
(31:12):
of course, you know, you're a Jewish person. It's like, wait,
am I giving my money to an anti sex might institution? Right,
it's that harm and safety thing, right, And when you
trigger that button, the stay in the cave brain, excuse me,
stay in the cave brain activates, meaning we're just going
to stay here and we're going to do nothing with
(31:33):
going to withdraw everything. We're going to be very small
and quiet and not venture out because venturing out is dangerous.
And when they have put you in that state, when
you are off the board, they don't have to convince
you anymore. That's why they do it. It's a suppression
(31:55):
tactic of the highest order, and it works because it
hijacks our brain. We can't help it, and overriding that
is an exhausting process and it's everywhere. It's unending, and
(32:16):
that's why that's number six, the number six reason why
modern politics is so bad for our mental health. It's
freaking everywhere. You can't watch an award show, you can't
watch something frivolous, you can't you can't turn on basic
entertainment without you know, some reference to modern day stuff. Now,
(32:41):
with the exception of Star Wars, because really, you know,
Star Wars has always been a franchise that involved the
destruction of entire planets, So their reference to genocide predate this.
But everything's trying to be relevant. Everything's trying to be
you know, reflective of our times. And I get why.
(33:04):
I get that people who make art want to say
something meaningful with that art, but people need to be
able to step away from it, or at least had
to be done in a way that's arm's length. It's
very difficult to avoid news with the world push notifications
on our computers, on our phones. It's very difficult to
(33:27):
avoid it when entire friend groups are based around having
the right opinions about certain topics, and it is not
good for our brains. It it doesn't allow us to
hear our self think. The fear of cancelation is in
people who have never personally had a bad experience. Everything
(33:50):
is so loud they're afraid to even try. And not
only is that bad for the individual, it's bad for
society and how we get out of it. I'm not
sure that's a topic for another time. And you know,
(34:13):
it doesn't just get us when we're going out into
the world or through our phones. It gets us in
our families as well. Right, family gatherings are no longer
safe spaces. And that's number five of why modern politics
is so bad for our mental health. There was always
(34:35):
that thing about the loudmouthed uncle, but it's gotten quite bad.
I don't know of very many people who don't dread
family gatherings because something's gonna come up. And I really
think that family gatherings should be we don't talk politics.
(34:58):
I don't care what it is. Don't talk politics, and
anybody who does talk politics will be asked to leave,
no questions asked, because you never know, right, you don't know,
And that's okay, that person is still that person, right,
(35:20):
But what if they're not. I hear people saying, okay,
let's jump right into number four. Okay, the number four
reason for why politics are so bad for our mental
health is that people seem to be changing right in
front of our eyes right now. Right, And I don't
just mean the gender thing. No, people are, you know.
(35:45):
I'm still trying to figure out the difference between a
narco communism and a narco capitalism. I think I know it,
but like, I'm like, it's anarchy, but then there's a
system of government. How does that work? I'm sure people
want to explain it to me, but right now, I
don't really care. The point is suddenly someone comes home
(36:05):
with these ideas and Grandma's a fascist, right, you know,
it's like all of us fascist. And the problem with
this is not just the change. We all know the cliche,
you know, the only constant in life is changed. Change happens.
It happens to everyone. You just have to accept it,
(36:26):
all right, fine, But there needs to be time to adjust.
There does, And unfortunately, sometimes people get so in these
rabbit holes that you lose them. I've lost a few
(36:46):
friends where well, and family members where it wasn't even
necessarily them. It was a partner's very strong opinions on
politics that they felt like they had to back. And
it wasn't the opinion, it's that the person wouldn't be
quiet about it, and they started pontificating about, you know,
(37:12):
medical stuff. And I'm getting ahead of myself there as well.
But everybody has strong views. I have strong views, right,
but I can explain the other side at least to
an extent, and I'm constantly in the process of learning.
(37:35):
But when I'm there to just see people in a
family that I haven't seen in a year, I want
to know how they're doing. I want to know how
their kids are doing. I want to know what TV
shows they're watching, what music they like, you know, and
even that can be charged poor Chapel roone. But you know,
(38:01):
sometimes people just go places we can't follow, and that's
extremely painful, especially when it comes to something again as
deeply personal as something like a vaccine. If you have
a family member who had measles before the latest outbreak,
(38:25):
well this outbreak as well. You know, if you've got
an aminocompromised child or a child too young to get
vaccines and you know they're affected by that, that's going
to make somebody feel very strongly. If you know, you
know somebody who survived polio, you know, then it's not
(38:46):
academic and things like that, literal matters of real life
and death, not the simulated stuff I talked about number seven.
That lead to breaks and relationships, maybe temporarily, but everybody
(39:07):
has a breaking point. And when people are really radicalized
like that, it takes a huge amount of patience and
compassion and understanding and yes pain to de indoctrinate them.
And that can't even happen until they want it to be.
(39:29):
You know, people in those places are looking for something,
and it's easy to blame yourself. It's not always your fault,
especially as a parent, sometimes it is. And then what right?
And I do think that again, you don't have to agree,
but listening helps everyone, you know, and unless they start
(39:51):
getting abusive, you know, you can't set boundaries. But this
is a way, And this is not online nonsense. This stuff,
you know, family gatherings that end in tears, or people
angrily storming out, people being pressured to take sides, people
(40:14):
taking sides and ganging up on someone in the family.
This all happens because modern political propaganda wants it to happen.
It's designed to create these fractures. And we can't do
anything about that. All we can do is work on
(40:37):
our communication and our other bonds and hope these are
strong enough to see through our political disagreements. So let
me tell you the friends and family I've lost to
this stuff. It wasn't their political opinions, even it wasn't racism,
It wasn't It was things like being unable to admit
(41:01):
they were wrong, even on a particular fact when it
was right in front of them. Well, how am I
supposed to know that? Or that's not important. It's like
if it's right, it's right. If it's wrong, it's wrong.
We can talk about importance later, but can you please
just acknowledge the fact. Nope, Or they started name calling
or they started gaslighting, and that's when it stops being
about politics and starts being about abusive tactics. And unfortunately,
(41:28):
there's a lot of that in modern political discourse. And
that's let me take a break before we get we
get to that. Questions, comments, concerns, I'm sure there will
be some on this show. Leana at Not Therapy Show.
Not Therapy Show is the website at not Therapy Shows
social media again, any of the examples I bring up
(41:48):
on the show, you knows I was heavy off the top,
but I'm doing less and less now. Well, that's because
I know that people are going to get distracted by
those and that's sort of the point. If you can't
hear politics without seeing red, you're that guy that indicates
a deeper instability or dysregulation with mental health. But we'll
(42:13):
be back after the break. On It's Not Therapy, No.
Speaker 1 (42:17):
Radio, No Problem. Stream is live on SAGA ninety six
am dot CAA.
Speaker 2 (42:25):
The following program is a peer to peer advice show
and does not diagnose mental health conditions. If you're seeking
social services, please call or text two to one one
or go to two one one dot CA. We're back in.
It's not therapy. I'm still Leanna Kersner. I'm still not
a therapist. We are still talking why modern politics is
(42:45):
affecting our mental health so badly so. Number ten, people
are too aggressive. Number nine, black or white thinking. Number eight,
it gets too personal and that's never positive. Number seven.
The harm and safety triggers. Number six. It's unending and
it's everywhere. Number five. Family gatherings are no longer safe spaces.
(43:08):
Number four. A loved one can change seemingly suddenly and
there's no time to adjust. And not brings it to
number three and number three. This was when I didn't
quite know where to stick the pin in it. I
settled on there's nowhere that's really trusted to explain these
issues without offering opinion. We are having a crisis in journalism,
(43:36):
and it's tough to be a journalist, you know, even
with mental health reporting. Right now, I'm talking about Gaza
on trans writes because it's interconnected. Now, obviously I still
have my own experiences. I still have a bias. No
one is immune to that, but having a bias and
(43:58):
flat out spiking stories that don't you know, coincide with
a political a particular worldview. The big newsrooms are having
a crisis right now, and the sheer amount of information
out there is boggling. And at the same time, you know,
(44:25):
newspapers and newsrooms have done away with the clear separation
between reporting and commentary because commentary online gets more clicks.
That's one of the reasons they've done it. You know,
sometimes I only find out about stories through someone's political column.
(44:47):
Nicholas Christoph and David Brooks at the New York Times
are still good that way. Now David Brooks is not
nearly as controversial, but there's even a reference to that
the Thunderbolts movie. Oh my god, I laughed. But you know,
Nicholas Kristoff, he's a pining and that's his job. So
(45:09):
I have to kind of look things up if I'm curious.
You got to take things with a grain of salt
and you don't know, you know, oh, is this sugar?
Is it salt? Is this cyanide? Like? What is this?
Oh it's white pepper. Okay, it's overwhelming. It's just sheerly overwhelming,
and people just want the facts, and we live in
(45:34):
a world where the facts aren't even in agreement. We
live in a world of alternative facts. And that leaves
me to number two, which I've already sort of touched on.
But education in medicine have become an intense focus on politics.
When the vaccines we put in our body, when the
(45:56):
stuff that we put in kids' minds, everything is politicized.
And you know, institutional capture is in mainstream parlance, Where
the heck do we go from there? It's so stressful,
(46:17):
it's so confusing, it can make you feel so helpless,
and again that all triggers that stay in the cave
brain do nothing, stay small and quiet. The threat will pass.
But with these sorts of issues, you do have to
make a choice. Right, Not doing something is as meaningful
(46:39):
a choice as doing something. You know a lot of
people I'm just not gonna vote because I'm not inspired.
Well that's a choice, but then you have to live
with the consequences alongside everybody who did vote. But the
thing is, doing nothing is certain. Doing nothing means you
don't actively do something, and that sounds like so obvious,
(47:02):
But when we're dealing with issues of crippling uncertainty. It's
an important distinction, and that is the number one reason
that modern political stuff is so bad for our mental health.
The uncertainty, I mean, the terrafyo yo is the biggest
example of that, but there are other things we don't know.
(47:26):
These are very tumultuous times, and uncertainty is the hardest
thing to deal with because you can't do anything about it.
You have to control what you can control and focus
on that, because the actual thing you're uncertain about, you
can't just force it to be certain. It's a process,
and no one has unlimited patients, no one has limited disgust,
(47:48):
distress tolerance. All we can do is be as gentle
to ourselves as you possibly can. And the clock is
not being gentle to me, So I gotta wrap questions, comments, concerns.
Leanna at NAE dot com, not therapyshow dot com at
not therapy Show. Don't message me just to fight about
political issues. You've missed the point of this show, if
(48:09):
that's what you want to get. I don't agree with you.
And Gassa, I don't care. I don't care. It wasn't
about that. It was about black white thinking. Okay, that
crazy hurts you, and you know what I'm gonna say.
You're crazy is only a problem if it hurts you.
Talk next time.
Speaker 1 (48:32):
Stream us live at SAGA nine six am dot CA.
The views expressed in the following program are those of
the participants and do not necessarily reflect the views of
SAGA nine sixty AM or its management.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
The following program is a peer to peer advice show
and does not diagnose mental health conditions. If you're seeking
social services, please call or text two to one one
or go to two one one dot CA. Hello listeners
around the world on radio, streaming and podcast services, This
is just not therapy. I'm Meanna Kersner, and I am
(00:29):
not a therapist, but I am your source for navigating
the madness of mental health. He's my top ten sayings
for going good crazy. This week, I'm doing another list.
I haven't done a ten list. I'll say top ten
because that's ranking and that's too hard. But I think
it's time to do a list and you can and
(00:51):
the topic but is why modern politics is terrible for
our mental health health. And you can thank a guy
coming out of my local Canadian tire while I was
there to buy cleaning products for this, this guy was
wearing a shirt that had a word that rhymes with
duck with a maple leaf instead of the you in duck.
(01:17):
Directed it, Mark Kearney. That's Canada's Prime minister for those
who don't live here. So duck maple leaf Carney without
the D two letters after yeah at a hardware store,
and by the look on this guy's face, he wanted
(01:38):
people to notice that he was saying duck kearney on
his chest. He was stomping out of the store, scowling,
chest puffed. You look like an angry Kenny Rogers. Okay,
like Ted Dbassi from wrestling in his biggest heal moments.
Right now. I reference this guy's appearance because I don't
(01:58):
want you thinking he was this, you know, stereotypical angry
young man based on data the gen X cohort of
men fifty five to sixty four, where you know, I'm
maybe the guy was in that. That's my guess. Anyway,
that demographic, they are the most conservative demographic out there,
(02:21):
so it's not like this dude to some sort of
persecuted minority, though I'm sure he feels persecuted, hence him
out looking for a fight on a Saturday afternoon with
anyone but those overly aggressive people. The fall you around
the store is trying to talk to you into another
credit card. That was a joke. Please, don't pick fights
with those people. Yeah, it just really strikes me whenever
(02:44):
I see these profanity laced political statements, because, first of all,
very political people, people like that type are the first
people to invoke there are children, think of the children
as a reason, and something's offensive and therefore other people
shouldn't be allowed to do it. But also, okay, come on,
(03:06):
Mark Carney has been Prime minister for you can count
it in weeks and these guys already have shirts. Come on,
that's not civic participation based on issues. That strikes me
as a hatred of anybody with the particular political identity.
(03:28):
You know, it was duck Trudeau before it was duck Carney.
The word is not duck. Okay. Now, gen Z men
tend to get blamed in media for this sort of behavior. Again,
the data doesn't bear that out. And I'm going to
be really clear about this. Gen Z men are about
(03:49):
as politically polarized as gen X women, which are consistently
split around fifty to fifty on various issues. For the
contentious issues, give or take a few points. Gen Z women,
on the other hand, gen Z women, as opposed to
gen Z men, are strongly polarized to the left, and
(04:13):
the reason might be obvious attacks on reproductive freedom. But
no matter who you are, there are pro and anti
social ways to express your pro or anti political opinions.
And if you're just using politics to pick fights, you
can stop listening to this show now because it's not
for you. It would help you to see why it's
(04:37):
not working, but those particular people, they're not in a
listening mood. If you want to be effective in promoting
your cause, though, you will want to stay tuned. Similarly,
if some things bother you about the way politics is discussed,
you may find words to explain where you're coming from
in this episode, or you might find something useful in
(04:59):
more general in terms of being persuasive in conversations. Either way,
I'm doing this because a lot of clients are really
stressed about politics and you feel it in the air.
Even though Canada is through our election cycle, there's still
everything else. So without further ado, here are ten ways
(05:21):
modern politics are really bad for our mental health. Starting
with the reason inspired by the Mark Kearney fan at
the Canadian Tire number ten people are way too aggressive.
Shirt Guy is evidence that this isn't just a problem online,
and it isn't just drunk uncles at dinner tables. There's
been a stark increase in anti Semitic and anti Islamic
(05:43):
activity because of a war happening thousands of miles away.
Celebrities are getting harassed for wanting to stay out of
political debates, as if a singer's opinion on global geopolitics
is in any way really useful. I know, I'm relieved
that this year's Eurovision. Yes, I'm planning on watching Eurovision.
(06:04):
I'm super excited about it, especially because it's not the
politicized dumpster fire that last year's was. Yet they've had stuff,
but it hasn't hit that fever pitch. But other issues,
other things, those are still running really hot. And if
you can't talk about something, especially something that's important to you,
(06:25):
without exploding, especially if you're out there actively looking for
a fight the way Canadian Entire Angry Man was, that's
a sign of a deeper problem that might need professional help.
And let's face it, being around those people who are
actively looking to fight, that's exhausting, if not downright scary.
(06:46):
So it's not good for anyone. Someone has to live
with that guy in the duck Carny T shirt and
that's what he's like in public. Even if people don't
actively pickfights, you know, I think people are going, well,
that's an extreme thing, and you're starting to think of
all the other things that were lower than that threshold.
(07:07):
Don't worry. This is just number ten, right, because even
if people aren't actively picking fights, they can get a
different kind of aggressive. They can fight dirty in fights,
and it often manifestss being too unyielding or too personal.
And I'll get to those after the break. Do you
have a story you think would be good for the show?
(07:27):
Are you interested in sponsoring the show? Leanna Atnoththerapyshow dot com.
Not Therapy Show dot com is the website at not
Therapy Show on social media. Be back after this How
modern politics is bad for our mental health.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
No Radio, No Problem stream is live on SAGA nine
six am dot CA.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
The following program is a peer to peer advice show
and does not diagnose mental health conditions. If you're seeking
social services, please call or text two one one or
go to two one one dot ca. We're back in.
It's not therapy. I'm still on a cursor. I'm still
not a therapist. We're still talking about ten things that
(08:15):
are making politics terrible for our mental help. Number ten
was people being too aggressive. Now, numbers nine and eight
are closely connected, but they're not quite the same thing.
All of these are connected, but number nine is people
engaging in black or white thinking. Number eight is people
(08:39):
getting way too personal. And it's not a personal appeal
based on someone's good nature, right, it's somebody making personal attacks.
So let's start with blacker white thinking, the idea that
someone or something is totally good or totally bad with
no nuance. And there's a brilliant example of this. It
(09:00):
doesn't involve well, it's adjacent to something dicey, but the
issue itself is not dicey. So yay. Protesters are vandalizing
buildings at Columbia University again yay, this time Butler Library.
But at least this time they have clear demands. They
want the Butler Library renamed because it's namesake Nicholas Murray
Butler was, as they said, a Nazi sympathizer. Now I
(09:25):
look this up. I'm one of those people that even
if I don't agree with someone, I look it up, like,
what is this There's a grain of truth to it,
but Like I said, there's a reason I'm using this
as an example of black or white thinking. Nicholas Murray
Butler was the president of Columbia University for forty three years.
Forty three years, somebody makes a lot of decisions and
(09:47):
has a lot of opinions, right, starting in nineteen oh two,
that's right, nineteen oh two, nineteen oh one, if you
count as tenure as just acting president. Now. Nicholas Murray
Butler was instrumental in creating the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace,
and he was a Nobel Peace Prize recipient. He was
(10:11):
also privately pretty anti Semitic, as many people of the
time were, and did refuse to condemn a lot of
what was going on in Europe with the Nazis until
after Kristelnacht again, unfortunately, like a lot of people at
that time. In nineteen thirty six, though, he expelled a
(10:33):
class president for leading an anti Nazi protest on campus,
which what the president of that class got expelled for
leading an anti Nazi protest, Right, that's hardcore, and it
shows his admiration for Mussolini was showing through there. Yes,
(10:58):
that's true too. What the student protesters in condemning Murray
Butler failed. A factor in though, was that Nicholas Murray
Butler completely changed his mind after Crystal Knock in November
of nineteen thirty eight, I think it was November ninth
into November tenth, nineteen thirty eight. After that he went
(11:19):
all the other way. He expelled anyone who opposed US
intervention in World War Two. Now I mentioned that he
won the Nobel Peace Prize, right, well, he did that
for his work. He won the Nobel Peace Prize for
his work establishing the Permanent Court of International Justice, which
(11:43):
was the precursor to the International Court of Justice. You
probably know it better as the Hague. And that's the
body these student protesters are ultimately appealing to regarding their
claims of genocide against Israel. And this is why I'm
(12:04):
saying this is an excellent example of black or white
thinking regarding politics. You know, maybe maybe if they're giving
them no points for anything he did, right, you know,
establishing this body, so that because the ICJ the International
Court of Justice that goes after entire countries, So there
(12:28):
Israel is genocide thing. Yeah, Okay, Israel's not a member.
The US isn't even a member of the ICJ, but
the ICC it's sister court that can prosecute individuals, and
that's what led to the warrants for Benjamin Etna. Who
would know I of glant So you know, maybe if
these protesters are giving Nicholas Murray Butler no points for that,
(12:54):
that's affecting their ability to be terribly persuasive. Right, Not
only do they not have a balance perspective, and they
don't have a balance perspective of a guy who you know,
nineteen oh two. This is stuff that happened in the
nineteen thirties. It's ninety years ago, a little less. Okay, Okay,
(13:19):
maybe if they don't have a balance perspective on that,
can you question their judgment on other things? Yes, of
course you can, right, But it's also nobody wants to
be around someone who has that kind of black or
(13:40):
white thinking. Ironically, Nicholas Butler's biggest cautionary tale is that
he himself was too black or white and is thinking himself, now,
I'm expelling you for being against the Nazis. No, now
I'm expelling you for being not enough against the Nazis. Right,
if you weren't with him, you were against him even
(14:03):
when he completely changed his mind, and you know, his
admiration for fascists is not strange in that regard. You know,
he had a pretty authoritarian attitude, but that comes out
when you only look at the bad someone's done, as
(14:29):
opposed to factoring the good and the bad. Never Mind,
looking back at the opinions you know from the nineteen
thirties regarding Jewish people and indigenous people and black people, Mexicans,
basically anyone who didn't count under manifest destiny. These popular
(14:50):
opinions of the time are awful based on modern sensibilities.
But first of all, in my opinion, the desire to
erase these men from our modern awareness. It doesn't solve
the problem of false certainty and stereotyping. These are useful
examples to learn from, but also it doesn't help our
(15:13):
individual mental health. Black or white thinking gets turned inward
too much. Instead of judging things and people as okay,
did some good things, did some bad things, it's bad
thing equals bad person. Good things will never be enough
(15:34):
to cancel out that list of bad things, and that
thinking tends to get turned on ourselves when we make mistakes,
you know. Never mind, people normally don't want to talk
to someone who can't see the slightest bit of humanity
in the people who don't agree with them. And that's
(15:56):
number eight. Right, let's move on to number eight. I
had other things, but time. Okay. If you know, if
you really care about a cost, you'll stick to your cost,
not your assumptions about other people's reasoning for disagreeing with you.
That's when number eight comes in, getting to personal right
(16:17):
off the top. You lose your ability to persuade when
you get personally nasty. And I know, I you know,
called out the Columbia protesters and that last example, but
those tactics go both ways. On the Gaza thing. You know,
being a Jewish person that doesn't think the Conservative Party
of Canada is the only good option isn't really fun
right now. It's kind of lonely. I just stay out
(16:40):
of it, because hey, no one should be required to
vote a certain way because of their religion and stuff
going on there. And you notice I said, I'm just
shutting up. I'm staying out of it. And that's what
happens when you get that personal. You know, as well
as being very black or white, you're with us or
against us. People don't want to talk to the issue,
(17:02):
and they don't want to talk to you. And usually
usually on issues like this, it gets so polarized. It's
not just one side doing it, both general sides. And
I hate it being pro. I hate it being against
because even that that black or white throws away the
(17:24):
good personal part why someone an individual thinks the way
they do. And if everybody's thinking independently, everybody should have
a somewhat different reason for that, right, But that's not
what you're seeing. You're seeing very clear, you know, pro
(17:44):
against talking points that are eerily similar to each other.
And if you don't check every box, you're just a
bad person. Right. Similarly, a lot of the tactics on
the debate on transgender people have gotten deeply personal and
really really nasty. The people who are very afraid of transactivism.
(18:06):
When you talk to them, it's not about the issue
so much as bad experiences they've had with somebody, usually online, right,
And most trans people and I tell these people this
(18:26):
and they don't believe it because they have to take
my word from it for it as opposed to a
startling and hurtful experience that they had themselves. Most trans
people just want to live their lives without obsessing about
what bathroom they use. Now, I acknowledge that you wouldn't
know that from the loudest transactivist online, And I'll tell you,
(18:49):
I truly believe that a lot of these activists are
mostly well meaning, even though they hate me. Now, because
I wouldn't say Harry Potter is immediately anybody who likes
Harry Potter immediately hates trans people and want them to die. No,
I won't sign on to that. I won't know. That's
blacker white thinking and way too personal and it's really
(19:12):
not helping. And that's the point. It's not helping, right,
being trans, You know, just because of the body's trands
doesn't mean they should have to be perfect. Nobody can
be perfect. That's not fair, right, When you're speaking only
for yourself, one, it's just this is me. I'm just
(19:33):
you know, speak in my mind, have at it, right.
But when you call yourself an activist or an advocate,
you're not just speaking for yourself anymore. Your behavior reflects
on the people you're advocating for. So when you do good,
(19:55):
it's good. When you start name calling and personally, it's
people and making negative assumptions with no facts and evidence
that that hurts the people you claim you're trying to help.
If I gave more examples on the Harry Potter thing
of some of the petty gutters, the trans debate has
(20:17):
gone into all around. Right, nobody's hands are clean on
this one. You know, some of these petty gutter moments,
they won't even make sense because they never made sense
what we're hung up on regarding trans people. The core
of it is something really tender, that gender is the
(20:38):
only identity characteristic that we still consider acceptable to segregate
people on. Because of that, people have very strong feelings
about it. People may feel very connected to their race,
people may feel very connected to religion. But outside of religion, marriage,
(21:01):
we don't segregate based on those things like we used to.
We do still separate based on gender. We use different bathrooms,
we use different change rooms, so on and so forth. Right,
and people have turned public bathrooms something that well, it
(21:21):
started as for men only and was designed to cut
down on gay sex and drug use. That's why they're
saloon door style stalls, so you could see how many
feet are under that stall, yep. But then it turned
into a question of modesty. Right, it was unladylike to
use the facilities around men. Right, that's morphed into this
(21:46):
was retroactive issue of safety. And the thing about the
whole safety argument, Oh, we need safe spaces for women
to be safe from men. Statistically, the most dangerous place
for a woman regarding abuse by a man is her
own home. That's where the vast majority of these assaults happen.
(22:11):
But that's because we have single sex spaces. Ladies, where
do you think trans women were using the bathroom before
this all became a thing, the ladies room, it was working.
There was no uptick in public assaults. I get why
(22:34):
people are uncomfortable with the pace of change on this issue.
I get it right, This is deeply sensitive. It's deeply personal.
Using the bathroom, you know, you have to remove clothing,
so it's vulnerable. It's personal, and the emotional overrides intellect.
I also get that the whole issue of trans women
(22:56):
and sports scholarships, trans women in competitive sports, even youth transition,
these are personal things. And I'll get to the scare
tactics later. It's gonna take time to work through, especially
the sports stuff. But can we please please stop harassing
(23:21):
people over where they pee and sometimes poop. You know,
this isn't some you know, not yet develop country where
women have to use the bathroom in a dark field
and so they're in danger. These are brightly lit, very
(23:42):
public places, and this jump to harm and safety. I'm
getting ahead of myself on this one, but seriously, bathroom
harassment isn't good for anyone's mental health. I'd like to
not feel the need to escort my translady friends to
the washer in case they have a problem. Now, even
(24:02):
though it hasn't gotten as bad in Canada, you're always
on guard. You're hypervigilant, and that's not good. Hypervigilance is
a PTSD symptom for a reason. Right now, just because
you have that doesn't mean you have PTSD. It's only
one of the four pillars. But yeah, now, you can
think someone with a different opinion than you on an
(24:24):
issue is making a bad choice. I do all the time,
right But jumping to assuming that these people are bad
people based on a single issue or just a handful
of issues, well one, you're probably wrong usually, I find
(24:45):
with this particular issue, Yeah, there are some bad actors
out there, absolutely, but it's more fear, it's more not
being able to ask questions. It's more not understanding than
anything else. And if you're gonna break off friendships, if
you're gonna automatically decide that someone is quote unquote unsafe,
(25:08):
if you're gonna be that deeply personal over not even
individual trans issues, but products that are by products of JK. Rowling,
who has terrible opinions on trans people. Like I said,
she's making really bad choices there, right, But assuming someone
(25:33):
wishes you harm because they play a Harry Potter video
game that Hogart's legacy, even as a transgender character in it,
but no, it became this big thing that's getting too personal.
It's not gonna do great things for your relationships, and
it speaks to deeper issues with someone's frankly ability to trust.
(25:58):
And you know, those trust issues probably come from a
very very real place. But people aren't going to stick
around for very long if you are constantly testing them,
if you are constantly making them give up things that
you know is just nostalgia for the movies when they've
(26:19):
never even touched a book, If you're constantly making them
prove themselves to you, rightly or wrongly, they have the
choice to not want to be around you anymore, and
isolation isn't good. Don't just slam that personal hand grenade
(26:43):
into things. Talk to them, Listen to their reasons. People
are persuaded by people who listen. And on that note,
let's take a break, come back, talk about that idea
of harm and safety right, because these are big, big triggers,
and they're used, they're weaponized by modern discourse, questions, comments, concerns.
(27:06):
Leanna at not Therapyshow dot com. Not Therapy Show dot
com is the website at not Therapy Show, on Twitter, Instagram,
and threads. When we come back more on why politics
is so bad for our mental health. We'll see how
many we get through after this. And It's Not Therapy.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
Stream us live at SAGA nine six am dot CA.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
The following program is a peer to peer advice show
and does not diagnose mental health conditions. If you're seeking
social services, please call or text two to one one
or go to two one one dot ca. We're back
in It's not therapy. I'm still Leana Kursner. I'm still
not a therapist. I'm still talking about why modern politics
(27:51):
is having such a terrible impact on our mental health
Top ten list, well ten list. You'll have a different reasons.
Probably it's impossible to get them all in. But number
ten was people are too aggressive. Number nine people engage
in black and white thinking. Number eight it gets too personal,
and that personal is never positive. And number seven is
(28:14):
sort of a tie into that. The whole harm and
safety thing. A lot of political rhetoric, the stuff that
comes out of the actual political parties, uses either things
that prey on your disgust or things that prey on
(28:36):
your fear, especially fear for your physical safety, your well being,
and the well being of your family, which is why
they tend to leverage women and kids, right. And this
is it's like inducing trauma in p people. When you
(29:02):
stumble across an image from a war zone and it's,
you know, dismembered bodies, dead children, you're not gonna stop
and diligently research whether it's a modern clip. And a
lot of these they're from like twenty twelve, or they're
not even from the country that they've identified, but they
(29:24):
know people are not gonna check. They know they're just
gonna be disturbed and walk away or run away and
feel bad about it and just want it to stop,
and people don't act in their best interests when they're
in that state. We know this. That's why the propagandas
(29:47):
use it, right. The idea, you know, it's it's impossible
to not feel empathy, you know, unless you got some
pretty soonarious disorders. For images or especially video of starving
(30:07):
and injured children, it's heartbreaking. The suffering is real, the
harm is real, and we get into do something thinking
when those buttons are pushed. You hear it whenever somebody
(30:28):
talks about mutilation of body parts rather intimate body parts.
When it comes to trans kids. You know, you see
the most dire awful images and they're on social media.
You're not planning to see them. They take you by surprise,
(30:49):
and again you're so horrified you don't decide to research
the origin of these images. Heck, most people wouldn't even
look into this idea that a man who was president
at Columbia starting at nineteen oh two was a Nazi sympathizer.
They probably just wouldn't care no skin off their nose, unless,
(31:12):
of course, you know, you're a Jewish person. It's like, wait,
am I giving my money to an anti sex might institution? Right,
it's that harm and safety thing, right, And when you
trigger that button, the stay in the cave brain, excuse me,
stay in the cave brain activates, meaning we're just going
to stay here and we're going to do nothing with
(31:33):
going to withdraw everything. We're going to be very small
and quiet and not venture out because venturing out is dangerous.
And when they have put you in that state, when
you are off the board, they don't have to convince
you anymore. That's why they do it. It's a suppression
(31:55):
tactic of the highest order, and it works because it
hijacks our brain. We can't help it, and overriding that
is an exhausting process and it's everywhere. It's unending, and
(32:16):
that's why that's number six, the number six reason why
modern politics is so bad for our mental health. It's
freaking everywhere. You can't watch an award show, you can't
watch something frivolous, you can't you can't turn on basic
entertainment without you know, some reference to modern day stuff. Now,
(32:41):
with the exception of Star Wars, because really, you know,
Star Wars has always been a franchise that involved the
destruction of entire planets, So their reference to genocide predate this.
But everything's trying to be relevant. Everything's trying to be
you know, reflective of our times. And I get why.
(33:04):
I get that people who make art want to say
something meaningful with that art, but people need to be
able to step away from it, or at least had
to be done in a way that's arm's length. It's
very difficult to avoid news with the world push notifications
on our computers, on our phones. It's very difficult to
(33:27):
avoid it when entire friend groups are based around having
the right opinions about certain topics, and it is not
good for our brains. It it doesn't allow us to
hear our self think. The fear of cancelation is in
people who have never personally had a bad experience. Everything
(33:50):
is so loud they're afraid to even try. And not
only is that bad for the individual, it's bad for
society and how we get out of it. I'm not
sure that's a topic for another time. And you know,
(34:13):
it doesn't just get us when we're going out into
the world or through our phones. It gets us in
our families as well. Right, family gatherings are no longer
safe spaces. And that's number five of why modern politics
is so bad for our mental health. There was always
(34:35):
that thing about the loudmouthed uncle, but it's gotten quite bad.
I don't know of very many people who don't dread
family gatherings because something's gonna come up. And I really
think that family gatherings should be we don't talk politics.
(34:58):
I don't care what it is. Don't talk politics, and
anybody who does talk politics will be asked to leave,
no questions asked, because you never know, right, you don't know,
And that's okay, that person is still that person, right,
(35:20):
But what if they're not. I hear people saying, okay,
let's jump right into number four. Okay, the number four
reason for why politics are so bad for our mental
health is that people seem to be changing right in
front of our eyes right now. Right, And I don't
just mean the gender thing. No, people are, you know.
(35:45):
I'm still trying to figure out the difference between a
narco communism and a narco capitalism. I think I know it,
but like, I'm like, it's anarchy, but then there's a
system of government. How does that work? I'm sure people
want to explain it to me, but right now, I
don't really care. The point is suddenly someone comes home
(36:05):
with these ideas and Grandma's a fascist, right, you know,
it's like all of us fascist. And the problem with
this is not just the change. We all know the cliche,
you know, the only constant in life is changed. Change happens.
It happens to everyone. You just have to accept it,
(36:26):
all right, fine, But there needs to be time to adjust.
There does, And unfortunately, sometimes people get so in these
rabbit holes that you lose them. I've lost a few
(36:46):
friends where well, and family members where it wasn't even
necessarily them. It was a partner's very strong opinions on
politics that they felt like they had to back. And
it wasn't the opinion, it's that the person wouldn't be
quiet about it, and they started pontificating about, you know,
(37:12):
medical stuff. And I'm getting ahead of myself there as well.
But everybody has strong views. I have strong views, right,
but I can explain the other side at least to
an extent, and I'm constantly in the process of learning.
(37:35):
But when I'm there to just see people in a
family that I haven't seen in a year, I want
to know how they're doing. I want to know how
their kids are doing. I want to know what TV
shows they're watching, what music they like, you know, and
even that can be charged poor Chapel roone. But you know,
(38:01):
sometimes people just go places we can't follow, and that's
extremely painful, especially when it comes to something again as
deeply personal as something like a vaccine. If you have
a family member who had measles before the latest outbreak,
(38:25):
well this outbreak as well. You know, if you've got
an aminocompromised child or a child too young to get
vaccines and you know they're affected by that, that's going
to make somebody feel very strongly. If you know, you
know somebody who survived polio, you know, then it's not
(38:46):
academic and things like that, literal matters of real life
and death, not the simulated stuff I talked about number seven.
That lead to breaks and relationships, maybe temporarily, but everybody
(39:07):
has a breaking point. And when people are really radicalized
like that, it takes a huge amount of patience and
compassion and understanding and yes pain to de indoctrinate them.
And that can't even happen until they want it to be.
(39:29):
You know, people in those places are looking for something,
and it's easy to blame yourself. It's not always your fault,
especially as a parent, sometimes it is. And then what right?
And I do think that again, you don't have to agree,
but listening helps everyone, you know, and unless they start
(39:51):
getting abusive, you know, you can't set boundaries. But this
is a way, And this is not online nonsense. This stuff,
you know, family gatherings that end in tears, or people
angrily storming out, people being pressured to take sides, people
(40:14):
taking sides and ganging up on someone in the family.
This all happens because modern political propaganda wants it to happen.
It's designed to create these fractures. And we can't do
anything about that. All we can do is work on
(40:37):
our communication and our other bonds and hope these are
strong enough to see through our political disagreements. So let
me tell you the friends and family I've lost to
this stuff. It wasn't their political opinions, even it wasn't racism,
It wasn't It was things like being unable to admit
(41:01):
they were wrong, even on a particular fact when it
was right in front of them. Well, how am I
supposed to know that? Or that's not important. It's like
if it's right, it's right. If it's wrong, it's wrong.
We can talk about importance later, but can you please
just acknowledge the fact. Nope, Or they started name calling
or they started gaslighting, and that's when it stops being
about politics and starts being about abusive tactics. And unfortunately,
(41:28):
there's a lot of that in modern political discourse. And
that's let me take a break before we get we
get to that. Questions, comments, concerns, I'm sure there will
be some on this show. Leana at Not Therapy Show.
Not Therapy Show is the website at not Therapy Shows
social media again, any of the examples I bring up
(41:48):
on the show, you knows I was heavy off the top,
but I'm doing less and less now. Well, that's because
I know that people are going to get distracted by
those and that's sort of the point. If you can't
hear politics without seeing red, you're that guy that indicates
a deeper instability or dysregulation with mental health. But we'll
(42:13):
be back after the break. On It's Not Therapy, No.
Speaker 1 (42:17):
Radio, No Problem. Stream is live on SAGA ninety six
am dot CAA.
Speaker 2 (42:25):
The following program is a peer to peer advice show
and does not diagnose mental health conditions. If you're seeking
social services, please call or text two to one one
or go to two one one dot CA. We're back in.
It's not therapy. I'm still Leanna Kersner. I'm still not
a therapist. We are still talking why modern politics is
(42:45):
affecting our mental health so badly so. Number ten, people
are too aggressive. Number nine, black or white thinking. Number eight,
it gets too personal and that's never positive. Number seven.
The harm and safety triggers. Number six. It's unending and
it's everywhere. Number five. Family gatherings are no longer safe spaces.
(43:08):
Number four. A loved one can change seemingly suddenly and
there's no time to adjust. And not brings it to
number three and number three. This was when I didn't
quite know where to stick the pin in it. I
settled on there's nowhere that's really trusted to explain these
issues without offering opinion. We are having a crisis in journalism,
(43:36):
and it's tough to be a journalist, you know, even
with mental health reporting. Right now, I'm talking about Gaza
on trans writes because it's interconnected. Now, obviously I still
have my own experiences. I still have a bias. No
one is immune to that, but having a bias and
(43:58):
flat out spiking stories that don't you know, coincide with
a political a particular worldview. The big newsrooms are having
a crisis right now, and the sheer amount of information
out there is boggling. And at the same time, you know,
(44:25):
newspapers and newsrooms have done away with the clear separation
between reporting and commentary because commentary online gets more clicks.
That's one of the reasons they've done it. You know,
sometimes I only find out about stories through someone's political column.
(44:47):
Nicholas Christoph and David Brooks at the New York Times
are still good that way. Now David Brooks is not
nearly as controversial, but there's even a reference to that
the Thunderbolts movie. Oh my god, I laughed. But you know,
Nicholas Kristoff, he's a pining and that's his job. So
(45:09):
I have to kind of look things up if I'm curious.
You got to take things with a grain of salt
and you don't know, you know, oh, is this sugar?
Is it salt? Is this cyanide? Like? What is this?
Oh it's white pepper. Okay, it's overwhelming. It's just sheerly overwhelming,
and people just want the facts, and we live in
(45:34):
a world where the facts aren't even in agreement. We
live in a world of alternative facts. And that leaves
me to number two, which I've already sort of touched on.
But education in medicine have become an intense focus on politics.
When the vaccines we put in our body, when the
(45:56):
stuff that we put in kids' minds, everything is politicized.
And you know, institutional capture is in mainstream parlance, Where
the heck do we go from there? It's so stressful,
(46:17):
it's so confusing, it can make you feel so helpless,
and again that all triggers that stay in the cave
brain do nothing, stay small and quiet. The threat will pass.
But with these sorts of issues, you do have to
make a choice. Right, Not doing something is as meaningful
(46:39):
a choice as doing something. You know a lot of
people I'm just not gonna vote because I'm not inspired.
Well that's a choice, but then you have to live
with the consequences alongside everybody who did vote. But the
thing is, doing nothing is certain. Doing nothing means you
don't actively do something, and that sounds like so obvious,
(47:02):
But when we're dealing with issues of crippling uncertainty. It's
an important distinction, and that is the number one reason
that modern political stuff is so bad for our mental health.
The uncertainty, I mean, the terrafyo yo is the biggest
example of that, but there are other things we don't know.
(47:26):
These are very tumultuous times, and uncertainty is the hardest
thing to deal with because you can't do anything about it.
You have to control what you can control and focus
on that, because the actual thing you're uncertain about, you
can't just force it to be certain. It's a process,
and no one has unlimited patients, no one has limited disgust,
(47:48):
distress tolerance. All we can do is be as gentle
to ourselves as you possibly can. And the clock is
not being gentle to me, So I gotta wrap questions, comments, concerns.
Leanna at NAE dot com, not therapyshow dot com at
not therapy Show. Don't message me just to fight about
political issues. You've missed the point of this show, if
(48:09):
that's what you want to get. I don't agree with you.
And Gassa, I don't care. I don't care. It wasn't
about that. It was about black white thinking. Okay, that
crazy hurts you, and you know what I'm gonna say.
You're crazy is only a problem if it hurts you.
Talk next time.
Speaker 1 (48:32):
Stream us live at SAGA nine six am dot CA.
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