The opening of Thies' column this past week immediately grabbed my attention: "Children of politically liberal parents are more likely to suffer from depression and anxiety, lack of sense of life meaning, and have substance abuse issues," according to Dr. Leonard Sax, Ph.D. in psychology, author of four books for parents, and also a family physician with more than 30 years of experience.

Dr. Sax explained that, over the past decade in particular, a massive movement has grown of "permissive parents." They are those who are persuaded to carry out a more "gentle parenting," because they do not want to come across as "controlling" or "coercive" to their children.
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NYU professor Jonathan Haidt took it one step further. Sax explained that Dr. Haidt "argues that the real reason that left-of-center kids are more likely to be depressed compared with right-of-center kids is that left-of-center kids have been taught to catastrophize events, to assume the worst, while right-of-center kids are taught to be more optimistic."

"Taught to catastrophize events" like global warming, nuclear war or America's involvement in the Ukrainian-Russian war debacle? But aren't those also political issues they are being pounded with on social media and school as well? Isn't "teaching catastrophizing events" taught on an even greater scale by public education, which is now the bastion of the left's secular progressive agenda?
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"If parents have grounded their kids in a more lasting culture, then kids are to some degree insulated and protected from that toxicity of contemporary American culture. But if parents are permissive and let their kids spend hours a day on social media and playing video games, then kids are immersed in that toxic culture, and that toxic culture we know leads to anxiety, depression, and disengagement."

"These parents are also more permitting to life-altering medical treatments, such as transgender drugs and surgeries, than authoritative parents," the Examiner concluded.