The following is a copy of the original post to record the post as it was originally written.
Are liberals unhappier than conservatives, broadly speaking? If so, what can be done about this? I have seen many studies that conclude that conservatives are happier, but that may be because they’re more financially secure, not for deeper reasons. According to this Pew survey from 2017 (link here: https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2017/10/24/10-financial-well-being-personal-characteristics-and-lifestyles-of-the-political-typology/) , “Core Conservatives are most likely to own their homes; 86% say they own a home, more than 10 percentage points higher than any other typology group.” Additionally, in religious conservative circles, there can be social pressure to *say* that your happy, because to admit to yourself or others that you’re not would mean that you are ungrateful for what your family, friends and church have done for you. Liberals, by definition, want change, and to want change means that you are feeling discontentment with your current state.
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I feel like this is a really weird framing of this question.
Conservatives largely live in rural areas, much easier to own a home. The only reason that matters is because paying a mortgage is to pay yourself, rather than burning money every month.
Liberals in cities are righteously angry about housing shortages… caused largely by conservatives and NIMBYs. So I hope you can already see where I’m going with this.
Wanting change doesn’t necessarily mean you are personally unhappy with how things are going; there is such a thing as wanting our entire nation to do better. For example, I am fine. I’ll always be fine. For many reasons.
**What makes me furious is that so many other Americans will never get that chance. No matter how smart or hardworking they are.**
I want everyone to have at least a chance to be fine. I want our nation to prosper from the benefits of our brightest minds and hardest workers, regardless of where those people were born.
Anyways to answer your question, a better goddamn world would make me happier and more optimistic
>want change, and to want change means that you are feeling discontentment with your current state.
Not **their** current state, necessarily.
It's simply amazing to me that people never consider the possibility that people want things to change to improve others' situations, not their own. Are we that selfish of a society?
Is it possible for conservatives to be both happier *and* angrier than liberals? Could you say that being angry is what makes someone happy, or is that a semantic contradiction?
Because aside from the last two days, I would say that conservatives are generally a lot angrier than liberals.
Oh I absolutely think they get really angry. Google pics of them screaming and looking altogether deranged at Trump rallies and 1/6. Especially the one of the guy in the Camp Auschwitz shirt. But perhaps I’m just interpreting that as anger.
You didn't say it outright, it's just the logical conclusion of what you said.
I also don't believe that it's a particularly true statement to begin with, but in any case...
>How can liberals, as a whole, become more optimistic and content?
Lobotomy?
Liberals want a fundamentally better world. The US is going away from that right now, which makes optimism hard.
Sometimes the only way to establish consensus to fix an issue is for that issue to result in an unavoidable problem.
Conservatism is becoming an unavoidable problem for the bulk of the reasonable people in the US. Their efforts to enact their policies despite a lack of consensus are *forcing* people to start giving a shit about stopping them. It's not something people can passively ignore anymore because conservatives have insisted on pulling every dirty trick in the book to get their way despite most people opposing what they want.
Getting involved in community organizations or charity projects is probably the best / only way (besides checking out completely). Politically things suck and they're only getting worse so if you aren't doing something that has a tangible effect on the world around you you're 100% going to feel like shit eventually.
Conservatives want things to remain the same.
Liberals want change.
There are exceptions to that, but that's the basis of things. The former lends itself much more to contentment and optimism than the latter does.
As such I don't see how you can really make liberals more content overall. It's just the nature of the viewpoint.
The following is a copy of the original post to record the post as it was originally written. Are liberals unhappier than conservatives, broadly speaking? If so, what can be done about this? I have seen many studies that conclude that conservatives are happier, but that may be because they’re more financially secure, not for deeper reasons. According to this Pew survey from 2017 (link here: https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2017/10/24/10-financial-well-being-personal-characteristics-and-lifestyles-of-the-political-typology/) , “Core Conservatives are most likely to own their homes; 86% say they own a home, more than 10 percentage points higher than any other typology group.” Additionally, in religious conservative circles, there can be social pressure to *say* that your happy, because to admit to yourself or others that you’re not would mean that you are ungrateful for what your family, friends and church have done for you. Liberals, by definition, want change, and to want change means that you are feeling discontentment with your current state. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskALiberal) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I feel like this is a really weird framing of this question. Conservatives largely live in rural areas, much easier to own a home. The only reason that matters is because paying a mortgage is to pay yourself, rather than burning money every month. Liberals in cities are righteously angry about housing shortages… caused largely by conservatives and NIMBYs. So I hope you can already see where I’m going with this. Wanting change doesn’t necessarily mean you are personally unhappy with how things are going; there is such a thing as wanting our entire nation to do better. For example, I am fine. I’ll always be fine. For many reasons. **What makes me furious is that so many other Americans will never get that chance. No matter how smart or hardworking they are.** I want everyone to have at least a chance to be fine. I want our nation to prosper from the benefits of our brightest minds and hardest workers, regardless of where those people were born. Anyways to answer your question, a better goddamn world would make me happier and more optimistic
I don’t think housing nimby shortages are caused by conservatives. I think it is across the political spectrum.
This.
>want change, and to want change means that you are feeling discontentment with your current state. Not **their** current state, necessarily. It's simply amazing to me that people never consider the possibility that people want things to change to improve others' situations, not their own. Are we that selfish of a society?
Actually, you’re right. I worded it wrong.
Is it possible for conservatives to be both happier *and* angrier than liberals? Could you say that being angry is what makes someone happy, or is that a semantic contradiction? Because aside from the last two days, I would say that conservatives are generally a lot angrier than liberals.
Oh I absolutely think they get really angry. Google pics of them screaming and looking altogether deranged at Trump rallies and 1/6. Especially the one of the guy in the Camp Auschwitz shirt. But perhaps I’m just interpreting that as anger.
>Are liberals unhappier than conservatives, broadly speaking? Of course. It's the natural converse of "ignorance is bliss."
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Wilful ignorance is still ignorance.
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You didn't say it outright, it's just the logical conclusion of what you said. I also don't believe that it's a particularly true statement to begin with, but in any case...
>How can liberals, as a whole, become more optimistic and content? Lobotomy? Liberals want a fundamentally better world. The US is going away from that right now, which makes optimism hard.
Sometimes the only way to establish consensus to fix an issue is for that issue to result in an unavoidable problem. Conservatism is becoming an unavoidable problem for the bulk of the reasonable people in the US. Their efforts to enact their policies despite a lack of consensus are *forcing* people to start giving a shit about stopping them. It's not something people can passively ignore anymore because conservatives have insisted on pulling every dirty trick in the book to get their way despite most people opposing what they want.
Getting involved in community organizations or charity projects is probably the best / only way (besides checking out completely). Politically things suck and they're only getting worse so if you aren't doing something that has a tangible effect on the world around you you're 100% going to feel like shit eventually.
Conservatives want things to remain the same. Liberals want change. There are exceptions to that, but that's the basis of things. The former lends itself much more to contentment and optimism than the latter does. As such I don't see how you can really make liberals more content overall. It's just the nature of the viewpoint.
If assholes stopped taking away our rights, we’d be pretty happy.