I feel like this is very obvious to most people, but is really... Not something we are "allowed" to admit to, at least officially.
It's a very strange time, in this sort of... "Mental health" space. On the one hand we have literally thousands of Tiktok, Instagram, Snapchat and Tumblr posts by edgy teens claiming to have mental issues, whether they actually do or not, and capitalising on that "brand", while on the other hand... The way we actually treat this shit is fundamentally not working...
Look, I appreciate that brain chemistry plays a role in most mental health issues. So does trauma. So does genetics. But the fact that "we", as a society, choose to pretend like depression and anxiety are purely caused by internal problems, and can be treated almost solely as such? That's frankly fucking insane...
The fact that men, in particular, are treated like it is their... Fault, that they are suffering, even if they are poor, even if they have a shit job, or are lonely, or have no friends that they can rely on, or are dealing with... Personal issues from having seen, or experienced, really bad shit... The fact that we say "just go to therapy" or "just take the pill, bro", or "just smoke some weed, bro. It'll help" - frankly it's fucked.
The sheer lack of support in society, to actually... Help people, and do more than just talk. To actually offer practical solutions, and get people truly connected to their society (men's sheds are great and all, but they fundamentally fail to replace what church, and the local sports team, say, once provided), and defeat that... Isolation, that has become the heart of "modern society". That's where the fundamental problems lie, I think. Let alone, say, if you get laid off, or sacked, or lose your position somehow - there is NO support, for most people, when that happens. None at all.
No wonder people fall through the cracks. No wonder we hear about people like Paul Green (rugby league coach - sacked), Jacinda Barclay and Harley Balic (AFL, womens and men's respectively - left out of their team squads during Covid) killing themselves, let alone "ordinary" people who generally have even less support, and certainly considerably less money to play with...
The whole thing is just... Pretty fucked up, frankly. Leftists constantly whine about Catholicism teaching "the flock" to "externalise blame", but now we have a secular society that teaches everyone to, in essence, BOTH externalise and internalise blame, both at the same time, which is... Probably not any healthier, frankly.
I just wish "we", in Current Era, dealt with these things better than we do.
Isolation is a torture technique. I saw it happen in tribal lands in the US. A great technique is to stop cultural progression, and try to keep it down. So many people want the latest stuff and to find out new things. I knew a guy that learned Chinese so he could watch the latest action movie from Hong Kong. He did that using a satellite dish connecting to another dish to a home with internet.
Now imagine the same guy being told that if he gets a job, the money from the government won't arrive. The job pays less than the government, so he can't do things that normal people would. Then imagine drug smugglers promoting getting high with friends, through the same channels that you got the internet satellite dish. Then people who want to help also demand he lives more traditional and fit into the image of a tribe from 150 years ago. Perfectly brilliant people are lost because of this.
The same is happening to Hong Kong. The movies that get onto Netflix are all voice dubbed into Beijing style Chinese. The mainland Chinese want to be the only Chinese, so they erase the other Chinese cultures.
We can see the same happening to other cultures. They have to fit a description the government gives them, or they aren't truly from it. Technology and other cultural progression can only fit within the standards given by those who want to rule over them. Cultural and personal isolation is the threat if they don't. If the internet can set you free, then it is against that cultural control and needs to be stopped, so the threat of isolation is real.
I saw that happen in Seattle. We either accepted Pride month, or we were no longer seattlites. This was said by people from San Francisco who had been there for five years. Everyone says the clouds made us depressed, but never pointed to the insane cultural control happening.
That's like I pointed out in another comment: "We use the Indigenous place names here. No colonising names allowed. If you don't like that, LEAVE."
And this was in a pub. An over 100-year-old pub. Absolutely galling...