by the Ethan Allen Institute
The rise of cancel culture in recent years parallels the institutionalization of catastrophic thinking (e.g. “The world is going to end in 12 years”). These toxic thought patterns and behaviors wreak havoc on our psyche and all the more on that of young people. Then came COVID-19.
Public health leaders and politicians pretended that the disease is equally deadly to all age groups. It allowed them to enact indiscriminate policies – lockdowns, school closures, and mask mandates – that exacted a heavy price on the youngest Americans. In a nationally representative survey of 941 K-12 educators, 97 percent reported academic and social-emotional learning losses in their students because of COVID-related disruptions in schooling.
Over the last two years, children have been experiencing emotional and mental health crises. Cases of self-harm, panic attacks, phobias about contamination, eating and sleeping disorders, screen addiction (computers and mobile devices), and teen substance use have surged. In many instances, young children are losing previously achieved developmental and behavioral milestones. Finally, schools continue to mandate masks even though cloth/ surgical masks offer poor protection from COVID, and the harms caused by extended mask use have been well documented.
Suffice to say, the kids are not alright.
Exposure to chronic, recurrent traumatic events during one’s early years has been linked to poorer physical and mental health outcomes in adulthood. It also correlates to severe social and emotional dysfunction that compromises interpersonal relationships at home, in the workplace, and in the community.
In this episode of EAI’s Dialogues with Meg Hansen, we explore why so many truths about early trauma are considered taboo by the public health establishment. Our guest Anna Runkle is the creator of the popular YouTube channel, “Crappy Childhood Fairy,” which has 239,000 subscribers. A living proof expert in trauma, she reaches a global community of 300,000 people with her teachings on how to recognize and heal Complex PTSD. Runkle holds a Masters in Public Policy from UC Berkeley and spent thirty years in the field of public health.
We address difficult questions like how a two-parent, child-centric family structure affects child development. How does hookup culture hurt young women and men? Why don’t public health authorities call out cancel culture for what it is – a cult of narcissistic abuse? We connect trauma at an individual level with large-scale societal happenings, and examine how an epidemic of untreated trauma is affecting the American body politic.
Watch the conversation on YouTube or Facebook. You’d rather listen? Subscribe to EAI’s Dialogues with Meg Hansen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify so you never miss an episode.
Categories: Video
Re: “Public health leaders and politicians pretended that the disease is equally deadly to all age groups. It allowed them to enact indiscriminate policies – lockdowns, school closures, and mask mandates – that exacted a heavy price on the youngest Americans.”
People often choose social service vocations based on a personal need to compensate for self-criticism, at least in part, because they want to examine their own, or their family’s, issues, vulnerabilities, and pain. It’s a form of psychological projection. In the final analysis, though, and while there are always exceptions, the adults most likely to do what’s best for any child are the child’s parents. Conversely, the public-school monopoly has become ‘the hand that rocks the cradle’. And as the infamous idiom portends, ‘the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world’.
Praemonitus praemunitus.
Meg comes out swinging on this episode. Her guest’s seeming claim to fame is a made-up medical diagnosis, and by that I mean not recognized in DSM. But don’t worry, she can sell you the solutions you need. Need proof? People from all over the world attend classes!
Discussion had minimal evidence, mostly just promoting conservative talking points: cancel culture, moral panic, and programs that don’t work.
Conservatives are attracted to victimhood mindset which is manifested in calling everything cancel culture. Meg falls into that trap throughout this episode. Let ye who supported The Dixie Chicks and Colin Kaepernick cast the first stone. Otherwise, take responsibility for the things you say and actions you take.
Rating: 2/5
Isaiah 9:6. Jesus is our Wonderful Counselor and healer.