August 28 – US Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, has introduced legislation to combat loneliness in America and promote social connection.
Some people are wondering how on earth can the government address something like this?
Murphy has been quoted as saying, “Loneliness is one of the most serious misunderstood problems facing America today. It may not sound like a problem the government should care about, but I believe it’s irresponsible for policymakers to continue ignoring this epidemic.”
Pat Ryan of NewsTalk 103.7FM pointed out, “I don’t know how you legislate this. How do you make law and make legislation on something like this? Loneliness?”
Attorney Clint Barkdoll said, “I don’t know. He’s right in the sense that this is a problem. There’s a lot of research showing this as a problem, but how in the world does the government legislate to address someone’s loneliness? It just seems like an impossible task. So I certainly don’t see this getting to the finish line, let alone the government coming up with some solution for it.”
Michele Jansen of NewsTalk 103.7FM added, “The irony is that so many of the things I think government’s doing is contributing to loneliness in the first place. Then they’re going to turn around and try to fix it. Again, let me break your legs and hand you crutches. Now I realize it’s a nuanced problem. It does have a lot to do with new technology keeping us from being person to person very often and that contributes, but the way that their equity policies have influenced things and have turned groups of people against each other, that’s created a lot more people being divided and not an engaging and not being able to find friendships. Not to mention the whole gender fluidity ideology. Now think of those very important, I think back to my teenage years and my young 20s, those important same sex friendships. Female to female male to male, we’re now disrupting all those viewpoints of each other, trying to pretend like everybody’s the same or everybody could be either. In so many ways it’s disrupting those healthy relationships that people should be having with friends and male/female relationships that give us so much of our mental health stamina. All this has been disrupted by government policy, so no thanks, government. You are not the answer.”
Barkdoll said, “Even all the virtual remote work that’s still happening around the US and the world. A lot of researchers are pointing out the damage that’s having on just social relationships. Look how many people met their spouse and at work or their friend group through work. Well, if you’re working remotely now, permanently, you’re never in a live office, that’s just one example of where you can see someone quickly becoming isolated and lonely. But yet I don’t see how the government is going to step in to address that.”
