R.T. Wells is a veteran of the Royal Canadian Navy.After sitting through a ‘better together’ lecture hosted by my work, we were informed that global rates of loneliness are at an all-time high, with 50% of the planet stating they have no meaningful connections. Apparently, this record-breaking percentage has climbed year over year since 2015, and that’s not the only thing that’s changed. Depression, anxiety, and mental health issues are now being reported in numbers never before seen as global friendship rates plummet. New trends show that the average person is shrinking their social circle to be more selective in who they know, and that finding friends is harder than ever. None of this was a surprise to me or my colleagues, who didn’t gasp at the update either. What was shocking was that our host, an expert sociologist, PhD. lecturer, and award-winning author, was flummoxed as to why. I almost laughed out loud.Why are we miserable and friendless? Sometimes it’s hard to know when the Left is being serious. I used to think they’d eventually pop out of the proverbial closet and shout, ‘Surprise! It was all a joke,’ but of course, 11 years on — no one’s laughing.The answer, of course, is simple; their extremism ruined everything. We don’t have friends because they’ve become liabilities. Thanks to liberal open-mindedness, we’ve never been more judged, persecuted, or isolated. Opinions have become dangerous, and those who have them need to watch their backs. Forging new relationships or even keeping old ones has become almost impossible as social expectations continue to change on a dime. Basic startup questions like, ‘what do you do?’ and ‘where are you from?’ have now become minefields of racist insinuation mixed with a generous dose of potential elitism. As a result, it’s better to ignore the new guy now than risk saying, ‘hello.’It doesn’t just stop at adults either; it trickles down to our children, too. This Alpha generation doesn’t make friends — not really — not the way we did. As kids, we couldn’t spend enough time with our friends. Every waking moment was either with them or hatching a plan to be with them soon. Sleepovers, weekend camping trips, and daily bike rides around the neighbourhood until dusk were what friends were all about. Now my son can go the whole summer without seeing, texting, calling, or even mentioning his ‘best friend,’ and he’s not alone. Though I doubt our children understand why they don’t have strong connections outside the family circle, on some level, even their generation wasn’t spared the heavy-handedness of the Left..They didn’t just steal our friends, though — they hijacked our language too. First, they banished countless words from our daily vernacular and quickly replaced them with muted, politically correct alternatives. Then they came with the passive attacks. After all, not everyone was ready to drop ‘sons’ from the National anthem or crucify a hockey icon for condemning ‘those people’ who stood against Remembrance Day. It was clear that more was needed to make the difficult ones fall in line, so they pushed a bit harder. Suddenly, disagreement made you old, ignorant, white, male, heterosexual, or wealthy. Slapped with any of these labels, a person became instantly dismissible. They held off on demonization for a year or so, but once it was clear they couldn’t disappear half the world, anyone on the other side of a line was instantly racist, xenophobic, or sexist.Unfortunately, forever altering our linguistic landscape wasn’t enough — they had to erase our history too. It was a necessary step to ensure no sense of tradition, purpose, or pride could ever be instilled in future generations, and it succeeded. From Statistics Canada to the Fraser Institute, recent studies reveal that volunteerism, community involvement, municipal election turnout, and charitable donations have all decreased, too. It’s hardly inspiring to participate in a world that has assured you that you have no place in it.Then came gender insanity. As if bettering the lot of women on planet Earth wasn’t a large enough hurdle, new genders were created as well. This, of course, led to the widespread belief that mutilating children in the name of political trends was not just acceptable, but necessary for any civilized nation..The meritocracy was shot on the spot, as it made far too much sense and clearly upheld traditional notions of usefulness and success. It was quickly replaced by the deficiencies checklist that encourages all candidates, for any opportunity, to demonstrate everything they lack, rather than possess. The more inept, downtrodden, or unqualified one appears, the better — and excellence is far too close to elitism to be encouraged.Perseverance has been replaced by giving up. Paying your dues is apparently bullying. The fruits of one’s labour are now privilege by another name — the list goes on, and on. Though this all reads like an Orwellian nightmare, the tragedy is, this is our reality. A day and age where only an incurable racist would dream of a nation where our children are not ‘judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character.’As the wellness pep talk came to an end, it was concluded that our devices are to blame and that time away from our screens will likely fix everything. Really? We’ve been plunking children in front of screens since the 1950s without the same social results, not to mention having glued ourselves to our mobiles for about 25 years. Though there is no doubt our devices keep us marinating in political swill, blaming technology for the recipe of our demise is like blaming our cutlery for selecting unhealthy food. Our troubles started 11 years ago and the math is simple: the Left broke everything and putting down our phones won’t save us now. R.T. Wells is a veteran of the Royal Canadian Navy.
