Our Collective Numbness Around “Deaths Of Despair.”

It’s seemingly either we ignore it, we label it wrong, or we fight on a platform. Why not, uh, help others?

This is a bigger topic and I may not get it all right, but I’ll do my best to try.

If you’re unfamiliar with the terms “deaths of despair,” which local news anchors sometimes mistakenly refer to as “depths of despair,” it basically refers to a trend in the last 20 years whereby we’re seeing more deaths around:

• Suicide
• Overdose
• Long-term alcohol use

The big names in the space are Anne Case and Angus Deaton, who wrote the literal book on the subject. I guess it needs to be noted right now that Case and Deaton are both superstar academics with supposed net worth valuations into the low millions, so they themselves don’t have much issue with “deaths of despair.” Someone vaguely close to them might commit suicide, yes, but it would likely be brushed under the rug as a “mental health thing.” It’s interesting that J.D. Vance, who was considered a demigod in this space, went full Trump and became a Senator by exploiting the culture wars, even though he himself is a rich consultant who went to Yale Law School.