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The nation collectively lost its empathy when it embarked on a series of wars to avenge the September 11 tragedy — wars that cost trillions of dollars while child development, education and mental/health initiatives went underfunded. No surprise that we are in this mess now. https://twitter.com/colinhanks/status/1304274341560029185
2. 16,000 people died from heroin in 2017 alone. The overdose death rate more than tripled in just six years. Since 2002 (post US invasion of Afghanistan, a major source of heroin globally), the overall death rate from heroin overdoses in US increased by nearly ***800%***.
3. US war veterans are at ground zero of opioid epidemic, facing an overdose rate twice that of civilians. Post-9/11 deployments to Afghanistan, Iraq have exposed service members to injury-related chronic pain, psychological trauma, and cheap opium, fueling the opioid addiction. https://twitter.com/khanoisseur/status/1304767515709632514
4. We keep hearing 9/11 changed everything. We lost the right to privacy as the surveillance state grew bigger. Nearly three million deployed since 9/11, so what is the impact of this combat on those deployed, their families and communities? https://www.militarytimes.com/pay-benefits/2019/10/14/combat-troops-at-higher-risk-for-opioid-heroin-addiction-study-says/
5. Even before this coronavirus crisis, Americans were increasingly turning to booze, drugs to numb away their pain. We know that chronic heavy drinking interferes with feelings of empathy in men, damages parts of the brain involved in deciphering emotions and processing humor… https://twitter.com/khanoisseur/status/1304767515709632514
6. Obama famously said empathy deficit is a more pressing problem than federal deficit. In 2010, University of Michigan researchers (presenting at Association for Psychological Science) showed that empathy in college students had dropped by 40% since 2000. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/born-love/201005/shocker-empathy-dropped-40-in-college-students-2000
7. In 2006 (pre-Facebook/Instagram/Twitter), at Northwestern University, Obama noted “we live in a culture that discourages empathy. A culture that too often tells us our principal goal in life is to be rich, thin, young, famous, safe, and entertained.” https://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2006/06/barack.html
8. Simply having a more empathetic POTUS alone will not set US back on the right course — if that course is a nation where more people feel they should care more about their communities and where the uber wealthy are willing to shoulder a bigger tax burden to meet our challenges. https://twitter.com/khanoisseur/status/1304789980854841350
9. America is trapped in this “vicious cycle,” where fewer and fewer people are capable of demonstrating empathy, and we end up electing officials to highest levels of government who mirror that condition. Obama is still mocked by conservatives for being a “community organizer”. https://twitter.com/khanoisseur/status/1304789083999404032
