The Self-Esteem Movement Was a Political Stunt
Episode 115 · Jun 02, 07:00 AM
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Tired of being told to just love yourself? US TOO! Today we're digging into the self-esteem movement — where it came from, why it didn't work, and what to chase instead.
In conversation, we tackle:
- The 1980s California politician who sold self-esteem as a "social vaccine" against crime, addiction, dropouts, and welfare dependency
- What the big 2003 research review actually found self-esteem delivers (spoiler: feeling good, and basically nothing else)
- Why the most aggressive people tend to have high self-esteem, not low and what "threatened egotism" has to do with the angry men in power right now
- How "you are your only limitation" sets people up to fail and then blame themselves
- Why self-esteem is a flimsy thing to build a life on and what self-worth and self-compassion do instead
- The permission slip: you don't have to like yourself to have the thing you want
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