I THINK I KNOW WHY CONSERVATIVES ARE HAPPIER THAN LIBERALS: BECAUSE OF THE MEDIA-INDUCED STATES OF CLINICAL MANIA

This is one of the most-read stories at the New York Post right now:

Anheuser-Busch loses more than $5 billion in value amid Dylan Mulvaney Bud Light controversy

Beer Colossus Anheuser-Busch saw its value plummet more than $5 billion since the company announced its branding partnership with controversial transgender social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney.

Since March 31, shares of Bud Light’s parent company have fallen by nearly 4% — knocking down the company’s market capitalization from $132.38 billion to $127.13 billion on Wednesday.

Anheuser-Busch stock fizzled more than 1.5% on Wednesday.

Well, it's the end of the trading day on Thursday, and Anheuser-Bush was up 1.48% today, and it's up a bit more in after-hours trading. If you're not a financial illiterate, you know that short-term losses of 4% (and more) are perfectly normal, and aren't particularly meaningful. Did I mention that Anheuser-Busch stock is up nearly 8% this year, even after the recent losses? That its market cap was $119.09 billion at the end of 2022 and is $132.61 billion now?

But the right-wing media has been hammering away at this story. It's in the Daily Mail today ("Bud Light's Parent Company Anheuser-Busch InBev Has Lost More Than $6 BILLION in Market Cap in Just Six Days After Dylan Mulvaney Partnership Sparked Backlash") and was in The National Pulse a couple of days ago ("Bud Light’s Dylan Mulvaney Trans Stunt Cost the Company $4 BILLION... So Far"). The story may have started with a tweet from a Turning Point USA operative named Rogan O'Handley, who has nearly three quarters of a million followers on Twitter under the name DC Draino:

On March 31, Anheuser Busch had a $132.38 billion market cap

As of today, it’s now $128.4 billion

You know what that means?

The Woke Bud Light campaign has already shaved off nearly **$4 BILLION** in company value

Don’t let Dems lie to you - Conservative Boycotts WORK pic.twitter.com/xLGbs6F1MV

— DC_Draino (@DC_Draino) April 10, 2023

It's perfectly normal for a large S&P 500 corporation to lose billions of dollars in market cap temporarily in a week or two, but the idea that this is a devastating blow to Anheuser-Busch operates like an injection of amphetamines in the collective right-wing brain.

And maybe this is why studies tell us that right-wingers are happier than left-wingers. Their media outlets keep them in an induced bipolar state, although it's not a classic bipolar state because they never seem to enter a state of depression. Instead, they swing wildly between outraged catastrophizing and an equally rage-driven sense of triumph, otherwise known as "We really owned the libs this time, MFers!!!!" One day they're told that "gender ideology" is on the march and it's only a matter of time before every child in America is forced to be trans. The next day, Kid Rock is shooting up a case of Bud Light and Anheuser-Busch stock is dropping slightly. BOO-YAH! Repeat for every hot-button issue: The libs are planning to take all the guns, but now you can open-carry with out a permit in half the states in the union, and did you hear about the elderly person who pulled a gun on some thug somewhere and thwarted a robbery?

QAnon is the ultimate manifestion of this: Every prominent person QAnon followers don't like is a pedophile who brutalizes innocent children -- but "the Storm" is coming, and one day they'll all be brought to swift, brutal justice simultaneously.

I see a lot of swinging between hope and despair on the left, but I don't think we every really believe that we're winning overwhelming victories -- or maybe that's just me. We know that we'll always have right-wingers, plutocrats, racists, sexists, homophobes, and other miscreants to contend with. But on the right, I think they really believe that someday society will consist of only people who think the way they do. And that makes them happy.