No time for melting down Hats off to Digby. She will be along presently with a recap of last night’s CNN-sponsored, Donald Trump freak show. The excerpts were bad enough. The intertubes are full of it this morning, literally and figuratively. The extremist right is gleefully declaring that liberals are “melting down” over Trump’s demented display of sociopathy. Yup, that’s our guy, they cheer. Over at The Atlantic, Arthur C. Brooks examines the psychological impacts of working to make the world a saner, safer place. Fighting back can come at a cost. Activism can make you miserable. If you expect to sustain it, choose a variety that doesn’t. And work that doesn’t turn you into what you loathe and to us vs. them-ism. The reflex my generation had for taking to the streets (pointlessly, for the most part) continues among the latest generational cohort of activists. The mental health impacts are a mixed bag: Although nearly a third of the students believed that their advocacy work improved their well-being, 60 percent reported harm to their mental health. “There’s been times that at the end of the day, I’ll come to bed and I’ll just cry,” one interviewee said, “because I really don’t know what I’ve gotten myself into.” Brooks argues: A compromise might be available through minimizing activism’s most psychologically harmful elements: hatred and defeat. A shift in perspective—from winning to helping—can address both problems. This could mean a switch from protesting homelessness to providing services for people experiencing homelessness—for instance, by volunteering…