"Call it anomie or call it airsickness—we find ourselves in a land of confusion. Trump pays off a porn star and yet is hailed as a champion of Christian values. He mocks prisoners of war and calls dead soldiers 'suckers,' and his MAGA base is thrilled by his patriotism."
"To hear conservative Christians argue that personal character doesn’t matter, or to witness self-described constitutional conservatives defend a relentless attack on the rule of law, is disorienting. To see advocates of law and order embrace rioters who attacked the Capitol and beat police officers is baffling."
"To watch the party of Ronald Reagan embracing isolationism and following Trump in truckling to the Butcher of Ukraine, Putin, is bewildering. Mind-bending, also, is that, despite Trump’s fire hose of lies, 71 percent of Republicans describe him as 'honest and trustworthy.'”
"The challenge of the present moment is to continue to relentlessly observe, report, and document each of Donald Trump’s serial transgressions of democratic norms, the rule of law, and basic human decency. Challenging because the list is endless, the mind numbs, the body tires, and because the effort is not going to change his behavior or calm the fervor of his true believers."
good question "Why are we all so angry these days?"
"[..] fear became important as a component... rather than being a defensive mechanism, it started to eclipse the very values that it was supposed to be protecting.... democratic countries have engaged in many dubious moral campaigns over the many decades since World War II, like the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the propping up of brutal right-wing dictatorships across the globe."
Are our moral #values shaped by divine love or are they a result of biological requirements of human life?
THIS WEDNESDAY April 17 at #UniversityOfTexas#Austin, #philosophers Ben Bayer and Adam Lloyd Johnson #debate the origins and interpretation of #morality, focusing on differences between secular, scientific interpretations, and theological views.
When is it time to walk away?
(That's a tough one, alright)
We make commitments & compromises, invest in projects, entertain hopes & dreams, and then ... well, life happens. It's always a little chaotic, and sometimes it's just plain bad.
It's hard to choose: persist or desist?
Decisions that feed the soul honour our deepest #values.
What matters to you?
▪ creativity?
▪ how we treat one another?
▪ health?
▪ meaning?
▪ the environment?
▪ family?
▪ fun?
▪ what else?
\o/ Marie Kondo "is open with followers… I realised always maintaining the perfect state of tidiness was not my goal, but spending time with my kids is. That’s what really sparks joy. …It’s just that the idea may no longer always be attainable”.
“In the past, I didn’t have the idea of a temporary location for items.”
The state where she taught, #Missouri, sold ⅓ of its eggs to #California, & #ErinHawley believed that a #BlueState had no #right to impose its #values & rules on MO’s farmers. Apparently, Missourians should be allowed to [#abuse#animals but no one in the nation should be allowed to save a #woman from a life-threatening nonviable pregnancy]
She joined in a #lawsuit against Cali’s AG at the time, #KamalaHarris. A judge found that the challengers could show no direct injury & dismissed the case.
Twice a month, I run my popular Personal Values workshop on a pay-what-you-like basis, because our most uncertain moments can also be times of financial hardship.
These past 3 years, I've made some difficult choices. The hardest ones are always important choices between things that are both good -- or both bad.
But: when I clearly lay out what I value, the decision-making is easier.
I learned as a coach: when choices align with what matters to me I sleep well, I don't second-guess myself. (I used to be a worrier! It's astonishing, now that I think about it)
@woo thinking about: "values are very often relative" …
I've observed that core values tend to be stable over time, and we want all of them at 100%.
What's relative is how we balance them.
When I went back to uni, I cut back on shoes, fiction books, & dining out. My value of beautiful things didn't change, but I temporarily held it in abeyance, to honour a value of *ever learning".
These tensions keep us honest. Beautiful things will eventually yell for attention! 😉 #values
On the topic of differences in discourse, here’s a very interesting paper on regional variation in climate change attitudes in Germany.
The authors note, that previously similar research has been done only in the US and that there are many reasons to assume that the findings there may not be widely representative. E.g. the two-party system uniquely collapses topics along the partisan divide.
Today, reflect deeply on personal beliefs and values. Commit to an action that aligns with your highest ideals. This practice enhances clarity and purpose, leading to more meaningful contributions to the world.
Inclusive dignity
Pablo Gilabert, 2024. Politics, Philosophy & Economics
"According to the Dignitarian Approach, there is a moral nexus between people such that when some can affect others with their acts and institutions, they ought do so in ways that are responsive to the valuable features that give rise to their dignity."
Today's blend of Taurus Moon's stability and scriptural teachings emphasizes mindful decisions. Choosing actions that align with your values enriches life. Practice gratitude to deepen this alignment.
"We are, all of us, engaged every day in the construction of a moral order: by our accumulated individual examples, the words we use, the acts we condone, we can make it one that encourages decency and compassion towards others, or the reverse. This is particularly true of those in positions of leadership, political or other."
We are posting here the messages from organizations, institutions, NGOs, etc. that have opened a channel on Mastodon and left #X/Twitter. Many of their arguments cite the same points as mentioned in our open letter calling the universities to become active on Mastodon and fediverse servers.
The messages represent a broad consensus among Internet users who want to bring the choice of social media in line with their mission statements. The first of these is the data protection foundation @DS_Stiftung.
It writes about itself: „Acting independently in the field of #DataPrivacy, Stiftung Datenschutz links politics and the public, academics and business. It complements existing organizations and initiatives while liaising closely with German data protection authorities on state and federal levels.“ https://stiftungdatenschutz.org/english
At the end of September, she drew the consequences and broke away from X/ #Twitter https://twitter.com/DS_Stiftung/status/1704059550335119522
A logical and responsible decision @wikimediaDE !
But not only that: since last week we also welcome @wikimediaDE to the group of supporting organizations of our action alliance.
Welcome @wikimediaDE !
We look forward to working with you to encourage the #universities for a better internet.
What can Democrats realistically do between now and next November from stopping the Trump dictatorship from beginning? It seems like we're all just sleepwalking towards a cliff right now...
remember #democracy? where we get to #debate our positions, look for the people who would best represent us, well before the big day, we ought to be searching for the very best.
We don’t just need a Not #Trump for our future #US leader. We need an experienced, intelligent,
calm, resourceful, compassionate, charismatic #representative of our best #values to bring us forward
through vastly complex troubled times.
Twice a month, I run my popular Personal Values workshop on a pay-what-you-like basis, because our most uncertain moments may also be times of financial hardship.