In ancient hunter-gatherer societies, some people evolved a particular hyper-awareness of their surroundings. They are able to be maintain a low-level awareness of everything around them, and to very quickly separate what's important and deserves attention from what is unimportant. They are able to easily switch tasks and react on instinct to immediately deal with a new situation, often before others have had time to think about it. These hyper-aware individuals were critical to the survival of the tribe, when a predator or danger might appear at any moment, and that quick instinctual action might mean the difference between life and death.
Unfortunately, these individuals sacrificed the ability to focus for long periods on mundane tasks they found uninteresting, even if they knew it had to be done.
Modern society has far fewer immediate dangers. Value is placed on the ability to focus on the mundane; for its people to behave like automatons. There is little place in modern society for people with this hyperawareness trait.
And so, modern society now diagnoses these people as somehow "broken". We invented a name, "ADHD", and called what they are a disorder. From early childhood, we give them mind-altering drugs to transform their personality into something society finds more acceptable. We break our children's minds, because we don't want to deal with them as they evolved to be.
I think the fat acceptance movement comes from a similar thought process, that some evolved to have a slower metabolism etc that was actually adaptive to pre modern times when food was scarce. but some conservatives mock it.
there's always another way to look at things. I don't get the anger in our politics, except at people who refuse to metaphorically try on other people's shoes. Or reject compromise. Or worst of all, build their brand/business off being an asshole.
Helpful tip to all of those woke activists who want to lie down in freeways and make cars swerve around you because you think it will somehow help your cause du jour:
Far more goods are moved by train than by truck. To serve your cause better, go lie down on some railroad tracks instead.
@wjmaggos
Eh, point taken. But when tracks are blocked, it's not some tragedy of the commons head scratching with cops milling around in confusion. Rail companies lose money directly, and they employ their own thugs for track clearing.
And maybe, just maybe, one of these morons will pick a track in front of a train that can't stop. How doesn't matter, as long as karma is satisfied.
And hey, if nothing else, it sure would raise awareness.
if the American revolution was justified, I assume you'd agree this could be too. different goals and make it more properly targeted, even if more violent?
I have become much less supportive of protest to the degree I think messages can be heard via the internet, but it's also a question of how well this "republic" represents the interests of the people. a minority opinion can get their concerns attention in this way, but they shouldn't be able to force the laws to change etc imo.
Democracy is the political expression of mob rule, in which the majority group can impose its will with impunity on minority groups.
Progressives - the people whose ideology is based on lifting up minorities above all others - are coincidentally also the ones who shout the loudest about "preserving our democracy". The cognitive dissonance from this is only possible to reconcile if you either lack the ability to think about it rationally, or you have no integrity to get in the way of your double-standard.
Socialist sales pitches like UBI always promote how you, the common plebeian, will have more money. They seldom address where that money will come from. Even when they do, it's a base appeal to envy about taking it by force from people richer than you. This is easy to sell because a smart person with the luck to be in the right place and time can make a lot of money under a capitalist system.
But it's unworkable, because under the socialist system being proposed, they never could have become that wealthy in the first place. Anyone who becomes the slightest bit wealthy will have it taken away by the system. The incentive to succeed is thus eliminated.
Therefore, the money necessary to keep the system moving - money created under capitalism - would never have been created in socialism.
Worse, what socialists never address is who will be the ones taking that money by force. All redistribution schemes require someone to do the redistributing. When pressed, the socialists will wave their hands and say "the state", but in the end, there's always a person. No matter who is selected for that job, it is human nature that the position will, given time, be filled by someone corrupt and power-mad.
@wjmaggos@ryan The people deciding how much wealth to take from others are......the wealthy. You vote for them, sure, but you don't really have choices. You're just picking from two pre-approved elites that your propaganda of choice tells you to, and who will never really give you what you want (and all the dystopia that comes with that). They will just keep stringing you along so you can continue being a good little globalist foot soldier so the elites that own you can keep doing hookers and blow and ensuring that their families inherit their wealth (unless you think they going to eliminate their own ability to do so?). You will never thrive in any aspect of life - not just financial - if you're expecting the tax money of "the wealthy" to help you.
The elites you think you like might throw you a few bones now and then at the expense of their adversaries, like "paying" off student loan debt by printing (devaluing) dollars while ignoring the criminal public universities that have jacked tuition to absurd levels, because they are on the same team as your masters. Or perhaps they'll give you some UBI, resulting in further devaluation of the dollar or price increases if taxes are increased. That's the core of what you don't understand: you take wealth from the wealthy - or anyone, really - (income, corporate tax, other, doesn't matter), do you think they're just going to accept the loss? No. Get ready for higher prices for goods and services, higher real estate prices, higher salaries (CEO for instance is a job market, and they will demand more in compensation), and more aggressive tax avoidance strategies in addition to that. It will be passed onto you in every respect. Get that through your thick skull. Aggressive wealth redistribution doesn't work. The more you force it (by going along with your masters schemes), the closer it gets to dystopia (totalitarian government), which is functionally the same (the leaders of such a movement/government become your new masters and they get the "wealth", while you get lined up against a wall). If you're thinking to yourself "well what's the best way to make everything good", the answer is: you can't. Shit will always be unfair in a human society or billions of people.
Society isn't going to improve any time soon in the United States either, I'm sorry to say (and the wider western world, perhaps beyond). The structure of the United States will continue its slow disintegration due to mind-damaging dependence on technology (Uncle Ted was generally correct), and the destruction of the nuclear family. The smart move in 2024 is to want less government redistribution of wealth, by resisting it when/where you can, because the reality of the situation calls for it. You are only advocating for your own future prison otherwise.
If you're dead-set on advocating for some kinds of government interventions (local, state, federal, whatever), resist the urge to consider money/taxation. Ask yourself (or your elites) why there are so many unchecked oligopolies? Why is patent and copyright so corrupt? Why are foreign individuals allowed to own so much land unchecked? Why are there so many bureaucratic and unnecessary regulations suppressing markets so that they're unhealthy and dominated by the aforementioned oligopolies? Why were megacorps allowed by your masters to operate during COVID and local/small businesses were destroyed, to the benefit of the aforementioned? Why are they forcing inferior energy sources on you under the guise of "climate change" making doing business impossible for many? What's with the fucking predatory public universities who've jacked tuition well in excess the rate of inflation making almost everyone a debt slave if they want to go to college? Why are the globalist politicians that you support either allied with, or the same as, the people that run those universities (or who give money to them)? You think that's a coincidence? Why are your masters so concerned with the appearance of GIVING you something instead of getting out of the way, which would result in you having better opportunities to succeed on your own? Simple. They don't want you to be independent and strong. They want you dependent on them, either directly or indirectly. I could think up a lot more ridiculous shit - maybe even more salient points than I've thought - but you get the idea.
my view is that (within reason) it can get better to the degree people are informed about the way the world is and why and what alternatives are possible and are able to work together. we improve that through education and the decentralization and direct funding of journalism.
I know I'm showing my age when I recall to younger people the bygone era, when technology was created to serve mankind, rather than the other way around.
There is nothing liberal about fascism, and I'm tired of pretending it is.
If you support authoritarian parties like Marxists, Communists, and Democrats, please stop using the word "liberal" to identify yourself. Those regimes today are as far from true liberty as it's possible to get without gas chambers and outright slavery. This level of cognitive dissonance is too 1984 even for 2024.
@wjmaggos I don't know what that means, but if you mean to say that while you agree with me deep down because you're smart enough to recognize that the party you support is being run by authoritarian fascists who would sooner see you rotting in a gulag than offer you anything resembling liberty, however your partisan programming runs so deep you are unable to admit to yourself that you're being lied to by your chosen political clique, and further that, since you are unable to articulate any reasons that "democrat" and "liberty" should appear anywhere in the same sentence, you instead opted to post a cryptic image of someone making a hand gesture in an attempt to salvage what shreds are left from your shattered sense of superiority, then yes, that's about what I expected.
my very simple point was that I'm glad you aren't equating liberal with left as so many conservatives do, but what you get wrong imo is in thinking that a liberal can't support any party. liberal is on the cultural spectrum between authoritarian and anarchist. it demands a respect for the pursuit of truth and dialogue and compromise. a very aggressive trans agenda is not friendly to liberalism, but neither is a religious one. some would say govt generally isn't, but neither is monopoly.
It's one thing for an individual to choose, on an individual basis, what to see/hear or not see/hear. It's ENTIRELY another thing to be forbidden by an external force from either saying or seeing/hearing something.
I would HOPE people would self-censor. That's what decent people do. You don't HAVE to say everything you think about everything. I don't walk into a bar screaming "Eff Biden AND Trump!" even though that's true, and I'm allowed. It's in poor taste.
but outside of government, you're not forbidden by force. it's business decisions. it's public pressure. maybe it feels like force because of monopoly power or the number of people that disagree with you. that's the reality.
my whole point is asking everybody to care more about other's feelings about getting to see/hear stuff. just because you might not like it, understand others might. connect your server to them but also don't harass people. compromise.
2024 = After multiple recounts among all 160 million ballots cast by American citizens, Biden wins by a margin of 210 million votes. Republicans wonder how this could have happened, even though nothing was done about the election fraud the first time.
2028 = Biden installed as President a third time, after nothing continues to be done about election integrity. DNC lawyers successfully argue that the 22nd amendment's prohibition on being elected more than twice shouldn't apply, because hey, he wasn't actually "elected" the last two times. Republicans are stunned.
2032 = Biden named President Forever by a unanimous count of all 650 million ballots cast. Republican leadership puts up a mild protest, but agrees that yeah, you can't argue with that kind of mandate.
2036 = United States doesn't even bother holding elections. Biden's reanimated corpse skates easily to victory in all 57 swing states. Republican party is officially renamed to Democratic Party II
Seeing a lot of anti-trans backlash in my feed.
It's an understandable response to wokeists raising up the transgender demographic like they're some sort of sacred calf. They've taken a lifestyle choice and turned it into a religious icon in their war on culture.
But: When ridiculing the ridiculous, please note the distinction between trans activists and trans LUTFAs.
All of the idiotic and culture-destroying bullshit, all of the woke DEI policies, the byzantine rules and laws about pronouns - everything that makes big news - comes from the activists. They deserve the firehose of your scorn. Please, open the taps.
Just remember that most people (transgender included) are not activists. They want no involvement in this cultural jihad being pursued by the commies and marxists. They just want to live their lives outside the limelight. Sound familiar?
No matter how much you disapprove of their appearance, or disagree with their life choices, at the end of the day, remember they're still people. At least give them the respect for that.
In other words: don't be the bigot that the activists claim you are.
but how do you respect someone who was born male and thinks they should be able to compete against your daughter in a swim meet?
I support the sentiment but the LUTFA approach won't cut it. that's a prescription for what we had regarding abortion for decades, activists on both sides dominating the conversation and distorting our politics.
we must talk this stuff out in good faith and come to a resolution most people accept, so that extremists on both sides sound like flat earthers. IMO
When someone close to me was diagnosed with Mutliple Sclerosis, I took the time to learn everything I could about the disease. It's an autoimmune disease that has only been common in the last half century or so, and according to most official sources, "no one knows" what the cause is.
It's hard now, having just witnessed the largest propaganda psyop in human history inflicted on the public by our medical industry and government, not to ask the question: Does "no one know" what causes these now-common autoimmune diseases because they're exceptionally enigmatic? Or is it because the only thing it could be is the one thing that nobody in the medical industry is allowed to question?
@wjmaggos@ryan My mother has MS. If it appears, it's typically in your 20s. I even worked with the MS society and volunteered to help run youth camps.
I know someone who got diagnosed in her 40s, and is in complete denial about it being a vaccine injury. I do think a significant amount of recent MS is likely injury. Any vaccine's adjuvants can trigger your body to develop an immune response to things it shouldn't ... like your own Myelin layer: MS.
If you use the word "migrants" to describe the illegal aliens overwhelmingly invading America at the behest of the Biden regime, you are giving in to the communist-left's fallacy of equivocation.
"Illegal" is a much more accurate term for how the people got here... "But SirBemrose," they say, "people aren't illegal"
Good point. People aren't illegal. They just do an illegal thing when they enter the country illegally. People who commit illegal acts are criminals. So maybe we start calling them what they are: "Criminal aliens"
@wjmaggos@ryan imagine wanting to reduce ass fucking infants and decide the best way is to call it "a non consensual no no" so rapists don't avoid seeking help. A drunk is a specific addict, like a crackhead, methhead, pothead, gambler, smoker. The average person is addicted to caffine and phones. Calling a drunk an addict is softballing a serious issue. When you cross the line into being a drunk its a wakeup call by being called one. Nobody seeks help for this shit until they have a close call, or hit bottom. All the education, all the signs, all the family/friends concerns don't do anything unless the person realizes, and wants help. Good luck convincing them they're in the wrong when they just have a socially watered down condition like "an addiction"
people with years sober call it an addiction and don't need you calling them a drunk. if you're in a relationship with someone and want to call them a drunk hoping they'll then seek help, awesome. that's not what we were talking about. do you go around looking for people who might be illegal immigrants and say unless you can prove you are not, I will round up a posse to call you illegal until you leave? I thought we were talking about how to discuss an issue to achieve change.
Any thinking person, the world over, should hate the American government. It's being run by violent psychopathic terrorists with dreams of world domination.
But do NOT hate Americans for it. We are even bigger victims of those terrorists than you are. Not only are the DC terrorists plundering resources, runiing economies, and killing people here just as in the rest of the world, but they're making US pay for it!