Leo Gura

Bernie is literally not a Democrat. So no, it's not his party. Which is why they snub him. Of course professional Dems will not want to elect a guy who isn't even a Dem. This is another blindspot within leftist thinking. Leftists want Bernie so bad that they fail to reason properly about why he lost. Bernie does not have wide enough appeal to win major national elections. But progressives cannot admit that fact into their worldview, so they double-down on demonizing corporate Dems.

He's pretty good but he's also got a problematic debate-bro facet. He's too eager to win debates rather than truth-seeking and sense-making. This limits his understanding. The goal is not own people in debates. This is childish. He's a bit too distracted by that. Medhi has a kind of obnoxious element to him, like he's trying too hard to win arguments. Like his ego feeds off it. But he makes many very solid arguments. But with all these leftists, they are still fundamentally paradigm locked. They are missing Tier 2 understanding of politics.

In terms of style, yes. We are distinguishing here between style of delivery vs policy. Is he a Zionist? I wasn't aware. I haven't watched him in a long time. I don't recall ever hearing his full views on Palestine.

@Cathy92506 If you mean to say that Awakening is nothing more than skill at handling emotions, then the answer is definitely NO. Technically, Awakening has nothing to do with emotions. However, if you seriously pursue Awakening then emotional skillfullness will come as a byproduct of much consciousness work.

If everyone had the development level of a saint then libertarianism would be the proper form of government. Obviously our average level of development determines what form of government is currently sustainable. A Yellow government cannot work because less than 1% of the population is Yellow. Who's going to run it? Show me a single Yellow politician or congressman.

It is an error in reasoning to regard all nationalization efforts as the same. Airports in America are nationalized. They work just fine. Obviously communism and even socialism is wrong. But that doesn't mean nationalizing some industries is wrong. It has to be done in an intelligent and selective way. USSR is an outdated model. Study China instead. China proves that it can work.

In an intelligent, mature, and self-aware way -- which they are incapable of. They can only behave up to the level of their cognitive and moral development.

No, they are just obnoxious on their own. Except for Pakman, he is fine. It's not autism, it's egotism. When you speak for a living on YT, especially doing criticism, it slowly poisons your mind.

Charisma is easy. What's hard is to have zero moral standards and the shamelessness to tell people exactly what their reptile brain want to hear. Only a pervert can excel at that.

I don't disagree. But even in America your speech has such consequences that it is never really free. You think I would be able to say the shit I say if I was employed by anyone but myself?

The right wing in Israel is lost in a genocidal fever dream.

No. I rarely watch shows.

Free speech is never perfect because that is too dangerous and problematic. Ego always abuses free speech to do selfish, heinous things. You give devils enough free speech and they will use it to kill you and rape your corpse.

@AION I don't regard Europe as having free speech.

Yes, I am sometimes forced to ban people whose posts are just too low quality to be worth constantly dealing with. It's an imperfect and unscalable way of dealing with things. But, yes, I do ban low quality posters eventually.

Actually that is free speech. Nazis are protected by free speech. Free speech is disgusting. Which is why it is banned in most parts of the world. The issue is that people disagree about what genocide is.

You underestimate the degree to which people have wacky and biased views no matter how empathetic or spiritual they are. Especially when it comes to political views. There's really no limit to the insane things humans can believe. You will be surprised when your closest friends and family or gurus reveal their weird views. I don't know anyone on this forum deeply enough to predict all their views.

The fundamental flaw with this logic is that Russia has no right or authority to control the constitution of any other sovereign nation but itself. If Ukrainians want to write such a constitution, that is their right. Russia treats Ukraine like a vassal. This kind of attitude is why NATO exists in the first place. Russia is like an abusive ex-boyfriend who thinks he can veto who the woman can date. This is the mentality of a self-absorbed barbarian.

Truth doesn't mean being mean. Meanness is not truthful. Truth can hurt a lot, but it isn't mean. So make that distinction. Relationships require an intelligent mix of truth and kindness, and zero meanness.

I do not control the political opinions of Mods. I do not screen Mods based on their political positions. A Mod is not here to represent my personal views. I don't micro-manage Mods. They are not my employees. It is healthy that Mods have their own diverse views, so that we don't create an echochamber. Diversity means co-existing with views you strongly disagree with. That's what pluralism & democracy entails. There are plenty of views on this forum that I disagree with and must grit my teeth to tolerate. There's no escape from that unless you wanna be a dictator.

Why shouldn't I count war casualties? Hitler started the war and Russians paid the most blood to end it. My grandparents fought Nazis.

@Inliytened1 Dude, Hitler killed more Russians and Ukrainians than he did Jews. You don't see me with crocodile tears milking that event. I don't care what group of people is being killed. To me they are all the same.

It's silly. The kid asked for suicide advice. That means he was already suicidal. ChatGPT did not make him suicidal. Any tool can be abused to harm oneself if one so desires. That is not the tool's fault.

Rat box for thee but not for me.

No it doesn't. Look at Trump or Musk. The more their ego is fed the more it grows. Real spirituality requires practices that go against the ego. That is the point. This is the reason why fake spirituality is so popular. The point of that episode was to help you avoid the trap of fake spirituality which keeps the ego entact. It would be wise of you consider why I say the things I say. There is always a higher purpose behind it.