Joshe

How do you think Covid contributed? Simply from having free time to engage with conspiracies and falsehood/propaganda? Exactly. I don't care who ushers in the new enlightenment or about ideology. I just want people to operate on solid reason and truth and to have the ability to abandon their ideas in light that they are flawed. It is what it is though. No sense in wishing we were more evolved than what we are. I still haven't fully accepted it. It almost seems irresponsible to not push back in some way. It's just so odd how there was such a split in consciousness. I can make sense of it intellectually, but I've found no explanation that makes living in an insane asylum any easier.

@Consept It's interesting. I knew this degree of ignorance existed since I was young and I always struggled with accepting that the vast majority reject reality to serve one's positions grounded in self-service and blind emotion. It's always been there but now has found a suitable host for expression. If humanity makes it out of this mess, these people will be case studies for future generations. When studying evolution of human consciousness, they'll be featured in the chapter titled "The Nature of Ignorance" and in books about historical detriments to humanity, they will be featured in the chapter right after Hitler, and we will be the ones to assist in articulating what happened on the front lines. When they read this message, they will wholly misunderstand it. They'll think it's a smug self-righteous insult because they can do nothing but project what such words would mean if they came from their own mouths. On a long enough timeline, so long as their ignorance doesn't destroy humanity, our side wins. (by 'our side', they'll think I mean the left) I sometimes wonder if I'm talking to bots or 17 year olds. Again, they'll think this is an insult because they think they know everything (like a 17 year old). They'll think that's an insult as well.

haha, that doesn't appear likely. I bet he'll add a 14th key. The Key of Propaganda. 😂 He's really doubled down. Something about him seems off to me. I'm not sure but I wonder if he's getting dementia.

Gloating in the misfortune of others is the opposite of virtue. Virtue is things like patience, kindness, good work ethic, integrity, compassion, understanding, intelligence, etc. Anyone who enjoys kicking people while they're down needs to have a long look at themselves.

You say he’s not a villain. Others say he is. Someone is very wrong. Who do you think it is? Here’s a quick heuristic for you to easily find the answer. How flawed have you noticed your own thinking throughout your life? Have you noticed you were wrong about many things? Have you been called wise, intelligent, and a good thinker by many? Would you say that you have high integrity? Now, realize this: how many intelligent, wise, and integrous people have you seen for Trump? My all-time favorite video from Leo is the one on self-bias. It’s like 3 hours long. Have you sat through it and wished you could see your selfishness and tried like hell to identify how you deceive yourself? If you do, you might find your position on Trump exists for reasons other than being founded on good sense-making. Are you ready to see what aspect of yourself you’re blindly serving?

Maybe I read you wrong but it seems like you enjoy rubbing it in the face of Trump-haters that he won. Is that not the case? How much is it that you get off on rubbing it in vs you just wanting them to pay more attention to aspects of their thinking you think are flawed? 50-50?

Biden sucks at public speaking but he's at home when doing politics off camera. I used to have a demented grandpa who could still do what he always did but when he got tired and stressed, he couldn't do those things well. I think Biden is like that. If you ever see him when he's not in the camera spotlight, he's clearly much less stifled. I doubt he just sat around and did nothing. I think he could meet up with his Democrat pals and sign papers just fine.

It's a breath of fresh air to see this attitude. What greater good is there than to care more about the peace and enlightenment of the whole? There is none. It's the ultimate life purpose. I care more that the world find peace than I find it. I'd give my life in service to that cause. This "it's all an illusion" talk can be transcended. Why do you think we're here? What will you do when you reach that high peak? Come back and chop wood carry water? Ah yes... you will finally be at peace at last. You will have fulfilled your curiosity and you will know how to remain calm. YOU will be nice and cozy chopping your wood. Peaceful people sit in ignorant bliss while the world withers. For the strong, the state of reality serves as fuel. The problem is it takes much development to care more about reality than oneself. Weakness pervades. Most so-called spiritual people care more about their own comfort than anything else and they'll use any story they can to preserve their cushiony homeostasis. The work begins by solving the problems of recruitment/mobilization, securing capital, and coordination. It can be done but there would need to be a leader to hold it all together. Where's @Leo Gura?

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A simple teenager understands why a villain would want to be leader of the free world. You have to be mentally handicapped to not get this, and if you are, I'm sorry, I mean no offense. I think you've got much work to do my friend. Why would a villain want to be leader of the free world? Can you think of any reasons? My guess is you'll now want to pivot to "he's not a villain" and scrap your whole "it doesn't make sense for him to put so much energy into it unless he really cared about things" argument.

We already know Trump won, and there are many factors as to why. Everything is connected. So yes, the rhetoric you're talking about did have an impact, but not as much as you think. Also, you created this thread not to shine a light on said rhetoric, but to jab a stick in the sides of the people you hate. You aren't trying to get people to see anything. You're just getting off on attacking people who you think are in emotional distress. You think it's the perfect time to kick them... when they're down... and you get off on it. "ha ha"

And to think, it picked up on all that just from a single paragraph.

Specifically this. Wise up bucko!

haha... yeah, I was just entertaining myself. Here's what the AI thinks of you: I have it analyze my own thoughts all the time. I like how you can make it focus on specific points. I had it focus on maturity in my last post. It didn't want to do that at first. It tries hard to stay neutral and not offend. Another member plugged one of my posts into it the other day and it responded that I'm likely biased against white men, which is funny, because I'm a white man. 😂 If we're being honest though, most of us here couldn't compete with an AI intellectually. Yeah, we can often make connections better than the AI but as far as analyzing those connections, AI can save us a lot of time there and show us things we might have missed, as well as help us better articulate a jumbled mess of intuitions. Some people think it will lead to cognitive decline but if you use it right, it can improve cognition.

@mr_engineer Consept was basically saying "Your ideas aren’t worth engaging directly, so here’s a robot’s take on them.” I see it as a kind gesture he had hoped would, but I'm sure did not expect, lead you to self-reflection. He wasn't trying to take you down. Maturity in discussion involves openness to feedback, a willingness to examine one’s biases, and the ability to separate one’s ideas from one’s identity.

Underground bunker time. Time to sharpen the sword. Get healthy and fit, get your shit in order, and be prepared for what might come. In the meantime, intelligent people need to be banding together to mitigate this disaster. Let me ask you this: If you had a crystal ball and could see what was going to happen and your prediction is correct, what action would you take? The biggest issue would be coordination. There are plenty of people who would devote their lives to saving the world, but how do you get them to coordinate? You need capital. You'd need to sell the idea to a wealthy person who also wants to save the world and have them bankroll the operation. From there, you'd need a very intelligent and fearless leader and a large team or teams of devoted, intelligent operatives. Ideally, the team would be made of tech people, data people, ideas people, and fit people. There would be no room for cowards or idiots. From there, you could get to work on many fronts.

I challenge this widespread belief. Have you personally been charmed by Trump or have you just seen how others could be and discerned from that he's charming because lots of people say it? If he weren't crusading on people's dreams, not many would find him pleasant or attractive. "Charming" wouldn't make the top 10 adjective list of how people perceive him if you go back and run a poll before he became president. I have a hard time believing people thought he was charming then and even now. I bet if you could go back in time and ask 100 women if that Trump guy who plays on Celebrity Apprentice is charming, they'd answer with a look of disgust. And if you'd ask the guys, they'd be like "wtf are you talkin' about?" Charming: pleasant or attractive. (of a person or manner) polite, friendly, and likable. Maybe they're talking about when he brings his grandchildren up on stage or something.

Why pry?

People being Republican in early 2000 was not a bad thing. Hawkins showed disdain for the left but he didn't peddle propaganda as far as I know. I don't fault him for any problems with his model. As a result of your information consumption, you're seeing things that don't exist. I'm not stage green. I'm anti-falsehood. Does stage green bring any virtues to the table? Virtue is not weakness, even if you see weak stage green people trying to be virtuous. The ideal man is virtuous, not vicious. Integrity, honesty, compassion, empathy, treating others with respect, might rub you the wrong way, but these are all aspects of the ideal man. As is mental strength, knowledge, wisdom, intelligence, etc. How integrous are you? How honest are you? How much do you lie to yourself and others? I'm not interested in your hatred of what you perceive to be weak stage green people. Yeah, they can be annoying, but who gives a fuck? When they start operating on 90% falsehoods and when they make up the majority of the population, I might take up your mantle.

What I'm trying to tell you is, you assume these people are like you and thinking like you. You are wise enough to not want those things and you think because it's so clear to you, it's clear to them. That's projection. When egotists conquer one thing, they look for something else to conquer. Once they conquer the world or all that you could imagine someone would want to conquer, they will need another target of acquisition. Their will to power does not necessarily go away once they accomplish their goal. If you understand the ego, I assume you'd agree with me on the above, but you for some reason don't think it applies to Musk. Again, it all comes down to reading reality accurately. Discerning "why" Musk is doing what he's doing can be a question in your head and can be fleshed out without relying on biased sources. Believe it or not, it's possible to be objective.

I just had an idea. What if all debates and arguments were moderated by a well-trained AI and the unbiased AI could be the judge. I know there'd be problems but they could be ironed out. Imagine that as the battleground of ideas. Meet me in the ring mother fucker! 😂 I intuited a while back that many non-thinking people would hate AI due to it's fact-based approach pushing back against their ideas. I've seen my family members reject it's factually correct answers and they justify it with "you can't trust that thing. It's not always right". haha. Actually, thinking about it more. This could be a really big deal and even core to society at some point in the future. It's very ambitious but it could be huge in terms of financial success AND in healing the collective epistemology.

@zurew Thanks. Yeah, I need to drill this into my skull: It's like I know it, but I don't want to accept it and I continually rebel against it.

haha, I like this. Do you know of any books or anything that go into this more deeply? I feel like we need an updated resource on this whole phenomenon. I've had several conversations where I lead someone to see their position is irrational and they just say things like "yeah, you have a point, something to think about". 😂 I mean, I understand bias, but damn, strap on a sack. It's like they don't have the courage to be wrong, which makes me think they really want to be right due to some inferiority/superiority complex. Just a theory, and it wouldn't apply across the board but I think it's an aspect in at least some cases.

You're projecting your psyche onto Musk. Do you think 200b is enough for everyone? Also, with Musk, it's not really about the money anymore since he's already got enough and can easily continue to generate more. What he's after now is full control over humanity. He wants full control over all of us and the planet. That's why he's doing it. Plus, he loves the attention. He's now a cancer on humanity. He just endorsed Rick Scott to hold one of the highest positions in US government, House leader. Elon is now fully on board with the far right agenda. Just a couple of Rick Scott's ideas: Sunsetting Federal Programs One of Scott's most controversial proposals was to sunset all federal legislation after five years. This would have potentially affected popular programs like Social Security and Medicare. After facing significant backlash, Scott revised his proposal to exempt Social Security, Medicare, national security, veterans' benefits, and other essential services. Tax Policy Scott initially proposed requiring all Americans to pay some federal income tax, which could have increased taxes for low-income earners and some middle-class individuals who currently pay no federal income tax due to various deductions. He later dropped this proposal and replaced it with a requirement for able-bodied Americans under 60 without young children or incapacitated dependents to work.

Nice! Yeah, I think we'd all agree more if we were all working from the same definitions 😆. I'll check that post out.