Apparition of Jack

@Hello from Russia It's also interesting to note that you said you and your friends are from the CIS. I think life there is harder than it is in the West, and so a lot of vulnerable young people resort to escapism / extreme obsession to give them a sense of joy and purpose in life. I know a lot of the most extreme cases of sexualised cosplay, gamer culture etc. come from that area, since it's probably a good way to make money and if you come from a Siberian shithole town, what do you have to lose by being modest? lol

@Hello from Russia Extreme anime fans are weird, man. I'm a huge proponent of not judging people based on lifestyle choices and I see every weird quirk as just people's unique way of making sense of life, but when I get exposed to intense anime stuff I get a really weird vibe. I think you're right in saying that there's a lot of incel / shut-in types in the anime community. I think there's a lot of unresolved mental issues under the surface, and the extreme escapism of anime offers a never-ending source of distraction for young, messed up people to lose themselves in and avoid dealing with the struggles of their life.

I don't know the first thing about how cryptocurrencies work so this is just my random opinion, but I can't help but feel like they'll never break out of anything more than a "niche" role. It'll only ever be for hardcore libertarians / netizens / computer nerds / online drug dealers / etc. because otherwise it requires too much thought and effort for your average layperson to get into and doesn't have immediately obvious benefits. Not to mention just how entrenched "real" money is in the worlds of finance, government, etc. I just don't see the US government or JP Morgan adopting Bitcoin as a fundamental part of their platform.

@Scholar I mean, I'm still not really sure I get your point. Italians invented both the Roman Empire and Catholic Church, therefore they thrive under Blue structures? Ok, but what about French people in the Catholic Church? Or Greek citizens of Rome? etc. Not to mention that your example of the Roman Empire and Mafia had a lot of Red in them too. I really don't think what you're saying applies any more to Italians than it does to say Greek people, Lebanese, Tunisians, Iranians, etc. Italy is still a rather stage Blue society so obvious modern Italians are going to do well in Blue institutions, but that doesn't make them uniquely good at this or whatever. Again I still struggle to see the point you're trying to make.

@trenton A lot of conservatives deny systemic racism because it’s a threat to their worldview, and/or because they have a conscious (or more likely subconscious) interest in pretending it doesn’t exist. The conservative worldview is generally “if you want anything good in life, you have to put in the effort and earn it yourself.” There’s wisdom in this, but it obviously ignores the fact that for some people there’s going to be HUGE barriers to success no matter how much effort they put in. A black man trying to start a new science start up is going to face a lot of hurdles to achieving this just because he’s black for instance, but this then would force a conservative to admit that it’s not personal effort alone that determines how well off you are and that there’s greater social forces at play which they would then have to accept impact peoples lives, which is something they can’t yet process. Also, like Forestluv said, a lot of it has to do with stereotypes and social roles and all that. A white conservative might not feel racist because they never have openly hostile thoughts towards black people, but then when black people start to move out of “their role” (poorer, subservient, etc) they feel threatened and confused. If you highlight how black people are discriminated against in terms of housing, a conservative may subconsciously want to deflect this information because they subconsciously believe black people “deserve” to live in poorer and run-down housing. Not all conservatives are like this just FYI. But it is a trend.

That’s what makes Michael’s death so sad. He was well on his way to be a very influential and grounded voice in politics but he died before he could really reach his prime tbh. The world is poorer without him

I mean, pretty much any civilisation prior to 1950 would’ve had very strong stage Blue structures. All the empires and institutions of Arabia, Britain, China, Peru etc just as a few examples throughout history would’ve been primarily Blue. I don’t think Italy is particularly unique in creating code Blue institutions.

@Leo Gura You absolutely should, worst case scenario Sam considers you a weird new age weirdo and forgets about you, best case scenario he takes on Integral Theory, Spiral Dynamics etc on board and helps create Yellow-tier discourse in the American political scene.

@Epikur One thing I've noticed is that Trump has in recent months become a lot more conciliatory to facts that he doesn't like and has lost a lot of his "mojo" when it comes to being a stubborn prick. Look at his answer to whether the cases in the US are bad or not at around 1:05, he admits that what he said about it just being "burning embers" in regards to the level of new infection numbers could also include "flames" such as Florida. In previous years, he would've just outright denied that he even said such a thing in the first place. Of course, he then goes on another rant about how well the US is doing and how much the rest of the world sucks, so he's not exactly out of automatic-defense mode yet. I do think this crisis and the sheer inhuman pressure being put upon his low level of consciousness if forcing even him to evolve though, even if in just in small ways. EDIT: Just to add to this, look at how he's lost a lot of his aggressive masculine energy compared to how he used to operate. He's still in dominance mode but he knows, on some level, he doesn't have the same raw confidence he used to. He's looking for acceptance and trying to give cues to other people to affirm what he says more. Honestly, I think this covid situation has really spooked him and made him doubt his own ability to be in control of everything (not that he ever was, just that he believed he was.)

One thing I really like is finding little examples of two cultures that you wouldn't usually except to mix together coming together in a cool new hybrid culture. Here's an example of Jewish Ethiopians: It shows me that cultures are more inter-connected than we assume and that absolute borders between identities don't exist. There's thousands of these unique hidden cultures around the world that don't fall easily into more mainstream categories of identification.

Why would a disease prevent you from self-actualising? In fact, being made aware of our mortality is a very powerful tool for waking up and doing spiritual work if you use it correctly.

@Opo Interesting how the USA, EU and Chinese flags all have stars on them. Something about that symbol has universal appeal

I see absolutely nothing going wrong with this thread

I'm not so sure if it's as simple as good ventilation, but I do feel like there's some key bits of info that haven't been connected yet that'll help determine when / how it spreads and who is the most vulnerable (and therefore needs our protection / distancing the most.) For instance, my country has two major cities. Right now, one city is in a major lockdown due a huge spike in cases, but the other is more or less going about business as usual despite some obvious restrictions. And both were virus hotspots at the start of the outbreak, yet only one is seeing a major resurgence yet the other is still doing OK (for the time being anyway.) What's the differences between these two cities? I really have no idea. On paper both should be the same virus wise, yet the conditions in one city for some reason have caused a resurgence and not the conditions in the other. I'd like to know what those conditions are. Maybe the virus is airborne, and the first city was just unlucky enough that an airborne cluster broke out a second time. Whatever the case, I think you're right that there's a lot of competing egos as to how this virus spreads, and it'll take cooler heads and a willingness to see the conditions holistically in order to figure it out. I actually think we have a good chance of getting a handle on this thing within the next few months so long as minds are continuously put to work at figuring it out, and from then on it'll just be a matter of implementing our findings and abiding by the necessary restrictions until a vaccine or strong treatment is developed. At least I hope so.

@hyruga Trump may not be President by the time this is over, which hopefully means there’ll be less neocons in the White House. Who knows though.

What type are you? @tesla

It depends on what you mean by "revolutionary socialism." Socialism generally has a lot of Green (and some Orange) elements to it, so you'd be hard to find a socialist movement that doesn't at least in part adhere to Green values, but depending on the country that it's operating in / the time period its occuring etc. then you can have revolutionary socialism that extends Red all the way up to Green. Could you give some more specific examples of what you mean by revolutionary socialism?

@Leo Gura Rape doesn't have to rely on physical force to occur, there can be psychological or emotional coercion involved instead, which would be how most female-on-male rape occurs. You're right that 99% of guys never have to worry about being physically overpowered and raped by a woman, but rape is so much more nuanced than that. Perhaps an ugly boss gets her cute young employee blackout drunk at an office party, and he wakes up to her sucking his dick, and he's too freaked out / drunk to do anything but he feels disgusted the whole time. This is still rape, even if there was no physical domination involved, and the guy would feel just as bad as any other rape victim. That's nothing to mention things like statutory rape committed by female teachers against teenage (or even pre-teen) students...

"How Grug download fire?"

@Hello from Russia Well, that's how most people today think of it yes, but historically libertarianism has actually been associated with left-wing ideas and it was only in the 70s that it started to be more associated with the right-wing. Libertarian Socialism is basically socialist thought that rejects the authoritarianism and statism of things like Soviet communism. @Leo Gura Well, by libertarian socialism I mean the worldview (I know I know, dirty word) of treating everyone with respect regardless of colour, gender, etc., being distrustful of authority, being distrustful of states and state forces, downplaying the importance of money in human affairs, collectively producing goods, relying on human goodwill and co-operation to manage our problems instead of coercion, and so on. By social democracy I mean relying on parliamentary democracy to create the best political outcomes for everyone (even if it involves compromise), realising that money and markets are unavoidable but using it to uplift the most people, realising that states and authority and coercion are necessary even if they should have oversight, and so on. Basically I accept the need for money, states, coercion, etc. but endeavour to create a world where these things are unnecessary. You could say it's a form of prefigurative politics. It's like being both utopian and pragmatic at the same time.

@Leo Gura I call myself a libertarian socialist, but in practice I lean more towards social democracy, because like you say you can't solve massive collective issues with a bunch of local-sized worker councils. Yet, I don't feel like there's a contradiction between the two - for me libertarian socialism is more of a mindset, a way of treating other people and what I expect of myself, whereas social democracy is the nuts-and-bolts solutions to the material problems the world faces. My libertarian socialism informs my social democracy and my social democracy grounds my libertarian socialism. Does that make sense? Am I thinking too much about these things?

@Opo 14

@Leo Gura Shhhh don't give me ideas

@Gesundheit What a lot of guys think of "masculine power" comes at the expense of feminine power, but any power than relies on suppressing another isn't actually power at all

@Vagos Premature death can still be counter-productive because then you'll have to deal with your karma in the next life (if you accept reincarnation), making it harder to self-actualise and awaken. Like Leo has said survival isn't just about survival, it's also about transcendence, which you can't do if you die. Of course you're right from an Absolute perspective there's no difference between saving the earth and destroying it, but so long as people haven't yet awakened and burnt off their karma there'll also be reasons to keep people alive, at least on the relative plane.