Apparition of Jack

Yes ma'am

I once went out with a girl who was into drum circles, bush dances, LSD, oneness etc so I thought I was going to have some good conversation about politics, the environment, etc When I told her I supported Bernie Sanders she was a bit upset and basically said she didn’t support him because people work hard for their money, implying Bernie would tax working people too much I was kinda surprised, I had assumed that all drum circley people were stage Green hippies but I learnt that day that many of them are just Orange people who want a coping mechanism for capitalism without wanting to deal with the systemic issues of it. In that sense it’s almost like a “typical” religion like Christianity in that it’s just something people believe and go to events for to make their lives mildly more comfortable. Anyway that’s my random story. Sometimes you’ll find Tier 2 thinkers in the most random of places. Looking for “spiritual” people can be hit or miss, lol.

One of the benefits of charity isn’t just for the people receiving the money, but also the people giving. Donating to charity as part of your lifestyle helps you not get too attached to money and lets you see what things are important to spend money on and what things aren’t. I think it’s why something like Islam makes giving to charity one of its 5 precepts, since it moves you away from materialism.

@samurai This is literally neo-Nazi propaganda

Zuck is feelin the pressure

At some point you have to ask yourself is letting their ideas to fester unabated just in order to prevent maybe a handful of people seeing them as "matyrs" really worth it though? When a social cancer like QAnon grows big enough to warrant ending, the long-term gain of cutting it out beats the short-term pain of a few looneys seeing themselves as matyrs IMO. Plus frankly, that's still on them. No government or agency has a responsibility to let criminals continue their illegal activity just because stopping that might cause a backlash. Look at Alex Jones' banning from YouTube. For a while people were saying he's being censored, but now who still cares? Probably only a handful of die-hard loyalists. For everyone else though, his ideas have stopped spreading, which is a net positive.

@Leo Gura That doesn't sound very "mean green" to me tbh. I was expecting something much worse. Perhaps little disrespectful, especially to the eyes of a blue conservative, but she had a lot of good arguments to make.

Consequences will never be the same...

Pope Francis is a great pope. Honestly he's probably the most conscious pope we've had in a century (and likely for another century to come.) He's obviously far from perfect, he's still a dogmatist after all, but as far as popes go he's really up there. In a global leadership stage full of conmen, incompetent buffoons, dictators and cut-throats, his message of environmentalism, tolerance and compassion are sorely needed and appreciated.

Vaush for moderator??

Ok, so I know I've said that we have to treat a Trump victory as inevitable and try to fight that, but as time goes on and more things go against Trump's direction I feel like there's actually a good chance Biden could win this (but remember, voting is how this will happen!!) I guess I have upgraded my prediction from "cautiously pessimistic" to "cautiously optimistic." However, that doesn't mean there aren't still dangers, the biggest of which is what Trump might do if he loses. I think it might be worth it to start thinking about how each of us can make a difference to help make the transition to a Biden presidency easier if Trump tries to start shit. There is a lot individual people can do if they're prepared and have actions in place to assist this transition. Please feel free to post ideas and resources here. Things like arguments that can be used for pro-Trump family members who are worried about a "marxist globalist takeover" if Biden wins. Maybe things like videos and links on how democracy works and the benefits of a Biden presidency. Things like how to write to congressmen about voicing your support for democracy and due process. I think America is in for a shift come November and, hopefully, if its a Biden win, then we can use that shift to create a more conscious world, rather than one of fear and division.

https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative How to find your representative who you can email. I think if enough people show support of the election results it'll help enough people in the government to take the results seriously.

https://joebiden.com/build-back-better/ This is Joe Biden's job plan. This should appeal to a lot of people who are worried about the economy and not having enough to pay for living.

I think he will try. Whether it'll work or not will be up to a lot of things. That's what this thread is about.

Here's a documentary by Vice on how mail in voting does work:

My thoughts exactly.

@Lindsay The problem is the first past the post voting system means that a vote for a third party is functionally a vote for your opponent. The FPPT system sucks but it’s what you have to work under right now, and the only way to change it is to vote for the higher conscious party out of the two majors (so in this case Dems) and then push them to implement ranked choice voting. Otherwise you’re letting the corporatocracy, conservative wing nuts and fascists consolidate more power.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/y3zynw/twitter-says-you-cannot-tweet-that-you-hope-trump-dies-from-covid I was going to post this in the Trump COVID thread but I felt it was important enough to highlight it in a new thread. This is good news IMO. It shows that social media companies are waking up to the impact they have on people's behaviours and are taking that responsibility more seriously. I feel like we could finally be learning the lessons of toxic unrestricted internet sites that lead to people committing suicide, ending political careers, getting authoritarians put into power, etc. and are putting rules in place to make the internet more conscious, healthy and useful.

@Leo Gura I agree with this to an extent, a pure moneyless classless utopia is out of the question at this stage, but at the same time I think it’s also important to note that in all the places where communism has been tried, it was usually in some of the most brutal places in the world (imperial Russia, 20th century China, etc) and/or deliberately undermined by capitalist powers. When the system you’re building from is already very corrupt and dangerous, it’s hard not to get corrupt and dangerous results. If, by some miracle, a democratic socialist party took power in the US, for instance, I find it very hard to imagine a repeat of the tragedies we saw in previous countries simply because America is too conscious and developed for that.

Apple pie gives you diabetes

I can't imagine being a conspiracy theorist. They seem to live such paranoid and tense lives. Imagine jumping at every shadow you see. It sounds horrible.

He'll be making a nature documentary about himself in that case

This is partly the social media company's themselves fault, since they designed their websites with the goal of rewarding the most clickbaity behaviour. It makes more money to constantly have two sides screaming at each other through endless tweets / youtube videos / etc. than it does to have a single group of people have a slow, calm discussion. Although this doesn't absolve the users entirely though. More people should be responsible with social media.

@Gidiot Cool, I'm going to watch that, thanks for the recommendation man

@Leo Gura Leo, American nationalism generally puts white people on top. The Proud Boys having black and hispanic people in it is the same thing as a racist misogynist redneck saying "I can't be racist I have black friends!" It's entirely possible to have close connections with people of other races whilst still maintaining an internal sense of your own racial superiority. It's also possible to have friends of other races whilst still maintaining an sense of your racial inferiority. Anti-minority bias in minorities is a real thing. My family comes from a migrant background and yet my aunt was literally complaining about people from our culture a few months ago. It's internalised racism. Watch the video again, you'll notice there's a part where they attack a reporter for being part of the "antifa media." WHen she says shes not antifa they just tell her "well you're still an Arab." That's white supremacy and racialism in a nutshell. If they had an Arab member of the Proud Boys, that wouldn't somehow make their remarks against her OK. They're a racist, white supremacist organisation that accept minorities as a way to deflect from criticism.