aurum

Bernie is a SD Green progressive, which is unappealing to most people in the US. If he seems like such an obvious choice to you, that's because you are also likely around SD Green.

Interpret the polling how you want. I don’t think a blowout is going to happen.

This is an exaggeration. That's what we've got to work to prevent. Hence why I'm writing what I'm writing. Some of that is probably inevitable. It's more a matter of whether it's enough to actually make a difference. If you are so sure Trump will win and that Biden can't, then please present your superior, alternative solution. Otherwise there is no point going on about this. Just campaign for Biden the best you can and let it go.

Don't turn this into an attack on democrats. Biden's admin was highly successful for the past four years.

Like who? There is no one more popular.

These debates don't matter much in the end. If he dies in office, then Kamala will be president. That's a far superior outcome than Trump winning. I don't like Biden's age either. But this is where we are at. Whether or not it's insulting is irrelvant. Politics is highly pragmatic. It's like you are stepping onto a battlefield. Gavin Newsom is an interesting alternative but I've not seen any indication he will be running. Nor do I have a sense that doing so would even be feasible given our time constraints. Nor do I believe he would necessarily be more popular. So unless somehow that all changes, calls for Biden to step down are just hot air that divide party unity. Some people are doing just that. Right now things are focused on the debate, but people will move on. Speculation. We don't know that.

It won't. His only chance is if Biden dies before the election or drops out. But neither of those things seem likely. In addition, I'm assuming the Dems would just run someone else. In which case he'd still be out.

And that's exactly what will happen again. Which is why he has a very reasonable chance. If you think Biden is suddenly going to get blown out, that shows you don't really understand how presidential elections work. You can't get sucked into the hysteria of these kind of smaller media events. They come and they go. What is going to happen is that all the blue states will still go to Biden. And all the red states will still go to Trump. Then we have the purple swing states, like Arizona, Ohio etc. It will be very close in these states, with predictions being difficult to make either way. So overall it's tight, with Trump certainly being able to win. But Biden can certainly win as well. Don't forget that Biden is the incumbent who did a good job during his term. Polling is interesting but it misses a lot.

That changes nothing in terms of the point I was making.

Absolutely not. Biden has a perfectly reasonable chance of winning. That was true before this debate, and it's still true now. It's very hard to blow your chances that badly, especially when you are the incumbent. You are also not appreciating what kind of campaign it takes to get someone elected president. There won't just be some "issues". It's a complete fantasy. If you have concerns about Biden, that needed to be addressed months or even years ago. The time for these kind of conversations is over.

You have a lot of concurrent issues, so working with someone with a broad scope / skills would probably be a good idea. What have you tried?

Incorrect. You did not evolve to have over 600, energy-costly muscles in your body just for bone-density purposes. Bone-density is one important reason, yes. But there's more to it than that.

That's a bit misleading. You absolutely can suffer from muscle atrophy, especially after an injury or a period of bed rest. Inadequate protein / caloric intake can also be a contributing factor, along with metabolic issues. Many people are suffering from being "skinny-fat" right now, where they have low muscle mass and high fat, which can contribute to conditions such as diabetes and cardiovascular issues. Body composition matters. We can also mention all the various genetic muscular dystrophy conditions, such as FSHD. Then there's age-related sarcopenia, which is one of the top conditions we are concerned about for people getting older. With loss of muscle comes a downward spiral of decrease in bone-density, creating a perfect storm for seniors to take a fall. Losing muscle is very possible and not optimal. And you can use resistance training to improve this. It's well-proven. That I agree with. There certainly is a lot of ego, vanity and general immaturity that goes on in gym culture.

What about Santa Claus?

Good breakdown. We are 5 MONTHS from November. No new candidate is being selected. It’s Biden or Trump at this point, so take your pick.

And what is your alternative solution?

That is a very small percentage of why real victims are not believed. Most of it comes from victim-blaming and societal norms around assault. If you believe what you wrote, then you’d probably benefit from reading some history specifically on this question. It’s not a “girl who cried wolf” situation. Just punch exactly what you said above in ChatGPT and see what it says.

@QVx Consider using quality resistance bands. They're good for rehab and seem to not cause people as many issues. Also, you don't want to hurt yourself, but you also don't want to baby it. You want to get back to as much physical activity as you can safely tolerate as soon as you can. Hiring a trainer might help you with getting back into things.

Stay the course people. I agree it didn't look great for Joe. But calls for him to step down are absurd. He is still the best option at this point.

I am attempting to help show you a different way of thinking about this. Which obviously didn't translate. Generalized anxiety about being falsely accused of something is real. I've experienced it before. So I empathize with that perspective. If that happens, something that can be helpful is to realize that you are still in control of your behavior. You can be a person of integrity in your relationships. You can be someone that people trust. You can learn to navigate emotionally charged social situations with greater ease. This empowers a person, rather than making you feel like they could be accused of something at any moment and that there's nothing they can do about it. Also, if someone doesn't want to be accused of something, just don't do that thing. I've never been accused of tax fraud because I've never committed tax fraud. Works very well. In addition, I've already pointed out we have legal ramifications for false accusations (defamation laws, lying under oath, burden of proof etc). And there are also non-legal, informal ramifications for false accusations in the form of social shaming, stigma etc. So it's not as if these things go unchecked. I don't know what the scientific research on this question says, but I've certainly heard many anecdotes of women hesitating to report genuine cases of assault for this very reason. Of course a false accusation is still possible. And that obviously is problematic if it happens. I do not support such behavior. But the fear around this issue needs to be kept in perspective. Ask yourself: what is the bigger danger in society right now? Is it women making false accusations about men? Or is it women not being believed and listened to in cases of genuine assault?

This is such an absurd “what if” scenario. As if women are intentionally out to get you. If it did happen, the way you handle that is just be reasonable and apologize. Explain calmly and with care that you did not do that. The consequences for both of you would probably be nothing because it’s not a serious situation. In a more serious legal situation, we have defamation and false accusation laws. You cannot just lie in court. I would be devastated. There would be nothing I could do about it. Which is part of the reason why it’s not a good idea to assault women. Negative consequences are important for shaping pro-social behavior. The best thing to do is just act with integrity in your relationships.

Great. So maybe you do happen to be in a position to strike out on your own. I don’t really know. What I know is that most people are not. Even for Owen’s audience, you would be in the minority. If you find that fulfilling, then you do you. Nothing I said is an attempt to preclude you from handling your own survival to a reasonable degree. You can work hard, provide value to society and enjoy the benefits of that. Including some freedom. But also, it’s not just that freedom has a cost. It’s that freedom is mostly a fantasy. You cannot free yourself from survival. If anyone thinks they’ve found a way to be free from survival, I’d urge you to look again. Of course there are relative degrees of freedom that are possible to obtain. But they’re not as relative as people would sell you on. Seeking too much freedom is a big trap. And much of Owen’s message encourages it. You don’t need to be rich to have that.

This is some "but what about us poor men?" bullshit. Of course false accusations are not okay. But there ARE already consequences for false accusations. Women already cannot just get away with saying whatever they want. The reason society is pushing to believe women more and defaulting to trusting them is because for so long they were not. We have a deep societal history of sexual assault, which was just swept under the rug. Women either said nothing about it due to fear, or because they knew no one would care / believe them. Now we are moving to correct that. That's part of modern feminism. And yes, it's going to get ugly for a small percentage of men who genuinely committed assault. That IS justice.

And how do people usually develop those skills? By getting a formal education and working in some career for a long time. Maybe even being an employee. But this is exactly what Owen is steering his audience away from because it's "not niche". Lol. Maybe if you are specifically interested in internet marketing you can learn it all online. But that's a strategy that will only work for a small number of people. Dude, there isn't anything special or niche about what you are doing. Internet marketing IS a deeply saturated industry that is highly competitive. Every idiot wants financial freedom. But you think you are unique and breaking the matrix or something. Many people in IM are making their money off of selling the IM dream to other wanna-be internet marketers. And so does everyone else. So that's not some unique advantage. Also, no supercomputer can download skills into your brain at this point. You are still going to have to work hard to develop at whatever you are trying to do. I'm not telling you to be a victim. I'm pointing out problems of Stage Orange kind of thinking. How about instead of entrenching yourself with insane amounts of wealth and then giving back crumbs to the plebs, we just create a more equal society? Maybe a better society would be one where no one has insane amounts of wealth. Maybe insane amounts of wealth itself is a trap. Think about that. Well if it's working for you then go for it. I'm just making my critiques. Do what you want.

Theoretically nothing. You could run a quality internet marketing firm. But in practice it tends to be much different. I listed those examples because they are ways of making money that attract a lot of scammy, desperate, badly unqualified people. And when you're young, broke and have no skills / credentials, they are highly enticing. Which is exactly Owen's audience. Classic trap.