aurum

Low: False equivalency, both sidesing, close-mindedness, group think, christian bias, denial of basic facts In practice, this is what Conservapedia actually leads to. This is the "non-biased" perspective you are supposedly getting. *Note* other entries in Conservapedia may potentially be less problematic or make good points.

It's just astounding to watch JD Vance proudly lecture the Europeans about democracy. JD Vance, the guy who loves the idea of replacing the entire administrative state with loyalists. JD Vance, the guy linked to known anti-democratic billionaire Peter Thiel. JD Vance, the guy whose president has already tried to knowingly overthrow one free election. JD Vance, the guy whose current administration is actively removing democratic checks in the US and attempting a coup. How can anyone even take this seriously?

I was pleasantly surprised to find out about the Global Disinformation Index today. They are a nonpartisan, non-profit dedicated to combating disinformation worldwide. I have not done a deep dive on their methodology, but a cursory overview at least suggests they are doing some seriously good work. You can do a search to see how the media in your country is doing. Here is a brief summary of their full report on the United States from 2022: https://www.disinformationindex.org/research/2022-10-21-brief-disinformation-risk-in-the-united-states-online-media-market-october-2022/ What's interesting is that I found out about the GDI through Rand Paul's speech today about supposed "fraud" that DOGE is finding. He was very upset that USAID had given money to GDI and claimed they "blacklisted" conservative media. In reality, what happened was the GDI had determined that liberal media sources were the least risky for disinformation, while conservative media was the most risky. So be sure to add this index into your collection of indexes to improve your political IQ. Politics is not just your opinion. We can do determine higher from lower, truthful from less truthful, information from disinformation, more evolved from less evolved. And these kind of indexes consistently prove it.

High: Collectivism, societal interconnection, surrender of self-achievement narrative And if you want some low perspectives, just read the comment section

High: Fact-checking, truth above partisanship, empiricism, expert-consensus, stewardship of the epistemic commons From the Global Disinformation Index's mission statement: https://www.disinformationindex.org/mission

That's not really the situation. Russia is not looking for total war with NATO. They could barely conquer a small amount of Ukraine territory. Destiny is right on this. The war should be stopped, but of course there needs to be a negotiation on both sides. The problem is that Trump basically is just giving Putin everything he wants and so far excluding Ukraine and the rest of the international community in the settlement. If Ukraine wanted to just surrender to end the war, they could and I'd support them. But obviously they are not interested in that. They want to get something out of this resistance they have put up, and I think that's very reasonable as well.

Interesting, I did not know about this. Seems similar to Richard Wolff's ideas about worker self-directed enterprises. I do imagine these kind of business models could become more popular as we move collectively more into SD Green.

Great article with a great study. The Guardian is usually a quality source. I see that they've added a note that they plan to continue to hold Trump accountable. We certainly need that right now.

Tesla contract is dead. Technically it started in the Biden administration, but it never got too far. So Elon may be clean on this particular issue. https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/state-department-says-tesla-was-not-awarded-400m-contract-produce-armo-rcna192034

Former Social Security district manager debunking Elon nonsense:

Here is a real simple one, but I think it's effective for demonstrating some basic differences between high and low perspectives. Higher: Long-term thinking, surrendering control of people, empowerment Notice that Steve Jobs started with a lower perspective of being a micro-manager / fixer and had to evolve to a higher perspective. The higher perspective is not a given and includes the lower.

Nice one. This thread potential is high, let's keep it going.

Higher: Non-materialism, ego-awareness, non-resistance, autonomous meaning and decision making

Don't care enough to watch but I'm a casual sports fan. I played a ton of sports growing up and still enjoy a good pick-up game every once in a while. It's fun and good for your health as long as you don't overdo it. And it helps me bond with more mainstream people. You can definitely participate in sports from a higher or lower perspective. Also, I just checked the score and the Chiefs are getting spanked. Justice exists

Higher: Cognitive complexity, construct-awareness, pluralism, root-cause thinking, emphasis on ecology / well-being, high ethical standards, lack of demonization

As if Trump and his goon squad are interested in a nuanced, complex discussion around reform of the CFPB that will lead to the betterment of everyone.

Lower: conflating truth with pragmatism, lack of construct-awareness around scientific, circular reasoning. In contrast with, Higher: Construct-awareness, meta-rationality, transcends and includes lower perspectives

I'm not talking about heads of departments. Obviously every president does that. I'm talking about the deep state. The thousands of federal bureaucrats and workers we have. Also, it should be noted that Trump's choices of department heads are not just normal picks. They are badly unqualified and deep loyalists. This is a false reduction. Corrupting elections is only one part of authoritarianism. Also ,Trump has already attempted to steal one election. Elon donated $270 million for this one. I have no faith they will not at least try further corrupting our elections. They do not believe in democracy. This is also completely false. The president has many checks on its powers. That's the whole point of why the Founding Fathers drafted the constitution the way they did. Checks and balances. President is checked by Congress, the Supreme Court, and in modern times the deep state. This is as it should be, because presidents are not supposed to be kings. The president only has the power to veto a law that Congress has approved. But even this veto can be overturned by Congress. Presidents absolutely cannot unilaterally decide which laws to execute. The "keystone pipeline" was not a law passed by Congress. What Biden did was reverse an executive order that Trump did and that some people argued overstepped his powers. This is not the same thing. If Trump wants to abuse executive orders, you can expect they will be overturned when another president comes steps in. This is again false. A president can veto a law only before it has been signed into law. Once it's signed, it's done. The president can legally do pardons, this is true. But it would certainly be unwise to abuse such a power. If you are pardoning people committing authoritarian acts, the pardon itself becomes authoritarian. Just look at all the lawsuits being filed.

What's your argument for this?

The entire premise of Project 2025 was unitary executive theory. Which is essentially just removing as many checks on Donald Trump's power as possible and replacing gov officials with loyalists who will do all his bidding. Again, you can argue this is what the people voted for. But in that case they voted for authoritarianism. They voted to destroy democracy. So it doesn't make much sense to still call what is happening democracy, assuming Trump and team succeed. If Elon Musk now has the power to override laws that have been signed into existence by Congress + president, are you still going to call that democracy because people voted for Trump? What about if they start refusing to obey federal court orders and are no longer accountable to the justice system?

I don't understand your perspective then. If you've been having profound spiritual experiences for almost a decade, you must have realized God. And you must have realized awakening is not just about aimlessly wandering forever, however poetic that may sound. What are some of the infinite possibilities of the valley that Wilber is missing?

You can argue the American people democratically elected him to be an authoritarian. But their end goal is still authoritarianism.

Trump was elected to do Project 2025, which is in essence an authoritarian takeover of the government. I see no evidence republicans will suddenly change their mind. Trump will likely only lose support if things go very badly economically and a significant percentage of the public turn on him.

@Nilsi What is your relationship to mysticism? Have you realized God yet? Your work is academically impressive, which I respect. But I think you are ultimately missing the larger point. The reason for the resolution into a synthetic whole is because reality IS ONE. That includes the distinction between sameness / difference. The genius of Hegelian dialectic is that it moves the mind towards ONENESS. Both have some truth. No, the very condition is God. Which is infinity, which is ONE. Any difference you can make is included in this. Maybe I don't understand what Nietzsche means by "will to power", but this sounds very wrong to me. There is no relationship between personal power and higher states of consciousness. I think the bottom line is that neither Nietzsche or Deleuze understood God all that well. So it's a mistake to take these guys too seriously when it comes to the ultimate questions.

That's right. That's one of the challenges of this work. 100% yes. I recommend being highly selective about who and what insights you share, as well as when to share them. They will probably notice some changes, but they won't be able to understand why. There's a lot I don't communicate. Just do the work. You don't need your family to understand or approve of it. Be the captain of your life. When you're with your family, you talk about more normal stuff they can relate to. Your career, your kids, mortgage, blah blah blah. And yes that kind of shallow socializing can be really uninteresting. Often I struggle to stay engaged. But you're probably going to have to deal with these kind of people for the rest of your life. So get used to it. You can sometimes frame things for them in more simplistic ways they will understand ( "I want to be a better person", "I want to explore my potential", "I'm maturing as a person") without going into excessive detail. Also, make sure you make an effort to carve out solitude + deeper friendships where you can engage in deeper topics that feel more authentic. I have a handful of people I share some of my deeper thoughts, which helps a lot.