trenton

@Igor I'm curious. Other countries often think of Americans as self absorbed to the point that we don't even know the prime minister of Canada. Do you think that Americans are too self absorbed? If so, how does this cripple our understanding of the world and what are we overlooking? Are we insensitive or close minded to other cultures? How might our behaviors change if we were more aware of the differences in how other cultures think? If Americans are more self absorbed than the average citizen in other nations, then it could add to the never ending story of me, making enlightenment more difficult. A second example could include the occupation of the middle East without recognizing that these countries need to evolve on their own to naturally topple the dictators. The United States worsened it by failing to appreciate the collective consciousness in the regions we occupied.

@Someone here I can give a reason for being defensive toward all kinds of religions. I see the double standard you are trying to point out in that the many failures of Islam is ignored. The approach I would take is to emphasize the similarities between all religions. This way I do not have to defend one and attack another. The ideas in Islam I would point to is the greater vs lesser jihad, forgetfulness, no images as in other religions and so on. If you can point to similarities in other religions, then this is a key to stopping persecution and hatred toward other religions. One of the reasons the left may be critical of Christians is If Christians view Muslims as objectively evil and therefore reject any validity. this would be a criticism from below. This is the same underlying problem that lead to persecution on all sides throughout history. The left is afraid that the evils of Islam can be used to justify more evils against them. The cycle of hatred continues and the left wants to stop it rather than block refugees based on the fact that they are Muslims or start religious profiling of suspected terrorists. I don't mean to make excuses for the corruption of all religions. They still need to grow out of these old ways of thinking eventually because the anti-secularism cannot be sustained without further persecution.

There's a lot of people who get stuck in abusive relationships. This includes my parents. Maybe a separate video could be about "how to confront devilry.". I think he mentioned these things in a few other videos. This video would help me to appreciate the necessity of stage blue. The value they place on law and order while fighting criminals ultimately helps us to develop ourselves further. I think this video could really be a ramp for anybody into personal development even if they are not very spiritual.

I would like to see a video about navigating trickery. This is critical for personal development because if you are not careful and well informed, then you could have your entire bank account wiped or your credit card stolen. This would be a very practical episode even for our friends who don't care about spirituality and personal development. I recently fell for a scam. It was a fake interview for a job I never applied for In which they stole my debit card number. they were offering six figure salaries, required me to pay for a course to get a license, and they called from many different numbers. Luckily, I cancelled my card before they got any of my money. My journey into personal development could have ended today. There are more of these online scams because of COVID. The thumbnail could be little red riding hood walking through the forest, blissfully unaware of the wolf lurking right around the corner. This symbolizes our hero's journey in personal development and the unseen dangers which make us afraid to enter the woods in the first place. The title could be things like "Navigating Trickery" or "How to Avoid Scams."

I also have a friend who was a victim of predatory loaning when she went to college. She was unable to pay back the loan and was going to have 80,000 dollars on her head the rest of her life. When I learned about this I shared my political research and told her about how Joe Biden was making a move to forgive student debt from fraudulent colleges. She perked up and said she was going to check the Biden administration's program. She had been fighting to get a lawsuit for 5 years but nobody would listen to her. Finally, as of two weeks ago all of her debt was forgiven. She started crying tears of joy as she told me about this. She said that I have no idea how much I had just helped her. If you are well informed on politics maybe one day you will make your friends cry tears of joy.

@happyhappy a better outlet is anything private, but not excessive or in a way that causes physical harm. A similar example is with sex. so long as it is at the house rather then in a public bathroom which some people end up doing. There is no problem so long as my brother avoids any negative social consequences and punishments.

I live in a small house with my sister, brother, and grandma. I have a room, my sister has room, but my brother sleeps in the living room with my grandma. My grandma and sister are pointing out that my brother is touching himself inappropriately. He makes up excuses like "I have money in my pocket" or "I need to go to the bathroom." I can see straight through this. In some cases this becomes a serious issue. In high school there were kids who touched themselves during class under the desk or had sex in the bathroom. it can be accompanied by sexual harassment or inappropriate comments that get you in trouble. this could lead to teenage pregnancy or expulsion. Other people look at this person like they are stupid, but in fact this is a worse way of sexuality coming out given a poor enough environment. For the first time I have empathy for these people and I have an easy time not judging them. How should I help my brother? I need to make sure he does not get punished or hurt himself. I think I should point out to him that basement bathroom has a lock. I would remind him of the consequences of touching himself while others are present not because of is evil, but because it is not in his favor. We would then discuss the proper balance to strike so that this does not happen multiple times a day or goes beyond the basement bathroom.

@happyhappy he is 13. I understand fully well that touching oneself is not an issue. I am more concerned about his lack of a better outlet. I intend to point out the consequences by explaining how guilt backfires on these types of issues. I could make a dozen examples of more easily. I don't want my brother to feel ashamed of himself and get in trouble somehow. That is what I am trying to avoid and I have no intention of building him.

@Windappreciator he does not have a room.

@Kamo I watched the video on grasping the nature of thought. It seems very helpful and I will be practicing that. I came up with a couple of thoughts to flatten immediately. This can help me sleep.

The thoughts I have commonly focus on religion and they have since I was a child. At the time of was because I was trying to figure out which religion is the right one. my childhood vows was, If I could ever figure out which religion was the right one, then I would convert to that one. This time it is because every religion also claims to be the most persecuted and I have deconstructed this debate. Here is a story. I had a casual conversation with a Christian one day and he mentioned that Christianity is the most persecuted religion as of it were a fact. I was sceptical and asked for his reasoning. He said it was because of the church burnings in Africa. I then told this to another woman in a casual conversation. She asked for my reasoning before asking for my religious affiliation. I told her that I have no religious affiliation, and then she bought the idea Christianity is the most persecuted religion. She then told her friends who were even more sceptical. They asked for her reasoning, her affiliation, and who she heard this from. She told her friends that she heard it from someone with no religious affiliation. This made it seem believable enough for them to buy it. The Christian quickly left. His plan was a success and now everybody else would promote his religion for him. Christians will focus on the church burnings, Muslims will focus on islamophobia and persecution at the hands of other Muslims, Jews will bring up the 1940's and so forth. This happens because they frame life as an epic battle between good and evil. So how do I determine which religion is objectively the most persecuted? There are a ton of problems with the above question. First of all, which years should be counted? Should this be since 2000, 1900, 1000, or since ever? Secondly, which types of persecution should be measured? Should murder, rape, slavery, torture, and others all be measured separately? Should turning away refugees over islamophobia count as persecution and to what degree? Which religions should be counted on such a study? Should Sunni and Shiite Muslims be measured separately or does Muslim on Muslim persecution count? If measuring murders, then should it be done by quantity or by percentage? For example, if Christianity is a more popular religion than Judaism, then logically more Christians should be murdered more, but the likelihood of being murdered if you are Jew should be higher. Furthermore, if I am counting pegan tribes, African tribes, and native American tribes then the likelihood of being murdered is very high. This is because some of these tribes are now dead religions because they were victims of a successful genocide. In that case of you were part of a particular pegan tribe, then there is 100% chance that you will be murdered during the genocide. Percentage wise, that makes pegans the most persecuted if they are being counted. Christians, Jews and others would argue that pegans should not be counted as real religions. A final problem I will mention here is the age of every religion. If Hinduism is the oldest living religion, then logically it had the most opportunities to be persecuted. So if the parameters start the 15th century BCE, then hindus should the most persecuted. Conclusions: There is not a way to determine things like "most" or "least" objectively. Such a study can only conclude most or least given a certain set of parameters. Given A I conclude X, given B I conclude Y, and given C I conclude Z. All of these are presented like they are facts, but in fact they are self constructed. This puts me in a wierd position. I feel like I don't know, yet I know that everything is relative. If I say "everything is relative" then it is presented like a fact, but if there is no real truth to these "facts," then it is as if I don't know anything. What if there is no truth to discussing whether or not there is truth to things as it appears either way from either angle? If measured by the past decade, then apparently it is Christians according to a quick Google search. This fear of white genocide in Africa is likely driving some people to become white Christian nationalists. It seems hard to compare and quantify, so how can we be sure that these studies are right?

To help my mind to mature more, there are a few things I need to figure out. How do I stop getting upset with myself for thinking of scenarios in which I hurt others and therefore repeat to myself that I should shut up and not tell anyone? This is a psychological pattern in which I compensate for not getting my hopes up through catastrophizing. Bad scenarios occur to me regularly. Maybe I should surrender to the possibility of me being selfish and hurting people? Of course I don't mean to use that as an excuse. It could actually be the case that my level of consciousness is such that I would do that and I am attempting to avoid it. This psychological pattern reminds me of how I was worried about making girls uncomfortable on a date when In fact I am too shy and meek. If I figure this out, then I can stop being a victim of myself by judging myself harshly. I think doing this keeps me out of trouble by not allowing these possibilities to surface.

I recently watched Leo's video about heavy metals. I am attempting to change my habit of drinking tap water because I no longer trust it. I started taking action by comparing the concentration of heavy metals by water bottle brand. I asked the store management about it and my boss seemed uncomfortable when I asked about the cancer causing materials in our products. Ultimately, I was under the impression that Core is one of the better brands in that it has the fewest heavy metals and pfas possible. I bought 5 of the single bottles because the 24 packs are terrible for you. I continued researching the issue and discovered that bottled water is still contaminated with micro plastics. Furthermore, it would be very inconvenient to keep picking up single use water bottles every day. I would like some clarity on what exactly the ideal filter should do. Apparently, it costs about 600 dollars to replace every two years, so clean water seems very expensive. What are the materials that need to be removed through the filter? Which minerals should be added to the water after the filtration? When should the filter be replaced? If somebody could describe in theory what this filter should look like, then that would be great. I don't want to waste my money on an expensive, but useless filter.

The first is a close up. The second shows the score sheets. I have a laptop I work on in front of this vision board on top of the books shelf.

I have my vision board and I combined it with my life purpose, values, strengths, and goals. I included some of my interesting chess games in the vision board. The three games on the board are victories I have over titled players. I have two notation sheets on the side of the board from real chess tournaments. The rest includes affirmations, inspiring quotes, and three main themes. The themes are spirituality at the top, education on the left, and chess mastery on the right. Other themes include independence, freedom, the beauty of nature, money, and others. My most powerful affirmation on the board is "true wisdom comes from within." It is powerful because I know it is so. These affirmations are top and center. I also included a picture from my year book. I am the top player in chess club laying out in front of everyone. The board sits over my bookshelf and I can easily see it everyday. I will try to get a good picture of it.

This thread will be a discussion of different ways to fight pollution and climate change by holding multi billion dollar corporations accountable for environmental destruction. These companies are getting away with what I consider crimes against humanity because of all the people whose lives are ruined by pollution and environmental destruction. If you have any ideas for stopping them, then share it here. One of my ideas has to do with the fact that chevron owes over 50 billion dollars across 70 lawsuits in 31 different countries. In order to avoid accountability, they imprisoned prosecutor Steven Donziger and they refuse to pay the lawsuit he won for the people of Ecuador. Congress woman Rashida Tlaib of the 13th district of Michigan confronted Chevron on its refusal to pay these lawsuits, but the company continues to lie about the existence of these lawsuits. One idea that crossed my mind was to file a lawsuit designed to compel the company to pay for the lawsuits they owe. This would likely need the support of powerful public officials if it were to have a chance of success. Otherwise, the one suing them would likely be imprisoned on the grounds of false defamation charges. This In conjunction with the corrupt judges who fail to refuse themselves when they hold stock in a corporation is a symptom of a deeper problem. The entire American government is a corporate monopoly and the legal system is broken so long as lobbyists write the laws and manipulate the courts. The American government needs to be radically transformed by breaking up this corporate monopoly on the legal system in order to hold the rich accountable for their crimes. By bringing oil companies like chevron to justice it will help to break up this Neo liberal corporatist monopoly. This is necessary if we wish to bring about equality, fairness, and justice while protecting the planet from the greatest threat we face. How should we stop the corrupt oil companies? How should we transform the government?

I did some self reflection after watching Leo's video on why we avoid truth. I think the reason I get so fixated on building a business, moving out, or getting a raise is because I feel bad about the fact that my entire life style depends on stealing from those who love me. By stealing I mean that they drive me, buy my food, and pay the bills. I pay rent, but it is so little. I Even started paying rent before my older sister, but that is not enough. Even so I am still spinning my wheels in the mud and I am not getting anywhere. COVID is making it even harder to reach these goals and homelessness is worsening because of the disease. This also causes me a lot of anxiety that prevents me from working as effectively as I should be. I could pitch in more for rent or something. I will be losing money for years if i move out. I still don't like my job and people at work hate talking about how we feel our lives are wasted potential. At least I am willing to talk about it. I am also attacked by my sister a lot because she thinks I'm inconsiderate. Maybe the connection between being a considerate person and money is that I would be more motivated to stop stealing. So far my motivation for these actions are negative and coming from guilt. If My motives were improved, then maybe I would not be hurt by anxiety and guilt to the point of being ineffective at even achieving these goals. Maybe I could do these things because I love my family and I want them to live a better life rather than because I feel harassed and attacked and want to leave. In some cases my family agrees I am being harassed by my sister and she is in denial of it so I don't know how to solve that. Maybe it should be by announcing my intentions to my family. I am considering telling my boss that my entire life style depends on me financially exploiting those who love me as well and I want to stop doing that.

@lxlichael and I plan to make it an awesome dream.

@Leo Gura I am currently applying for new job opportunities that I would enjoy more. My career counselor just got back to me today because she was sick for a week. At least I am doing what I can for now. I am changing fast, but I could be getting impatient with this for some reason. I still have all the time I need to realize my goals.

@Jacob Morres @puporing I have been suspecting this for a long time. I see a lot of projection and I have reason to believe that it is related to out dysfunctional parents. There are a lot of things I have yet to attempt to tell her because most of it she might deny again and some of it I don't know how she will react. One thing she will likely deny is that she is jealous of my father's sexist favoritism toward me. She often gets mad at me because I don't talk much and interprets this as me not listening or not caring. I haven't told her that sometimes I don't talk because I recognize when I am about to say something hypocritical and therefore say nothing. I try to be generous and open to criticism because it could be a good source of growth, but in this case my sister is in denial of a list of problems and I have a hard time approaching this. As for the money situation I am probably confusing blame and responsibility again. I am harsh on myself and a perfectionist because I love myself. The least I can admit is that these self judgements are often wrong and could therfore be limiting my growth.

@universe it is very accurate to say that perfectionism comes from wanting control. Not only is this true for my chess games, but one of my greatest fears in life has been the sense that I am not in control. This happened a lot when I tried to be good but others around me interpreted my behavior in a way that made them uncomfortable. This left me with the impression that I will always in some way be incomplete so long as I am interpreted as bad from other people's point of view. The best evidence I have that I am not in control is the fact that I have a hard time letting go of the sense that I am in control. If I were in control rather than my emotions controlling me, then it shouldn't be hard to let go control.

@universe I am very judgemental of myself. The reason I do this is because I think it makes me better by holding myself to higher standards. I am often a perfectionist and detail oriented. I also pay close attention to my hypocrisy and choose to say nothing when I am about to judge others. If I don't judge other people then I can't be a hypocrite I reason. This is partially done out of fear of showing my true colors when I am at my least conscious in a heated fight. This seems to be closely related to thinking I'm a bad person which I know isn't true. Does judgement keep me stuck somehow? Why is it so hard to stop judging myself?

@Yarco currently I am 23. My father died of cancer after fleeing the state the avoid paying child support and was a life long drug deal / gangster. I moved out of my mother's house because of domestic violence and drug addiction. Her other boyfriend has since been evicted. I am currently living with my grandma, sister, and brother. My sister still lives with my mom. Currently my family has cut all ties with criminal activity and my mom is off of the drug addiction. In the process my money was stolen on multiple occasions and so was the money of my siblings. This is the most functional our family has been in decades. This was following all of the fights over child support and after nearly a century of drug dealing since prohibition. That is when many of my ancestors became drug dealers and the cycle is finally stopped with my father's death. I will talk to my grandma about this though.

I think that my sister commonly interprets my behaviors as targeted at her when In fact they are not. My grandma is now echoing her words. Meanwhile my brother thinks this is far from the truth because I helped him talk through his suicidal thoughts and he feels better now. I get along with my brother just fine and the only person he has a problem with is my sister. When my grandma and sister say these things it is in reference to things like not paying attention when I am fixated on writing a book, getting a better job, or trying to start a business. Sometimes I get over stimulated by my thoughts and I get very jumpy and excited. This could be related to autism and it's nothing personal. My sister talks about all the times she bought fast food for me or drove me to work. She thinks I am ungrateful for these things. She does not specify what she wants me to buy her or how much, but I still give her Christmas and birthday gifts. I would guess I could buy my own groceries or something so that grandma would buy more for my sister.

I am currently working a book with a complicated plot. It is based on a real story about child custody and involves drug abuse, domestic violence, suicide, and more. I may try to cut some of what happened out to make the plot less complicated. Is there a recommendation for how much needs to be written in a novel? I will summarize the plot here before posting parts of the story. Sometimes I cry while writing the story, and I am interpreting it as it is a sign of a good story. I am a senior in high school in 2016. Throughout the year I am looking for ways to reach out for help, but for no avail until the end of the year. The main conflict is that my mother and father are fighting over child support and they are both trying to use their children as pawns to gain an advantage in court. In the story I side with my religious drug dealing father who fled the state to avoid paying child support and his new girlfriend. I side with my father because my siblings are in danger at the other house full of drug addiction and domestic violence between my mother and her new boyfriend. There is a separate, simultaneous case of domestic violence with my father and his girlfriend. Throughout the story the protagonist lies to protect the father who he falsely believes loves him in the hopes of evicting his abusive stepfather, protecting his siblings in the process. Ultimately the story ends with a true event in which I described the entire situation with a power point presentation for literally 100 people. People seem to find this story inspiring and I think it would it would help describe issues such as domestic violence, drug abuse, suicide, child custody, and many other complicated issues which are all in play at the same time during the story. People also seem to think that mental disorder such as autism and OCD create challenging obstacles in addition to everything else. The book has a mixed ending after all of the betrayal between the parents and children. The step father is evicted, dad dies of cancer, my siblings are moved to a foster home, and now I'm with my grandma writing the story. Should I write parts of the story in an actualized journal?