trenton

@Blackhawk excellent job on your research. You made very informative responses in this forum. The neutrality argument does not hold up when you take into account the secret alliances Sweden has in spite of its professed neutrality. If Russia knows about the secret alliances, Sweden could guarantee defense by joining NATO. Swedish neutrality can get very ugly if it helps both sides in a time of war. Sweden can't be neutral if it helps other countries kill more people. I don't see any more potential downsides to address. The country needs to let go of its false neutrality if it wants to help protect the countries it protects anyway.

I would like to add child marriage to our thread of ignored political issues. There are loopholes in the laws against statutory rape and many states do not set a minimum age at which a person can get married. Child marriage also facilitates human trafficking and modern slavery. The global slavery index recommends that the minimum age of marriage should be raised to 18 with or without parental consent. Our laws vary from state to state, but this legislation would ban all child marriage if it applies to all states.

@BipolarGrowth I never heard of the possibility that psychosis could be a good thing. people with these mental disorders are easily demonized as they end up in prison without their spiritual development. One thing related to this issue is how anxiety pills are designed to suppress anxiety. The alternative is to frame anxiety as a good thing as in some situations it makes us more alert and more active. Anxiety could help us if the issue were framed in different way. This is a recent development in the field of medicine.

@Husseinisdoingfine thank you for clarifying. this is the first time I started learning about modern imperialism. What I find concerning is that higher wages in countries like America could make imperialism worse by inflating the value of goods we export. For example, the current minimum wage in the U.S. Is around 10 dollars, but a living wage is 20 dollars. Would this be disastrous for poor countries? If it is terrible for poor countries, it explains why Sanders would support imperialism. This helps me to appreciate the need for worker rights across the globe because if we are self absorbed and only care about American workers, it comes at the expense of hurting other countries through unequal exchange. This looks like a massive elephant in the room that is not acknowledged. I never thought of trade as being this serious of an issue. We are definitely in the dark ages and have a ton of development that has yet to be done around the world.

@DocWatts I watched both of the videos you sent. I watched the video with intense interest when compared to other videos I watch. I noticed how the community often failed to take the issue seriously as they attributed virginity rates to a skyrocketing gay population. The reason I took it seriously is because I don't socialize much. I could be underestimating the psychological benefits of forming healthy relationships rather than no relationship. This is similar to the fatherless epidemic. Children who grow up without A father have psychological problems such as A lack of courage. I was affected by this issue and I want to fully understand how much I could be affected by the environment I grow up in. A good take away is to treat everyone the same as you would treat any other human being. A mistake men make is that they think they have treat one woman differently, but this makes her uncomfortable when she picks up on sexual innuendos.

@Blackhawk I looked through your posts and it looks like you have done a lot of research. I see a lot of reasons Sweden and other nations would benefit from this membership. The common positions against joining NATO are... Sweden does not want to be put in a position in which they have to fight in Afghanistan because of the need to defend the United States. Secondly, Sweden only spends about 1% of its GDP on defense. NATO would encourage Sweden to double the defense budget. Sweden values neutrality in war, and NATO membership would require their involvement. How do you respond to these arguments? I think one of your key arguments is that Sweden is not really neutral and it would improve the safety of other nations if they did join. I find this thread of unknown political issues to be very informative and educational. Thanks everybody for your help so far.

@Blackhawk I am curious about what arguments you are using. I did a little bit of research on this unknown issue, and it looks like Sweden is mixed in the issue. for example, the people in favor of joining NATO are in nearly equal numbers to those against it. It seems unclear as to what is the most secure option for Sweden. This is a very divisive issue and the country is split.

@DocWatts I am a part of this trend. Without a clear life purpose I don't see the value in forming relationships. I will probably need to watch this video. I have already resigned myself to living alone and dying a virgin. This may not be the healthiest way to live my life. I don't understand what psychological difference the lack of a relationship leads to. One reason I don't seek a relationship is because I think I will regret letting a woman into my life for several reasons. This probably leads some people to mansplaining. I probably have a lot of bad assumptions about women in relationships given that I have never been in one. I think she is going to turn into a distraction, an economic burden, and someone to fight with. I think I am projecting stereotypes onto potential dating partners. If I were to let a woman into my life, it could be someone who is okay with me being myself. Most people are not okay with it because my well meaning actions are often interpreted in the worst way possible. This might be why I get a little sad sometimes. Thanks for the post.

@Husseinisdoingfine I never heard about modern imperialism. It is probably related to modern slavery when low income countries are exploited for cheap labor. Both are motivated by capitalism and it would be very threatening to the status quo to acknowledge these widespread human rights violations.I Where did you learn about this?

@Preety_India you make a good point. You are noticing how people can be hurt because of trigger happy social justice warriors failing to appreciate the complexity of the issue. There is often a kernel of truth in the other side of the issue of we pay attention. This seems to go back to the issue of education. It looks like an issue worth reading into. If there were improved internet connection in rural areas, the employment rate would likely improve not only in rural areas, but also in urban areas. Rural areas have a hard time attracting teachers from the city. In cities there are often more than enough teachers. Those left behind could become online teachers for under privileged rural areas. This would explain why people in rural areas could become racist or xenophobic if they were hurt because of illegal immigrants.

@Boethius I heard of that issue before. I forgot about it because nobody talks about. This is related to men's rights and stepping beyond the feminist narrative out society is sucked into. We do not appreciate that boys and girls have immutable differences and preferred learning styles. I did have a hard time sitting still in classes and I was especially weird because of autism. My brother was also having a hard time with school, so I needed to help mentor him. Rather than scald him for his poor grades and tell him how important it is to take school seriously, I focus on relating to him as much as possible without saying "we all had to go through this so suck it up.". This is a much more effective way to mentor boys struggling in school. I explained some of the real problems with the educational system. For example, my brother felt like a worthless failure because he did bad in math. He was studying not because he was curious and wanted to learn, but because he had to. Our schools are often poor at bringing out a child's curiosity and we need to personally hone our passion for learning because school can't do it. Math can be a beautiful thing to learn if school does not make it harder than it needs to be. I then shared with him various strategies to make school easier and he is much happier now. I also emphasized the the importance of emotional mastery and he received a lot of benefit from it. He finds it difficult to grasp with the fact that school did not teach this subject at all. Without emotional mastery, boys are subject to the stereotype that we are supposed to be emotionless robots. This leads to reduced emotional intelligence in men, contributing to psychological problems and potentially worsening crime rates. Crime is also more likely if you drop out of school. The consequences of our poor educational system are serious.

@Opo im sorry to hear that your classmates are annoying you. If all else fails you can try being honest that you are annoyed by this. I hope they learn to leave you alone.

I ran into a handful of Mormons in the past. When they start trying to convert me, they start asking why I am not joining the religion. There are several reasons I could give. Pick the reasons which are most authentic for you. 1. Modern religion needs to transform radically in order to properly address sexual abuse in churches, mosques, and synagogues. 2. Because religious beliefs change over time, it is likely that the religion of today is not the religion of tomorrow. This is related to the theory of evolution when applied to religion. 3. I don't know which religion is right and I should wait until I know for sure. 4. I wish to focus on making life on earth better rather than pursue an after life. 5. I would rather seek out God as a direct experience rather than as a belief system. 6. Religion is problematic in its dogmatism. I don't want to lock myself into a narrow worldview and I am interested in exploring many worldviews. 7. The beliefs are inauthentic for me and I don't want to wallpaper over my doubts until the day I die. How frequently do you run into them? I ran into them on 5 different occasions. One time I told them that I don't know the most polite way to say no to religion without getting sucked into a debate about why I am not joining them. This one might be a good response if it is honest for you. I haven't been bothered by any Mormons since. I can still be friends with people from all kinds of backgrounds.

I have mixed experience with stage blue. First, I recognize a unique advantage that the pre-rational has over the rational. Stage blue is more open minded to God as a direct experience. When I tell deeply religious people that it may be possible to create an experience of God, they light up and listen intently. I don't go around trying to convert everybody because I realize that not everybody is open minded. I only tell them If they are ready. If stage blue is hateful toward other religions, I don't bother trying to convince them. They are too strict in their worldview and they do not see any validity in other religions. Sometimes stage blue recognizes the deep similarities they have with other religions. They even admit that all religions are fallible and written by people. When they do this, they are more open minded in a way that makes them more loving. These are the kind of people who can change and might be open to change. This is why I only told one of my grandmothers about experiencing God. She was very grateful to learn about this possibility. One of my grandmothers is subscribed to the theory that Obama was a Muslim and she seems hateful toward Islam. I did not tell my siblings or mother because they are not interested in this topic at all. I could tell my aunt, but someone in the family committed suicide. I will have to wait until after the funeral to tell her. My aunt is open to other religions though. Some deeply religious people will be open to meditation, journaling, shadow work, and more. I don't tell them about the psychedelics though because in my experience nobody is open minded to that possibility. I don't really try to convert people. Instead I work with their worldview. If I work against them, they will be too stubborn and I may cause more harm than help. If I run around telling everybody about this, I might further entrench them in their worldview, making them even more toxic and hateful. As for the specific video you sent, I never ran into stage blue people who are closed to video games. I think the culture will evolve on its own and I don't need to change anybody on that front. I can just do my own thing and let progress win out in the end. If you are interested in working with stage blue, you need to wait for them to be open. I hope you found this useful.

I would love to be a chess teacher. The problem is that this job is rare. I found a opportunities in California and New York, but I live in Ohio. In order to be a better chess teacher I also need a better rating. Currently there are only online tournaments. I started playing over the board tournaments as soon as I got out of college, but they all shut down about a year ago due to the virus While I was in college I became lost and undecided because I could not find a clear path to get what I wanted. I was not optimistic about the career prospects in philosophy, psychology, sociology, political science, computer science, or engineering. I never had and passion with engineering, but based on my aptitudes, I excel in mathematics and would be suitable for this. I finished an associate's degree in General studies. When I felt lost, I started watching actualized.org. I pressured myself with personal development because if i don't change my life situation, then I could be a bag boy at Kroger, living paycheck to paycheck after my grandma dies and i have nobody to support me anymore. These future possibilities make me feel stuck and frustrated. Although spirituality and philosophy are interesting, I don't think it is what I need. Possible back up plans. I am considering going back to college for business. I don't have a passion for business now, but it may be necessary to make a back up plan. My goal would be to build my own chess school where I can train people to become masters. I could expand on this idea of a school, by including personal development like emotional mastery. I also want children in low income families to be able to attend because I don't want poverty to cause people to waste their talents. I could give scholarships to some of these families like the school in New York did when I tried to join. If I can't join a school to become a chess teacher, then I could build my own school. My other back up plans include engineering because of my mathematical aptitudes and writing because it helps people to understand autism when I reflect on my thoughts. I often laugh out loud instead of in my head. This can be problematic and makes me stuck on what to do about my immaturity. How else could I form a back up plan? Should I go to college for business and education or engineering?

@freejoy I took the vaccine. The needle was much less painful than other needles. You do not need to worry about getting the vaccine. The pain that comes afterwards is worse and your arm will hurt for a couple of days.

It seems that issue of police brutality will continue to be framed in a misleading way by the media. When will it stop and when will the public recognize a better approach to the issue? How do you think the media should be framing this issue? If we frame a problem the wrong way, it can make us less effective at tackling the issue. If you need a clearer example of police brutality, you could try this video. It demonstrates that police are not properly trained to deal with the mentally ill. I found further evidence of this on the global slavery index. The victims of modern slavery are deeply traumatized. Human traffickers also target illegal immigrants because of the language barrier and the fear deportation. You can check out this site for more about police brutality in the recommended section. Slavery is related to BLM through police brutality. https://www.globalslaveryindex.org/2018/findings/country-studies/united-states/

@Forestluv what should a person do if it seems like they really can't awaken? This is important to know in spirituality because it demonstrates that we can't judge people for being selfish devils. The circumstances of their birth and upbringing could pose real obstacles to awakening. If people can't experience God directly, then it looks like they have no choice but to either be religious or be an atheist. Cases like these could sow the seeds of doubt in future spiritual groups. It could lead to atheism if we don't let people know that spirituality does not work for everybody. Imagine the disappointment people would face of they ended up like the unfortunate woman you described. I think gurus might ignore this because people can easily turn this into a limiting belief.

That is a good point. In the United States people would get in trouble substance of abuse. It is possible that most of us will not have access to psychedelics any time soon. For most of us, techniques are the best we have. The advantage to emphasizing the benefits of psychedelics is to undo our programming created by the war on drugs. At first I was close minded to psychedelics because my parents were drug addicts. Other people may have a harder time opening their minds to psychedelics and it is driving people away from this site. Maybe we should make a greater effort to emphasize the power of techniques available to the majority of humanity. Psychedelics could have a stronger emphasis in politics because this is preventing people from growing their consciousness.

I just got my vaccine. I am scheduled to get the second dose in three weeks. It is important for me to get the vaccine because I work at Kroger. I come into contact with many people every day from bagging groceries, collecting carts, and cleaning restrooms. I have a high risk of getting COVID and spreading it to other people. If you are not in a high risk environment, I still recommend that you get the vaccine. The point is that it improves the immunity of the general population in order to prevent mutations of the virus. There are a few side effects of the vaccine. I have aches in my body and head. My heart is also beating faster than usual. You probably should ask your doctor if the COVID vaccine is right for you if you have a heart condition. You could be hurt if you have other health conditions.

This mindset reminds me of religion. Religion becomes susceptible to the "no true Scotsman" fallacy when they say somebody didn't really believe or have faith. In the case of other spiritual groups there are many people devoted to spirituality who never awaken through traditional means. We need to be careful when attributing a failure to awaken to a lack of desire for self knowledge. Maybe we could be committing the same fallacy as religion when we assume anybody can awaken by traditional means if they have a strong enough desire to do so. From this point of view it also does not make sense to act as if spirituality is for everybody because there is evidence that it isn't. If somebody is not spiritually gifted and they are resistant to psychedelics, how would they awaken if they were truly passionate about Truth?

@Denial I'm glad it helped. One of the problems with our social conditioning is that men are split from their emotions. There is no scientific or psychological basis for this image of a cold macho man. This is a complete utter fantasy because in reality men are still very emotional creatures. Our society fails to recognize the significance of emotional mastery and it can worsen people's depression, anxiety, and even the likelihood of suicide. The stereo type that only women are allowed to be emotional is insane and it worsens EQ in men. A real man can recognize the strength and courage in vulnerability and self honesty. Good luck.

I recognized that I felt in control of my life because I have the possibility to commit suicide. This meant that no matter how bad things got, I would have an out. This is how apathy makes us feel in control of bad situations. It got to the point that I threw my belt away at one point. I don't have a clear solution to this issue. My best try is to try to escape to something more productive instead. You could feel in control with a good hobby instead of being depressed. I end up laying in bed defeated for hours and I could lose the whole day because of this. I think you gave me some helpful insight. This attitude could be responsible for any I feel like so many things I do see meaningless and empty. This defense mechanism is supposed to make things feel empty so that we are not hurt by them. In this way our suicidal thoughts are a consequence of us being in denial that we have been hurt. This is a dangerous self deception that founds our self hatred and depression. This denial comes from the fact that we are afraid of being hurt through being emotionally vulnerable. This leads to me isolating myself from other people and being non confrontational. By isolating myself it leads to a lack of socializing which leads to anxiety which leads to suicidal thoughts. The way out is to allow ourselves to be emotionally vulnerable. At least recognize that the current way of being is much more difficult in the long run. It is not easier at all. I don't know who told you to face the emotions you get from not doing something to stop OCD. How many people did this work for? I guess we could try this in the topic of dealing with strong negative emotions in another actualized video on emotional mastery. There are two things you need to recognize. First, your brain cares about your safety. It is using defense mechanisms like apathy to deny that you have been hurt. Meanwhile if you did not act on your suicidal thoughts, then it demonstrates that you still do care about life. There is not a lost hope for you. Secondly, you do not have to accept that everything is out of control. You are allowed to deny whatever you want until the end of time. By acknowledging this, you can become less neurotic in your approach o truth or personal development. As for convincing people that I am better than I actually am, I did have some thoughts like those. I tried to compensate for it with a fighter attitude, but it only worked in the short term. At the very least we can start with self honesty. There are still a couple of problems I have not fully resolved, but I hope we can still help each other. Good luck.

@Denial I can relate to this. I started getting waves of depression around the time I was in late middle school and early high school. It was around that time that I started having more suicidal thoughts and I felt that I was unable to control my emotional suffering. I first want to steer you away from your attitude toward death in spirituality. It is easy for the ego mind to twist these things in a selfish way. In this case, death is being twisted in a way that it leads you toward harming the body. This does not come from self love, it comes from hatred and apathy. This is not what spirituality is meant to teach us. One the topic of OCD, I am curious about your locker situation. When I had a locker at school, I never left it unlocked. I still would double check and sometimes even triple check, but then I walk away thinking "did I lock my locker?". I often had the same attitude toward my backpack. I would look in my backpack repeatedly to make sure I was not missing something. There was only one or two times I actually forgot something ever. If I thought I was missing something, I would start panicking only to realize I had what I needed in another pocket. I was never told that I needed to face the emotions from not doing the action. As for being a control freak, I think focusing on meditation is a good way to ease anxiety and paranoia. My mental health has improved because of consciousness work. Because emotional mastery is critical for us, we should run through the emotional mastery play list on actualized to see if it helps unsure your neurotic personality. Childhood vows is one of the most practical episodes in the site. This may not cure your entire condition, but at least it will makes many small but significant improvements to your psyche. All of these small issues could be contributing to suicidal thoughts. I want to tell you that I feared going insane for a long time. When we don't socialize with people enough, our minds can tell us anything even if it is depressing. People with autism don't socialize as much as most people, and my psychologist is trying to get me to do this more. I have a younger brother in high school and we are studying emotional mastery together. I try to cope with my inner conflicts by keeping myself productive. My mind could be focusing on a chess game for example. Once I get into a state of flow and analyze the complexity of a tough game, my life becomes much more enjoyable. If you could find ways to stay productive, it can help you avoid these situations in which you get paranoid because you are busy doing something else you enjoy. There is no need to be a control freak in these cases. One of my observations for my thoughts was that if I am thinking of my thoughts as bad and I get afraid of them, this will make the thoughts worse. This can contribute to racing thoughts and over thinking. Consciousness work helped me to recognize this. In your case the fear of losing control is doing this to you. In my experience I called this an inner devil's advocate. There are ways to ease this. I can expand upon this with shoulds and should nots. Sometimes I have destructive curiosity. This can include pulling the fire alarm. If you recognize that there is a line between your thoughts and behaviors, it can ease your fears of acting on these thoughts that contribute to moral anxiety. Acknowledging curiosity is a more effective way to deal with certain kinds of thoughts when compared to fearing your thoughts about doing something stupid. This includes thoughts about randomly breaking things, morbid curiosity that contributes to suicidal thoughts, or even sexual fantasies that we could get paranoid about. I am currently at the part where you feel in control of life when apathetic. I can expand on this after my appointment with my psychologist. I hope you find parts of this useful so far.

Although I watched many spiritual videos, deep down I still believe that this is just philosophy and science is still more objective. I may understand some criticisms on an intellectual level, but I still hold science as true anyway. I would like to describe my experience in this forum. If I don't seriously question science, then philosophy can quickly be degraded into mental masturbation, preventing me from gaining real benefit from it. This idea that science is objective has real consequences for me and it prevents me from taking this seriously. Growing up, I was curious about how it is that I exist. I never had an answer to these things and I felt isolated and alone. It seems everybody is caught in minor human activities and don't even question what we are doing here. I didn't socialize much with others and this left me to making many theories about reality. It was rare for people to share this interest as I often flew over other people's heads. In this process I created a philosophical or spiritual ego. I didn't really care about truth, and other people could see through the bullshit. This is why in my experience rationalism was often more honest than my pseudo spirituality. Sometimes I still made metaphors about how everything is connected, but I felt delusional and it looked like philosophy was doomed to be mental masturbation for me. How could I take intellectualizing seriously if questioning the obvious was only to make me look cool? How should I approach spirituality given this kind of background? Are there others in this forum like me who still hold science as true and spirituality as a mask or facade we put on? I am currently trying to open myself to more serious questioning because without it, my growth is limited and I am fundamentally locked in the materialist paradigm because of rationalists calling out my bullshit.