DocWatts

Another good example of Stage Green socially conscious hip hop.

As an aside, the Roman Republic used a similar system with thier governing system, where they would elect two Consuls to serve as heads of state; and it didn't stop their system from collapsing in on itself. For a system like that to even have a chance at working both sides would have to be working in Good faith, which is far from a given in when you consider that one of our two political parties operates as a corporatist shill with no moral qualms about eroding Democracy if its politically advantageous to do so (look at almost anything that Mitch McConnell has done if you want evidence for this).

What obligations do middle class and wealthy people living in first world nations have for charitable giving towards people in poorer and less developed parts of the world? What are you your thoughts on donating money to charities vs. political advocacy organizations as far as making the world a better place?

Agreed. One of the more interesting things about Michigan is how diverse it is in different areas. You have urban sprawl, vast stretches of forested wilderness, incredibly wealthy areas populated with mansions, giant sand dunes, a handful of progressive cities that would be at home on the West Coast, urban ghettos, hipsters, rednecks... the list goes on and on.

No kidding. Scary how prescient that movie feels some three or four decades later. I'm not saying that Detroit is a microcosm of the decay of American society with its crumbling infrastructure, decimation of the middle class, corrupt governance, and racial tension; but it doesn't feel like too much of a stretch to frame it that way. Also you'd be surprised at just how rural alot of Michigan is outside of the major cities; travel to the Northern parts and you'd be mistaken for thinking you took a wrong turn and ended up in Kentucky.

Ha! Well at least a handful of us have it as a next door neighbor and drive through it on our way to more interesting places.

A way I like to describe Michigan for people who don't live here is: imagine a blend of Oregon and Ohio, with a scattering of post-apocalyptic looking cities, and you won't be far from the mark.

How long until we're all surprised by seeing "Joe Rogan Experience #2145 : Leo Gura" pop up in our YouTube feed?

Look to The Clash for a great example of stage Green punk.

Considering that Trump has had four years to make an ass of himself, Considering that Trump has had four years to make an ass of himself, the bad publicity from multiple scandals and corruption charges, and his disastrous Covid response fresh on people's minds going in to an election, the hole he's been digging is deep enough to reach China. Yet despite this enough people have been propagandized by right wing media to leave the election results very much in doubt. Also keep in mind that this is a guy who won last time despite losing the popular vote by 3 million votes, and became president despite two thirds of the country not liking him

Fair question! The reason being that human memory and visual perception are fallible and prone to biases. Our visual perception doesn't record events like a video camera, instead of creates stories that warp and change due to the emotions and biases of the person in question. The article I posted goes in to more detail on the issue; I'll just add that a number of people have been wrongly convicted of crimes due to eyewitness testimony, only to have their convictions overturned due to more objective verification methods. https://www.psychologicalscience.org/teaching/myth-eyewitness-testimony-is-the-best-kind-of-evidence.html That's not to say the eyewitness testimony is worthless %100 of time; just to keep its limitations in mind.

Anyone who's studied psychology could tell you how unreliable eyewitness testimony is. Not trying to rain on anyone's parade, but for such a huge paradigm shift it feels like the sort of thing we should withhold judgement on until it can be verified to the high standard that would be used if life were discovered on another body in our Solar System. I don't really have a dog in the race on way or another, but I do see alot of overlap between this subject and the larger Conspiracy Theory community.

Surprised this isn't being talked about more than it is. I guess microbes aren't as exiting as grainy footage of flying saucers https://theconversation.com/the-detection-of-phosphine-in-venus-clouds-is-a-big-deal-heres-how-we-can-find-out-if-its-a-sign-of-life-146185

Very well thought out post. I'd like to take a moment to give recognition and praise to the current Pope, Pope Francis, for using his position of authority to advocate for urgent action to combat Climate Change; framing it as an issue of social justice that the world's poorest people will end up shouldering the burden of. Mad props to the guy for using his religious authority to advocate for social responsibility. https://insideclimatenews.org/news/06082020/climate-change-pope-francis

I think the catch-22 is that it's generally hard to find Conservatives who are thoughtful and open to growth, because that sort of mindset is inimical towards the rigid thinking needed to maintain that sort of worldview. And the ones that are open minded to growth will have already realized this and left that worldview behind them. While there's alot to be learned by interacting conspiracy theorists or religious fundamentalists, and it's important to understand what attracts people to these ways of thinking, there's plenty of others forums on the internet to do so. I would hope that the selection bias here is such that most of us are aware of the dangers of echo chambers, and that we have enough common sense to have interactions with the real world to counter balance this.

Really hope this is one of those situations where my initial misgivings turn out to be completely unfounded; could be that I might be over reacting somewhat to 2016 without giving enough consideration to the differences between the situations then and now. Welp, guess I'll try to convince who I can to get out and Vote.

Fair point that I agree with wholeheartedly; but is Joe Biden the kind of candidate who would get anyone excited enough to go vote who wasn't going to already? I could see someone like Bernie or Yang encouraging otherwise apathetic people to go vote, but Biden? The fact that much of his support is a reluctant "well at least he's better than Trump" isn't exactly encouraging... I suppose the fact that normies without MAGA hats who voted for Trump in '16 might stay home after seeing Trump make an ass of himself in a debate is an interesting point though.

I guess I don't see the point? As I'm having trouble believing that there's anyone out there who's still undecided as to whether they're on board with on board with Trump's brand of Authoritarianism or not. I know that from a factual standpoint these people must exist, but it's harder for me to put myself in the mindset of an undecided than it is for me to understand a Trump voter. I imagine the more relevant question is whether the potential apathetic person will bother to vote at all in the upcoming election.

Great to hear that Spiral Dynamics is being taught in University classes; I actually listen to a number of podcasts and lectures from people in the world of Academia and don't hear Spiral Dynamics brought up very often. Not to mention that it wasn't a subject that was covered in any of my classes during my time in college.

We don't know that; the mindset that Civilization is doomed so nothing we do matters is highly counterproductive (and I'd go so far as to argue toxic). Yes climate change is going to change the world in profound ways over the upcoming century, but we do have a choice for how to respond. Do we continue down the destructive path that led us to the point, or do we put pressure on our governments to invest in sustainable energy production and agriculture? Do we let corporations have a free reign to destroy the planet , or do we make an attempt to reign in and regulate corporations? Do we stick with the capitalist system that helped get us in to this mess, or do we evolve the system in a way that the social and environmental costs are factored in to the price you pay for something at the supermarket? Yes civilization could collapse at some point, but that's far from inevitable. I've known a handful of conservative people with the "civilization is going to collapse regardless of what I do" mindset, who use that as a rationalization for their highly selfish and short sighted behavior.

Slightly different take on the topic, but Jared Diamond wrote a whole book that uses a number of past societies as Case studies for how societies either succeed or fail in addressing ecological problems that threaten their existence. Excellent systems level approach towards looking at environmental issues through the lens of history, in a way that helps bring a bit of perspective on where we find ourselves today.

Adventure Time introduces the concept of Social Constructs in a way that's approachable for younger people who may be just getting Introduced to the idea.

If anyone is aware of any additional high quality news sources that offer a Yellow perspective on contemporary issues/politics, I'd love to check it out.

Well said.

In regards to the OP, the Roman Empire was also able to stumble along more or less in tact for centuries regardless of whether any individual Roman Emperor was incompetent and/or crazy, before finally succumbing to its internal contradictions and collapsing. Stakes are quite a bit higher these days when the current analog to the Roman Empire posseses nuclear weapons and is capable of triggering a global ecological collapse if things are bungled badly enough.