Stomatopod

I'm glad you're here to work on raising your consciousness. You might reach the point where you realize just how backwards that belief was. To wish "the worst kind of punishment on those who deserve it" has nothing to do with justice, deterrence or wanting to reduce suffering in the world. It's purely ego gratification and pointless indulgence in sadism and devilry. Sadly, in that regard you are at the same level as Rush Limbaugh and Osama bin Laden. But unlike them, at least you are here to work on bettering yourself. Yes. I would say that is one of the primary obstacles of stage green. Belief in good and evil is hard to let go. You have my sincere sympathy. I get where your feelings come from, and you have a right to feel them. But when you say it is "moral" and "rational" to desire the death of evil people, can't you see you are speaking from the same level of consciousness as Rush Limbaugh? I'm not saying you are equally as harmful to the world, only that your claim to morally judge others is rooted in the same perspective. If only you could step outside the ego for an instance, you would be able to experience how both you and Rush Limbaugh are just avatars of consciousness without agency witnessing the acting out of conflicting survival agendas from different perspectives. As Bill Hicks would say, "it's just a ride". Speaking of Bill Hicks. We are still allowed to make fun of Rush Limbaugh

A perfect example of what Leo talked about in his "Why Libertarianism Is Nonsense" video.

No. I don't know anything about his childhood. I would suggest that a person does not become so full of anger and hatred without having suffered some kind of trauma at an early age. It doesn't mean that he was abused necessarily, but anti-social traits are typically defense mechanisms that functions to suppress consciousness and shut down empathy in order for the ego to survive. Specifically the disgust he has for percieved weakness and dependency in others is a telltale sign that he has disowned those parts of his own early experience. It was all shadow projection. A person who has genuine self love and inner peace is incapable of hating others. Rush was anything but that. Suggesting that he must have been deeply miserable on the inside despite his massive wealth and success. That is really sad if you ask me. I find one way to summon feelings of empathy towards even the most unlovable people, is to imagine what that person was like as a baby. Before they were corrupted by the world. Try to remember that innocent child is inside everyone the world perceives as "evil". Even the worst among us like Hitler, Stalin or Saddam Hussein on the inside were unconscious wounded children too. Hating them solves nothing. It doesn't mean that we can't condemn their actions though. I honestly also think it is better for the world that Rush is gone. But I don't think we should dance on his grave or hope that he burns in hell. It is as pointless as holding a grudge against a natural disaster.

I have never heard one person who identifies as a "lefty" who has any particular love for Joe Biden. His voting record shows he is a moderate republican, or a standard neoliberal, corporate democrat. Not exactly an ally of the "leftist agenda". But there was still a consensus on the left that Biden represents the "lesser evil". In the end he won because people voted against Trump - not because they love Joe Biden. I can only say, good luck on your journey of personal growth and development. Try to do Leo's exercise of letting go of your ideology, just for a little while. You will discover that this idea of the "right being better than the left" is a major roadblock to growth. It is a hard pill to swallow for sure, but it has to go down. Sorry. Let's say your theory is that conservative/right values appear at a higher level of consciousness than liberal/left values. Then that would mean the further back in time you look, the more liberal human society would be. You would definitely see that people were more liberal 50 years ago, and then super leftist 1000 years ago. Hmm, or is it the opposite? To hold on to that belief, you will have to throw away the theory of evolution, and all of science and spirituality. You will be left with nothing but religious dogma. I think it is really a matter opening your mind and studying, learning, researching as many diverse sources as possible. It's impossible to rationalize away the data shows higher levels of education, intelligence, and consciousness consistently overlap with more liberal/left leaning values. I will postulate that it is impossible to remain a conservative if you study the world with a genuinely open mind. It absolutely requires dogmatic beliefs and shutting out parts of reality to maintain that worldview.

No one said that. But it is a fact that the vast majority of child abuse happens within the family. Most commonly by the parents (about 80%), but in almost all cases the perpetrators are known and trusted by the victim; siblings, cousins, uncles, friends of the family, and then a smaller category by teachers, coaches, pastors, etc. A vanishingly small minority of cases involve some shadowy "other", and that's what the majority of the fearmongering focuses on. Just look at thousands of movies and shows churned out about evil predators, kidnappers and serial killers, then contrast it with the number of movies dealing with sexual abuse within outwardly "normal" families. It gives you the impression that the latter is the exception rather than the rule. I think everyone would prefer to believe that child abusers are some evil outside force. QAnon and SRA conspiracies help serve that function of "otherizing" the threat. So all of us "good people" can band together and be on the lookout for any weirdos in white vans or them evil globalist elites coming to take our kids. This is so much less frightening than the truth. The child molesters are not out there hiding in the bushes, more likely they are in your own living room.

I think I've watched all of Teal Swan's content on youtube. She has many good insights on psychology, relationships and selfhelp topics. But don't take her as some sort of oracle of truth. She is giving her perspective, and rarely cities academic sources and studies. Generally I think she is trying to help people in good faith. As far as Satanic Ritual Abuse goes, it's mostly conspiracy theory. I say mostly because child abuse is pretty common at all levels of every society, and given that there have been some sporadic instances of satanic cults actually existing, it's not unlikely that there has been some actual cases that would qualify as Satanic Ritual Abuse. You could argue that the people who dabble in that type of stuff are kooks to begin with, so the likelihood that they also would abuse children is higher than the general population. I think we are talking at most a handful of real cases on a global scale. But it only takes one "real" case for conspiracy theorists to be convinced that every rumor and imagined case also must be real.

It's funny how the wealthy "small government" advocates also have an almost religious devotion to state power as long as it serves the rich. Like how they fetishize the military and the police, or how they are totally dependent on the government to protect them from the free market. Any instrument of power that helps facilitate the funneling of wealth from the bottom to the top is good. And they just want to vomit at the thought of the government doing anything that benifits the general population.

Somebody should ask him, why is he in the government if he believes the government shouldn't govern? The answer probably is, as Chomsky observed (even before the Trump era), the Republicans have abandoned the pretense of functioning as a normal parliamentary party and have become more of a "radical insurgency". They scarcely have policies anymore, only anti-policy; obstruction, deregulation and the dismantlement of government itself. Beautifully expressed in Trump's executive order 13771 to "eliminate two regulations for every new one enacted". Or in other words, as the glorious Saint Reagan proclaimed: "Government doing stuff for you is bad".

Rm Brown is like a reverse Ben Shapiro. Instead of making dumb points in a smart way, he makes smart points in a dumb way. I think his analysis of Shapiro's movie was pretty dead on. There is so much subconscious meta-messaging going on.

Evolution of consciousness takes time, but it only moves in one direction. Animal rights activists have to realize that those comparisons sound absurd to people who are at the human-centric stage of development, which is still the vast majority of the world's population. At this stage it is counterproductive to be intolerant of those who support animal exploitation. Unless a significant percentage of the population is already on board, It will only create more resistance. My advice to activists would be to contain your outrage and continue to raise awareness in a non-judgemental way. Do not demonize and point fingers at people who eat meat, or at the people who work in the industry. They literally don't understand what they're doing, and you can't blame them for that. It's possible to advocate for animal rights without blaming and shaming. More importantly, you can lead by example and you can vote with your wallet. In the past 10 years there has been an explosion in sales of vegan alternative foods in Europe, and it's predicted to accelerate the more options become available. It's so easy to shop now, compared to just 10 years ago. You can get any kind of food you can imagine, so the excuse that being vegan is difficult and expensive just isn't true anymore. Once you have the majority on your side, then people will naturally start being "intolerant" of those who haven't yet caught up with the new cultural norm. Just like being openly homophobic or racist went from being the norm to being career endingly unacceptable in the span of a few generations, so too will being speciesist in the future.

Great. Stories like this make me feel like there is hope for humanity. Have you heard the story of Caleb Cain? It sounds very much like a parallel to his account of how he was sucked into the alt-right pipeline. Even though I don't know you, I would like to apologize on the behalf of the people who judge, mock and demonize people like you. That is not the way to go about helping anyone. Nobody is a lost cause.

I find this position interesting because it shows the difference between ignorance and unconsciousness. People who are seemingly intelligent and knowledgeable can still engage in heinous devilry when their level of consciousness is at a low level. Their ego defenses are too thick, and their circle of concern is too narrow to understand the harm they cause. That's why you can't convince a diehard nazi with facts and logic that committing genocide is wrong. From their perspective, it's just a fact that "lower races" do not have value. No information will change their mind, only doing the hard work of personal development. It's also quite common for meat eaters to wear their low development as a badge of honor. They brag about how unconscious they are, as if having no empathy is a sign of strength. I'm reminded of a recent article I read, commenting on the Danish armed forces introducing a "meat free day", there was this right wing politician who was so triggered, that he said he is going to double his meat eating in protest.

Good work. I would say watching Earthlings was probably the last straw that made stop buying animal products. Along with reading Peter Singer and listening to Gary Yourofsky, it was really the images of that movie which drove home the reality of what we are doing. I still can't walk past the meat counter at the supermarket without my stomach turning.

Religious fundamentalism is not the main issue. The main difference between Europe and the US is that unlike in Europe, the labor movement in the US was effectively destroyed in the early 20th century. In other democratic countries there is somewhat of a power balance between the interests of labor (Left) and business (Right). In America the labor movement (left wing economics) has been deliberately excised from the political conversation, to the point where they barely have any representation at all. Both major parties are business parties. One is surely more socially liberal than the other, but both primarily represent business interests. It's not a joke to say the Democrats would be considered a right wing party in Europe. Noam Chomsky has written extensively about these topics. Basically he outlines how the biggest public relations campaign in history has been to convince the American public that organized collective action is "anti-American". The American cult worship of individualism and capitalism was completely opposed to what the working class believed prior to the 1920's. This ideology was deliberately designed and propagated at huge costs to turn the population against those fighting for their own class interests. Making people believe socialism (the natural outcome of any functioning democracy) is an existential threat to the American way of life. It's true that religion played a big part in this effort, especially during the Cold War where they stepped up the effort to fuse together Christianity and capitalism. If socialism is opposed to religion, by implication that would mean engaging in class struggle is also against god. Somehow. It's just amazing how they were able to get away with perverting Jesus to justify the exact opposite of what he preached. I think this lecture is one that covers this in detail.

I don't accept all these prescriptions of what men and women are "supposed to be like". Traditional gender roles were fine in the context of traditional environments. But something extremely drastic has happened to the human species in the last few generations. In the most advanced corners of the world, we are seeing the emergence of the first generations of women who are not entirely dependent on men to survive. Imagine women not being seen as property and breeding machines, but actually having the freedom to choose their own path in life. Just how shocking and completely novel a development that is will take some time sink in. When it does, and it will inevitably, conventional gender roles will disintegrate. And it's very, very threatening to traditionalists. The amount of feminine energy that will be unlocked will be like a nuclear explosion. It's actually funny to see how men in the west are dumbfounded by women who don't want to "play house" with them. What's all this progress and evolution? Next thing we will have all of humanity being equal and free to self actualize on their own without one half being defined by their servitude to the other. The sky is falling.

Just a litany of ignorance, projection, false equivalences, ad hominems, and repeating stupid talking points. I mean these guys are not malicious. They're just really unsophisticated thinkers trying to make sense of the bad information fed to them, and coming up with all the wrong interpretations. Ironic that they come out hard against fact-checking, because it's impossible to fact-check content like theirs, when you would have to correct literally every sentence.

Just like shoplifting a candy bar and committing serial murder is the same because both are illegal.

From the little I know of Manson's personal life, it sounds a lot like he suffers from borderline personality disorder. That would explain the pattern of abusive relationships. If that is the case, I feel very bad for him. And of course also for anyone who's been intimately involved with him. BPD is extremely destructive.

It's just fascinating to watch how this story is playing out. The right wing disinformation brigade have been falling over themselves trying to discredit and expose how AOC lied about her account of the Capitol riot. They are claiming she wasn't in any danger and is just trying to play the victim. They desperately want this to be true, it just sadly isn't. I guess it is not surprising that someone like Tim Pool would run with this given that he didn't even watch her video. What makes this story especially hilarious is that just a month ago Josh Hawley did exactly what they falsely accuse AOC of doing. If you haven't heard this, it's a really funny story. The amount of projection is off the scale.

It's true. The GOP will never be able to win an election on policy. But that's been the case for at least half a century. None of their policies benefit the general population, and they know it. They can only win on branding and getting voters to associate egosyntonic feelings with the party, and conversely projecting everything that is scary and evil on the democrats. But this strategy requires an uninformed electorate. That's why billions of dollars are poured into undermining trust in media, science, academia, and politics. They need to keep people ignorant and confused about what the actual policies are, and how they affect their lives. And that has only been successful in the last 25 years because of the avalanche of misinformation coming from right wing "alternative" media. Without this propaganda offensive the Republican brand would probably already have crumbled in the 90's. Their entire policy platform is unpalatable to anyone except for the ultra rich. Bush was only kept afloat because of 9/11, and Trump was only elected because he misrepresented himself as some sort of a racist version of Bernie Sanders.

They are similar only in the sense that they are both unhappy with the status quo. The difference is that AOC wants to go forwards, and MTG wants to backwards. Whether they are effective or ineffective in terms of tactics, or if they are likeable or not, is debatable. But it isn't debatable that AOC overall is in favor of progress, and moving society's center of gravity up towards higher consciousness. Unlike MTG who believes society is already too conscious - she wants to dial things back down, to a dumber, cruder, less developed version, that she can understand. That's the essence of MAGA. The fact that she is certifiably mentally ill is besides the point.

Careful. I didn't actually know this woman. But it only took about 30 seconds to know exactly where she was going with this. Standard fearmongering about Europe being overrun by arab rapists and the real feminist is a fascist tradwife. Great. Makes sense that this is actually from Forum for Democracy. One of these far right think tanks pushing ethno-nationalism, deregulation, climate change denial, antisemitic tropes, and conspiracy theories. They also rail against "degenerate" modern art and creeping cultural marxism, and every other fascist talking point of the "New Right". If you want a critique of Third-wave Feminism it should be coming from above, like a yellow or healthy green perspective, not from the very pits of toxic blue. I am sure we can find some good sources that point to the real problems with modern feminists, without misleading you down the path to thinking it's all part of a globalist conspiracy to destroy western civilization. That said, I agree with your point about western ideas of feminism being pushed on heavily blue countries is counterproductive. If this woman's rhetoric resonates with men in less developed areas of the world, that is no surprise. But in a European context, this woman represents the very bottom of the barrel.