UpperMaster

Today my father asked me "What have you learned in the last year"? In a semi-sarcastic tone, implying that I am wasting my life. I thought about it for a second. I've gained the most life experience in the last year. I experienced so much failure, I've taken the most steps to progress in life, I messed up relationships and learned so much from them. I've learned more about psychology and philosophy, I've asked so many questions in this forum trying to learn. I quickly realized that it was so much. I replied I learned a lot, I gained a lot of experience learned more philosophy. My father basically gave a reaction ackined to "oh so you didn't do anything but bullshit". I didn't feel as bad as I thought I would. Usually I would feel really bad because there would be some truth to it. Like when my mother points out my faults and failures, I would feel bad, because deep down I am currently not doing as good as I want to. However, my father's reaction just made me kinda upset not because he pointed out some truth. but because he has no idea what I do on a daily bases. he doesn't even know who I am neither is he interested in anything I am passionate about. He is a business man, he doesn't give a fuck about philosophy. I speak to a lot of people, I really hope the work I am doing here pays off. I don't see many people doing it, I pray it will all work good, I am really taking time here. Completely separate issue: My mother has also kept using statements that insinuate that I am shallow and manipulative in some way. She keeps doing that. Now I am really thinking on whether or not I have some bad behaviors. I will reflect on that in the soon. Another separate issue: I want to understand trump, maga moement and fascism more because some of my friends are involved in that. I got some info I will do research soon.

I have nothing intelligent to say, stay strong man, get better

No I haven't yet, I had a bunch of exams. I will watch it now that I've got the time. I am currently trying to understand your "How To Avoid Getting Scammed" video, I got to finish that first ahahaha. I'll get to it ASAP. Step by Step.

I completely forgot about him. Yea that's crazy. Like I said, I will try to debate, but I want to understand these issues for myself aswell.

@Leo Gura Ok I will go through Vaush and Destiny. Are there any specific books or documentaries that you recommend maybe? btw thanks man, I'm very tired of being politically oblivious.

Another thing is, we are teenagers. A lot of people I see going into the nazi movement are really young, I hope they grow out of it.

Okay I will look through destiny's work. I hope I can dismantle my close friend's dogma's, were different races and were best friends. Best person I know when it comes to actually being a friend, super kind and reliable. I know its sounds so weird but Im serious. At the least, I want to be able respond with well articulated responses, so it doesn't seem like I am on board with some of their ideas.

Neo-Nazi ideology seems to be growing, and some of my friends have fallen deep into Nazi/White supremacist beliefs. They support Trump and have extreme right-wing views. To be completely honest, I don't fully understand why Trump is considered bad, I’m clueless on that. I also feel lost when it comes to arguments about Black crime statistics. When my friends claim that Black people commit more crimes, that their culture is “bad,” or that they’re somehow “lazy” and failing in a developed country like America, I struggle to respond intelligently because I haven’t researched these topics deeply. I’m also unsure about the issue of migrant crime statistics in Europe. These friends argue that “remigration” is the solution to everything, but I haven’t looked into this enough to counter their points effectively. I want to argue against their ideology not just because I’ve been told it’s bad, but because I see the hypocrisy in their behavior. They criticize Black people for committing crimes, but then openly disregard the law themselves. They obsess over the “Great Replacement Theory” and how Jews want to dominate the world and empower their race, yet they’re fine advocating for racial superiority of their own race. This is personal to me because I’m not white. I’m tired of getting sent reels or having discussions about these racist topics. I can logically explain why I oppose their ideology (personal experiences, Colonialism etc), but they always bring up specific stats or arguments, and I don’t know enough to counter them properly. It’s becoming a serious issue. These friends mean a lot to me (they are at heart excellent people), but they’re taking real world action based on these beliefs. It really pisses me off when they send me racist reels, like, fuck no, it’s not funny to dehumanize Black people. I want to respond intelligently and properly so they can change their mind, but I need to understand truthfully the situation. There's so much information about Trump, Fascism, Racism and politics in general. Where do I start learning about this? Let me know so I actually develop true insight and understanding? When I read things in the politics section in the forum I have absolutely zero context, so I am a political noob.

I know it might sound disempowering but even these questions (free will etc) have to be asked when doing serious philosophical investigation. And your right in many cases it leads to armchair philosophy which is why I said its required to be pragmatic in this case so you can actually put your life together and " put bread on your table and feed your kids" regardless of what the truth is.

Leo wrote a blog about pragmatism. Just because something works doesn't mean it's true. It's one of his best blogs. What Im not trying to say that truth isn't useful, I am saying that when trying to be successful you often must prioritize achieving success over investigating truth. Take the black and white example of Free Will: A pragmatist might say: "Who cares whether free will is real or not? Just assume you have it, it feels like you do, and it gets the job done, so go with it". To be fair, that's the right approach when trying to succeed. You can't be doing serious philisophical inquiry and build an amazing business at the same time. Its difficult. Reality isn't trivial. To understand it takes a long fucking time. So yes truth takes a back seat because giving a fuck about truth is just not resourceful in some cases. https://www.actualized.org/insights/the-trap-of-pragmatism Hope you get what I mean, if I misunderstood you let me know

Lot of things have happened since the last journal entry. I had an insightful meeting with therapist I tried concerta I realise that some of my “ambition” or need to prove others wrong is actually source of great pain for me. It hasn’t even helped me be any more productive. It’s just hate that I feel. I feel like it’s a source of great immaturity. This underlying desire to become better than people, prove people wrong is very strong and is the main reason I am in self-development. lookint back it hasn’t even led me to more progress, I just hate more, feel horrible. This is the first time I’m considering tackling this desire. It’s the reason I’m in self development, but I suspect it’s also one of my biggest constraints in actually developing. Edit: I feel that feeling right now. It's very very strong. I can see why I keep it there, it's so overpowering. I am not sure I can get rid of it I will be honest. edit 2: If I was focused I would capitalize on this feeling

I can think of two ways where chasing success requires you to let go of truth. When trying to achieve something difficult, near impossible, statistically unlikely, it seems that you have to hold on to self-belief no matter how delusional it seems. The reason I consider this letting go of truth is because if you were to do an honest assessment of whether or not you'll be successful the answer will be statistically no, and you'll derail yourself. Believing that you are the maker of your life and taking full responsibility of the results you get in life is needed for mass success. If you were to look at it truthfully however, there are so many things that just aren't under your control. Bottom line - You have to be somewhat PRAGMATIC to be successful. Pragmatism is not aligned with truth. Ps. I have no large experience dealing with success. I am writing this based on my experience listening to successful people. Please discuss.

Conditional. If you have health issues it's hard to be happy. I have seen this with people I love in my life (+Leo also addresses this). That's not to say you can't learn ways to be happy. I am very sure that people can develop some emotional mastery to help them become more happy more consistently. But if some conditions are not met, like having good health etc etc it's much harder to be happy. No apologies needed post makes sense. Welcome to the forum, we're happy you are here.

Perfectly described. Im surprised you took the time to understand the ideology well.

@NoSelfSelf I disagree with this. Or maybe I just din't understand this part of Leo's teaching. But 100% accountability can be dangerous. I had some traumatic experiences as a child, and for the longest time, I blamed myself for the experiences I went through. I told myself that I was responsible, that I shouldn't have associated with the people I did, that I should have enforced boundaries. This self blame just caused me infinite pain. In the end what helped me was recognizing that I was the victim in that circumstance, I was a child, I couldn't possibly know any better. If it was a younger child going through the same thing I wouldn't hold him responsible that's retarded, he's a kid he cant know better. I was a victim, and admitting that brought peace. And saying "you shouldn't blame yourself but you should take responsibility" seems to me to be just word games. Blaming someone is holding someone accountable for a result. It's the same shit. When someone betrays your trust, blaming yourself for it seems to be even more counterproductive.