UpperMaster

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.

Super important lesson I learned from Leo's "How to Avoid Getting Scammed, Cheated, Exploited Conned" video. He talks about the trap of Cynicism or being overly Cautious. He explains how despite there being many scams and conns, being overly cautious will prevent you from taking action and getting results. Taking action leads to you interacting with the world and getting back feedback. This feedback is essential, it will allow you to orient yourself to getting better results. Examples: Pickup: Pickup community is very grifty and scammy. But quickly dismissing everything in pickup and accepting that the only way to have sex with a hot girl is through having a good jawline and consequently deciding to do absolutely nothing is a mistake. Spirituality: Theres a lot of bs in new age spirituality. Doesn't mean realizing in god is impossible. Business: There's a lot go shitty business advice. Doesn't mean all business advice is bad. He explains how a lot of time diamonds can be found floating on shit. Cynicism will lead to you not taking any action, sitting around on the couch and criticizing anything. Sometimes taking action and getting scammed is better than taking no action at all. EMBRACE THE TRICKERY OF REALITY

Male 19. First year university (currently taking reseat exams). I'm honestly afraid I might fail the year. I want to self-actualise. This is my journal as a reminder of my growth. Many problems and issues on my mind but right now, but quite honestly my biggest hurdle is my ability to work. I've grown convinced that there is actually something biologically wrong with me. I used be the smartest in my class in middle school, I would study for exams right before the test. After COVID, my capacity to concentrate is complete dogshit. I'm a horrible results maker. My parents have pointed this out to me in numerous occasions. They can't believe how poorly I turned out, as growing up I seemed productive, but right now I'm struggling to get by in life. I already tried all the techniques to improve my work ethic and focus. I've contemplated and designed models of motivation that I could use to get myself to work. I tried brainwashing myself to think that inaction would lead to a horrific event, to fear monger myself to work. This is the only thing that got me results, but its with huge expense. Right now the only thing that works for me is putting myself in a mental state where I think I am in competition with everyone. It's this deeply egoic, dog-eat-dog mentality thats most defenitly toxic. I hesitated to keep myself in this state of mind for two reasons: 1. I become dysfunctional in other areas of life that don't involve material success like family. 2. I can't turn it on or turn it off. 3. I'm constantly stressed, it's a constant fight or flight. Like I legitamatley don't enjoy life anymore. However this mental state seems to be extremely effective in getting things done, I can work 6 hours a day on a task, with high intensity. Otherwise I can barely work 30 minutes with very low intensity. I need to be able to work or I'll remain a failure. I also don't want to waste my life away feeling like shit. I feel trapped. It is possible that I might have some heavy metal poisoning. It can explain my inability to sleep great, inability to focus and work etc. It is completely not normal for me to struggle this much to work . I don't want to become a psychopathic neurotic monster just to be able to get some work done. Other people seem to work so easily. I know for a fact that "not wanting it enough" is not a problem. My success is pretty much all I think about, and I feel a lot of pain as I feel as though I am unable to progress in life no matter what I do.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

When you get abused by some black migrants for the 6th time, how to not become racist? If your wife cheats on you, how do you not become bitter, and adopt harmful ideologies like redpill and blackpill? When you get betrayed by a friend continuously your whole life, how can you continue to trust people? Recently I've been thinking about how people get radicalized, and I don't know how to prevent this happening to me. Someone I know and who I take general life advice (because he is older) from got cheated on with his wife, and now is very bitter (I can feel it). He gives me advice like, "long distance relationships never work, if you leave your woman in another town she WILL cheat on you. That's how it is. Always." with full conviction. Honestly, I can see where he is coming from, I'd be heartbroken from his shoes too. I doubt that this is actually the case. My parents are together, I don't think either of them ever cheated, and they worked through a lot to keep their marriage going. The thing is, I don't want to be radicalized like this just because I have a bad experience or something. I am scared I am vulnerable to such radicalization. How do I prevent this from happening? It seems to be a very common thing for most people when they get hurt.

Does this work? How should you do this?

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.

wdym go back to the 1960s and reincarnate.

@trenton thanks for response! Cool how you had experience with this and found that radicalization actually doesn't help you. I think it's a bit more difficult when a close friend betrays you but I get it.

Thank you for the reply. So from what you said, intention for finding truth is the main weapon against radicalization. So there's no easy way, you have to feel the cuts of betrayal and still try to find truth. About the long distance thing: Yea I can see what you are saying. I miswrote slightly my message, this person who I was talking about wasn't saying like long distance relationship, he meant that you'll get cheated on if you have to travel for two months for work or something. That's why I thought it was a bit excessive.

This is an amazing list. thank you for the value you are providing. I didn't think of the importance of setting healthy boundaries at all. This is like a preventative step almost. I can see by the effort you put on this post. I appreciate it. And thank you!

@Jacob Morres thanks for the response. I just spoke to a friend, one thing that might help with this is get an experience that counteracts the bad experience. Likee if you got abused by a black guy, your less likely to be racist cuz u already have black friends that prove to you that black people are nice. But that's kind of difficult to do with relationships because to try that out you have to prepare to make yourself vulnerable again. and if your not prepared to be vulnerable, you'll just be toxic and not have a good relationship.

I think there two key problems that you are trying to solve. 1. People have need for purpose and community, and often get that through organized religion/ideology. You basically want to create the "best ideology possible" wherein helps people live a great life. You want to achieve this by adding pillars like self improvement and best science. 2. You believe not all people are going to develop themselves into higher developmental stages, and will innevitably fall into ideology. So your solution is to give them an ideology that will cause less hard and most progress. Rebutalls. Firstly Creating the "best" ideology is already incredibly tricky. How do you even know what the best science is? Deciding what is the "best" way to do anything is not trivial and takes a lot of work. The best spiritual teachers in the world debate over what is the best way to achieve spiritual mastery. The best scientists disagree with each other on how to do the best science. I'm illustrating these examples because it shows how difficult it would be to find the best way to do things. People won't be encouraged to reflect on their beliefs and shame other people who try. This would actually be destructive. YES, I think people can develop into higher developmental stages, because it is already happening. A lot of the world is stage orange whereas before it was stage blue. We can move up collectively. it just takes a fuck ton a time and mass education, not ideology. And for the record, Leo is right by saying that's how Islam is. Most hardcore islamists believe that their way of doing things are the most developed and correct. Most islamic people believe that Islam is a "encompassing ideology on how to live your life based on science, rationality, spirituality, psychology, philosophy, self improvement". The Quran has lessons on how to behave, and organize society aswell as face lifes challenges. People believe it's right. We need people to be more self reflecting and go away from ideology. It is possible I believe. Maybe not any time soon though.