Basman

Whereas modern self-help is about getting what you want out of life, IE. "carrot" self-help, religion was about what not to do, IE. "stick" self-help. Religion always instills in you a sense a duty and belonging towards the straight and narrow whereas modern self-help doesn't necessarily instill any responsibility relative to excess. Pick-up devils or stock brokers would be good example of excess driven by modern self-help (and modern culture tends to reward excess). I think the reason why people in the past gravitated more towards "the stick" and why nothing like Tony Robbins existed back then is because life was much harder and more brutal. Religion set basic moral standards that probably didn't exist prior and equipped people to better deal with a hard life. One thing that characterizes modern self-help culture in my opinion is that it instill a sense of entitlement relative to getting what you want out of life. But sometimes life gives you things you don't want, such as war or chronic illness. People have no frame of reference when they suddenly end up in a situation that throws their life upside down. You can kind of see this culture in action when people disparage drafts. Drafts are essentially a form of institutionalized servitude but are often necessary for collective survival in a lot of cases. People didn't have the luxury to feel entitled about their life back then. They where too busy just trying to survive and had to make do. Religion as old self-help better equipped people to deal with death, as people died younger back then, something that modern self-help doesn't really deal with directly in my opinion. In general, modern culture doesn't really teach people to have a good relationship with death. People generally want to live forever then get disappointed with life when they die. Now, you could argue that believing your going to heaven when you die of tuberculosis at 41 isn't good either, but how far off is that really though? Not that modern self-help is bad, but it's interesting to note the distinction in how modern self-help and religion differ philosophically. Just my 2 cents.

Obviously, most self-help is success oriented. But the average person needs more success before they can start thinking about god, arguably.

It's less about the specific belief in god than it's about how religion mirrors self-help but in a "stick" way, as opposed to the "Carrot" way that characterizes modern self-help, IE. what not to do in life as opposed to getting what you want out of life. It essentially boils down to ethics and having an adequate sense of one's mortality in my opinion. Buddhism I would characterize as religious self-help that doesn't center a belief in god. Modern self-help has the advantage in that it's generally very clear and easy to follow, whereas antique material can be quiet obtuse. It's a mistake to compare apples to oranges though, as long as you are getting something out of the material.

Thou shalt not eat chicken and lick thy fingers on a sunday afternoon lest thou go to hell.

FIY this is not chud christianposting. This is more about the concept of having ethical standards and having a healthy relationship towards one's mortality.

He's estranging himself by his actions. It's natural that you start disliking him. Sometimes people have to hit rock bottom before anything else can happen. You could try to talk to him and convince him of how much more painful his addiction will be than pleasurable, but that's not guaranteed to work, especially if he's not listening. The core issue of addiction is that the addict feels like they would be missing out without their vice. Breaking addiction is therefor about feeling like you no longer care if you miss out. Best you can do either way is to just focus on yourself and your goals.

This is how green fails. It's too preoccupied with tribe consensus and ideological purity than being politically actionable. They don't really think about or care about results. Just that your wearing the right color of clothes, which comes at the expense of producing actionable results. It's conformist as hell and cringe 100.

Betterment is a good short-term solution to a crisis, but long-term generosity creates dependency and undermines the local economy. It's hard to compete with free so poor countries are rendered indeficient at developing their own businesses and systems for handling survival. And the free stuff is often mediocre and eats away at peoples dignity, like used clothes. Africans wearing a tired old oversized Spiderman shirt instead of something locally produced. The "gifts" poor parents give their children during Christmas are all donated. It sends a message to one's self-esteem when it's chronic. It's a good example of how good intentions tend to backfire if you don't appreciate how systems work. It's an example of why stage green is insufficient at solving the problems it cares about, and often actually makes things worse. Sometimes its more evil to rob people of the opportunity for self-improvement and dignity with your compassion than to just let them suffer and struggle.

RIP buddy. Recognize some of his songs from Tiktok edits. 32 is too young.

Communism is very good at criticizing capitalism, but they are too idelogical when it comes to human nature to be politically effective. What you see in communist dictatorships like China is that younger generations of rulers are less ideological and therefor end up decentralizing parts of the economy because it works. Even in North Korea they allow black markets to exist because it helps prevent starvation.

Billionaire and authoritarian populists exploit the discontent of migration to get into power and self-deal. They are much better at talking to the people but aren't actually interested in doing good politics. In practice, they might let in even more migrants, like the Tories did post-Brexit. Be careful that your not being taken for a ride when voting.

Can't spell omniscience without science 😎

Imagine waking up one day and everyone looks slightly different but your the only one who knows. Bit how that pic feels.

You where actually there? That's wild. We're already at the counter-protest "stop being racist" phase whenever a (perceived to be) migrant commits a violent crime.

I can testify that many Muslim bros that grew up in a western country have a very loose relationship with their faith in practice. They drink, have casual sex, get into fights, like everyone else. About the only thing that they hardline on is eating pork. They've been brainwashed to act like they are allergic. Where's the fun in being religious when you have so much freedom? Between faith and freedom, religion gets ground down like a beach stone to just the most obvious singnifiers of cultural heritage until you get a situation where they are for all intents and purposes secular but celebrate insert holiday.

Center-right policies on migration is the most politically stable and likely outcome for western countries in general. No amount of soy slop will change that.

For a lot of voters it is. See Brexit. People get upset when they have a sense that their borders are to loose and fluid. It makes them feel unsafe. It's why it's such a safe strategy for politicians to be tough on migration currently. Center left politicians who personally don't mind migrants will happily tighten the reins for migrants because its what's best for their careers. See Sweden. There's also a deeper divide between westerners and muslims in how religious god is given primacy which makes many westerners feel uneasy. It's not just ethnic.

Group think and intolerance of differing opinions are aspects of green, so I don't think I'd agree in saying they are blue. They are just a more extreme form of liberalism. The "authentic self" is centered hugely in wokiesm (ie. Being trans, gay, a minority, unique sexualities, etc). Blue doesn't truly value authenticity like that imo. They might look a little blue in that they make political disagreement moral disagreement and they want that to be punishable on an institutional level (ie. Cancelled for wrong think), but that's arguably still within the perview of green. Blue moralism is centered more around theology and survival (being lazy, don't steal or murder, etc.)

When the migrants counter-racist you

Also greater strain on welfare and housing and lowers wages. Why hire locals to paint your house when you can hire east-europeans who do it for half the pay? Unless you filter for high skilled migrants, they will on average earn less and be less educated. Mass migration tends to benefit elites the most. Your average conservative voter isn't really thinking about who works the factory jobs. A center right migration policy is the most politically sustainable currently imo. Something that only the furthest left parties tend to object to. Even your mom and dad lefty parties like British labor are strict on migration. Denmark has had the strictest migration policies as EU country for ages despite being a progressive welfare state. Sweden has done a complete 180 since the Merkel days.

It's a mix of practical economic reasons and ideological ones. Centrist politicians tend to believe in migration as a humanitarian good. They feel enriched by it beyound juch the raw economic ideas behind it imo. The migration policies of the 2010s in particular never had popular democratic backing however such that many felt that migration was something being done to them, which gave a lot of ammo to populists like Trump or Farage. Now migration is becoming a lot stricter. Sweden has done a 180 on its migration policy for instance. In my experience, its quiet rare for general people to be pro migration, at least of the Merkel kind. Only the most left wing people I know tend to be broadly pro migration, and usually for sentimental reasons. "They are people too" , etc.

Computer hard.

Kid clearly has issues. Good for noticing. I would consider family counseling in his situation since it sounds like he's not confident in his family bonds. Counseling should help lead to additional constructive behavior relationship wise, like spending more quality time and improved understanding his specific needs. Have him also tested for neurodivergence so he can get proper support (the earlier in life the better) and perhaps moved to a different school. You could also take martial arts classes with him as his confidant to build some confidence. Maybe enroll him into boy scouts or some other activity to expose him to more social opportunities and experience.

Burn out is such a powerful force. It can take years to get over. I know Leo has been dealing with his own burn out, so I'm sure there's insight to be had. It's such a universal and often frustrating experience, because often what we're burnt out over is important to us in someway.

I remember learning once that if you want to sell to rich people, upping the price and making it expensive arbitrarily makes it seem more worth having. Its part of the marketing.