Basman

We live in a farmer's society that rewards regimentation and agreeableness. The benefits largely outweigh the cons, but I believe that this sense of anxiety, insecurity and lack of spontaneity is due to being taught to reject new experiences. You have to teach young boys to not kick over sand castles. This whole thread comes of as somewhat performative, whiny and lacking in substance though. You could just mind your own business.

In terms of self-learning art, in my experience you mostly need to just practice with the occasional theory to help you create particular distinctions that make your art and your understanding of what you are drawing better. And you practice by mostly drawing the things that you are interested in, as opposed to thing you think you should draw. You also need a large collection of references and inspiration to draw from.

I'm not convinced that Jewish paranoia isn't primarily ideological first and foremost and what genocidal hatred does exist and is aimed at them today is due to their own ethnic cleansing and terroristic acts. The Jews aren't at serious risk of being ethnically cleansed in the modern world. It's just winging at best, justifying barbarism at worst.

The Israel-Palestine war is not about preventing ethnic cleansing (in of itself though it is part of the war as a consequence) but about territory and ideological conviction over who rightfully owns that territory. There won't be an end to the conflict unless Israel first relents its territorial ambitions. It's also my impression that Jews overall live very successful lives in Western countries, so I don't see much merit to the notion that there is a necessity for their own country or that they have an inherent right to any kind of land simply due to their religious affiliation. That is not an argument for that Israel shouldn't exist by the way. We should recognize that the creation of Israel was first and foremost an ideological conception of Zionism.

Drama slop farming is relatively low effort and makes the rounds. Make daily videos where you react to ideologically opposed unhinged people and/or become a propagandist. You could also become a nuisance streamer where you stream yourself harassing strangers on the streets, ideally in a culturally meek country like Japan where they just take the abuse.

NATO expansion being the cause of Russian territorial aggression is part of Russian disinformation. Countries join NATO because of Russian escalation. The notion of "expansion" is itself a myth as individual countries have to ask to join in order to become part of NATO (it's an open door policy). It's a wilful process. For Russia this is an ideological war is about maintaining that idea of greatness and a sphere of influence where they can project power unto the global stage as opposed to being a mere regional power.

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/05/23/business/denmark-retirement-age-rise-70-intl-scli One of the worst aspects of Danish culture is their placidity politically, bordering on apathy. A complete lack of willingness to meaningfully engage politically when the social contract is being renegotiated against their interest. Like with the removal of a national holiday, the illegal destruction of the mink industry, the gutting of the education system and the general generational theft occurring. While raising the retirement age is common globally Denmark stands out with its lack of meaningful civil discourse on the matter. The French would riot over less.

Since the retirement dilemma (the prospect of unsustainable retirement ages financially/demographically) I've been contemplating that it's a consequence in part of the atomization of society, because in the past families would take care of the elderly and the elderly would help raise children and pass on experience but that kind of dynamic is more or less gone. You'd be lucky just to live in the same zip code as your family these days much less the same house. That sort of communality provides tangible value to society that can't be bought with money which has been lost. In general, I think that in the modern age we need to consciously take responsibility for creating our communities to fulfill us socially and help us survive as opposed to relying on externalities to create and maintain communities, which then results in the gradual diminishment of communities as those externalities evaporate with modern inventions and infrastructure. I think we as a society of people should take greater responsibility for our own survival and not just rely on institutions to baby all of our needs. We need a culture that emphasizes community. And the benefit of having let go of old traditions as a culture is that you have more freedom to choose your own "tribe". Medieval people get a lot of flak for being backwards but they knew how to survive without relying purely on the state. We could combine the best of both worlds much more effectively.

Yeah, it's like one thing to work till 70 but another to be actually employable at that age. If you fall off the train in your 60s, what are you supposed to even do? I can easily see there being a welfare class of older people who can't get a job but are too young to get a pension in the future. The dastardly thing about it is that it potentially saves on paying out pensions to people who reasonably are too old to work.

People who's job is a singular task are at most risk at getting automated, like spray painting cars at the assembly line, unless you underbid your work to the point that its cheaper to hire you than it is to build the infrastructure needed to automate your job (for the time being), like sweat shops or the ladies that sort crabs at the crab factory. You can't underbid AI though if you work exclusively in the digital space. Quality holds AI back however as well as creative collaboration. AI can't build a creative vision for you (that is good).

AI and by extension machines don't automate jobs but specific tasks. A windmill isn't the automation of being a grain farmer but of milling specifically. AI can do programming specifically but it can't effectively go to meetings, make important business decisions, etc. This is why the jobs most affected by AI currently are jobs that deal in media and information. Being an illustrator is essentially a single task whereas a low-skill manual labor job consists of various different tasks but also require infrastructure to be physically built in order to be automated which costs more than an AI model producing content endlessly in the digital space, which only requires the computers that are already in place. Counter-intuitively, it's to a certain extent harder to automate manual labor than it is creative jobs like writing or art. To that effect, I think it is more likely that AI will undermine job security depending on the brevity of responsibilities you have if looked at pessimistically. AI could also boost productivity on the other hand. The fact that you need in demand skills hasn't changed nonetheless.

They are not antithetical to each other at all, but most people don't need to be broadly knowledgeable so they aren't. Even if its relatively accessible. There's also something to be said about a lack of education. If people aren't taught to be rational they are less likely to critically think about their beliefs or consider their assumptions. The survival value of their ideology is greater than their intellectual rigor and curiosity.

It's admittedly an exaggeration. They smell as well...

You got it backwards. Ignorance doesn't need an excuse. It's the default state. If anything, you need a real good reason to bother reading a bunch of books, philosophize, etc. For the people on this forum I wager it is a mix of curiosity and ambition. You can appreciate that those are relatively rare qualities. Survival comes first for the majority of people and their beliefs are there to facilitate that. It's not the point that it is true necessarily but that it works to maintain their identity, which is itself an attempt at surviving certain conditions.

How would you know? How do you know this isn't just an assumption on your part? This is what I really meant by "equal rights to humans". Obviously, animals can't participate in society as civilians. You didn't really give any justification for why humans shouldn't eat animals. That was perhaps a bad point on reflection. This is categorically a strawman on your part. You constantly accuse people instead of just focusing on the quality of their arguments. It's really unpleasant and your making this forum worse for it. Stop it. It's insulting. I have no interest in justifying my beliefs. I'm just curious about about the philosophical merits of veganism. I have at no point actually said that veganism is bad. I don't take any pleasure in paying anyone out but it's just so obnoxious with how your mostly preoccupied with just defending your beliefs and winning debates. I don't think I'm going to be engaging with your posts anymore. Too annoying.

Reminds me that apparently there are wild panther's in the province of Ontario, Canada. Some exotic pet owner or illegal price hunt went awry at some point and these leopards escaped into the wild. A school had to hold an indoor recess once due to a sighting.

These kind of frequent battles seem to be a cultural cornerstone, enabled by the relative inefficiency of how they fight. Fighting like they do allows them some reprieve from an otherwise harsh life and have some purpose, bit like an annual festival. If any one side became more proficient and smashed the stalemate, this "war culture" would immediately shatter.

This battle took place in West Papua in 1964. It's part of the movie Dead Birds by Robert Gardner, which is about the Hubula people in Niew Guinea (now Indonesia). This kind of fighting was already outdated back in the Mesopotamia days of the Sumerian civilization, 4000-6000 years ago. It doesn't get any more primitive than this. Literally just sticks and stones. It's so inefficient that the actual battle is mostly just a bunch of chest beating and hollering and Westerners can calmly record the whole affair from a safe distance. They can hardly wound each other. It is also surprisingly formal, with agreed upon breaks during the battle and when and where it should take place. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JI4uirwxx1Y (The video can't be embedded because YT is a skunk)

This implies a binary of either you care about animals or you don't. It's a false dichotomy. You could care about general animal well-being but not see them as equivalent to humans, not adopting the utilitarian framing all together. You could love animals and raise them for meat on a farm, for example. This is how many farmers operate. You could care about dogs and cats but not so much for cows and pigs. This is how many suburban folk operate. It's a pretty big jump in logic if you think about it. Why does it follow that caring about animals then means that they are entitled to the same rights as humans? This is wrong. The best way is to commit seppuku and seize to exist. The best thing for ecology would be for humanity to go completely extinct over night. It is an inherent contradiction within an ideology that is all about self-denial for the sake of preservation to draw the line anywhere. Any line will necessarily be partial and reductive.

Yeah, Amsterdam is quiet dense. It's always crowded, especially in the summer. Many of the roads where built for horse carriages. It's quaint and lively. You are mostly sheltered from the strong winds that tend to blow in NL inside the city as well, which matters when you cycle about, trust me. I spoke mostly Dutch but that is because I know Dutch. You can get around speaking English just fine though but certain government websites will be in Dutch I believe (can't remember exactly) but that could have been changed since. The Dutch are very accommodating lingually and don't mind speaking English for you. Fun fact, Dutch pronounce their "O's" with a lower pitch like how you would pronounce the word "oh". You can check if someone has a Dutch accent by making them say "bottle" and they should pronounce it like "b-oh-ttehl".

This whole conflict was a mess from the very start.

You can eat meat for more reasons than just pleasure. This kind of framing is quiet reductive and antagonizing and reflects the broader misanthropy of veganism, as being omnivores is part of our natural biology and culture. You could for example care about animal welfare and still eat meat with the distinction that you don't see animals as equivalent to humans. You have to be ideologically inclined to at all consider veganism as it hinges on egalitarianism, which is inherently a tall order when speaking in generals, like what is healthy and right for people. I think there's a certain degree of entitlement to these vegan debates when it turns into "being right" metaphysically as a vegan. You could just disagree. You could also point out veganism still relies on destroying plant life in order to live. Arguably, to be truly vegan you have to photosynthesize.

I lived with my dad so 0- but I did pay for my own insurance and food. I lived in centrum by the way, but I wouldn't do that again if I where to move back. It's too busy with way too many tourists.

@MarkKol It's easier to own a car if you live in the suburbs. North Amsterdam is a small suburban ethnic paradise very close to the city center but split by the river. You can take the free ferry across an be down town in about 20 minutes but still have more space for cars and probably cheaper rent.

I have lived in Amsterdam for a couple of years. I'd generally recommend not to live in the city center as it is more expensive and less accommodating for your apparent car needs. There are too many tourists too. Amsterdam is actually not that big so you could easily cycle/take the tram into town fairly quickly and easily. The Netherlands is quiet flat overall and easy to get around with the best road infrastructure in the world. You can just cycle from the city to the coast in about 1.5-2 hours. In that time, you can reach most places in the country with the car. Public transport is expensive but you can get around fine with just a bike in my experience. Another thing is that it is mandatory to pay for health insurance in NL. The cheapest available are about 80-100 euro per month when I lived there but it might have risen since COVID. If you have specific health needs you'll probably have to pay more in insurance.