Basman

He talks a lot about Trump intermittently in his political/developmental series if I remember correctly.

Russia will test NATO after the Ukraine war I bet. See how far he can push it. The end goal seems to be to reconquer the old territories of the Soviet Union at least.

If there's going to be a resurgence of communal religion in the west it needs to be Christian. Religion and culture are inextricably enmeshed and many core western values are Christian in origin.

They are never going back to Romania I bet. That suit is over.

AI seems like an interesting and inexpensive/accessible tool for working on one's neurosis, insecurities, etc. Have anyone had any luck using AI for self-improvement? In which, case what program did you use, what prompts, methodology, etc. I think one of its weaknesses could be that the AI just tells you a bunch of feel good shit or ends up being moralizing instead of constructive.

It should really be obvious why abject suffering reduces one's capacity for deep spirituality. If that wasn't true then there's no reason for you to care about your own survival at all. Of course that is impossible because you'll suffer if you do. That's the crux of the human condition. Some of you guys live in your heads too much.

The greater security needs that Europe faces now in the absence of US support has lead to introspection of how to form a stronger Europe it seems. I don't think changing borders is a good idea if its a top down mandate because people are attached to their national identities. It would feed secessionist thought and only serve to weaken the European collective. You don't want the EU to appear as the big bad globalist technocracy who rapes your culture and forces you to eat bugs. If people freak out you risk another Brexit in the long-term. The only reason to change borders is to improve productivity somehow, but you could arguably accomplish a lot already just through quality bureaucracy and cooperation. A collective European army could bolster security and cut down on costs for instance.

So easy to say when you are not suffering. How aware do you think concentration camp victims are of god's creation while they are starved and abused? Try living one year in a prison camp and you'll very quickly see why fairness and survival matters while you are still here.

Morality is a social construct in part but its also informed by our base survival needs that all humans share. We have an innate sense of fairness. If you are suffering its not possible to appreciate an absolute perspective so fairness and survival is absolutely vital. On the cosmic scale, your basically a rat.

Fairness matters for social cohesion. The natural condition is a zero-sum game. Back in the day, men would be fair and loving towards their family one day and rape and pillage their neighbors the next. But nobody really wants to live in a world like that because no one is immune to being victimized. There are much more incentives to being fair today because the game of social cohesion is much more all encompassing.

Social media is geared towards clicks. Bipartisanship, outrage and tribalism are good for clicks, hence a large amount of slop. I find these Youtube channels great for news in my opinion: https://www.youtube.com/@warographics643 https://www.youtube.com/@SirSwag01 You shouldn't really consume too much news content in my opinion so its good to only intermittently get new content from a news-source you like, like with Sir Swag's channel.

@Leo Gura Going a bit off topic here but in relation to strictness, do you think corporal punishment of children has a place? Like, if they break a major rule? Like for example stealing money from their parents or assaulting other kids.

Gender is arguably a matter of perspective but that doesn't mean that there aren't real and serious consequences to gender. If you look like a man than you have to contend with how others perceive you regardless of how you feel about it. Most organizations seem to have figured this out relative to bathrooms where everyone wins. A flaw of transgenderism is that in practice people aren't always going to be on the same page. Transgenderism is inherently very subjective but the real world can't just be subjective because people have survival needs.

If you look like a man you don't belong in the woman's rest room. Its not that complicated. Butch lesbians look like women. If its less obvious then I can imagine it would create some discomfort if they think your a man.

I go to a liberal university currently who has gender neutral bathrooms. In practice, it just means that everyone gets their own closed off little bathroom with their own hand wash and a mirror. You completely avoid the conflict that transwomen in girls bathroom can cause. You do miss out on urinals though. A transwoman in a girl's bathroom who doesn't convincingly pass is going to cause issues. In such cases, its better they use the disabled toilet or something adjacent.

America and Trump in particular seems to have this obsession with the death penalty. Its outdated and actually costs more than just putting people in prison due to greater litigation processes. And you statistically will end up killing people who are categorically innocent of their charges. Is America the least developed first world country in the world? Its so barbaric in so many ways. How do you even get a situation where healthcare leads to murder in the first place. Then the death penalty for the shooter while school shooters are not treated nearly as harsh. Its blatantly oligarchical.

@Leo Gura Do you think that Tony Robbins himself is a scam or just self-help gurus that associate with him? I've read one of his books and I understand why its so popular. Its great basic level success oriented self-help so I can't see how Tony Robins himself as a scam.

We are seeing a general decline in students enrolling into the humanities in favor of more vocational education with a bunch of humanity degree holders and professors crying about it. While its a shame on the one hand that people seem less interested learning soft skills, philosophy for instance can change your worldview substantially, on the other hand, the decline of humanities is really the bubble bursting for the value of degrees in my opinion. The humanities where artificially large post WW2 till now due to the value of a degree but that value has now plummeted resulting in people to whom a liberal education is a luxury otherwise opting for more vocational education and hard skills. If you think about it, liberal education has been something that rich elites did primarily. Most if not all great philosopher have been elites who didn't have to worry about basic survival. It is correct in my opinion that humanities are shrinking down to a minority. We as a society simply don't need that many philosophers and sociologists and what not. However, I do think a liberal education should be an important part of primary education. It is just that many of the courses that are liberal in nature aren't all that educational in practice in my experience. Foreign languages for instance are glorified cultural exchanges for the most part. Only 15% of students will actually go on to communicate with the foreign language after 4 years of study. That's a lot of time spent learning about tacos and how to say "beer" in Spanish for it all to be just forgotten after exams. Meanwhile people have no understanding of finances. This forums seems to be much more practical in general and I think most here would prioritize hard skills over soft skills. I'd be especially interested in hearing from people who have or are studying a liberal arts degree in what they think about this decline and the value of a liberal secondary education.

https://denmarkification.com/ California is full of hipsters and homeless people. We should get a deep discount.

There's some kind of disease ravaging the American chicken population I believe. Other countries avoided this issue because they regulate their industry better.

Are you cool with having half your paycheck swiped by the government and generally higher cost of living? Americans complain a lot about the price of eggs, or so I've heard, but here in Denmark we pay about the same for eggs and its just normal. Northern-Europe at least is one of the best places on earth but there are some drawbacks that your going to feel if you start living here, especially if you are used to a tax rate around 25%-ish and warmer people. Things are a lot more institutionalized here and there is less of an entrepreneurial spirit compared to the US.

But not every movie is based on a book. And the story is always changed to fit the medium when books are adapted. And not everyone experiences a movie the same. Some people think the Godfather is boring. Literature doesn't capture the emotion and personal additions one makes when verbally telling a story either. A story isn't defined by being on a piece of paper. Otherwise it wouldn't be possible to adapt novels. It just a very practical medium for storytelling because its simple to record and can fit so much brevity and detail. The only difference is that reading isn't a passive experience. There are plenty of books that don't engage the reader beyond the direct narrative just like there are movies that have deeper stories that engage the viewer to connect with movies themes beyond the simple narrative.

You should just focus on what your most passionate about. This seems like a simple and obvious dilemma. I don't see how literature is the be all, end all of storytelling. Books are just one medium. Verbal storytelling has been the number one way for how people share stories before we where literate or had access mass media. Doesn't make it better than other storytelling mediums inherently. Its just a matter of what medium fits in peoples lives and currently movies are actually more popular than books. LOTR and Harry Potter wouldn't be nearly as popular without the movies.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp9x9j89evxo https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/argentina-main-stock-index-falls-after-milei-crypto-scandal-2025-02-17/ $4 billion has been lost according to the Observatorio del Derecho a la Ciudad, a local NGO. Coffeezilla interview with developers of LIBRA:

With the apparent decline of NATO and Trump holding talks with Putin without Ukraine, there is serious discussion for creating a joint European army to cover for security in America's absence.