Basman

I have no knowledge of the topic, But I know that Arab and Europeans clashed during the medieval ages. I know that Muslims used to control Spain at a point in time. There was also the whole Jerusalem thing with the Templars and shit. Fascinating stuff.

I've recently started reading for 5 minutes a day then adding 5 minutes each week till I reach an hour. My goal is to read an hour everyday and this method has been really effective. I'm actually looking forward to reading everyday because it is something that feels both easy to do and productive. I'm gradually getting myself used to it without overwhelm. You don't appreciate how interesting your stack of books actually are because your mind isn't used to reading probably and isn't associating enough good feelings to the activity yet. It takes time to get used to it since it is a focused and a low-dopaminergic activity. I started this about 2.5 months ago and I've already finished two books and I'm well into the next one. It feels good to be finally digging into my back log and exploring all of this topics that I'm not only interested in but know are going to feed into my life. It has made me wordier, at least (or unfortunately, depending on who you ask).

Great read. Lots of good points. I have some thoughts on my own based of what you wrote. My understanding of the main message of academia, which I've learned both from Leo and elsewhere, is that you need to assess whether or not university is relevant to your goals. You ideally want to be making deliberate choices with some kind of plan instead of just following the group think. I understand "college is for idiots" as meaning that you inherently don't need college to learn anything, especially in the age of the internet. It's for "idiots" in the sense that an institution is responsible for your education. That is not to say that college is necesarilly insufficient (depending on your standard of how educational it should be), any education is more education than no education, but there are certain cons that come with a formalized 4-5 year tenure which you avoid through self-education. With that mindset, higher education becomes more about the credentials than anything else. Higher education has become a conveyor belt style ritual for the lowest common denominator. The point about taking survival for granted is very vindicating. I often get the impression that a lot of users on this forum still have a lot of the "basics" to work on, but their head is full solipsism and whatnot while generally having a stand-offish attitude. They'll snobbishly dismiss Tony Robbins as basic while being broke and homeless in India (literally). It is basic, but are you doing it? You wouldn't want to go amiss of air, would you? Just the principle that you can direct your mind can fundamentally change your life and directly feeds into one's spirituality long-term.

Legalization tends to increase demand. Prostitution is a clear example of this, where legalizing the trade increases the flow of human trafficking victims due to the increase of scale. It's quiet the problem in Germany, who legalized the trade. The main concern with incest is the potential for abuse, especially of minors, and inbreeding. I'm not sure what would be the correct approach. If otherwise legally consenting people are blood related and as long as they don't reproduce, then I don't really see what the issue is inherently. It would be quiet arbitrary to penalize such couples legally if they are not hurting anyone.

It's obviously technological limitation, but they are way too big. This concept benefits from being as imperceptible as possible from the outside. Less of an issue if they are googles though. I wonder if this technology has military application, like those visor from the first Halo game. Nice job team.

In my opinion, right-wing politics is largely a front for corruption and self-dealing. Because conservatives tend to be less conscious than progressives, they are somewhat less capable of separating their internal reality from the external world, which is terrifying when you consider that most politicians are elites. They tend to believe what is good for them personally is also what is good for society, hence you get budget cuts to public goods like road work and schools, which a healthy society depend on, but which hurt the pockets of tax payers. Many of the decisions that have a clear demographic that are negatively affected by a certain policy conveniently don't touch the politicians enacting said policy.

We get used to it and get complacency about the wonder of life. I recently had a "gratitude awakening", where I became more conscious of just how magical life is. There is so much beauty and wonder everywhere if you just chose to see it. It is a choice.

Statistically, most people would gain a lot of happiness from having kids, but individually you need to know for yourself what is right for you. I think if you question if you want kids a lot then you don't really want them, at least currently. I'm a similar age (late 20s) and I feel that as I have become more appreciative of vicarious living, enjoying other people's happiness, the prospect of kids become more valuable. The purity, innocence and excitement of children over the simple things make life feel so much more special, because you vicariously enjoy their wonder as their parent. Who as an adult ever gets excited over candy? And I mean so excited that it is a somatic experience. Over something so simple. It's literally wonderful, full of wonder. In my case, I would find it meaningful to contribute to raising a healthy, conscious and wise adult, with all the things I learned. It would be an opportunity to give the kind of love I myself missed as a child.

It's also true that plenty of men want something long-term. There a lot of strategies for weeding out the chaff, including having sex early. In general, you want to take responsibility for your situation, regardless of who's fault it is. That puts the power in your court. If it is external, it is an excuse. Basic self-help. Though I get the impression many women prefer a submissive and passive experience and don't like having to take responsibility for their love life. That is fine, but if you try to have your cake and eat it too you'll just end up dissapointed ultimately.

If men you are attracted to are chronically making themselves unavailable to you then you should ponder why, because your then the common denominator. In that case, some kind of character flaw or logistical issue your not conscious of is holding back your love life.

Sometimes it is best to not bother with an exact explanation for people's behavior. It doesn't really matter. You have a pretty fortunate situation which you can appreciate, which will help center your mind a bit.

For many people, having kids makes you love life more, but it's also true that for many kids are a distraction from what makes them love life. It is all about honoring one's life. Those who don't want kids usually love freedom, a certain kind of lifestyle and their special interests more. That doesn't mean they wouldn't love their kids if they had them, but they would feel like they couldn't fulfill the potential they where built to honor.

If you don't think genocide and Labubus are problematic, I can't take you seriously. Sorry bud .

If it is made by humans, then it is art. Any distinction between what is and is not art is a matter of what you personally think art should be, but the label itself doesn't presuppose any kind of quality or specific emotion like awe or beauty. It is a generic term in my opinion because who are you to judge? Stone age tools where probably considered not exactly art but tools to the stone age humans who made them, but to us in the modern age they are most certainly art.

@yetineti Thanks for the input. I haven't considered how the hierarchy of needs shapes our relationship to our art. I think if I was more financial secure it would be more simple to me, especially in regards to available time. I realized that I tend to procrastinate because it is hard and I haven't mastered the fundamentals yet. But I have so many ideas I want to bring to life, it is almost more painful to let that potential remain. There's something fun and exciting about working with an idea you've had for a long time. I ultimately do have to force myself to draw. I'm almost always happy I did when I do but there's that hump to get over each time. It doesn't help that I need privacy to draw because I draw NSFW.

Being an artist runs in my family. Parents, grandparents, siblings, a significant chunk of the family are/have been artists. I have a great-grandfather who's paintings hang in the town hall of my town. I can see it being a matter of proximity, in the sense that you are exposed to the same values your entire life. Your exposed to art and the meaning it has to people. But I wonder if it is genetic to a certain extent? My brother looks a lot more like my dad, including his technical interest, making him both a kind of exception in the family and a mirror of our dad. Thoughts? Do you think your zone of genius is inherited by your family situation/genetic?

It's not a big deal. It only happens intermittently and you shouldn't be spending too much times on online forums anyway.

Going through older threads, pre-covid especially, i find a lot of the users to be much more constructive and solution oriented compare to now. Someone might for example be asking if they should be dropping out of uni and the responses are genuinely insightful. And meaty as well. I find current users tend to post very short replies, just a couple of sentences while only being semi-coherent at times. And just in general, I think a significant part of the userbase come off as a bit nuts and rambly. No hate. I guess as content slowed down, a lot of the quality users moved on. Older Actualized.org was also more stage orange oriented, which appeals more to me. I value the deep philosophical stuff but I am at a stage where success stuff will have the most impact. I tend to feel that there is a bit of a spiritual ego going on with some users as they poo-poo basic success stuff and that I am one if the few here who is not so airy-fairy. Just my thoughts on the current state of this community.

@Ero What teaching methodology did they use at Harvard? I heard they use a form of PBL where students regularly meet in groups to discuss what they've learned. What was your experience with the teaching methodology?

I think many progressive tend to be more "elite" than the average conservative and therefor much more open to liberal ideas and have access to more education, travel, etc. The average trans activist is likely going to be middle-class at least. Conservatism is much more survival oriented and poorer. Conservatives tend to be too busy with paying bills to care about ideas that rock the boat too much, even if they might agree on certain kinds of policy on an individual level (like free health-care). They don't have the same opportunities to develop themselves as thinkers. Because many liberals tend to be wealthier (among other reasons), they tend to not have the same "common sense" that many conservatives possess. They are bad at reading the room and it hurts them politically, like being uncompromising with their ideals. Like for example demanding completely free access to abortion as opposed to trimester-based access to abortion. You can argue for which one is most correct ideologically but only one of them is something a conservative could at least try to stomach. Read my previous reply above yours about the tragedy that many conservatives are in. Education is fundamental to a democratic society.

The predicament of many conservatives is having genuine issues with society and their current living standards but lacking the understanding of why or being able to put it into words and being captured in cultural normativity. It's the tragedy of kind of being idiots. They are easily manipulated to vote against their interests by authoritarians like Trump or Farage. Conservatism is the default state for humans because it doesn't require an education. Just having a decent grasp on reading and writing is fundamental. I believe the reading comprehension of the average American is equivalent to about a fourth or a fifth grader. They are not going to spend much time reading and learning about how society works, even if they did the have the time for it when they are not busy working. They are not going to stomach some moderately difficult to read nuanced text, especially if they ideologically disagree. Their tolerance for ideological vagueness is going to be low.

Conservatism is necessary because we need to survive. But in the grand scheme of things, there is no real rational reason for why "you" need to exist (and by "you" I'm really pointing at one particular kind of identity). Conservatism has both healthy and unhealthy manifestations, and the healthy manifestation is deeply necessary for a functioning society. That is something many progressive don't tend to appreciate. But society itself is not a given. There are like-wise unhealthy manifestations of leftists, primarily in how they are bad at survival and therefor will lead to societal failure and death. It is frustrating because it is well meant but also sorely ignorant. Those "unhealthy" leftists are still marginally more evolved and conscious than the average conservative, who's largely on autopilot and takes life for granted. Note, at no point am I saying that current leftists are at all perfect. They are quiet flawed in fact.

Falling asleep comes easy for me if it is as dark as possible, not too hot and quiet as possible. I tend to cover light with blankets/towels that I can't otherwise turn off. It is also better that it is a little bit cooler where you sleep, such that your duvet actually warms you. If it is too cold, I put on a shirt or a sweater and I can instantly feel it is easier to fall into rest. Rumination is probably what keeps me up the most. A good practice is to note what your grateful for that day, you accomplishments, etc. as a kind of mental hygiene. I can feel a distinct difference if I try sleep with or without an orgasm. Orgasms make it easier in my experience.

Conservatism is by definition about maintaining the status quo and ultimately about preserving one's identity. Liberalism is about changing that identity for a more loving vision, which makes it about the annihilation of the self ultimately. The ability to recognize a reality outside of what is good for one self politically makes one more evolved than the alternative because it is a more complex position to hold. It requires relativity and selflessness. Conservatism only requires self interest to operate. The overton window is relativistic and leftists aren't pure vessels of ideology, but a hodge-podge of different ideas, identities and life situations (like being middle/upper-class). Today's liberals are tomorrow's conservatives. The hippies of the 1960s became our modern day suits.

There's a distinction between conservative/liberal mind and what is realistically feasible politically. The conservative mind is much more driven by fear and finitude while a liberal mind is driven more by love and idealism. A liberal mind is necesarilly going to be relativistically bad for raw survival because survival is selfish. Pure unadulterated survival is just unlimited selfishness, which is pro-slavery, self-dealing, murder and whatever else benefits one individually and can get away with. I have a liberal mind myself but I tend towards center-left politics because I think it is more realistic. I can see how many liberal ideals are untenable in real life in the way they are sometimes expressed, but the underlying principles counts.