abundance

Yes, culture has a lot to do with it. And culture is deeply intertwined and influenced by economic mobility. Poorer people have more children for many different reasons that range from a lack of education, disparities when it comes to resources for family planning, gender inequality, and a range of economic incentives. Which is why we need to expand efforts to educate, empower women, and decrease economic disparities. You're correct that what I said is a half truth. Children are expensive no doubt. But people (and women in particular) are more educated and empowered when it comes to deciding whether or not they want to start a family. That isn't necessarily a bad thing. Its only a bad thing in your eyes because you ultimately feel threatened and insecure about immigrants taking over and becoming the dominant culture in your society. That's a very real and legitimate fear given the profit driven and highly competitive (excessively orange) society we live in. It sounds counter-intuitive but if you want immigrants to properly assimilate into your culture, we have to address all the forementioned things above. Economic disparity. Education. Family planning. Gender inequality. Sure it may ruffle some feathers but its a project that must be done. There's a lot of talk about the excesses of green these days and I beg to differ. IMO we haven't gone green enough. On the surface, we're becoming more green when it comes to social issues, but it's all done in the backdrop of a deeply orange, highly competitive society. Its performative green. Europe nor the US is anywhere near peak green. We'll reach half green when we make serious efforts to become a more egalitarian society , which requires a radically different approach to economics and society. Not easy task. But one that must be undertaken if we want to progress.

This has nothing to do with feminism. People are not opting to have kids mostly because its too damn expensive. And yes, its true that many are deciding not to have them for environmental concerns. Based on the trajectory we're on as far as climate change I can't say I blame them. I have a child and I'm terrified of the future she'll live in. Ultimatley these concerns and the reluctance to having children is a result of orange in excess. If we didn't live in such profit driven and competitive society, people would have more time to make babies and have less anxiety about bringing children into this world. Your primary concern seems to revolve around immigration. And yes, I wont deny that there is a vast difference in worldviews between say, a Muslim man coming from Pakistan and a European women with stage green values. How you assimilate people who may have pretty rigid stage blue values into a stage orange and increasingly green society is a complex issue. But the refugees are coming and with climate change they'll continue coming. And the solution cannot be the alienation and the demonization of them. That will only cause more tension and further the divide.

European birth rates aren't declining because of toxic green values. Lol. If you want to look at it through the lens of spiral dynamics, they're declining due to the excesses of stage orange. All industrialized nations are seeing declines in birthrates due to capitalism and the trajectory of economic growth, which causes people to have less time and incentive to have children. And if you want to go even deeper pollution play factor as well. Its causing infertility in many western countries. Which is ultimately a function of unregulated capitalism (orange in excess). I guarantee if you take away all the immigrants in Europe and birthrates will still be on the decline.

Beau of the Fifth Column actually did an excellent video concerning this. Many people are confused about why people of color would embrace hard right and Nazi ideologies. It actually makes sense if you understand American history and how race can be a loosely defined concept used to maintain a social-economic hierarchy. https://youtu.be/vhFLoklZ-TE

Going to need full body combat armor just to go to the grocery store pretty soon

The point isn't to stop all mass shootings, its to reduce the likelihood of them occurring. I believe stricter gun restrictions accompanied with better mental health services will have a positive impact on reducing mass shootings. And you're right that we can't possibly buy back all the guns in this country. That isn't the point though. The point is to reduce the number of guns floating around in society. More guns ultimately mean more death. I think such a campaign would be quite effective too because everyone is in need of free money. Also we really need to change the gun culture in this country. For too many firearms (particularly AR-15's) are tied to masculinity when it shouldn't be.

Its a little ridiculous that you seem to put the onus on Progressives to get serious on the issue. The desire to have gun restrictions isn't just something progressives want. Most Americans across the political spectrum agree that we need stricter gun laws. Its absolute buffoonery that an 18 year old or someone mentally ill can purchase an AR 15. That needs to stop, regardless of how many people already own these weapons. Yes, we need gun restrictions and perhaps a national gun buy back program. In addition we need to aggressively expand mental health care in this country.

I can't even take this post serious. Black people more prone to violence due to genetics? C'mon bro this is 2023. If you're going to go that route, whites collectively have been far more violent. From wiping out Native Americans to waging global wars to destroying the environment. The track record is endless. Despite all of that I don't attribute it to genetics. By black culture I assume you mean rap culture. Yes, I admit it is a problem but its rooted in poverty and systemic oppression. There would be no violent rap criminal culture without the impact of poverty, mass incarceration and the drug war. And no, I am not saying that black people who choose to follow that culture (and I say "choose" to follow because you seem to assume every black person ascribes to it) shouldn't take accountability for their actions. But if we want to address the problematic elements of that culture we ultimately have to address the root causes. Furthermore, the memes and statistic propagated by Musk have been thoroughly debunked.

great twitter thread that breaks down Musk's recent promotion of racist talking points. This is dangerous because he is deliberately spreading misinformation to his millions of his followers. Its going to lead to real world violence.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/digital/tucker-carlson-new-fox-news-show-twitter-1235483631/ Interesting move from a guy whose just an "asperger capitalist"

White privilege doesn't exist? Great, next time we have Obama 2.0 and he loses reelection he should encourage his BLM supporters to storm the capitol, murder elected officials and overthrow the government. Lets see if a few years later whether he's been imprisoned or still holding rallies and doing exclusive CNN Townhalls. Furthermore, lets how any of those BLM rioters are still breathing.

I didn't know you had to be a leftest and politically correct to NOT espouse and validate extreme right wing narratives.

Which party absolutely refuses to pass any meaningful gun legislation? Which party doesn't acknowledge climate change and refuses to do anything to mitigate it? Which party consistently seeks out ways to suppress the votes of minorities and young people? No, they're NOT the same. And I'm tired of this bothsidism crap. Sorry, but after the events of this weekend the Republican party is illegitimate in my eyes as a political entity.

No they aren't the same. Since the time I've been cognizant of politics, Republicans have gotten us into war, crashed the economy and fumbled national crises. It seems as though for the past two decades Democrats are the ones come in and clean things up that the prior Republican admin screwed up. And Trump... was able to do so much damage in the 4 years of his presidency. Appointing justices who later eroded abortion rights and challenged student loan debt relief that could benefit millions. Mishandling the pandemic. Eroding regulations that keep us safe. Getting us out of the Paris agreement. And all the other insanely corrupt things he did as president.

He had a very interesting interview with Lex Friedman not too long ago Here are some famous quotes from Ray Kurzweil "Artificial intelligence will reach human levels by around 2029. Follow that out further to, say, 2045, we will have multiplied the intelligence, the human biological machine intelligence of our civilization a billion-fold." "By the time we get to the 2040s, we'll be able to multiply human intelligence a billionfold. That will be a profound change that's singular in nature. Computers are going to keep getting smaller and smaller. Ultimately, they will go inside our bodies and brains and make us healthier, make us smarter." "Our intuition about the future is linear. But the reality of information technology is exponential, and that makes a profound difference. If I take 30 steps linearly, I get to 30. If I take 30 steps exponentially, I get to a billion." "What’s actually happening is machines are powering all of us. They're making us smarter. They may not yet be inside our bodies, but, by the 2030s, we will connect our neocortex, the part of our brain where we do our thinking, to the cloud." "We won't experience 100 years of progress in the 21st century—it will be more like 20,000 years of progress (at today's rate)." "The singularity is near: When humans transcend biology." "We are the species that seeks to extend our physical and mental reach beyond current limitations." "Death gives meaning to our lives. It gives importance and value to time. Time would become meaningless if there were too much of it." "Understanding something creates an appreciation" Here are some of this predictions for the 2020's and beyond 2020s Advanced AI: Kurzweil predicts that artificial intelligence will pass the Turing test by 2029, meaning that it will be capable of human-like conversation and cognition. Health and Medicine: He believes that medical technology will be using nanobots capable of entering the bloodstream to "feed" cells and extract waste, thereby extending human life expectancy. Furthermore, advancements in genetic treatments will help cure many diseases. Virtual Reality: Virtual reality will become a fully immersive, total sensory experience, indistinguishable from "real" reality. 2030s Human-Computer Integration: Humans will be able to directly connect their brains to computers, leading to a significant boost in cognitive abilities. This will be facilitated through nanobots that can access our brains non-invasively. AI Supremacy: By the mid-2030s, Kurzweil predicts that non-biological intelligence will outstrip human intelligence. 2040s Technological Singularity: This is the point where artificial intelligence will be so advanced that it will lead to rapid, unpredictable improvements. According to Kurzweil, the singularity will happen around 2045. After this point, it's hard to make precise predictions because the world will have changed so much. Post-Singularity (2045 and beyond) Human Immortality: With the combination of genetics, nanotechnology, and robotics (GNR), it would be possible to stop and even reverse aging, effectively making humans immortal. Cosmic Expansion: Post-singularity, humanity might begin the process of saturating the universe with our intelligence.

I've witnessed unexplained craft on 3 separate occasions. I'm curious to know if people who have a spiritual practice are more likely to see these crafts.

Very interesting video about what would happen if we lost control of A.I. Personally, I think the cat is already out of the bag.

Admittedly I've never had too strong of a position on LGBTQ issues. I grew up in a very Christian household with pretty stringent beliefs on gender roles. In some aspects I still have pretty rigid views on gender but I never felt compelled to impose it upon other people. In my worldview, LGBTQ people have a right to exist and live their lives just like anyone else. It seems the far right is getting more and more explicit in their rhetoric when it comes to denigrating the LGBTQ community and this concerns me. I feel like the far right has found their new boogeyman and will use LGBTQ to rouse up their base. And as we've seen throughout history fascists never stop at one group. In my opinion after they've exhausted the means to dehumanize LGBTQ people, they'll start explicitly targeting larger groups of people (i.e. racial minorities). Thom Hartmann, whose a progressive radio hosts summarizes things very well in this clip

There's been studies that seem to support that group meditations have led to a reduction in murders within large cities. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/511271 It got me thinking what if a group meditation was coordinated but on a much much larger scale. Do you think it would be beneficial in raising our consciousness on a collective level. It seems humanity is in desperate need of this given all the looming threats that we face (climate change,A.I.,rise of right wing fascism,etc). We need a dramatic boost in our ability to empathize with one another and our environment.

To add a lot of the arguments saying these are drones or advanced human tech grow mute when you take into account that people have been seeing these craft before such tech was even feasible.

You make good points. There is definitely a dark side to meditation. Overall I still think meditation can be a useful to reducing many of societal problems though. Take a look at the video below. Vipassana teachers went into a prison and taught inmates meditation and it had a positive impact. I know this is in a different context to what I'm suggesting with mass meditation but it does exemplify the powerful effects of meditation. And I agree that spritual practice cannot take the place of political action. But I think one of the main underlying impediments to society moving forward with addressing these issues is a lack of empathy. Meditation increases empathy. Perhaps mass meditations can increase the overall empathy level within a community.

Yes, it would be a large gathering of already experienced meditators.

True in a lot of aspects. To clarify, when I suggest mass meditation, I'm talking about a very large gathering of experienced practioners sitting in one place. No speeches. No marching. Just sitting in stillness and then carrying on with their day. Its sounds outlandish and like a naive fantasy but it would make for an interesting social experiment. There's something about witnessing a large body of people in stillness that I believe would have an impact on the human psyche. I can imagine it being a huge disrupter in the hustle and bustle of our modern society.

I think you're far too cynical. Yes, a lot of times large groups of humans can bring about chaos and mass levels of stupidity (i.e. Jan 6th). But much of it depends on the underlying reason for the gathering in the first place. Sometimes large groups of people amassing for a common goal does some good too (i.e. March on Washington in 1963).

I understand that meditation is not a magic bullet. I was thinking of it as being a tool to raise our collective conscious so that we have the compassion and empathy necessary to address those social dillemas you pointed out. I'll have to do more research on the relation between mass meditation and the reduction of murder rates. But hypothtically if there is a legit correlation I could see it being used a useful tool to raise society's overall capacity to empathize with one another.