Forestluv

I hadn’t thought of that. . . I also think it’s harder to call out one of your own. When Warren accused Bernie of telling her “A woman couldn’t become president”, I felt a strong repulsive reaction to it and was like “Bernie would never say that”. I took effort to step back and be open to the possibility that Bernie did say it.

I noticed Green progressives were calling out Orange neoliberal Dems on their hypocrisy of Blasey-Ford and Tara Reade.

Now that I think about it. . . If I was able to bring this up to Sean Hannity, he would not see it as hypocrisy. He would have some justification for it or shift the topic to how hypocritical democrats are. It seems conservatives do this more often, yet democrats are not immune. When Kavanaugh was accused of sexual assault, the democrats were all in supporting Blasey-Ford and how she should be believed. Yet when Biden was accused of sexual assault, the democrats ripped Tara Reade apart and said she shouldn’t be believed. To me, Tara Reade had more corroborating evidence than Blasey-Ford.

Could one way of doing this be to think “I’m defending solid, good, American conservative values and I need to be agile to respond against crazy and evil communists”. . . That way if they come in on Wednesday and the narrative completely changes, they can rationalize it as “adapting” their strategy against the crazy and evil communists.

@Joel3102 Kyle is missing a nuance: Bush was worse than Trump on warmongering, yet Trump is worse on the rule of law and respecting America’s governing institutions. That is the point Obama is making and he is correct, Bush was better in this regard. From a political strategy perspective, this makes Trump look bad relative to his republican predecessor, especially when Bush has been indirectly critical of Trump and has not endorsed Trump. The Bush’s clearly don’t like Trump. As well, the democrats don’t want to marginalize moderate Bush Republicans that are lukewarm to Trump. Biden can pick up a lot of those voters. They are the Lincoln Project voters. . . I’d go one step further and drop a few crumbs about how Biden worked with Bush on a few initiatives. And I don’t buy Kyle’s forecast that in the future, Democrats will launder Trump. I can’t see a situation in the future in which Democrats need to kiss some Trump ass to get his voters. It’s not going to happen. The demographics and progressivism of the Democratic Party are shifting in the completely opposite direction than Trump’s support. In eight years, the Democratic powers will be like AOC, there is no way they are going to launder Trump, imo.

I noticed during FoxNews’ early coverage of the coronavirus there were two quick, dramatic changes of narratives. At first, the coronavirus wasn’t a big deal. It was just a bad flu and democrats were trying to hype up the viral threat to make Trump look bad. Then Trump set up his coronavirus task force and in literally one day all the FoxNews hosts took a complete 180 degree flip and started saying how serious the coronavirus threat is and how we all needed to protect ourselves. It was like they completely forgot there previous two weeks of coverage. And then a week later, all of a sudden all of the FoxNews hosts flip back to the coronavirus isn’t a big threat, it’s just a bad flu, the numbers are overinflated we need to reopen the economy etc. I could see views gradually evolving back and forth over time. Yet these were dramatic, rapid changes. Do you think that the FoxNews hosts weren’t aware that this was an act? They come to work on Wednesday and are told to say the opposite of what they said yesterday . . . and the cognitive dissonance is so strong they can’t see this is an act?

Is your 17.5 million deaths simply 350 million people * 5% death rate? Not everyone of those 350 million people will contract the virus. However. . . Without mitigation, the hospitals will reach 100% capacity and people will start dying because they don’t have access to medical care - for example people with a heart attack, car accident, cancer etc. These would be indirectly due to covid, yet if we add these in, the death toll could reach the millions if there is no mitigation. A lot of Americans seem to do the opposite of “the other side”. If Obama was president and all the liberals said to go out and socialize without face masks, I wonder if a lot of Trumpers would do the opposite to rebel. Would they wear masks and socially distance to “own the libs”?

That was also one of my lessons as well. It also gave me a greater appreciation for things that money can’t buy. It was the last time I ever gambled.

@AlwaysJoggin I also lost about the same amount gambling. At one point I was up enough to put my gf through graduate school so she could pursue her dream. And the I lost it all and went deep into a hole trying to get back to even. It was one of the lowest bottoms of my life. Yet with time, it taught me some tough lessons and I grew a lot. Expensive lessons though ?.

Some beings have certain natural abilities. I’m not saying these abilities can’t be developed, yet some beings have a natural aptitude. There are many abilities I lack. It’s not a derogatory thing.

Sometimes being an empath is amazing. It’s like a super power. And sometimes being an empath is fucking hard. Like when you can see cruelty, yet can’t help those getting hurt. It’s so obvious, yet no one around you can see the cruelty and you can’t explain it to them. They are incapable of seeing it. It’s just how they are. It hurts. For any empaths that can relate, I know how it feels.

@DrewNows Empathic sensing of sadism is not something I can explain. An empath would see it clear as day. You are fine as you are. I assumed you would be able to tune into something.

I am not dismissing his point or the seriousness of it. This has nothing to do with the point about wearing masks or not wearing masks. For the third time: he could have made his point without sticking a knife into those that are suffering. It’s not the point he was making, it’s how he presented it in a sadistic way. In the past, we’ve had good discussions about empathy. I’m surprised you can’t see this. Yet as the Sadhguru video illustrated, we each have our own selective cruelty to which we turn a blind eye.

As I said, he could have made his point without sticking a knife in those that are suffering. If you want to have zero empathy and turn and blind eye to cruelty that is your choice, yet I don’t.

B.R.E.A.T.H.

@4201 You are intellectualizing what I’m trying to convey. That’s fine, yet I can’t convey through that intellectual processor.

There are lots of nonduality speakers that present more heart-centered, rather than cognitive-centered.

How would you feel if you lost both of your parents. You are there as they struggled for their last breath. In that anguish, some d-bag walks in and mocks your parents’ struggle for breath. He can make his point without sticking a knife into those who are suffering. Don’t defend that d-bag. Show an ounce of empathy. The country has had too much cruelty.

Wow, the first 10 seconds of the first video is beyond insensitive in many ways. Mocking Covid respiratory failure and George Floyd via the trivial discomfort of wearing a mask.. . . That’s about as low as I’ve seen.

@Spiral Wizard One can try to memorize each number in the infinite string of Pi. Or one can awaken to it’s Infinite nature.

I think Leo has described his personality as INTP. I get a “T” fill-up with Leo and “F” fill-ups with nonduality speakers like Lisa Cairns and Ananta Kranti.

Peace and happiness are components within a greater expansion. For there to be peace and happiness there must, at the very least, be non-peace and unhappiness. And there is much more. In a relative sense, searching for everlasting peace and happiness Is a fools errand and is highly restrictive. In an absolute sense, once Peace and Happiness is realized it no longer matters since there is Nothing to contrast it.

You are assuming the two are mutually exclusive.

Psychedelics can be a powerful tool in healing and awakenings. I recommend integrating psychedelics into a holistic spiritual life that also includes things like meditation, yoga, spiritual readings, nonduality, creativity and time in nature. Also give yourself plenty of time to integrate the sights of psychedelics and be mindful about chasing experiences. The same can be said about meditation and yoga. They also alter neurotransmitter levels. Do an fMRI while I’m in a yin yoga zone and it will be waaay ‘out there‘. Substances and spiritual practices aren’t limited to chasing feel good experiences. That is just scratching the surface. As well, there are bigger fish to fry than searching for “permanent everlasting peace and happiness”.

That is pre-emptive. From one perspective, this is a good thing. But by the same rationale, the assassination of U.S. leaders is justified. Bush makes Soleimani look like a choir boy. You are not seeing how vicious U.S. foreign policy has been. For every assassination of a foreign leader you think is jUstified, their is a U.S. leader that fits that justification. It’s just harder to see when “our team” is doing it. Imo, the U.S. resorts far too much on an industrial military. Our military is far more advanced than our diplomacy , cyber interventions and altruistic efforts. The U,.S. Military budget is a ridiculous 751 billion dollars. We can blow up the world 20 times over. I would take 100 billion and invest it into high level diplomacy, game theory, cyber technology and altruism to help countries. People shouldn’t be getting filthy rich off of warfare. It is a conflict of interest.