Forestluv

I agree that setting the intention on goals and assessment is key. Yet how is the goal of wellness assessed? A few ideas: — Surveys of people’s subjective sense of well-being, stress and job satisfaction. — Rates of domestic violence, alcohol and drug addiction. — Suicide rates — Ranking on best places to live — Tourism

I’d love to see Yang in a leadership position with some political power. I wonder if any another Dems will run. I don’t see a Republican winning NYC mayor for a while. These days, the Republican brand is toast in NYC.

The map is not the territory, yet the map is territory. This seems to be asking if there is an external reality that is more objectively true than another reality. In one context, they are equivalent in that they are both realities within an infinite Reality. In another context, we can create all sorts of constructs. We could say the existence of trees is “more true” than the existence of unicorns, since we can measure and observe trees in ways we cannot unicorns. There is “more evidence” for an overlapping, shared reality of perceived trees than for unicorns. Yet we could also sat that at the quantum level, there would be no “trees”, there would be immaterial / material “energetics”. Yet the concept of immaterial quantumness is also a map that is not the territory, yet is territory. And around we go. . .

At 14m07s, Sen. Brian Schatz gives a cogent perspective on both-sidesism, false equivalencies and degrees of extremes. And he does so in a way that is not polarizing, inflammatory or demonizing.

Roger McNamee, a major investor to Facebook and former advisor to Zuck, describes how the business model of large social media platforms is hyper-focused on grabbing attention and engagement. Hate speech, inflammatory rhetoric, covid hoax, disinformation and paranoia are extremely engaging and profitable within this business model. He also discusses the benefit of policing online extremists. The vast majority of people at the capital insurrection were regular people that became swept up in a civil war re-enactment through a Truman Show reality enabled by social media. Only a small percentage were intentionally planning and preparing to overthrow the government through violence, bombs and taking hostages. And this minority was not communicating via open social media. They were already communicating their plots underground. It is easier for them to carry out their plots when 10s of thousands useful idiots are causing chaos and distracting security. The intentional insurrectionists were able to penetrate deep into the capital building and steal documents and government hard drives. It would have been much harder to do this on their own. The downside-side was that hundreds of useful idiots were stupid enough to livestream the whole thing, which helps the fbi track them down. He also discusses how we can develop safe social media platforms.

Speech control is a concern is some contexts, yet it is much more complex and nuanced than this simple framing. For example, Qanon cult propaganda has brainwashed millions of people to believe that the U.S. Congress is full of satanic-worshipping pedophiles that want to rape their children in the name of satan. These cult members are so full of delusional fear, anger and paranoia that they want to kidnap and kill members of Congress. (and have now attempted to do so). And social media companies have profited billions of dollars by promoting it. Do you really think that this should be allowed unpoliced? Imagine that an online group convinced millions of vulnerable people that you were a satanic-worshipping pedophile and violent mobs came after you to kill you before you rape their children. Can you honestly say you would be ok with this and decline help from police? Not only is it harmful to you, it’s harmful to the people that got brainwashed into the cult. And people are profiting off this harm. In another context, imagine a pharmaceutical company used sneaky online propaganda to convince vulnerable people that ingesting Mercury would protect them from demons. They cause millions of people to go mentally insane after Mercury poisoning. They start violently harming themselves and those around them. The pharmaceutical company profits billions of dollars off Mercury sales. Should this be allowed? Cult victims are often vulnerable people that have suffered from abuse, trauma, drug addictions and depression. A cult environment can give them a surface level sense of support and meaning, yet ends up causing more harm to them and others. Speech is not a black or white issue. It is a complex system that involves a spectrum of degrees, relativity and context. It goes both ways. Authoritarians could label any legitimate dissent as a conspiracy theory in an effort to suppress dissent and maintain power. In another context, delusional conspiracy theories of stolen elections by satanic communist pedophiles causes real world harm.

That is some highly sophisticated and integrative creativity. The engineering, physics, balance, fluid motion, feeling, art of music and dance is extraordinary. There were times it felt like it was a human dancing in a robot costume.

@tuckerwphotography That sounds like an amazing community and environment. Plant medicine ceremonies can be so beautiful. I wish you all a wonderful ceremony of healing, insight, connection and expansion ❤️ ?

@Preety_India He could be prosecuted legally in traditional courts. That’s a totally different system than a senate prosecution. A senate conviction only removes a president from office and prevents them from running again. It’ a political thing, not a legal thing. It’s like a student getting caught selling drugs on campus. The University judicial board could rule guilty and expel the student, yet they couldn’t put him in jail.

He would likely be disqualified from running again for office. A senate conviction would not put Trump in jail. The senate is a political trial, not legal. The legal stuff will go through traditional courts.

Yes, Trump has been impeached again. The will be a senate trial aster Biden takes office. It’s still a long shot for Trump to get convicted - yet ya never know. Trump could lose influence. In another month or two, there may be enough senate republicans that want to purge him from the party.

AOC calls out Zuckerberg as being partially responsible for radicalizing users.

It’s still Trump’s party. Republican support for Trump is relatively steady (even after the capital riots) while support for McConnell, Pence and Republican politicians has plummeted. Republican voters don’t think the Republican Party is fighting hard enough for Trump. He may lose flavor over time, yet it’s still Trump’s party. At this point, it seems any Republican criticizing Trump will take a big hit with voter support (and receive death threats). The consequence for supporting Trump seems to be getting marginalized on social media and losing corporate PAC support. As bad as Citizens United is, it’s a good thing right now. The biggest consequence for supporting Trump is losing corporate donors. Orange yielding power over toxic red/blue

I think so. Disqualification is a separate vote and only needs a simple majority. Yet I’ve read that the votes are sequential. There needs to be a 2/3 conviction and then they have the disqualification vote. Based on Republican approval polls, I doubt enough Rs will vote to convict.

The scene inside the U.S. Capitol as the impeachment debate for Donald Trump gets underway

More national guardsmen arriving to the Capital. Looks like they will be better prepared this time. 15,000 guardsmen is a lot. The MAGA rally with Trump speaking was estimated at about 15,000.

A general poll of American citizens

MAGA is under a lot of scrutiny now. If there are more attacks, it will be covered extensively in a negative light. The current narrative is not that MAGA protestors are freedom fighters trying to save America. The trending narrative is that Trumpism is too extreme and any more violence will be showcased in the media and they will be further marginalized. Trump's approval plummeted to 33% of the capital attack and I think most of the republican establishment wants to purge Trump and move on.

The guy at the end suggests MAGA will realize they've been lied to as more information comes out. I'm skeptical. There has been mountains of information over the years that Trump has been lying to them. If they haven't realized Trump is a con man by now, I can't imagine what information could change their mind. They disregard all that information as "FakeNews" and "Deep State"

Wow. I'm in Michigan and we are still vaccinating health care workers and people 65+. We rank 38th of the 50 states.

You are thinking like a reasonable person. To a lot of MAGAs, this is literally a life or death scenario. For a lot of Qanon, this is about protecting their children from getting raped by communists. Imagine an ax murderer coming after you and someone asks you "Why would you defend yourself against an ax murder? Imagine the consequences". . . The consequences of not defending yourself are worse than the consequences of defending yourself.

Amazing that you have vaccine access at a drug store. In the U.S. we are months away from young people having access

Liz Cheney establishes herself as the leader of the Trump-free conservative caucus. Right now, she has this lane to herself and I can see her positioning for 2024.

Wednesday morning 9am Washington time (GMT -5).

I've read several stories about vulnerable people in despair that got sucked into Qanon and found a new family there.