We talked stuff that works you up, how about things that you do to calm down? What techniques, activities, mantras, stims, etc. do you do to keep yourself comfortable and safe? Feel free to share what you’d like - and something kinda cool is that you might end up helping someone else down the line.
I get so worried when I think about what isolation, silent suffering, and groupthink does to people. It fucks me up, because I didn’t entirely understand it until I did. Then I realized how vulnerable we all are, and how many sharks are out there looking to get a power-trip at minimum adding a little chaos into the world and trampling on people’s hearts. If addiction is a social disease, I think in the future they’ll have some kinda diagnosis for people suffering from what they do to people like incels. But we’re not making it any better in this world acting like we’ve got the answers - the other side doesn’t and all the people listening to them are fuck-nuts. I think about the guy who killed his mixed kids. It was super sick how he did it, but he was also terribly unwell. And what got him to that point? I wish we created a society built on understanding, instead of ridicule. And I often wonder is it just a part of us? An intrinsic part of us? Cause a hundred years back I was listening to NPR and I remember the guy talking about how he wanted to find more commonality between all people yet he was profoundly affected in realizing that even he himself had this elitist edge of feeling better than others due to his educational standing. It made him question if it was something built in, if people need to feel superior to another group of individuals that they see below them in order to thrive. And it kinda gave me the thought to. I mean I’ll be the first to say “Hey, at least you’re not that asshole!” and point at Trump. And I think you know, feeling sorry for the global elite as a whole is kind of a pointless affair (as in celebrity worship on the whole) but I will say this…
I do feel sorry for Trump in some sense. He seems to be stuck in some kinda doddering space that is clearly exacerbated by the circuit he’s being run through in order to pretty much guarantee his failure pending that AMERICANS VOTE (!!!). People are pointing and laughing and saying look at him, he’s fucking up all over the place. What a fuck! But I don’t really think it’s fair to tax a human on that level and then pretend like the playing field is level. But also he’s a fuck, so ultimately - eh. But I am not going to celebrate cutting someone off at the knee and then laughing at their inability to stand.
Mind you, I am for sure not pro-Trump in any universe. I am just a humanist, and I think there’s something really twisted about stuff like that as a whole. Like, when people want power only to subjugate their oppressors. Or like - how a ton of portrayals of white guys in the media started to look like absolutely idiots or be fetishized or harassable. Cause fuck off with all harassment, but for sure you can’t put the shoe on the other foot and then start doing the same FUCKING thing that you hated previously. That’s just dumb.
But eh, here’s a super rant. Either way it sounds like you’ve got a solid and level head on your shoulders and I think that will take you further. At least emotionally, in this world. Idk about anything else. So kudos =)~
I sorta get you on the feeling sorry for him. I have that with a lot of folks but that level playing field is in his favor so I might feel a bit sorry for him and musk. stuck in the same system that they desperately want to shore up because they are on top yet missing out on what humanity has to offer because they can’t get passed having the most money points. all the same I feel way more sorry for someone just trying to be a good world citizen and contribute to the extent they can but want a bit of fun and niceness for themselves to.
I feel like I know Musk, because I was friends with him. As in, someone who was like him. And I know that sounds weird, but he seems just like your standard autistic anime nerd. I mean of course there’s layers, because he’s freakin’ rich and he’s for sure doing the world dirty right now. But I think ultimately he’s in the soup too. He seems to be keeping poor-bedfellows and it’s really pushed his brains past the limits. But further more he suffers from what my former friend suffers from - which I saw on here Mr. Beast suffering from too. He can’t seem to take criticism. And I don’t think it’s because he was around a bunch of yes men. And my sibby has this too. Criticism sends the two I know into INSTANT critical meltdown. Where they just break as a whole, and start throwing shit and their eyes get crazy and they just…idk. I can’t describe it any other way than - if you’ve been around it you know. Stuff gets broken, they’re decent folks but their brains just can’t handle that kinda talk. It’s like it causes the most painful cognitive dissonance they can experience.
I don’t think there’s any free land left on this Earth, but I always heard if you find yourself a patch - you shut the hell up about it and keep your head low. I think about this a lot when I think about the politics of the West. Because I think people in the west are hyper-liberal and their views are wonderful at face value (cause fuck all the isms) but are unrealistic in application. I always thought I was liberal, but coming out here I can see I am not a) the “right” kind of liberal and b) not this kind of liberal (which leads back to a). I am not conservative by any means, I would say my political ties might even lean towards socialism. I just don’t understand how a majority of these well-wished systems are supposed to functionally be implemented. Let alone with what money?
And I’ve likewise heard you tax the rich, they leave the country - the entire country loses power as a whole. Which I think is why you’re seeing so few countries implementing said systems. But eh, I mean I am not saying that shit’s not messed up as a whole. I guess more so I am just saying that (in Trump’s instance) anyone put under the extreme stressors he’s been being put under this past year would show signs of it. Also in Musk’s case, his dumb ass just needs to stop being on blast - take a seat and stop trying to look cool. Especially to men who have the mindset of teenage boys. He’d do well going on a meditation retreat or three. He just needs some grounding.
Also all celebrity worship needs to stop. In The Simpsons they’ve got a Tree House of Horror where all the town’s mascots come to life and start wrecking havoc. What kills them is people stop paying attention to them. And it’s actually why I created a PieFed account in the first place (and got off of Reddit as a whole). Because I don’t give a fuck about Trump, Taylor Swift, and Elon Musk and for some reason scores of news were just surrounding those three with fifty people saying the same thing and grinding on each other for all being so “righteous.” Just bums me out.
I don’t have a link to it but there is a video about how rich people get caught up not just in the race to wealth but also the limitations. Like they can’t cash our their net worth because of contracts and it would just crash out the companies and such. It gave an example though of a dot com guy who sold out for a few hundred mil and lives the good life. someone in the fediverse responded to another comment I had around this subject and said his name which I can’t recall but it sounded like it was the myspace creator (which unfortunately I liked but it died just like my first website I liked was excite but yahoo steamrolled them)
I had no clue, but it does make sense if you actually think about it. But that also shows that there’s some seriously bad rigging issues in this world. I will say that I honestly know nothing, but I do realize that with the right team behind you - you for sure could even get away with murder and come out clean. I think the concept is that the package would be the incentive to be a CEO, but honestly I think there would be individuals lined up to be CEOs with or without such a fine package.
I often think about this sweet woman I met once while down south in Chicago. She was begging outside of RUSH in the freezing cold with absolutely nothing to really keep her from getting frostbite. She was in such a bad way, I don’t really believe she’s with us anymore, but my heart went out to her then too. I never was a person of means, but I got by okay. I grabbed her what I could, I gave her a hug and kiss, and went on my way. But she was such a sweet woman even though she was missing a hand and begging with one of those fountain drink cups. She had jack squat inside the cup, and the intersection was large and lacked any real point of entry for her. I think about her a lot because I can’t really understand why we can have things like marble countertops in this world and not feed and house our people. So in that sense, I get really wigged out. But like I said I don’t think we’re getting anywhere with anyone by pointing at rich folks and saying “YOU GUYS FUCKING SUCK, GIVE US MONEY!”
Also on the homeless brigade, I met Fred Hampton’s brother. He was also stuck begging, and probably not of this world anymore. His feet looked like two lumps of frozen shit. They were mashed up so badly that he had to hobble to get anywhere. He was a loving sweet guy, but hot damn it’s crazy how this world assigns the haves and the have nots.
rich people should give us money in the sense of paying taxes and taxes should increase the higher one gets in wealth like any other endeavour. pro league baseball players do not play t-ball and similarly the wealthier an individual or company they higher percentage they should pay. If your so good you should be able to make money at that increased difficulty level but if you can’t that is fine as you will make plenty in the lower tax leagues or even fall to the level of us bums and pay next to no taxes (which is what regular folk should be paying)
Oh yeah, no I hear you there. As in just even pay a quadrant of the norm over none at all. But like I said, I don’t think they’re ever going to play fair. So now we need to figure out what else can be done because we’re focusing too much on the whale and we’ve got to refocus or we’re basically setting our country up for failure in the long-run. I wish I had the answers for what that is though. I am worried that we as a people have really reached peak-overpopulation. But I might just be being a fool. I don’t have any right to discredit anyone’s existence. I am just worried we kept growing without working on our support systems. Hmm. Gets me grumpy just thinking about it. And yes, the largest issue I would say in America is that upwards mobility is quite difficult. Social services are quite hard to obtain, and maintaining then is equally as difficult. We’ve all been damned by the bootstrap narrative.
I mean I don’t think we can focus to much on the whale. Its dragging the whole ship in the direction it goes. I 100% think we are overpopulated by a lot, but for me overpopulation is the number of humans that can live a nice modern and life and continue to advance while the planet can recover from most of the resources we take form it and heal the damage we do to it on a yearly basis which would also slow down our use of non renewables till we advance enough to not need them. This to me is about a billion. I think we could go to like 4 but that is a pipe dream situation where we do things as sustainably as possible across the board as a species. The way we actually do things its about a billion to me. I don’t think anyones existence should stop but myself and other folks just are not bringing more into existence. Only some of us can do that. Education mostly helps as well as realization. Im sorta lucky because I grabbed a double major and spent five years at the bacheloreate level and then did a year in a PhD program before starting in a career that paid meagerly. If I had done a more lucrative major and gotten going financially I might have had kids but by the time that was even an option we were in the new millenium and things were getting obvious.
I argue that we’re overpopulated, but my girlfriend argues that we have so much land and can practice much more efficient forms of farming/housing/trades -> that we don’t because of capitalism that it’s not the amount of people that we have but more so the greed. Idk though, I think it’s crazy that we poo-poo on cats doubling with each generation (fix your cats) but we don’t seem to have any issues with us doubling every generation. But anything else is creepily Eugenics like, so eh. But the birth rate has slowed down, so there’s that. I know a whole lot of people who are like me and never really had any interest in having children. I always figured if it’s something you’re interested in pursue the venture. People always say have the cash, but you can raise a kid on nothing and still get by. Just try and be there for the kid as much as you can.
I only brought up eugenics (keep bringing it up?) because there’s a sick underlying issue that is going to be more and more present in our lives in that many people are going to be displaced at minimum and killed at maximum over global warming. And it’s crazy because we as a people get to say now - when is enough, enough and we pull back and stop living in excess as we do and start doing what’s right for the greater good. And that drives me banana bonkers. Because who’s to say x-life is more valuable than y? Although I guess we’ve been down this route before (I mean it’s basically the trolley problem right?) and I feel like the large issue as a whole is democrats move too damn slowly (they sit on their hands) and republicans don’t do shit but put up straw men and jabber.
If you want kids, and you are in the space that you can have them you really should consider adoption if you can. Or just like, go have a kid. I know that’s fucked up to say especially after what we’ve talked about. But I have a friend who wanted a kid. I mean that’s all he wanted, to be a dad. And he has health issues, and he has mental illness. But he just wanted to be a dad, and he works for the public school system so it’s not like he’s rolling in it. But he became a dad six months ago with a woman who’s on-board with him and he’s like the happiest I’ve ever seen him. I really honestly believe if you have a drive in your being to have kids you should find someone else who’s about it and consider it only on account of living life half-boiled probably feels rotten and I know I sound anti-children but really I don’t have any skin in the game because I never wanted kids so it’s easy for me to talk about it. But beyond all the doom and gloom consider enjoying what you can now. But also realize that it’s a lifelong commitment, which I think you’re smart enough to know.
Also education changes so much it’s absolutely insane. I had no clue. It makes me want to slap someone. They keep people from it, and we should be taxing people equitably and providing services for the betterment of everyone. In fact I think just that act alone would unionize America because people would feel less put out. The legalization of drugs would also assist, because even though I am stone sober - if you can’t push a bunch of shit garbage on the street what is the next gang war going to be about? Bring education, and legalize this shit you idiots =P! Then again, I heard you need to keep elements of the seedier side of life going. But that might literally just be a means of oppression so in that case? Eh, what do I know =P!
Also, I’d agree that 1 bil seems like a earnest cap and I think it’s kind of a double edged sword because I heard so many people call for stable living = kids. But at the end of the day I always think about that mouse study they did.