Leo Gura

It's a culture war. American nationalists feel like their culture is dying and they will fight to defend it at all costs.

Of course it's complicated, but the rich are smarter than the poor generally speaking. Beware this Marxist idea that the poor are somehow equal to the rich, equally capable as the rich, and equally smart/wise as the rich. This is a dangerous idea. The poor are, for the most part, idiots. This doesn't mean there aren't some rich who are idiots. There certainly are. And it doesn't mean that the smartest rich are deeply spiritually wise. But the rich are generally smarter and wiser and more competent than the poor. Don't forget. People without college degrees vote overwhelmingly conservative and for buffoons like Trump. As bad as you might think being ruled by the rich is, being ruled by the poor would be way worse. Rule by the poor will lead to stuff like fascism and genocide. Believe it or not, rich people are actually MORE morally developed and conscious than poor people. Poor people simply have less opportunity and ambition to abuse it. Poor people are not your friend and they will not save society from evil. Progressives and socialists are way too enamored with poor people and populism. Populism is not some automatic good. Populism can cause all sorts of devilry.

Rich hold most of the power because they are smarter. Poor and middleclass folks tend to be ignorant, ideological, conservative, out of touch with politics, and not ambitious enough to do anything about it.

Of course. We need a special of tier of higher taxes for large multi-national corporations. We need stronger enforcement of existing tax laws and eliminating of loopholes. We need to stop all off-shore tax havens. We need to raise capital gains taxes. We need tiers of wealth taxes on wealth over $10 million, $100 million, $1 billion, $10 billion, and $100 billion. We need to tax luxury and elite goods more. Stuff like yachts, jets, expensive jewelry, expensive mansions, private islands, fur coats, exotic cars, expensive wine, etc. We need much higher estate and inheritance taxes. We need to tax 2nd, 3rd, and 4th homes at ever higher rates for each new home. If you're buying a 4th home you should be paying 75% of that in tax.

That's a pretty good map. You could also look at a map of CPI: Corruption Perception Index. https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi

A materialist circle jerk

We've discussed this issue and these articles a lot on this forum already. Search Bentinho's name on this forum and you'll find some deep discussions.

Thyroid hormone doesn't work for many people in the sense that it doesn't address the underlying issue. Taking thyroid hormone is like pouring water into a leaky bucket.

No. And yes. It's both. Depends on what context you're using those words in. Why? Isn't it obvious that you are more conscious when you are sober or meditating than when you are in a food coma? If consciousness cannot be increased, then what is this work we are doing? What is spiritual practice for? How could awakening happen unless consciousness was asleep? It still is. Just because some parts of the universe have less or more light does not make the universe any less made of light. It's all light in various degrees. No one is saying an ant has less existence or reality than a human. Both are made of consciousness, but they are not equally conscious. You're not fully conscious of what consciousness is or can do. It hasn't changed. You just need to add to your model that consciousness comes in degrees of self-awareness and various states. Consciousness is like water. It can be murky or crystal clear and everything in between.

That is tricky because there can be so much nuance in how those terms are defined by which people. It's just not so simple. There are hundreds of variations in awakening and various states and levels of consciousness and mastery. You cannot make sense of it with any simplistic model or set of categories. Consciousness is a very fluid thing. Self-actualization is different from self-transcendence (enlightenment), yes. You can read more about that from Maslow. Self-actualization is the second highest stage. Self-transcendence is the highest.

@Hello from Russia WTF?

@Jg17 Consciousness is a spectrum from zero to infinity. The closer one gets to infinity the more "moral" one can be. You don't need to hit infinity to make improvement. A human is more conscious than a cat. A cat is more conscious than an ant. An ant is more conscious than a plant. And Obama is more conscious than Trump. It's not rocket science.

Taxes, taxes, taxes. It's that simple. He can have plenty of wealth, but it should be significantly taxed. There's no need to demonize billionaires. Admire them but tax them appropriately.

You have to explain why you posted this here.

That is basically a first date.

Don't limit your contemplation to penetration

@Cykaaaa It's hard to say. I honestly don't have much direct experience with Red people. It's dangerous to speculate about such things without lots of personal experience.

So clearly there's something amiss in your inner game. It's a mind thing. You need to become more conscious of what your mind is doing at the moment when you penetrate and go soft. What is your mind thinking? What is the fear? What are you visualizing? What are you feeling? Get very clear and honest about that. Sound like you might have fear of premature ejaculation or that you're putting so much pressure on yourself to perform in bed in a certain way. Good sex requires getting out of your head and into the feelings in your body. Try literally moving your awareness out of your head and out into your body.

That is this. But you can't handle it.

Of course! Because most Chinese from mainland China are stage Blue ethnocentric. Which is why they put Muslims in concentration camps over there.

In America -- and in many other parts of the world -- there is an especially strong anti-black racial bias. For example, I hesitate to call my Mom a racist, but if I married a Chinese girl, she would be okay with it. But if I married a black girl, she would freak out. Racism is not equal across all the different minority groups. Some groups are treated more "white" and acceptable than others. Even in China they have flagrant racism against blacks. So this talk that, "Well, Asians have higher IQs than whites and Asians don't have it so bad in America" -- first, of all, it ignores the long history of anti-Asian racism in America which still exists to this day. But, secondly it naively ignores the fact that Asians were never slaves here and they don't have nearly the same stigma as blacks. I'm willing to bet that your average KKK member would be relatively okay with allowing Asians into this country, but very much against allowing Africans and Mexicans. You have to look at racism specifically against each minority group. Not just racism in the abstract. Few people are abstractly racist. They usually have a few races they especially don't like. Because racism is learned from one's culture and environmental survival conditions. And cultures are most racist against those races which affect the survival of that culture the most (Africans and Mexicans in America).

Yup Sad

There is no difference between anything.