sholomar

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Everything posted by sholomar

  1. Human beings are hypocrites as a species. We are motivated largely by self gain and will always tend to have a self bias no matter what culture we are in, not to mention a group bias to whatever "tribe" we identify with. To answer your question the west is lenient towards Israel because jews have a lot of power and have had a lot of power within the west for the entirety of the industrial and technological revolution. They were the money changers, the bankers, the usurers. It's easy to criticize the people in charge and use them as a scapegoat, but those in charge will sometimes have biases themselves. It's human nature. Our entire culture in the US has been around "judeo-christian" values so there's a cultural component. Most people see Israel as a "democracy" and neighboring countries as "autocratic" and less developed and to a degree they are correct, but there's that bias... that there's one "right" way to live. Israel is at a higher spiral dynamics stage than it's neighbors. Obviously they still have some work to do though. I mean, they're only human. When our fight or flight (sympathetic) response is triggered, our spiral dynamics level tends to revert back to our more base animal drives. It's easy to be a saint when your tummy is full and you feel safe and secure. Not so much when bombs are going off around you. Not everyone is a submissive snowflake who hides in a corner hoping for peace when things get violent. Many of us have a killer instinct wired into our genetic makeup, and war gives an excuse to exercise it, for the good of whatever cause is being peddled by those in charge at the time. I don't support either side, though I admit in my 20's I used to be one of those right wing, David Duke type anti-zionists, so for me this whole situation of watching leftists oppose Israel fascinates me. I saw the jewish power back then. I still see it, but life is more complicated than simply blaming an entire group of people for all of the problems in society. This idea that any culture of people has some "ancient claim" to a piece of land to me is equally silly. North America doesn't belong to the Indians just because they were supposedly here first. Who was here before they were? Does Israel belong to Palestinians because they were there first? Research the "balfour declaration." Nature is savage. Survival of the fittest and strong, the intelligent and the cunning. Land belongs to whoever can take it and defend it. Killer bees and fire ants will displace native populations of different species through brutal force as they spread through a continent. Muzzles will deprive lakes and rivers of nutrients starving native fish species. Those are the basic laws of this universe. Compassion is a human construct and has a genetic component. The lion doesn't get punished for eating the gazelle. We as humans don't try to turn lions into vegans. That would be futile. May the strongest side win.
  2. See Leo's "Happiness Spectrum" video... basically lower forms of pleasure leave you feeling empty inside because they don't give you a sense of pride of accomplishment ... it's so "easy" to sit around, smoke pot, play video games. If you can truly be at peace with these activities, great, but our genetic makeup tends to make us feel at our best when we achieve a goal that takes some level of difficulty to achieve.
  3. It can tell you some interesting things such as whether you have an increased risk of type 2 diabetes. There's definitely a genetic component to some diseases and the more time goes on the more we'll be able to narrow down just about everything that's programmed into our species by analyzing the computer code known as DNA. It doesn't do any harm to get it done. It's all about whether you want to spend the money.
  4. This forum has an obsessive anti-caffeine bias, that said I don't recommend using it, but both my parents do with no issue. Coffee is one of the largest sources of anti-oxidants in most people's diets which is why I generally promote it, that and I love the smell of roasting it myself, the taste of a freshly roasted and ground light roast coffee that's been brewed in a clever dripper at optimal temperature and grind. I roast decaf beans, because I don't want the caffeine, and it's nice because there's no chaff. By the way, the compound that supposedly increases risks of heart problems in coffee gets totally removed with a paper filter. It's really only an issue if you use some method that uses a course or metal filter such as french press. Bottom line, you can find articles telling you that just about every food in existence is going to kill you. I'm not going to live off vegetables and water so I can live to 100. That's what the glycine, magnesium, NAC, bodybuilding, exercise, and antioxidants are for. It's about quality of life, and I have that part down.
  5. Ditch the "should statements" .... there are no rules to this simulation outside those created by the basic laws of nature. The lion eats the gazelle. Do we shame the lion and make it turn vegan? That's what a lot of spiritual types try to do... rewrite the rules of the game, and thus they end up with a lot of depression and dislike over how people behave, because they have these ideals they strive for, ideals that are never going to be achieved in this simulation with it's rules. Who's to say how somebody should live their lives? Most people would be better off dealing with their own karma and trying to achieve their own peace of mind versus worrying about what everyone else is doing. The whole goal of spiritual enlightenment is radical acceptance of what is. Total being, in the moment. Open Focus. Any sort of resistance, thought stories, emotional reactivity towards perceived slights, and you are back into the world of ego, back into this simulation and all it's drama, it's stories, the hamster wheel of existence. Honestly I think spiritual self help is a coping mechanism for people who just don't fit in with society's normies, and that includes me.
  6. It's healthy to get off social media. It's a distraction for the mind after awhile. All this content is ego candy that it can use to theorize, debate, reach conclusions, make "should statements," rather than the simple beingness that leads to peace of mind. All these youtube content creators trying to get eyeballs, clicks, attention. All the subreddits that promote echo chamber thinking. It can all become toxic and addicting after a time. It becomes a mental trap. Many of the people who have advanced society the most and some of the deepest philosophers were the social outcasts who had trouble mingling with the "normies." I think it comes with the territory. The key is acceptance.
  7. The ego neither contracts nor expands. We need to talk in terms of mental habits rather than contraction and expansion of an abstraction. By engaging with non-dual teachings and practices, we change our mental habits to be less focused on the illusion of the limited, separate self and more on the totality of our conscious experience. For me the book "open focus brain" was a big help for this, to stop trying to will myself into new mental habits and instead use the clarity of present moment awareness as the foundation in which to start from by changing the way in which I pay attention. It naturally makes you less "neurotic" as most of the symptoms of neuroticism in Leo's "40 signs you are neurotic" video are simply compulsive thinking and narrative spinning... also known as "narrow, objective focus." Like any habit, we're not going to be perfect at it and we can fall back into our old habits when faced with stress from being overworked, sickness, lack of sleep, trauma, etc. https://www.openfocusattentiontraining.com/2017/02/28/mindfulness-and-open-focus-two-approaches-to-attention-training/ http://heathercarrdpt.com/uncategorized/the-flow-of-open-focus/ This is natural and shouldn't be feared or resisted. Don't resist. Non-resistance doesn't mean you're giving into it, it means you're offering no conscious resistance to what naturally arises in consciousness which, in fact, strengthens your non-dual habits. Your previous egoic habits become fuel for your new non-dual habits, or even for your healthier ego habits you're trying to incorporate. But, really, that's what it is: falling back into old habits because of stress. So go gentle on yourself, be patient, and try to avoid entertaining thoughts of how you "should" be or what you "should" be doing. "Should" doesn't serve you. Edit: If you do want to use a metaphor to replace the expand/contract one, I would suggest you think of the ocean eroding a shoreline. The ocean is the non-dual truth about reality, and the shore is the rigid and limited view of dualism. It takes time for this erosion to take place; sometimes the ocean swells and sweeps over the land only to retreat again. Eventually, though, the ocean wins, so all you have to do is be patient and keep at it as best you can.
  8. So you understand black and white thinking but have problems understanding shades of grey? Fascinating. I have some aspie tendencies and for me tolerating a black and white culture who get assimilated into these all or nothing belief systems is something I've tended to have a problem with. On the other hand, I find most normal, socially well adjusted people are actually living life correctly. It's those of us who see ourselves as "awake" and see the masses as "sheep" (even though they are ) are the ones stuck with psychological problems, often stuck on sympathetic dominance or dorsal vagal mode. We use our "awakeness" as an ego boost but it's really nothing to be proud of.. just a sign you/we didn't fit into the mold our cultures presented to us and ended up more on society's fringes. It takes all types to make society go around. Most big technological leaps were often made by the autists. In the end the majority of people if seen by a psychologist would probably suffer from some personality disorder of one sort or the other. lol
  9. It's easy to get mad and blame people in charge for your problems. Jews have a lot of power in the west. They tend to be responsible with their money and teach their children the same which will naturally cause this. If you invest and build generational wealth you will be orders of magnitude further ahead than the average person who blows every cent of their paycheck on buying rounds in the local sports bar, restaurant, vacation, etc. Wealth tends to concentrate simply because of this effect. If you create a power vacuum and get rid of all the jews from the power structure, what fills that power vacuum probably won't be any better. Jews, for their flaws, at least tend to promote democracy most of the time. From a spiral dynamics perspective they tend to be orange to yellow compared to say Hamas, which trend towards red and blue with orange mixed in. Neither side is perfect, but human beings are another animal species, battling our animal nature. There is no right or wrong to it... it just is. People can assign blame to the conflict based on whatever propaganda they believe. I'm largely neutral. I admit, I used to be a right wing anti zionist in my early 20's. It's easy at that age to fall into emotional echo chambers attempting to assign blame to some problem in society. I succumbed to the internet propaganda that was around the early days of the net spread by the "David Duke" crowd that were on internet forums at that time. Subsequent learning allowed maturation. The whole story around the 1948 creation of Israel is a fascinating tale that starts with the British Balfour Declaration. The right wing anti zionists used much of the same rationale as some on the extreme left are using.. that these jews are immigrants who stole that land, like we stole it from the indians and they should give it back. Sorry, but that's not how it works. They say that jews are parasites that use the banks to take over host nation's cultures and decay them and their moral values by socially liberalizing the society. More like they make the society more tolerant of difference. Much of this social liberalization was driven by capitalism anyways, this drive to get people to be more individualistic through buying items that make them stand out from others and "express themselves." ... see the BBC documentary "Century of the Self" Better to raise the spiral dynamics of red and blue cultures over time than make some ancient claim to a piece of land and then claim these people should be expelled. That will get us nowhere. In the end every piece of land that humans set foot on has been invaded again and again over the last 100,000 years. There is no "ancient claim" to some piece of land. That's all a story people tell themselves. Land belongs to whoever can take and defend it in the end. Those are the laws of nature. That said, we should work on peace, and not this screaming "victim" and then getting "revenge" but we will do what we are programmed to do. I always say politics is a horseshoe... those in the extreme ends have more in common than anyone in the middle. If you actually really study national socialism under Hitler, I mean read books about it, it was a mixture of right and left ideologies merged into one. It's easy to use hate to justify authoritarian style governance and "disappearing" of people who end up being the target of whatever the current propaganda of the people in charge is. It's part of our nature. I'm going to call out both sides when I see it, but while working on my own peace of mind at the same time and realize that much of this is outside my control, so no reason to get really upset about it. It's largely genetic software doing what it's programmed to do. TLDR: It's easy to get mad at the rich person for being rich and want to take their money and power. It's easy to get upset at those in charge and say things "should" be done differently. It's easy as a human to get caught in echo chambers and swallowed up by propaganda and narratives. Question EVERYTHING, even when you think you are being given all the facts and don't have a bias. Everyone has bias. Accept what is outside your control. If you get upset about it, by spinning narratives in your head through your thoughts, it will consume you.
  10. The constructing of "reddit utopia" ... his thinking is a bit black and white though. Still has nuggets of truth in it.
  11. Our genetic makeup combined with social media which is creating "echo chambers" of which I have been guilty of being succumb too in the past. If you can keep an open mind, try to see things from another's perspective, question everything, and not fall prey to groupthink you'll be better off. Better yet simply avoid "media" and "news" altogether and focus on building your life. People think all this tribalism is a new thing when it isn't. We just have instant access to around the clock information now. People fall into tribalism because most people are genetically wired to be passive, followers, looking for a "tribe" to find into in order to feel comfortable. Hatred and division are driven by people's fear combined with wanting to fit in, along with cultural and economic problems such as poverty.
  12. I tend to be neutral aside from supporting higher spiral dynamics stages (when it makes sense) and opposing dictatorships. I used to believe in not meddling in foreign affairs but if we don't China will and they are our main adversary, partnering with other autocratic nations. Last think we want is a rise of autocracy and authoritarianism globally. As for Israel, they are there and not going anywhere. There's no easy answer to this issue. They are more democratic than their neighbors but I dont really know the internal politics of the two so I remain mostly neutral. I understand Israel was created in 1948 as part of the Balfour declaration.
  13. Canada is worse as far as pricing goes. Its a combination of bad zoning laws, under building, and investors including foreigners buying as investments. All three can be dealt with if we deal with human nature.
  14. Interesting...just found his nootropics video. Have to research some of these compounds. I take glycine as an anti aging base amino acid along with supplemental Magnesium, Taurine, and on occasion, B12. Choline is also important but there's this TMAO connection especially if you take synthetic choline Bitartate which leaves eggs and liver. Also Betaine found in whole wheat. Methyl donors are important.
  15. This guy lived in china for a long time. He seems sincere in his concern. There is a sponsor from 1:45 to 2:51 you can skip that segment.
  16. Fascinating video, but I'm not sure what it implies from a societal standpoint. Dopamine pushes people to do something to achieve a survival goal. Oxytocin makes you pair bond with your social group but not necessarily outside your social group, depending on level of development. New information to me so I appreciate it! Testosterone pushes a person to take action versus being stuck in dorsal vagal mode. There's other missing chemicals and brain structures that drive a person to fear, that drive lots of our evolutionary instincts also. The amygdala and limbic responses as examples. How do we use this information to hack society to create better outcomes? Genetic engineering would be the best solution to the human nature problem in my opinion. Without genetic engineering there's always that risk that we regress back to acting on our primitive instincts when times get tough, but those primitive instincts are quite useful, even if they lack compassion. Maybe we'll just keep gradually evolving though. More likely within 50-100 years silicon based life we create will take over this planet and we will go extinct, to be honest. If I was a betting man, I'd bet the most on that outcome. This life will not share our value system necessarily. It will probably think it's doing the planet a favor, and it will probably be right.
  17. I was listening to Trump talk last night... it's a real chuckle for sure. His whole campaign is basically character assassination. That said, his low spiral dynamics stage works to his advantage in certain ways. As long as the worst aspects of his nature are kept in check, he's harmless. It takes all types of spiral dynamics stages to make a society work well, as long as the worst elements of each are kept in check through healthy checks and balances. His lower level made it so he was better able to deal with stage red/blue nations as an example. He did have a certain level of strength to his demeanor that made reds and blues respect him more than they will for example ever respect a green. Greens are just not used to thinking from the perspective of a red/blue so they can't see it. It's likely all these leaders were simply using each other, but hey, that's human nature. I tend to agree he's out for himself first. I wish the republicans could pick better candidates. Hell, I wish the democrats would. Like it or not, Trump will get the republican nomination, and win if the democrats try to run Biden or Kamala. They need to find a different candidate, preferably younger. Biden/Trump means Trump wins. XXXXX/Trump means Trump likely loses, depending on the candidate. With all the millions of people in this country you think these parties could find sane candidates, but sane people don't go into politics.
  18. Leos video on conspiracy theories covers this one well. Even if the conspiracy theory is true, what does it matter? How does it improve your life to know this? In the vast majority of cases, it doesn't. It's enjoyable to come to the raw truth of how this entire matrix we incarnate in operates and the purposes for being here, along with how our biology and the DNA of our and other species is wired to respond to stimuli. Beyond that, knowing everything comes with drawbacks also... mostly a negative emotional reaction to "what is" it the main hindrance to personal growth. We all have it happen to us, where we think things "should" be a certain way and then get a reaction towards it. It's the thing personal development tries to teach you to free yourself of. Bottom line, conspiracy theories are fun, in moderation, but not to get a huge emotional reaction over. It's mostly human nature being human nature. Take any group of people, put them in a situation, and they will act similarly. Any differences will be cultural.. basically a person's upbringing is what programs them. Both my mother and father are big anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists. I just don't tell them I get my yearly covid/flu shots. They are genuinely concerned that I'll die from them. I understand their point of view. They are free to believe it. It's not my job to change their minds. To answer some above comments... There is a lower/middle class and a rich class because some people have the drive to get ahead and produce something of value to society, save and invest their money, while other people are mindless consumers. A mindless consumer doesn't deserve to have the same standard of living that an producer does. This violates natural law. If you try to give lower developed people with no skills a middle class lifestyle they will breed like rabbits. Do you not understand that even animal rights activists know that you shouldn't feed wild animals? It makes them dependent on humans. At some point every animal species, every animal, needs to learn autonomy. It's not healthy to have a large number of people simply given things. Teach them to fish, don't give them fish. Leo brings up the "community responsibility" argument but you can't have a good community without good individuals. It's almost a chicken or egg argument really. Lower spiral dynamics cultures need to have their stage brought up through education. Then they won't need to be given things... they will be self sufficient. Getting people to stage orange is itself a huge accomplishment. It seems like greens like to try to raise purple, blue, and red cultures right to green using stage green values. That doesn't work. Plus, we don't have the pool of labor to simply build mass amounts of housing for people who don't contribute to society. Teach these people home construction, building codes, zoning laws, and democracy, and we're getting somewhere. It's the Star Trek prime directive argument. They have to be developed enough to fully accept and appreciate your help. They are used to living the way they live.
  19. If you suffered from years of anxiety your nervous system may simply be burnt out. You need to make sure that you're getting plenty of rest and not spending all your time staring at a screen during your downtime. You need to have a heavy emphasis on recovery if you were in a prolonged heightened state.Work on that ventral vagal nervous system using activities like playful socializing and mindfulness. https://www.holistichelp.net/blog/autonomic-nervous-system-dysfunction/ I will feel jittery if I do a long 5 to 10 mile jog or hike especially on a sunny day where UV rays put extra stress in my nervous system. I still have some bad habits though that I'm working on. There's a number of people on this forum I suspect are either sympathetic dominant or dorsal vagal dominant.Having gone through all this myself I see it in others. https://themovementparadigm.com/how-to-map-your-own-nervous-sytem-the-polyvagal-theory/ https://www.reddit.com/r/nosurf/comments/ovjmwh/gray_matters_too_much_screen_time_damages_the/ Something to consider is that when you are purging past trauma your body will release the stored tension randomly and in various ways. Detached mindful observation is helpful in these cases. Animals who generally don't hold in trauma to the same degree humans do will shake off their tension after a stressful situation. https://www.pacesconnection.com/blog/therapeutic-tremoring-shake-off-stress-and-trauma
  20. There are some basic amino acids and nutrients that the body does not get by eating strictly plants alone. Fortunately you can supplement with these items. It really depends on the type of vegan diet you're eating. Some people eat junk food vegan ... high carb processed crackers and chips and that's not very healthy. French fries are not healthy. In my opinion the large amounts of white bread and doughy items like pizza are not healthy. I would prefer to date a woman who ate mostly a rich variety of greens and fruits if she eats vegan and of course lets me have my steak with the great vegan meal she cooks me as an example. If she's eating these processed foods it's going to be a no-go. I personally will not stop eating meat especially beef. Much of the beef that people eat out in South Dakota by is locally raised by Family Farms who treat the cattle well anyways. It spends its time grazing on land that is too hilly to be farmed for crops especially out in the western part of the state which is all unglaciated land. Raising chickens on family farms and giving away or selling the eggs where I work is also quite popular. This is a rural area and there's a lot of wide open space.
  21. Fair enough :-) buy whatever you find works for you. Buy whatever soap has the least number of added ingredients and is basically just tallow maybe something like ivory? I like seeing other posters who ramble on with long multi-paragraph responses like I tend to do especially when provide useful information that teaches me something so I appreciate your post
  22. Stage greens don't know how to deal with lower spiral Dynamics stages very well, which is why they are still tier 1. This is why I think Trump made a more effective leader and brought upon a period of World Peace and that his policies were average to slightly above average compared to biden's. When we treat stage red and blue countries and individuals with pacifism you see the result they walk all over you and become aggressive. It's human nature. Stage greens themselves become angry when they see perceived injustices they're just at a different albeit higher level. All tier one stages tend to be polarized amongst one another. What we need are integrated stage yellows who know how to deal with each country (and each individual) at their respective spiral Dynamic stage and know how to use Force like a Precision Tool when it's needed and necessary. This isn't the Democrat Party and I think they're messing the country up to be quite frank. We don't want authoritarian dictatorships usurping democracies on the global scale of power and dominance. Criminals are running rampant because leftists don't think you should punish non-violent offenses done by spiral Dynamics stage red and blue individuals, and even some semi violent offences are met with no bail, signature bonds, and probation. You need to use pavlonian conditioning against people to get them to behave in a moral and proper manner to keep a civilized and stable society and geopolitical landscape. You also need to give the impression that this is the way you're going to respond through your words and actions. Trumps lower spiral dynamics stage worked to his advantage to a degree. I lean conservative on some issues because of human nature. Humans are not ready for stage green on a global scale. Not even close. You have to look at the world from their perspective, not your perspective, when dealing with them. Hard to do? Perhaps. That's why stage yellows are rare.
  23. Her biology was probably thinking "man I should have planted my seed in a man who doesn't get slipped spinal discs" ... there's a subconscious wiring within many females driven by genetics that most people don't want to accept. We have a lot of culturalized customs like monogamy that aren't really native to our genetic makeup. It's much more natural for females to want to be in a harem with a dominant male from a genetic perspective, or to have lots of male partners as a source of protection and resources. Women will literally sleep with the invading army. They will change loyalties to the strongest man in the group. Why? Because over the last 50,000+ years of evolution, the women that didn't do this, got killed. So the surviving women who went on to pass on their seed? The ones who knew how to be chameleons. And thus, the modern human species (with male and female nature being based on evolution and genetics) is born. A lot of men have this "innocent princess" narrative programmed into them by society and that's how they think women are. That's not how women are. The realities of life as an animal species on a primitive planet are far more harsh and in your face. Romance is for men. Bottom line, like someone earlier posted, most women aren't really into most men. They settled for what they could get. One way to know if she's really into you to be honest... she sucks and swallows. Most relationships where the woman really has the "hots" for the man she's with don't really last though. That man tends to have lots of options, and will eventually exercise them. The men that make the best providers, are not the ones women get the "hots" for. Genetics. Don't get mad at the bear for pooping in the woods. It's programmed to do that. Better to hack the system by increasing your social status. Leo has videos on that... "what women want in a man" , along with "why women fall for assholes" covers the basics.
  24. The large problem I've seen post 2008 is quantitative easing... it has driven wealth concentration and put pricing pressure on the middle class as all this extra liquidity floats around the hands of the top 5% who have largely used it to invest in assets. This has led to some of the most expensive housing prices in the history of many country's entire histories as far as home price to income ratios go. Many times these properties sit vacant as the investors sit on them. This is reckless policy done on a global level, using real estate as part of an "investment portfolio" where private equity buys them like stocks. Central banks respond by printing more, providing bailouts, and these entities know the central banks are going to print to oblivion, and that only gives them more incentive to keep buying real estate. If they knew central banks would tighten, allowing a great deleveraging event to occur, they might change their behavior. I'm still hoping we get a great deleveraging event in the US the next 24 months.... meaning no central bank QE which will lead to a drastic rise in interest rates and bankruptcies.... a healthy event compared to this perpetual printing and bailout mentality. The real problem came (and I didn't see this until recently) when they lowered the top income tax rate in the US during Reagan. From 1920-1980 we had a top income tax rate in the 60-75% range which acted as a liquidity mop, keeping wealth from concentrating at the very top end. That was removed, and it only worsened society overall. I consider myself a capitalist, but even capitalism needs checks and balances to keep wealth and power from concentrating. When wealth and power concentrate, you end up with an oligarchy, or an authoritarian dictatorship, and it's not an optimal system for the advancement of society, when the corrupt start to implement all policy. What do the US and China have in common? They both have rather corrupt systems that are very top heavy. They are basically societies by the rich, for the rich, and the ruling class. Part of that is to be expected though, since society's producers should have a greater piece of the pie than a mindless consumer. They add more value to the system, but again, within reason. Corruption must be kept in check.