Breathe

@Lynx Not being critical, but why not just meditate? Or do you find that meditation is good for some things and psychs better for other things? And how would you know which is the right tool for the job? I suppose anyone else could chime in as well.

That might be the case but the media sure did hone in on it.

There are tons of brilliant musicians and artists floating around. You won't find them on the radio, you have to dig. Mainstream music has always been subpar. Beauty is subjective but here are a few of my current favs

I don't understand that. Bernie is a broken record. He just goes on about affordable healthcare, affordable education, and living wages. Who the fuck can't relate to that. He does, however, need to shut the fuck up about being a "democratic socialist".

I'm open to be proven wrong but I find AI nice for summarizing very specific questions I have. It's a lot easier than digging through tons of pages to piece together the information that I'm seeking. But! I always end the chat with "what are your sources?" That said, I have already broken up with google and Facebook. I don't give them my information anymore. I am very reluctant to give OpenAI my data but I am not sure how possible that will be going forward. To maintain relevance in the workforce I have to keep up with modern technologies.

@Aaron p So you just now googled it? You mean, you didn't previously know?

Which democrats are you referring to?

I wouldn't fuck with it dude. It ruined my high school girlfriend's life. She was healthy and intelligent just like you.

Money

I have always found Kyle entertaining but damn, he has been killing it this last week.

The news only reports on what sells and all communication channels are being flooded with misinformation. The left and the right live in completely different universes. There are no longer any common truths.

Unfortunately, nobody realizes how corrupt the system is. People don't know where to find good sources of information.

@Peter Zemskov Do you live in the US or Europe? I don't know a whole lot about the political structures of most European countries but I do know that fascism is on the rise everywhere. I'm currently reading a book called "How Fascism Works" that was recommended to me by one of my activist friends. I'd highly recommend it. Also check out Hiding in Plain Sight and They Knew by Sarah Kendzior. There is corruption on both sides which is a big part of the problem that we see. The dems don't want to be too loud because they don't want to be found out. They are all guilty. Sarah refers to the US as a multi-national crime syndicate and sometimes as a mafia state. I think those are very accurate terms for what we are dealing with here. Trump's history is extremely corrupt. Once you trace his connections to Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, Jeffrey Epstein, the Russian mob, and beyond it makes more sense. These are some extremely fucked up people.Rapists, pedophiles, mobsters, money launderers, etc. We're talking blackmail, threats, payoffs and more. Just dig into the people who lived in Trump Tower. As for the political system being inert, I just think that's a symptom of people being so fucking divided on every fucking issue. We need checks and balances, but for fuck's sake there has to be some common ground. That'll never happen until we root out corruption. <--- I think this is something we can use to unite the people. What I learned from all of this is that democracy is extremely fragile. People just don't know that. It's something that we have to fight for to maintain.

Putin does have some narcissistic traits. Shirtless photos are one example. But, everyone has mixed motives. He clearly needs to maintain a certain appearance in the public eye, lacks empathy, has a sense of entitlement. He's also super paranoid because he fucks people over all the time and knows people want him dead. He's also driven by existential fears. He wants to be remembered as someone who made Russia great again. Lol. Meaning is at the core of ego, and it is very apparent in Putin. Like everyone else, he's a complex, multi-faceted dude. Unlike most people though, he doesn't value human life. I think it's hard to diagnose someone in power as a narcissist because the job requires traits that we would consider narcissistic. Trump is easy to diagnose simply because of his excessive need for admiration. I don't see that quality as strongly as with Putin. There is, however, something called "hubris syndrome" which is a disorder that one develops when they take on a position of power. It's an interesting one, take a look. Regardless, I'm not a fan of labels because we tend to assign them to a cluster of symptoms. These symptoms can overlap and have many different causes. Labels often don't point to anything that's actually real.

I am not an expert on China, but I know enough about them and am impressed by how they built themselves up to the nation they are now. I know they have their own problems, corruption, racism, etc. If we weren't so corrupt in the US, we should take note on how China does things to build our country back up. I agree. Sadly, I think what's happening now is necessary. I just hope that I'll get to see some change in my lifetime. It is very difficult to uproot a authoritarianism once it's taken hold.

220 is a LOT for a first timer.

This was a fear mongering campaign that distracted people from real issues. Stop taking the bait.

In the US, that's what the constitution was supposed to do. However, democracy is fragile, and corruption is rampant and sneaky. You already named a few factors that made Trump's election possible, but I think the biggest problems we need to address and weed out corruption is: Forbid corporate money in politics Donor transparency in elections (foreign influence) Poorly educated citizens Disinformation and fear mongering Voter suppression Lack of term limits in congress and the judiciary system Lack of background checks and ongoing monitoring of public servants Insider trading Tolerance for racism and sexism No separation of church and state In the US what we need is to revise the constitution and weed out corruption. We can't do a damn thing until this happens. Trump is not the problem. It's the system. This was a well-planned and executed strategy that's played out for many years. Russia played a huge role in Trump's win in both his first and second terms. We are talking about a multi-national conspiracy that was investigated but no-one was held accountable. How in the fuck do we fix that? We knew it happened, but nothing came of it. Then we had the Jan 6 coup attempt. Nada. No accountability, once again.

I'm tired. I'll look into it tomororw

I've been thinking about this for a while now. I believe in democratic processes and values. DEMOCRACY IS GREAT! As long as people are somewhat aligned in values. You can't have 50% of the people believing one thing and the other 50% disagreeing. That's not going to result in anything but conflict and chaos. We need to stop thinking of things in terms of democrats, republicans, capitalism, socialism, etc. We need to start thinking about how we keep corruption out of politics. PERIOD. Start there, root it out, and find a way to keep it the fuck out. If corruption is in place, political affiliation or ideology means nothing. Once we can get corruption out of the white house we can start to think about how to address important issues that help the majority of the american people.

Democracy sounds good on paper until the person elected does not share the same values as you do. The problem is, that people have certain values because of indoctrination and lack of life experience. I theorize that democracy will only work under certain conditions: Educated voters, honest politics, and a commitment to equality. Stupid people are incapable of holding a democracy together.

It's not about being skewed toward authoritarianism. It's about wanting someone in charge that shares the same views as they do and fuck everyone else. But, it's also fear mongering, disinformation, etc. People are being manipulated into believing that the person they are electing actually cares for them, and will follow through with promises. Nope, see above comment.

That's unfortunate Every fact revealed in Hiding in Plan Sight and in They Knew. Vague, I know, I just don't have time to respond. Red flag. LMs are cool, but we do know that some, if not all, LLMs are have biases built into them. Some moreso than other. My prediction is that LLMs, if not already, will be part of the propaganda machine. Ever wondering why Elon wants to own GhatGPT?

You're just trying to win an argument without actually acknowledging the difference between what I'm saying and you're saying. If the OP knew about O2, chlorine, and UV sensitivity then you and I would be saying the same thing. But, we both know that ain't the truth.

@Leo Gura No, you said they don't expire. What I'm saying is that they lose potency when exposed to O2, Chlorine, and UV light.