aurum

Men can still evolve as society evolves. You don't have to accept everything about traditional masculinity.

The point is the drive is more fundamental than any ideology. I don't see how that helps your position. No, this is faulty. Ideology that goes with authoritarianism is the justification for biology and survival. YES External influence is mostly window dressing. Which is why we have religions across all cultures that are fundamentally so similar, even though their external core can look quite different.

There is definitely more. But I've also answered more questions than I ever anticipated. In that sense, I'm very satisfied.

Nothing says masculinity like complaining about how much harder your life is than a woman's. Surely this is the kind of guy she wants to be with. Maybe she'll pat poor baby on the back and tell you everything will be okay. Mommy will handle things.

"Interesting correlation" was never my position. It feels consistent to me. The sugar analogy is faulty since even if you personally had never been exposed to sugar, you would still seek out sources of high glucose like sugar. So you are not waiting around ambivalently. You are completely played by your biology to find and eat sugar before you even know what it is. The whole thing I'm arguing here is that authoritarianism is not just an abstract belief system you pick up from society. It's more fundamental than that.

More. I'll say 80/20 in favor of biology over societal narratives. But also, ultimately a distinction between biology and mind has to breakdown. They will feed into each other, without a clear dividing line. Mind and biology are a strange loop.

If you really like the PNW, you could look into Seattle. I would not do Portland. It's a cool city but it is pretty sparse on nightlife.

Yes, the main benefit to the retreat would just be to allow your mind some freedom. You may not have to do any intentional practice or techniques at all if these experiences are happening naturally for you. Still be careful though. It sounds like you're in a good place, but you are going pretty deep.

@nexusoflife Very cool! Might be a good time to do a retreat where you can let go of human responsibilities for a while.

I've already answered this. There have not been rapid shifts. Society has always been deeply authoritarian and mostly still is. If you want to point to cherry-picked examples of rapid changes like Germany, those are still explainable. Conditioning, distribution and unique survival pressures / conditions can account for those within a model where authoritarianism is correlated to brain strucutre.

You are deeply understating the significance. Your biological potential matters more than any societal conditioning. If I cut your amygdala, you will not even fear death anymore: https://www.vice.com/en/article/brain-surgery-cant-feel-fear/

Again, the science is not on your side. You guys keep arguing with me but you have no answer for this. Yes, part of authoritarianism is social conditioning. Of course. But why limit yourself to that perspective? There can be both brain structure and conditioning at play. They go together.

Most of the world is still under authoritarian rule. So no, everyone's brain structure has obviously not changed. The fact that authoritarianism has been conserved across time and culture so well shows there could be a biological link.

I would not expect any AI to understand God-realization. Listening to an AI on this particular issue is a mistake.

I think that's missing the point. Yes, they want someone who they agree with. But many people specifically want an authoritarian. So things are being skewed in that direction. This is not just manipulation, this is what they are hoping for.

Good luck convincing humans of that.

You are cherry-picking a highly atypical example. Most societies do not change that rapidly, which supports my point. Also, rapid shifts are still possible if authoritarianism correlates with brain structure. You could have a distribution of liberal and authoritarian brains that is relatively equal, which would allow for swings. Especially if the survival pressures of that particular generation changed. It's more so about where your center of gravity is and what political direction you are likely to trend.

If your belief is that you will stop survival, that is not a good belief. The central theme here is that you and many progressives are failing to understand how people could happily support an authoritarian. You're not appreciating how radically different other people's survival could be from yours. Survival is profoundly relative.

That level of existential insight doesn't really apply here. Every time you put on clothing, you are managing your appearance. This is not hard to understand. But you are not going to get people to stop surviving. So they will continue to have enemies. And they will continue to see their enemies downfall as good for them.

Replication can be an issue, but right now there's reason to assume that. This is also not the only study that has been done on authoritarianism and brain structure: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Neuroanatomical-correlates-of-system-justifying-a-Balagtas-Tolomeo/aa3ecae8e94d582930c614ec0a1370982a1f45e5?utm_source=consensus https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fa0028526 We will see what happens with further studies. No, it would not imply that. Different generations will face different survival pressures. So it makes sense they could have different brains. That is evolution at work. Neuroplasticity also needs to be considered.

There is a difference between managing your image and narcissism. Narcissism is much more extreme. Yes, obviously our culture is very concerned with appearances. But that's precisely because appearances are so important for survival. Denigrating managing appearances is untenable as a position because ultimately we all have to do it to some degree. The problem with that quote is that "for" or "against" is not a clear distinction. If you work against my enemy, that is good for my survival. So of course Trumpers will feel like he is working for them.

The public wants to fooled. It's a collective, corrupt, self-deceptive cluster fuck.

That doesn't contradict what I'm saying. You can have both. But that's not how authoritarianism works. Authoritarians are always supported by the public, or they eventually lose power. Nayib Bukele is a perfect example.