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@PsychedelicEagle I’d be careful. You could easily have oral health problems but just not notice any obvious symptoms. Have you checked for gingivitis?

It sounds like you have been chasing extremely shallow forms of sex. Have you had at least one relationship with strong intimacy and romance?

That is part of it. But like I said, I don’t interpret it as the highest priority. An example of a higher priority purpose might be quality sense-making. You are basically talking about maximizing attention, which is a different goal. And you can’t necessarily assume those goals will work together. They may contradict each other.

Well it's not my forum. But that isn't what I interpret the highest priority goal to be.

It might take some time. But you can get your groove back. Remember that you can potentially bring a lot more to the table as a husband now that you are a bit older. This is a genuine advantage.

You’re feeling this way because you are getting older and it does matter. You don’t have infinite time in your sexual peak. Everyone gets a window and then it closes. So if you spent your 20s being single and playing the field, there can be consequences. That all said, you can date at pretty much any age these days. People get divorced and remarried when they are older all the time. The biggest variable is whether you want biological kids, which obviously has a more strict timeline. Also, lots of people are getting married older these days for financial reasons. So 30 is relatively young still. You have time, but if you really want a strong marriage then I’d say it would be wise to get serious about it.

You're probably right about needing a supermajority to get certain policies passed. But the meta point I'm making still stands: no one gets to monopolize the political process. If that happens to mean sacrificing certain progressive policies, then so be it. As far as TYT and Secular Talk, I think they are a net force for good. The progressive voice deserves representation. And someone has to fight the culture war against Blue / Orange.

Sure, I don’t particularly want the repubs to win either. But also let’s not forget that we want political rivals. We want competition of ideas. We want people who disagree with us. That is democracy. A political monopoly of dems is not ideal. That is my biggest issue with Trump and repubs right now. They want to undermine democracy to enforce their agenda. Which leads to the kind of war Rick Wilson is talking about. Both sides have to be mature enough to allow for things not going their way.

@MarioGabrielJ It’s worth noting that mpox is not an airborne contagion, which is one of the things that made covid so damn tricky to deal with.

Dems are winning.

If there is unspoken calculus I am missing that you want to share, I will listen. And I apologize if I wrongly assumed you ignorant. That’s not fair to you and not a behavior I want to emulate.

I get it. It just bothers me at times because I also understand the cost.

My guess is she is going to want you to stay longer than that. If you're looking to get married and raise kids, lots of travel isn't really compatible with that goal. You need to stay put. So be sure you're clear about what you both want out of this relationship.

It was a test to see if you could explore the topic of exploitation without a social justice bias. I place an emphasis on this because it’s necessary for conscious politics. Very few people can do it.

No, I meant what I said. To put it more broadly: what is the function of exploitation?

If you can thoroughly explain why Elon’s exploitation is necessary or even a good thing, then I will believe you. Until then, it’s going to be hard for me to see you as anything other than just another leftist / SJW.

Oh it's definitely about feelings. And in this case, it's your feelings. Do you actually want to understand feminists? If you do, you will read at least one book by a feminist author in good faith. Which means seeking to learn and not just critique. If you won't do that, this conversation is pointless. You have no interest in engaging in good faith dialogue with feminists, and they will rightly treat you as such.

And then you wonder why feminists don't feel listened to. Or maybe even get triggered sometimes. How do you feel when they dismiss your concerns about false accusations? You are doing the same thing to them.

Fine, but that's still your criticism of them. Why should they take your criticisms seriously if you're not going to take theirs seriously?

Yes, but I'm not talking to a feminist. I'm talking to you, and how you can understand their perspective better.

Mostly because they don't feel listened to. When someone brings up a good faith criticism, the right response is to seriously take it in. Don't argue. If your immediate response is to start arguing with them, you're not really listening. Instead of arguing about how you're right, consider how they might be right.

The point being made here is that there is more to Musk than exploitation. And if you just focus on the exploitation and other critiques you have, you lose sight of the bigger picture. It also helps to take into account just how ubiquitous exploitation is in the world. That should provide some perspective.

Do you anticipate putting any of your work out into the public? E.g a book, online course etc.

That's a very good question. The answer is: being unbiased is a natural consequence of valuing truth. The more you care about truth, the less unbiased you must become. The left IS right. But only partially so. And there's the rub. Synthesizing partial truths is where the gold is. Benevolence is an obvious fantasy. No one should take that as a serious position towards anyone, including Elon.

Then I'd say you would be wrong. It's not a tactic. It's inevitable. Judgements of Elon will be relative, including the ones you are making. This is me discerning what is true about reality. You're witnessing it. It's not about being passive, it's about the attempt to be unbiased. Fair enough. But then I expect you to extend that courtesy to me as well. You have to at least admit your critique is similar to the one made by many leftists, even if you don't see yourself as one. I do have critiques of Elon. We could do a whole thread just on Elon's flaws if we wanted. My intention here is to balance the critique. It's extremely easy to become unbalanced when it comes to these kind of topics, which I know from first-hand experience of being wrong so many times. So here's the punchline: Elon is indeed a morally complex person. This cannot be helped, it just is the reality of the situation. I'm not going to attempt to put numbers on it, but suffice to say he's not a cartoon character conman. He runs real, innovative businesses and is quite exceptional at doing so. But he also is part of a toxic Stage Orange-type environment dominated by survival, which creates various problems. And he himself still has much personal growth to aspire to, both spiritually and otherwise.