trenton

@Miguel1 Thanks. A similar example of proving a negative would be unconscious bias in things like racism and sexism. Can you prove that you do not have an unconscious racial bias? I can't say "I have black friends" because that would be the proximity argument. I can't say "I'm not racist" because that would be defensiveness which makes me look racist. Theoretically, if I accused you of being racist, then how in theory could you possibly prove that you are not racist and have no unconscious bias? I am very curious to know the answer to this because I don't think there is one. I believe the best defense against this would be if a person were born blind, deaf, and mentally disabled such that they can never learn communication at all. That way they would have no way of knowing that race exists. They would be truly color blind. Leo has a similar problem with being made to prove a negative. Sometimes it is actually impossible.

The problem is the duality of natural versus artificial. If humans are living creatures, then we have an instinct to survive. The tools available to this end is our rationality. Rationality itself is a result of natural processes. Human systems stemming from our higher order thoughts would therefore be the result of us trying to survive as a species which is still natural. Man made objects are still part of nature just like an ant hill being made by ants. I'm also curious. If you wanted to invent your own ideology, what would you come up with? How close to perfect could an ideology possibly be? Currently, I don't know what ideology I would invent. I have many different frameworks which ultimate tie back to helping me understand reality. I think of them more as theories or positions within limited domains which get refined over time. Many of them are connected to my survival in some way. That said, maybe a meta ideology about lenses through which understand ideologies would be a better ideology than most while still being able to deconstruct itself.

@Leo Gura I think it is fair for you to be annoyed with these claims. 1. You are not forcing adherence to any ideology. 2. Others probably conflate your claims of absolute truth with absolutism. 3. You give many different sources such as the book list, creating diversity rather than an absolutistic stance. 4. You are frequently being characterized as a narcissist with no obvious way of proving a negative without extensive psychological study. 5. It probably hurts your business in the process of being alienated with no way of combating what sounds like slander. 6. When accused of being a cult leader, any argument you supply runs into the problem of proving a negative. "He is just saying that because he is a cult leader." There is no way around the narrative once it is set.

It sounds like environmentalism is the most defensible so long as we don't start a genocide against the entirety of humanity. I remember there used to be "let it burn" policies for forest fires. It raises the question of what is natural. is genocide natural? Maybe if someone views the world as an interconnected environment, then from that perspective humanity is a data point in the environment rather than the most important thing in the universe. This can create a morally detached position in which humans are just animals with rationality, barely more important other animals if at all. I guess if I were truly detached, then there is no need to save the world either. The idea of saving the world taken to extreme is what destroys the world.

This is disturbing. Apparently, LGBTQ was bad but this is somehow acceptable for schools to do. I am kind of stunned that this somehow passed, but I guess tech companies want money that badly and the AI bubble is exhausting itself rapidly with this race to the bottom.

@Natasha Tori Maru Personally I want both. I want someone to love and respect me. I lean toward respect because love is too ambiguous. Love is ambiguous enough that a narcissist or psychopath could say I love you. It is also possible for an alcoholic to love you in that state even while they actively beat and rape you due to impaired judgment. I also remember that "pedophile" literally means "child lover." Pedophiles deeply love our children, but they don't respect them. Love would be better if it were concretely defined. Otherwise, "I love you" could easily mean, "I don't want you to break my heart because I am very possessive to the point that if you don't do as I say I will cut off your private parts. I also really love it when you buy me new clothes and a car with all of your life savings! I love you so much babe! I'm glad you will never leave me, right?" (Brandishing a knife) I actually met people who were in these types of relationships. They had wedding plans, but they were cancelled. I remember there is also the Yandere. "If I can't have you, then no one can! I love you so much that I will end your life right now!" Love is extremely unreliable unless it is concretely defined. Before someone says "I love you" it will need to be discussed in detail to define what exactly is meant by such a statement. Otherwise, it could be something like a mother having a psychotic breakdown to the point that she protects her baby from harm by committing infanticide. Love is a scary thing

An interesting thought experiment occured to me. It is the idea that I could take something like the Legend of Zelda, make it structurally very similar to real world religions, and then replace the content of something like the Bible with tales from Hyrule. In this experiment, the goal is to imagine a world in which Christianity never emerged because what emerged in its place was the Legend of Zelda which would shape humanity for thousands of years, including to this day. The beginning would be similar to the origins of the Abrahamic religions. Abraham would look at the statues in Egypt and ask "what if those statues are just statues?" After deep self reflection, Abraham has a vision in which he sees a divine light. Slowly, something begins to take shape. It is the Triforce, shaped by the true Goddesses that formed the Earth through Din's fire, Nayru's love, and Farore's abundance. Your temple would tell you this is the holy trinity. As humanity developed, key figures from the Bible were replaced with Zelda characters. Instead of Jerusalem, there was Hyrule. Instead of Jesus and Satan, there was Link and Ganon. The crusades still happen and your history teacher tells you about it. He says that there were different factions trying to control the holy lands in the hopes of accessing the sacred realm and claiming the Triforce which held divine power according to their theologies. These different factions splintered into different religions, each claiming that their prophets were the descendants of the Hero of Time, Link. When your family takes you to a temple which they are sure is based on truth, you see stained glass windows with the Hero of Time, Statues of Zelda characters who are worshipped, and a choir singing Zelda music. As you watch the service, a priest stands before the group and begins to to preach. He tells you about why Link is eternally worshipped as humanity's savior. The story begins in the land of Hyrule where a boy hears a cry for help, roughly 2000 years ago from the present. It is the princess Zelda using telepathy to warn the hero that the evil wizard Ganon was assembling the Triforce. Link would need to meet with the sages and receive their blessings to get the Master Sword, located in the Temple of Time in order to stop Ganon from shaping the world in his image. Ganon was a cruel sinful man, overcome by his greed and lust for power. Those faithful to the Hero of Time were humble and surrendered the selfishness which drove people to trying to shape the sacred realm in their own image. Although Link recieved the blessings of the sages and took the blade of destiny, he was too late to stop Ganon's ritual. Zelda was kidnapped and crucified as part of a ritual to extract the Triforce of Wisdom from Zelda's being. Link was too late, and Ganon now held two pieces of the Triforce. However, Link found something left behind by the princess. It was the Ocarina of Time. Guided by the sages, Link rushed to the Temple of Time where he played the sacred instrument. He was then sent back in time to before Zelda was crucified, but now he had the Master Sword when he needed it. Link challenged Ganon and stopped the ritual, using the blade of destiny to send a ball of lightening back at the demon king. Link then struck down the dark lord, saving the princess, and uniting the Triforce. Unlike Ganon, his intentions were selfless, allowing the world to be returned to harmony. The religion is heavily debated by scholars. The archeological record confirms that these were indeed real people and there are various ancient texts referencing them. There is even a person named Zelda on a list of people who were intended to be executed on the cross. Some are skeptical because the religion is unfalsifiable. For example, Link is the Hero of time who prevented catastrophes through travelling the time and thus preventing them from happening such that history unfolded without us seeing what he had prevented. Nevertheless, everybody takes it seriously despite it being considered highly improbable in any other context with no such miracles ever being witnessed. Defenders claim that the miracles would be difficult to witness if it involved reversing time, thus maintaining the unfalsifiable position. As a child you would read Hyrule Historia, a sacred book passed down through the generations. In the book of Genesis, you would learn about the origins of Earth and humanity. Instead of Noah's ark, you would learn about the trial of the water dragon from Skyward Sword. Instead of hell, you would learn about the dark world ruled by Ganon, which is where you go if you are sinful. Instead of David defeating Goliath with a slingshot, you would learn about Link defeating Queen Gohma in the Deku Tree by shooting her with a slingshot. The parallels go on and on until the entire Bible is replaced with Zelda stories like these. Some interpret them literally, others poetically. Some skeptics argue that there may be some translation issues due to parts of the holy book being written in a language other than Hylian, which is taught in your temple in place of Hebrew. I find this kind of thought experiment very amusing. It seems like this could have actually been a real religion that humanity dies over if this emerged instead of Christianity. There would probably be people who would actually believe these things and devote their lives to worshipping Link. The structure can easily be molded to match real world religions, such that the content of religion could be replaced with things like this. None of the claims made here are any more radical than those made in books like the Bible involving splitting the sea, resurrection from the dead, and walking on water. This would therefore be something that people actually believe and die for. I guess my next question is, that if this were the content of the religion you grew up with, what questions would you ask to break out of this paradigm? What inconsistencies would you be able to identify? What doubts would you raise if your family and friends were all devout believers in the Hero of Time? The question Leo would ask would be "how do you know this is true?"

Actualized changed my perspective on the war on drugs. I was initially close minded because my parents were drug addicts. Psychedelic research introduced the distinctions necessary for this issue. It gave me a different frame for interpreting drug addiction and the damage it caused me in life.

I tend to associate evil more with sadism and impunity. It is not necessarily psychopathic but could be narcissistic. Furthermore psychopaths are not necessarily con artists, rapists, or murders. Impunity is what you get when soldiers invade another country and terrorize the population through genocidal rape. Impunity exploits a power imbalance to harm others oftentimes just because they can. The rape of Nanking comes to mind when considering "evil."

@LordFall In terms of my family being abusive, they don't just criticize me. A major piece of it has to do with a lack of accountability as a pattern of behavior. It includes things like childhood sexual abuse which crippled my identity because of the actions of my mother and father. Furthermore, if they do cross a boundary such as insisting that dad was loving and caring like a father while seeming smug even though he forced my unwanted involvement in gang activities such as child prostitution, then I will be the one blamed for my reaction to this behavior and there will be no accountability at all. The reason they stopped me from pursuing chess is because they wanted me to financially independent. If this is a factor in terms of why they don't respect my boundaries, then distance seems necessary. Also my debt shouldn't be as bad if I get a job while in college and transfer to Europe to finish the masters in social sciences. I don't like the fact that my family fundamentally crippled my identity, sexuality, and relationship to life by treating me as if I were a rapist as a child. I feel like the harm is deep enough that I can never actually feel safe in my family even if they don't appear to be abusive on the surface. The reminder of my past experiences by their presence and smug remarks makes it impossible to actually feel safe without running complex calculations in terms of how expressing my perspective may backfire. It is exhausting and there is a complete breakdown in communication such that I will likely never be understood and probably never respected. This is the price to pay by staying with my family. Sometimes my family retraumatizes me and undermines healing work. Also my aunt is mad at me for disclosing the child prostitution deal my father put me in. She sounds very angry with me and is acting like she doesn't want to believe me when I say dad was a child sex trafficker offering me money to have sex with fat ass. I live with his mother right now who was also pissed about my disclosure. Although she provides food, shelter, and partial recovery, she may not be able to provide all of the care I need. The things I am recovering from are what her son and his gang did to me and she refuses to believe it. How exactly do you define abusive? This term is highly subjective which makes it almost meaningless in terms of communication. Does it not count as abuse unless I am beaten? Or does smugly telling me dad was loving and caring like a father while the rest of the family moved to silence when I express offense count as abusive? I think I would prefer to build an identity totally separate from my family in order to stop the loop.

@LordFall I posted videos a while ago. Here is one of them.

@Basman well I took the first step. I got an Obama phone. The point is that I need to get off of my family's data plan while making finances more manageable in the meantime. This serves to begin the financial disentanglement. The next step is to get rid of my current phone plan and make the new phone my primary phone for the time being. Next I will need to get the application for NKU set up. If I hurry, I may be able to get on campus for the upcoming semester in Fall. If not I will go in January. Given that leaving my family is long overdue anyway, I would rather make it sooner rather than later. I hope my case manager and therapist or disability services can help me with accomodations for things like depression and sleep problems. Once I have the bachelor's degree, I will likely transfer overseas for the master's. I also need to work on getting my mom's name off of my stocks and my grandma's name off of my bank accounts. I haven't yet announced this plan to my family. If I want my money, then I'm going to need to take this up with them on financial disentanglement. In terms of skills in chess, I was a teacher and a chess coach. I am interested in social sciences and learning complex systems. I could probably teach something like sociology while using research to inform public policy and discourse. I also had good accomplishments in chess such as winning tournaments and beating a national master along with other titled players. I guess this demonstrates the depth of mastery within this domain, but the actual skill is pointed to in a book for personal development by cal Newport. It is about sustained focus, flow, and becoming really good over extended periods of practice. This is what I like most about chess. If I can transfer deep work to other areas of life, that would be great. I have already done it with other board games very easily. If I can apply that to social systems then that would be excellent, similar to deep work in the tech industry. I remember in the case of board games it was partially the competition that drove me to deeper focus. In social sciences the driver may different from competition. It might instead be finding a way to prevent unnecessary suffering while understanding humanity as clearly and comprehensively as possible. One of the bonuses is that I may prevent children from having their futures stolen by parents who are drug addicts if public policy reform is to be effective.

@samijiben I think I have my plan mapped out now. I need to get off of my family's data plan as it keeps me entangled. I also need to get Mom's name off of my stocks. Then I can live on campus to complete my degree before transferring overseas, probably to Switzerland to study social sciences. NKU should be able to help with that. It seems like my best shot realistically in terms of getting away from my family and never coming back once I am out of America which I also need to leave because I think the country is screwed. I feel like I have more clarity and I know what must be done. I hesitated because I still wanted to somehow make things work with my family, but I see that they never will respect me no until I leave them forever. I have done enough psychological prep work that I should be able to manage this. I can see my case manager and therapist soon, but I am taking steps now such as getting my documents for disability eligibility so that I can get any necessary accommodations for university. I can live and work on campus before taking off far away to build a new life and identity completely outside of my family of origin knowing that our conflicts truly are beyond repair due to the vested interest in not seeing the pain they have caused me. I've tried enough and it seems to me that they genuinely do not give a fuck at all. They just don't want me to be with them and that is why they will never respect me. Leaving them forever seems to be the best shot of earning their respect and love.

I'm running into some complications. I have 20,000 dollars in savings along with some stocks and retirement funds. I'm currently unemployed. I looked at Boston, but the housing is part of the problem with many positions requiring a bachelor's or master's degree in fields like IT. I have an associate's degree which limits my options. Rather than trying to make moving out perfect, I need to find somewhere to go where at least I have my own place. Social security knows I have a disability and I shouldn't be working in public, but I'm not disabled enough to receive benefits. It would be nice if I could get disability support somewhere, but I might need to try somewhere that can help me get a job that won't overwhelm me. Part of why I looked at Boston was the AANE support network with life coaching. One thing I am afraid of is that if I move out and lose my job again, then I won't really have a good plan anymore. Part of the reason I lost the job previously was due to severe depression and medical complications that came with it. It also disrupted my education. Do you know where I can find a human that can help with these sorts of life transitions?

I don't see a future with my family. It has caused me to much trouble to try to get them to understand. They have already crippled the future I wanted I am trying to find a new path. My biggest passion was chess. I wanted to be a professional chess player. The problem is that not only did my family block it, but there is also a problem with how chess grandmasters come to be especially on the top level. Under all cases, top level chess players have supportive families since childhood who provide the structure necessary to actualize their goals. It has never happened that a talented player was undermined by an unsupportive family and somehow reached the top level anyway. This is part of what suggests that the window of opportunity to go where I wanted to go was already closed before I was born. Grandmasters don't come from fathers who traffic children and there hasn't been any top level players ever from this background without a network of support. It isn't pure effort as they seem to believe. The discrepancy in privilege and its implications somewhat sours chess now. I used to believe that my effort was meaningful, but I now see that environment and circumstances matter equally if not more in some cases. I am trying to find an alternative passion. Maybe something completely new. Otherwise, I have lost so much that the only thing left is spirituality. Once we take away everything meaningful to you such as friends, family, career, and so forth, then all you are left with is existence, truth, and consciousness. Spirituality is where I end up when everything else fails. I need to find a way to avoid permanent bitterness in life. I no longer have the same faith and confidence in chess that I once had. I know I like intellectual groups and learning or teaching. I seem to function well in those cases.