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Everything posted by BlueOak
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BlueOak replied to Guru Peter Jordanson's topic in Society, Politics, Government, Environment, Current Events
Here would be a milk toast UK view on the Nazi propaganda. The BBC is about as status quo as it gets here and generally as close to state TV as we get. Here would be a far right march in Moscow: And to show less bias, one in the UK. All countries have them. -
BlueOak replied to How to be wise's topic in Society, Politics, Government, Environment, Current Events
Well we cannot ignore, and I should have mentioned in that comparison that of course the reason Ukraine is holding and in some areas beating back Russia is not only down to their fighting spirit, homeland advantage, but also the flood of weapons from across Europe into their neighboring state. Its also simple things like civilians in their homes telling the Ukranians where the Russians are, because Ukraine itself is fighting Russia. Its all the people making roadblocks or getting supplies or men to the front in their cars. Everyone is involved. Its Russia fighting let's say 20 million people. Maybe that's an exaggeration maybe they are fighting 10 million, but that's not a cost Russia is going to want to pay in a conventional war. They'd need to draft most of their young into the fight, like Ukraine has. So its more that its the Russia military vs the Population of Ukraine, because Ukraine really feels like they are in a fight to the death for their identity. -
BlueOak replied to How to be wise's topic in Society, Politics, Government, Environment, Current Events
Evidence on the ground. Kherson for example, Russia is losing ground. Kyiv Russia is losing ground and getting units encircled. Chernihiv in the north east its more even, they may even be making ground there. In the south east its hell for all involved. Russia is not the second strongest military in the world anymore. Its equipment is outdated, its logistics are garbage, its coordination between air and ground is terrible. Their communication systems are not at all sophisticated and easily hacked. Their men are undertrained and their officers often don't have a clue. The men on the ground don't have enough supplies or the gear they need to do the job. If it truly were the second best military in the world this region would have been completely overrun in a few weeks. Ukraine IS winning against Russia. This is the reality check you cannot see. Russia is no longer all powerful, you are thinking of their neighbor China. Russian technology is a million miles away from American equipment. Its economy is less than the size of Texas, a powerful but single state in America. There is no comparison. They spend a fraction of the US budge on their military. As for tanks being generally less useful elsewhere, yes Tanks are not all powerful anymore, and guess what that's the bulk of the Russian army, Tanks. This is a budget comparison: https://cdn.statcdn.com/Infographic/images/normal/16878.jpeg It gives you some idea of the gap, over time this gap means an increasing divergence in the quality. -
My common sense tells me to stay as far away from this topic as possible. But I sometimes don't listen to it.
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Not if its what's called post op. (Operation). Even Pre Op you'd have people using Testosterone which would give an advantage. I think the only way would be either muscle mass / weight or checking for Testosterone levels and limiting based on that.
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Some clubs tried unisex bathrooms when I was at university way back when. There was some funny moments and some embarrassment but the guys were okay with it obviously. I'm sure some of the women had a laugh but I am equally sure some would never go near them, other than to be curious then immediately leave. I bring it up because that applies to athletes too. I don't suppose any guy is going to mind competing physically with anyone else, even if there is moral or ethical objection from some. Its the woman that rightly have concerns over their body in the sauna for example, and the physical fairness of such a matchup in their sports. But beyond that I have no solution that isn't overly complex. Like weight categories at the Olympics for example, or measuring levels of testosterone in female events. It does take stepping outside of identity to find a solution not based on identity. *And also to add, personally I have no problem with what anyone does to their identity or body, its entirely nothing to do with me. So this comes from a consideration of others.
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BlueOak replied to How to be wise's topic in Society, Politics, Government, Environment, Current Events
When will Russia's pride stop them fighting a battle they have no chance of ever winning? Not without 10 times the forces they have currently assembled and a nationwide draft the likes of which it hasn't seen since the USSR. A return to the cold war and possibly war with everyone west of you? What pride is driving Russia to continue to beat their heads against a wall? Or is there more to it than just pride, like with all things? For Ukraine I see: Fear of death and loss of what they are. Death of identity drives most decisions. Blue Pride and sense of national identity yes. Green Sense of Community and Open Liberal Sentiment. Orange Western Business Models and Individualist Choices. Red thrill for the violence and hatred of Russia. Yellow analysis of the two options compared to each other in relation to their own life, democracy and autocracy. The want for democracy which is orange/green/yellow orientated to have a say in their leadership. Family. Home. Country. Revenge. You name it. It isn't Russia anymore. It evolved to be something different (not better or worse different) This war has completely severed any hope Russia ever had of integrating Ukraine in my lifetime. Ukraine has every chance of winning it, they've got momentum currently. If winning means keeping their national identity, way of life, personal preference, and values in tact, then yes that. The Russians are held and being pushed back. Can they invade Russia and beat them, of course not. Can they slowly push them out of their territory until they meet a concentration of force that will hold them. Like after the next Russian draft in April? Perhaps. Its perhaps. Perhaps they might take Kherson back for example or the Russian's might hold it. They just lost another LT General there, the commander of the region. I think that makes 7 generals dead for the Russians. They might well encircle the Russians in the north too, they've been capturing more prisoners there of late and are attempting to. We'll probably get to where we were headed to at the start, some territory given up and a stalemate nobody is happy with. -
BlueOak replied to How to be wise's topic in Society, Politics, Government, Environment, Current Events
Then they will live under an occupying force that jails protestors, kills political opponents and makes every day people disappear. They don't want the autocracy of Russia, they've made that clear repeatedly. They don't consider themselves Russian. Suffering will happen whatever choice they make. Only now the entire population hates Putin, they don't just not want Russia they actively hate them. Its given them a national identity stronger than ever, and after they've lost so much you think they will just say oh well. Sadly countries are often made in war. I wish it were not so, but it is. I don't know how much evidence people need to show that the population of Ukraine don't want a Russian regime than a month long war with tens of thousands of dead. If the popular revolution that involved much of the country was dismissed as somehow a figment of a western mind, then perhaps this will be enough to show it. -
Infinity: Watch yourself, Watching yourself. That's how reality is sustained indefinitely. All is mind and seeing ourselves outwardly is how inwardly reality remains constructed. I mean this on all levels or all aspects of life. There might be more to it but that seems worth mentioning.
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@Gushu 'The West' didn't exist as a collective concept in the minds of most people in the west. Not over my lifetime and i'm in my 40's. Sure they listen to themselves being called it but it didn't mean much. It is meaning more, the more it is referenced and they accept it. There are/were far more differing perspectives even in just the EU for example, than a collective identity. Just look at Europe's map for example at how fractured it is. So to blame the west as a collective is not understanding the nature of the west. Again i've been trying from the start of this conflict to draw a great big red box around Eastern Europe as the focal point, because it is a large part of why we have reached this point. Individual countries wanted collective security from an increasingly belligerent expansionist Russia, so they joined NATO. Russia became this way because NATO expanded and interfered in its own sphere of influence over decades. They did this because Russia was becoming more belligerent.. because the west was expanding or interfering etc. In a loop. So its a two way dynamic that has gone on since the cold war, it can't be anything but that, because things don't happen in a vacuum. Fear is at its center and you describe that, I think i've described eastern Europe a lot, with the various invasions from the USSR they have suffered over the decades. Lot of meddling in Eastern Europe politics from Russia as well, lot of meddling in Russia's sphere politically from the west. Any speaker who doesn't describe both sides of the equation in at least this surface depth either can't see it or has taken a side and is constructing their viewpoint around that identification.
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I argued with a stage green who was virtue signaling about other wars on a war video. I concluded eventually that's exactly what a stage green would do, because its the precise time they would get the most attention for their want. I apologized to them at the end. From where they are everyone has a understandable position, when you understand their motivations, where they are coming from and what drives them to do what they do. It could not be otherwise because you assign the meaning, interpret the act, all which exists only in your own mind. Created by you. This bit gets me. I don't feel I am creating the act of something, I lack this realisation. The meaning is created by me, and if the meaning or interpretation of what I am seeing, hearing or understanding is created by me, then everything referenced is created by me. Hopefully that duality between creation and interpretation is now closer to folding. I didn't put the person in front of me talking to me, or tell them what to say. Make the rain come or the birds move. Yet I know they are in my mind only. This is what I struggled with ten years ago, this point. Because I desire control so much, or rather an 'outcome'. I haven't been able to let go of the need for outcome yet, or want as I talked about earlier. I understand without outcome i'd be dead in a day, its a necessary part of life but it brings conflict with the understanding that mind is all. What I feel is there are different layers of mind. Conscious - Personal Will, Sub Conscious - Revolving around you, Super Consciousness - Everything else. There may be more layers than this, and a long time ago when someone told me we are in wombs of consciousness, or an egg waiting to hatch I understand what they mean more now. *Maybe these layers of mind act differently, so the term 'want' doesn't exist in some of them. Want being the basic need for survival and prosperity in the immediate world around you. The reference, the want and their relationship created by the conscious mind only.
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BlueOak replied to CaptainBobbyOlsen's topic in Spirituality, Consciousness, Awakening, Mysticism, Meditation, God
Knowing anything. -
I tend to agree, the (fully orange) corporate pyramid crushes people that don't claw their way to the top. I fully understand that sentiment and wanting a different option to it. I don't know if Russia is though? I genuinely don't know if the culture of advancement there is any different. Is it what we'd call here green or yellow in its own internal advancement or are people crushed in a different way? I always thought Russians best position was to be the bridge between the east and the west, trading its massive natural resources to both. But it pulled back further each year, which led to the cycle of NATO expansion -> Russian Regression -> Repeat. All fueled by proxy wars and wars by association around the globe. Anyway, that's the past now. The future is set to be China, Russia, Iran with their allies. Standing against Europe, America and its allies. Obviously around the world different countries are forced to choose, remaining neutral becomes more difficult. I remember India news talking about how difficult they were finding it, someone suggested the league of neutral nations should be formed to give people a third option. Which would be very popular undoubtedly. I hope, I really hope that we don't keep splintering like this, but that's the path people are taking. Splintering into two or more powerblocks with a sadly nationalist wave that is still present in consciousness and being propagated further. It doesn't make for a safe future.
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So today I went from saying everything is interpretation to everything is mind. Meaning all of reality will now reflect this to me. I realise that the hand moving to touch the table was all in my mind, the visual, the sound, the movement. I want a better word for that to bridge this to others who have thought abstractly about that. Every single experience you've ever had is not only interpreted in your mind but exists there, it can't be any other way. I can't say there is no spoon yet but I can say the spoon is entirely in your mind, what it means, where it is, what it looks like, how it feels. Maybe the next stage is a neo there is no spoon realisation, I feel I am close. The hand is in the mind, so mind is all that exists, the objects around me exist as part of my mind, so there is no spoon, only a reference in the mind. The inner conscious mind again is mostly silent as the body/mind adjusts. Gratitude
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BlueOak replied to How to be wise's topic in Society, Politics, Government, Environment, Current Events
Not without a few hundred thousand troops to occupy it over 20 years. A military analyst stated it takes about 1 soldier for every 20 people in rebellion rotated out over time. *I think that's where the claim of many hundreds of thousands come from, to supply them and to rotate their deployment, but looking over it a few hundred thousand should be enough. There will be losses during that time to occupying force. Though honestly right now you could make that 5% of the population indefinitely from what this looks like. Unless Russia turns many more cities into rubble and removes the population. Otherwise whatever it puts in place will be removed a week after they leave. If they leave a token force the government won't function, and there will partisans operating indefinitely. Then we have if Russia keep rubbling cities there will be nothing for them to capture anyway, except the gas in the ground that nobodies going to pay them for 10 years from now as people slowly move off their supply. The entire strategy is to shoot themselves in the foot over and over to achieve the opposite result of what Russia want, until they meet a reality Russia can accept. Like most of us I suppose, i'm no different. I bang my head against the wall until there is no more wall, no more impetus to, and probably a very bruised head. NATO does this too of course, but overall their strategy has been somewhat better since this mess started. *This is all best case scenario for Russia, worst case is they keep losing ground or men until their own country collapses from economic sanctions, military expenditure, or monumental losses. That is until the two sides negotiate, but they are still far apart. -
BlueOak replied to How to be wise's topic in Society, Politics, Government, Environment, Current Events
There have been reports of Russians getting frostbite elsewhere. I just did a check and any temperature below -0.55C to exposed skin will give frostbite. It was part of the strategy to block off convoys, cut off their fuel supplies and food supplies. Without adequate food frostbite becomes a bigger problem as the body can't stay warm, and a lot of those soldiers were sleeping in their vehicles with little heat. -
Quoting myself to save time, what I wrote for someone else: BUT here is the thing. I am still wanting my result. I am still wanting mediation to happen between those differing perspectives. I am still wanting collective understanding. Its a want. Does that want ever go away? Will I ever just accept this is how it is, and everything that happens, happens exactly the way it was meant to, that its designed to do exactly that. I am reaching here, because I sat down in meditation today and just asked to be love. I saw the vortex we see in meditation, mine is always purple, and asked three times. I am asking myself, sounds very stupid but isn't that what we always do too. I don't always understand why its considered better to be receptive than ask, I always practiced receptivity in spiritual work. Maybe its because its more accepting of what is, so things move more easily. It also doesn't put you in a completely passive state of asking, or you in the controlling state of just acting for a set determined result. I let some purifying tears go. Which is always a good sign. I feel spirit more again now, full bodied smiles I used to call it. I want to stop playing around in green causes, to stop needing to understand everyone else in yellow and just begin to accept again the collective beauty of life. War makes that very difficult, but its what I want. I experienced pure love once for 5 minutes which lasted 2 days, and it changed my life, I want that again without the crash off the end of a conflict cliff I experienced last time. Good luck to us all, and gratitude to all.
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Its a very tough time. Good training then to stabilize your own body, mind, life, emotions, psyche, spirit, reality in the middle of all of it. Collectively it is good training to collectively stabalize our financial systems, our countries identity, their military alliances, how we treat our neighbors. Its definitely an opportunity to take on other's perspectives else yours will feel increasingly pressured and crushed by the weight of anger, hate and directed pressure. This also applies collectively. Democracy is declining yes, civil rights are being challenged everywhere. We are realising what they have in common with autocratic states and what is different. I had to yesterday/today realise and accept the part of myself that is authoritarian. That tells people what the world should be, what they should want, how they should live. I realise now when its accepted, that's in everyone, on every news network, in every speaker and every world leader. It is also the driving force of democracy, wanting our world to be how we want it. A difference is democracies have room to listen to other perspectives. Not all perspectives, clearly, but some. They collectively balance out societies will less brutally than an autocracy, but they are still heavily influenced by those in control. So i've learned that. I don't know if it helps anyone, I was going to put it in the diary here but maybe it'll help you.
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Why do I have such a problem with aspects of self in the dream, portraying a perception as reality. When that is what I do in my dream every day all day. It can't be any other way because I created that experience for myself when I interpreted the meaning of it. As I realised this earlier again, I hope this duality is closed now. That it won't cause adverse reaction from me anymore. Everything is a interpretation we ourselves create to be as we want it to be. Most of the inner minds voice has collapsed but I am still dealing with emotional memory. I still get faint suggestions but much less again. There is almost permanent pressured stillness around my body especially my head right now. I painted a fence today and pictured that for this moment it was all reality was experiencing. I thought how devoid of meaning that would be. Then I wrestle with whether reality/source/god/life is all, at once, or me at once. The concept of all bothers me. I want to consider that all minds are experiencing reality and I am all of them, but that implies a separation/duplication of experience that doesn't exist. Every day I see it more, that what I put out comes back. The more I accept it does, then it does. I used to try to bargain with myself to just make something happen or work :D. I've seen that in people many times but the dream only reflects me to myself, I can send out some of what I want to see but what comes back is what is. I have not been able to make the mechanism of the dream work differently than that, although i've bent it time to time, and ignored it plenty. I also wondered if I had been less of a loner, and more of a social mind, that I might have imagined a more social philosophy to reference reality. Maybe that is something for me/reality/the referenced world, to develop.
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What has just occurred above in the exchange is 1 factor of why the war is happening. The others are the fear I described and finally China and Russia's desire to dominate Eurasia, and thus to replace the US as the world's superpower.
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I am split on this. I understand why spiritual people separate. Its simply more difficult to not isolate yourself and remain in those states of body/mind. It takes a lot of work to go up and down the different states of consciousness or aspects of yourself. I also understand how that creates a spiritual bubble around yourself, that can lead to some very painful drops into reality from conflict for example, and I am sure other sources, for me it was unresolved conflict. It can hurt like hell and I hope if any of them are experiencing that its more gradual and level.
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BlueOak replied to Preety_India's topic in Society, Politics, Government, Environment, Current Events
Finally I found the full link India is 76th http://reports.weforum.org/social-mobility-report-2020/social-mobility-rankings/?doing_wp_cron=1647946949.4859139919281005859375 -
BlueOak replied to Preety_India's topic in Society, Politics, Government, Environment, Current Events
For the UK perspective at least where I am. Both perspectives are true. Men do think about their partners about what they can provide for or support, and men do marry single mothers. When you get into the age where most women have families and the man might do himself, there isn't a stigma here that you describe. There is always consideration of what someone can afford or what responsibilities they want in their life however. Its a big deal taking on a kid, and something anyone should consider if they are ready for the responsibility. Whether that's a newborn or starting a relationship with a mother. As for social mobility yeah we do okay with that in the UK, quite high but not the highest. Here is a 2020 link: https://citi.io/2020/02/04/the-countries-with-the-highest-social-mobility/ -
BlueOak replied to Preety_India's topic in Society, Politics, Government, Environment, Current Events
Do you travel much around India? Is it the same everywhere in India? The place I am in myself is socially conservative. I do know there are many places around the UK which are not, that have different attitudes. -
People can deploy WMD to Russia from anywhere on earth. I think the concern was shorter range ballistic missiles, which are obviously more abundant. I understand Russia's position, i've had a huge education on it. The fear that Russia has of NATO getting closer. What I don't see reflected in many Russian's is them seeing Eastern Europe's position. I understand they have demonized the US and we in Europe are in the process of demonizing Russia. To look past that demonization you'll see the fear driving a lot of decisions from everyone, and why Russia caused this to itself. - Just as much as why NATO caused this to itself. People want to join NATO because they fear Russia, Russia pulls back because it fears NATO. So these two fears are what causes the problem for both. When I spoke about this previously I didn't clearly state that you can have fear and also a strategic mind. Its not just one or the other. I also understand and to be frank really appreciated until very recently how direct Russians were. To me they were strength, they were honest, blunt. I value those things. To see the complete opposite a denial of reality in things like losses, like armies fighting each other being a war to achieve a dream. It reminds me of the things I hate most about western society and in myself. The creation of a reality people want to see rather than what is there. We want it to be this way so we'll say it is. I hate that so much to my core. With how autocratic Russia has become that completely depends on one man alone. You are very top heavy as a country and many of the minds that would make that democracy happen are leaving. Its going in the opposite direction and in part this is because that's what happens in wartime. I see people complaining about Ukraine cracking down on political opposition in a war, but it's what happens, people become more nationalist. Outside of war that one man's autocracy is a problem. No leader can be everything to all people and is always going to be flawed as an individual trying to run 100 million people. The Americans have the same problem by the way but at least they have a lot of voices balancing that single individual out. There are not yes men fearing for their lives as much, although people still lie to save their careers publicly. People can speak more freely to their president and he can use that feedback, so can the supporting bodies around him. Also for example at least in China personal corruption is removed the higher that leader goes, in Russia (and in the west) its often the opposite. As you can see there are many problems with Russia as with all countries. The biggest though is you've given up your biggest strength, a cold hard reality for a dream. An ideology of what used to be.