Lila9

This is interesting because Russian women are the opposite of the submissive woman stereotype. They can be very harsh, even beyond the level that Western men are used to.

Hahaha I know right? Imagine living in Russia for years under Putin with all the corruption maybe thinking about an escape plan and some people elsewhere who have barely been there for half a year idealizing the exact country you are desperately trying to move out of. What a cognitive dissonance.

The Russian culture is rich, but Russia itself is a very low-conscious, corrupted place. Just because the West sucks (and it does on many levels) doesn’t mean that Russia, China, or any Eastern country is ideal. People in the West are so tired and disappointed with the West for various reasons, and I can understand that, but it doesn’t mean that the East is better. I mean, there are some aspects in which the West or the East is better, but idealizing either creeps me out. There is a trend of right-wing people from the West moving to Russia in the belief that it is some conservative utopia, but it turns out to be hell because Russia is not an immigrant-friendly country. It is ironic that the same conservatives in America who resist immigration to the US and demonize immigrants find themselves as immigrants in Russia and receive the same treatment they gave to immigrants in the US. The following is so funny and sad to watch:

@Jordan of the Shire Thank you for taking the time to respond. I don't understand how the second part of your post is related to the first part, but it seems that you wrote your stream of consciousness reflecting some deep thinking, which is beautiful.

Here is an unbiased explanation: At the end of February 2026, Israel and the U.S. attacked Iran militarily. On the first day of the attack, they killed the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei. In Iran, there is the Ayatollah regime (an Islamic totalitarian theocracy) which oppresses the Iranian people, and it is estimated that 50%-70% of Iranian citizens oppose it. The U.S. and Israel claim that the reason for the attack is to disarm the regime that has rejected and threatened Israel and the U.S. for decades because they represent Western values. Iran works with proxies like Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, which are terrorist organizations, to achieve its ultimate goal of establishing dominance; part of this is to remove the "Zionist entity," which is basically the destruction of Israel. Iran is considered to be in a sort of cold war with Saudi Arabia (which is more pro-America and pro-West) over who will dominate the Middle East. Some people claim that the U.S. and Israel leadership started the war merely to distract their citizens and the world from their corruption and shady dealings. (This may be true, but here we are at risk of entering the rabbit hole of brain‑rotting, unproven conspiracy theories, so we need to be careful) The bigger picture is that this war is part of a long struggle between the West and the East: Western values vs. communist/totalitarian values: Russia/China vs. the U.S. You can see this by the allies of each side. The U.S. is allied with other countries with the same Western democratic and capitalistic values, like Europe, Israel, Australia, Japan, South Korea, etc. Iran is allied with regimes with the same communist/totalitarian values, like Russia, North Korea, and China. This is a war about control of the narrative, values, and territory.

That's OK. It takes a village to heal one person. The current approach to mental illness is too focused on the individual, ignoring the fact that the individual is intertwined with the collective and is not totally isolated or separate. This is why I don't believe that one can be fully recovered as long as society is sick. Mental illness can be contagious. Even if someone is healed but lives in an unhealed environment, they may adopt the same dysfunctional patterns in the end or become re-traumatized. This is why the future approach to treating mental health issues may focus less on the individual and more on the collective, on a systemic level. Don't feel bad about it. People who sell courses and various self-help programs sometimes imply that the issue is only in your head and that it can be treated with willpower or exercise alone, but this is often wishful thinking. Keep doing what you can to make yourself feel better. Maybe incorporate small rituals (such as meditation, journaling, reading, drinking tea or coffee, spending time in the sun, skywatching, birdwatching, and self-care rituals like bathing, dancing, singing, or creating art) and be very present and intentional about them. You can learn more about rituals and how they help with the mental health crisis in books like The Power of Ritual by Casper ter Kuile. Move your body daily and add beauty to your life to make it feel more meaningful, and if possible surround yourself with healed people.

If you want a deeper understanding of that, there is a book called Right Wing Women by Andrea Dworkin which elaborates on the psychology of women who uphold the patriarchy (basically about why they shoot themselves in the foot). This talks specifically about right-wing women in America, but the same applies to right-wing women worldwide and even to some other women across the political spectrum.

Hahaha Ok dude. You sound really triggered out of nowhere in your attempts to defend your weak argument. Do you agree that there are advantages to reading, right? How do you think you would gain those advantages if you read only once in a while? The advantages of reading require consistency. Reading once in a while it's like trying to lose weight by running and eating only apples once a month just because you are in the “mood”. This is ok by the way if you are not a type of a person to do anything daily but just because you don't like or enjoy it doesn't mean that it's not beneficial for others or lame. It’s much better than a daily TikTok scroll for hours or trolling decent forum members with nonsense.

Reading books is not lame. It is a source of high-quality information. If you are a curious person who loves to learn and expand your horizons, books are perfect for that. There are books about anything and everything. There are many advantages to reading books, including novels. Reading trains our brain to focus (an antidote to a short attention span), improves memory, helps us hold complicated and nuanced ideas, strengthens critical thinking, and expands the imagination and more. If you read like a robot just to memorize things, you are doing it wrong. You should read slowly and contemplate the material you read. Books give you material to chew on. You don’t even have to agree with the author! You can argue with the author (in your mind or in notes). As a remedy and an antidote to your hubris, I recommend reading at least 30 minutes daily. Start with The Shallows by Nicholas Carr and Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman to understand how illiteracy and people who don’t read books can negatively affect society on many levels. You guys with your illiterate mentally bring a lot of trouble upon us.

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Feminism is not a movement that is built on blaming men; this is a very shallow view. For most, it is a movement for gender equality. It is not ideal, of course, and is always evolving. It criticizes the patriarchy and strict gender roles, and it expects more accountability from men as a group with more power. Men don't listen to feminists because of misogyny and because of the shame in realizing how brainwashed they were by patriarchy, how much harm it caused them as individuals and how much harm they caused because of it. This shame should motivate them to be better people rather than killing the messenger (women and feminists). Killing the messenger and blaming it is the most coward and low conscious thing to do. Feminists can't decide for men or do the work for them to become better men, this is up to them.

While men are definitely hurt by patriarchy, they are not exploited as much as women are. This is why they never call patriarchy out in the same way women do. Feminists have never failed men in the way patriarchy has. People like Andrew Tate and Jordan Peterson are the very men who harm and exploit men but point the finger at women and feminism only to distract them from this fact.

Young people were born into a neoliberal, postmodernist, and nihilistic society. They are the symptom of the problem, not the issue. Older people talk about them arrogantly and get offended by their behavior, but this is only because young people, unconsciously and without realizing it, hold up a mirror to older generations, reflecting the horrible state of society something that older generations usually put a blind eye on and love to brush under the rug. Instead of questioning how they, as adults, contributed to this environment with their ignorance and stupidity, it is always easier to mock and make fun of younger people. Which is a behavior of a bully. It is easier to hurt someone who is weaker than them to make themselves feel good about themselves rather than confront powerful and wealthy people or do an inner observation. This is why I will never be the grumpy old woman who complains about younger generations. I would rather complain about the politicians and the corrupted adults. There is a trend of young people who are aware of the issues in their generation and actually do attempts to gain back their attention span, literacy skills and and more analog and slow living.

Since we live in a patriarchal society built by men for men, with a majority of men holding power, I think that men are more responsible for teaching younger men to use their sexuality in a way that does not exploit women’s suffering. Men are socialized to view sexuality and sex in such a distorted way that what brings them arousal is control, violence, and domination of female bodies (death and destruction) rather than raw eroticism (life and creativity). There is no problem with sexuality per se, this is part of being human. And I wish there were more healthy education about it, which society is lacking. Yes, most people are like animals, but we should strive to do better to become human, for God’s sake.

Nature is many things, including egalitarian. People say that nature is cruel and violent, but this is a myopic view of nature. It is far more complex and diverse. Human nature is also more complex and diverse. An egalitarian society is a society in which leadership is truly earned through wisdom, skills, and abilities (rather than taken by force) and is also situational. Humans did live that way for millions of years, so this is not impossible. If I had to build a society from scratch now and select the shared values, I would build it with a more matriarchal leaning. I'd keep the healthy masculine values and balance it with more feminine values like community rituals, beauty, spirituality, motherhood, and children, because from my perspective this is the right thing to do and can benefit everyone, as it is more aligned with our human needs. But I am biased because I do not benefit much from this system, which is heavily leaning on masculine values while repressing the feminine. It actually contradicts most of my values. For some, especially those who have privilege in this society and are in a convenient position, my view can be threatening.

Yes. Given the fact that women globally work twice as much as men and earn half of what men earn, using what you have as a young, beautiful woman as an opportunity to improve your survival situation is very rational. It is also amusing that privileged men who have never been in their position criticize these women’s character rather than criticizing the society that set the conditions for it to begin with. And then those women are seen as the predators who are scamming poor men, rather than the true victims of the system they really are. Men can do better. Young men should be held accountable for their lustful behavior and develop some character instead of consuming content that exploits the vulnerable position of women in society.

I also think that it is very easy to influence young people into dying for their country. I live in a country where military service is mandatory, even for women, and when I served, I noticed that most people take for granted the idea that sacrificing their time, human potential, and even their bodies for the collective is the right thing to do. At 18 which is the age when most people begin military service, the brain is still very young, impressionable and naive. I was in a Combat Support role and served close to dangerous areas, and I had almost no fear because of my youth and naivety. When I see young people die during their military service, I feel especially sorry for them because they sort of forced into it without the opportunity to fully understand the risk and the consequences of being in the military.

It depends on SD. The foundation of a nation-state is Blue, and people in Blue are often the patriots willing to die for the state. Orange is too individualistic for that, and Green doesn’t understand what the point of wars is to begin with or why humans can’t just be one big family. The reality is that borders require sacrifice in blood to protect the inhabitants of the territory, with its collective identity and shared culture and values, from other hostile cultures. This is an inconvenient truth, but someone has to do this labor until humanity is more developed.

Trauma survivors, especially those who have done inner work, are like a phoenix rising from the ashes.

Sometimes trauma, especially childhood trauma, can give you skills and a level of maturity beyond your age. If you were a child surviving in a difficult environment, it certainly shaped your brain in specific ways. It can make you hyper-independent and self-reliant, which can be very helpful. Life’s hardships may not bother you as much as they do people who grew up in more secure and healthy families, because you were already “trained” by your childhood. As a result, there are fewer things that can surprise or scare you. You also become very aware of human nature and gain a kind of “street-smart” intuitive understanding of reality and life. You also value many things that others take for granted. However, this can also become a barrier when you want to develop yourself, build a career, or simply have a healthy, functional life and relationships especially when you don’t know what a healthy and functional life and relationships should look like. You may need to unlearn many things, such as bad habits, negative beliefs about yourself. Build yourself from scratch. You may also need to do shadow work, parentify yourself and find people who are secure enough to help you rebuild your trust in others and form healthy, loving relationships with them. This is often a difficult, lifelong process. For me, every time I do some inner work and feel like I’ve healed a part of myself, I later discover that it was only the beginning, and that there is still more to uncover and heal.

Of course they are 😊

I think that people, especially conservatives, but not only, confuse sex with gender. Sex is a biological fact, there are literal physical and hormonal differences between males and females. It is mostly pretty obvious who is a male and who is a female. Gender, man or woman, on the other hand, is a social construct. It is a role, a persona, a performance. The characteristics of the role depend on the society. Women and men are not born women and men, they learn it, they are socialized into it. If we talk about masculine and feminine energy, both sexes have both. Every individual has its unique combination and balance of feminine and masculine energy.

This is indeed legendary.