Basman

There is a distinction between abject violence and sport. The former is all about pressing your advantages and making the fight as unfair as possible in order to win (fighting is an obstacle and not the goal), whereas sport is all about the competition in a fight that is made to be as fair as possible (the competition is the goal). Sport is full of rules and regulation that promote a "fair game" and spectacle, whereas abject violence has no rules and the violence is merely a means to an end. There is a world of difference there. Violent sport is very contained in comparison. There is no greater competition than violence. That is why violent sports are popular. People love competition.

Just be authentic. You like what you like. It doesn't have to mean anything. If you authentically dislike someones art because of their personality, like Kanye's newer albums for example, then that is fair because you are being honest. But that is still a partial perspective and you aren't inherently more correct than someone who does like Kanye's newer albums. Don't dislike art because you think you "should" or blindly adhere to group think. Listen to your heart.

I kind of agree with the notion that proper socialization doesn't drain you. I can talk for hours with my mate and only feel energized from it. But I personally never have felt energized from socializing with a group and I'm also pretty introverted as a person. It might be in part a skill issue. If you are more experienced with socializing, it'll be more effortless.

It is like with Burning Man festival where many attendees dump their trash and litter in the towns in the vicinity despite the "leave no trace" motto.

Focus on the thing you want to improve and keep in mind different things come in different stages. Don't worry so much about the deep spiritual stuff till you get a handle on your material life for example. You only have to care about the things that matter to you. You owe yourself at least that much. The average person isn't aware of self-improvement. It is a given then that they will get average results. It is all about the adventure at the end of the day.

More into coarse chips myself.

What is with all the silly generalizations in this thread? Being overly reductionist in a spiteful manner makes you come off as you have kind of chip on your shoulder.

Apparently it was adding prompts to the original user prompts, like "diverse", etc. The problem is that AI is a tool, so if the tool doesn't do the thing you want it to do then it is a bad tool.

You seem stuck in your head and aimless from the sound of it. If you finished the course, then you should have a concrete and specific way for practicing your life purpose, ideal medium, etc. Maybe you haven't truly picked a thing yet? Vision is just an ideal so you can shoot for the moon. You are not ever guaranteed any results. What is important is that you just do the thing because you find it meaningful. Forget what is in your head, it is all about action. You can live your purpose today. One trick that helps to get things rolling is to start small, like one push-up a day. Set achievable goals for yourself. For distractions, get a blocking program like Cold Turkey that can block specific applications and websites. Deep spiritual stuff can wait till you have your life in order and your more mentally stable (no offense).

Of course, a lack of political will is the greatest obstacle to get anything done. Cultural attitudes are a legitimate obstacle however. Legalizing weed would be lucrative for the state but it is only progressive places in the world where it is actually legal for example.

What is the nordic model? Most people work just for the money. It can definitely be sad however considering that the low barrier to entry is why many women enter the trade in the first place. I think it will always be flawed in that way because in the world we live in there will always be girls lacking in resources and love. In a flawed world, prostitution is a genuine survival strategy.

Just like beer. This is great news for Germany!

It should be legal. The only reason why it is illegal is because of antiquated morals about sexuality. Legal sex work is an opportunity to regulate the industry, which helps protect women from abuse. What we see when an industry is considered taboo is that it doesn't get regulated properly and harmful practices propagate, such as with the dildo industry. Many dildos are made of PVC which is toxic to humans. The one disadvantage that I do see with legalizing sex work is that we live in a world that is largely conservative in regards to purchasing sex. This can result in sex tourism to a particular spot, for example with the Netherlands, where the area then becomes a hub for the trafficking of women from abroad. Bottom line is that sex work isn't going anywhere. It can only go underground, so it is better to make the business transparent and regulated.

Hey, its a start lol. Actually, genuinely sitting down and thinking about things consciously in a serious manner is pretty rare. More people should do it if anything. What we get normally is people just living out their culture uncritically. Current culture happens to be somewhat toxic if you value being happy, so being more critical can do a lot of people a lot of good. I recently started making daily contemplation a habit and I've been getting an inkling of just the sheer enormous depth that is understanding oneself. I truly know so very little.

Women where historically oppressed because they are physically weaker. "Might makes right" in nature, etc. I wonder how much "late stage feminism" and the discourse surrounding it is shaped by social media and all of the incentives that follow? Like how much of the calls to actions are genuine and not just for engagement?

@Danioover9000 I don't blame people as much as the incentives baked into the design of social media. On a fundamental level, the internet thrives of a certain level of disconnect from reality. Short-form content, drama, toxicity and ideological rabbit holes are all the result of the fact that we live in an attention based economy where what is most emotionally engaging is what becomes successful. You literally make more money by having an extreme perspective rather than a mild one. So it is kind of a race to the bottom. AI will likely be very problematic for the future reliability of online information, but you already have to be very critical to be fair. Kids should be barred from social media for the most part. I think that it is important that young people are taught to be media literate and critical of the information they take in, something which I find many parents simply neglect all together. They just give their kids an Ipad and call it a day.

Anonymity is both a gift and a curse. It allows people to be candid and engage with niche interests but it also turns people into assholes. The distance and lack of reciprocity takes away a lot of humanity that normally comes from social interactions. There are rarely if ever any consequences for being a terrible person to others online. If you get caught for making up rape allegations of a person on the internet, just delete your profile. Smearing people is a legit strategy for engagement and money. The silent majority becomes invisible due to the nature of how online discourse only shows the people who bother to engage while simultaneously promoting what is emotionally engaging which leads to often extreme points of view setting the tone of online discourse, depending on how the platform aggregates content. Twitter is very toxic due to how it is designed as opposed to the Actualized forum in contrast. If the Actualized forum had a upvote/downvote system it be a race to the bottom. 4chan is unironically better for discussion than Reddit because of it simplicity (if you can get past the slurs and edginess). Putting yourself out there on the internet isn't for the faint of heart.

Great find. Summaries are also great for books with shit and obtuse writing but that still contain some interesting nuggets of wisdom, like the Hero with Many Faces or 12 Rules for Life (academics can't write).

It could be overuse of certain muscles taking over for weaker muscles. I used to have constant pain in my leg and knee until I started exercising it. I believe the abdominal muscles are connect to the neck in that they are both responsible for stabilizing the spine. A weak core is bad for your neck as well as poor posture.

That is not the point. Of course, group osmosis will make any particular lifestyle easier if reflected. You have to ask then why doesn't veganism have a historical precedent? The fact is that a diet containing animal products is inherently more accessible both in terms of calories and taste. Any example of veganism in human history up to this point have been motivated by an ideological inclination, like religion, rather than a bias for practical survival. The majority of humans throughout history have either been farmers or hunter-gatherers. Life is too hard to make it even harder. You will never convince people of a diet like veganism without an ideological slant.

No wonder veganism never caught on outside of certain circles. Don't see that it ever will unless there are fundamental changes in food production, what we produce with technology, far in the future maybe (will it even need to be distinguished as a particular diet at that point?). But that pretty much puts a hole in the idea that humans are meant to be vegan or that veganism is an inherently superior diet. You need to be ideologically inclined to sustain a diet that makes life harder outside of pure health reasons (like allergies).

True but aren't you sacrificing the food experience here to a certain degree. My general impression from when I was vegan for a short time was that you not only need to eat more but the food is generally more bland as well.

A lot of these look very expensive and time consuming to make. I don't think veganism lends itself well to practicality. If you live a fast paced and intensive lifestyle that requires a lot of calories then being vegan will be harder.

Informational topics are kind of a gimmick in my opinion from the perspective of a podcasts long-term lifespan. You can only stretch a gimmick for so long. Podcasts are essentially just dudes talking, which should be the base exception.

In my experience, suicidal thoughts happens when you are in a painful situation that you feel hopeless about changing. It is a form of escape that gets typically acted on on impulse when you happen to be in a seriously bad state. That is why it is important that you don't have any means of suicide in your vicinity, like a loaded gun. That is also why health professionals ask for how you intend to commit suicide when you tell them you are suicidal, so they can gauge how much danger you are in. You write that you are responding well to therapy which makes me believe that this is very much workable, this situation. It'll just take time. Please do not harm yourself in any way.