Daniel Balan

Define the new world please! What do you mean by that?

What did you say? That people in the first world countries are trapped in endless work? This is beyond hilarious. As if in a 3rd world country you don't have to do the same amount of work. Hell, here we work even more in inhuman conditions. Have you tried to work for 4 dollars an hour, From Monday till Saturday, 13 hours a day? With no health insurance and no money for retirement? Try going to a hospital in Eastern Europe, you enter with a broken finger, and you exit with deadly bacteria on your wounds. Man, you first worlders are so annoying that makes me wanna vomit. You are basically living in heaven yet you bitch and moan all the time.

Imagine wanting to leave America because your favorite party didn't win the elections... This is childish. The citizens of the first world countries are so spoiled and ungrateful, man it is almost comical. If you live in America, you don't even know what corruption is. Even if Trump becomes a de facto dictator, you still have a lifestyle which is 1000% better than almost any place in the world. I'd advice anyone who worries over politics, to grow a pair of balls. Regardless of who is president, or which party is governing, America is one of the best places to live on the planet. You can do basically anything, and as an ordinary citizen, you never experience corruption. The corruption in America is litteraly child's play compared to the corruption in Eastern Europe, Russia or the 3rd world in general.

I personally stopped consuming any political content from the internet. It is all full of bias and self deception. From now on I take your advice on reading the political books from your book list and I am contemplating everything using my own mind. I've given too much authority to others to do the thinking I am supposed to do. No more!

You know why I compare Germany with Eastern Europe? It is because in 1945 both Germany and Eastern Europe were all leveled to the ground by the war. For example the entire city of Warsaw was leveled to the ground, almost no building was still standing, that was the case for much of Germany as well. Germany was also divided for half a century, yet after 1945 West Germany has started in the same place as my country, my country was in an even better starting point because Romania saw little fighting on its territory during WW2. Yet during the time that Romanaia was a vassal state for Russia, while it was under the most brutal form of Communism in Europe( National Communism) my country wasn't even able to develop even 20% of the success that West Germany has achieved since 1945. I'd argue that the reasons for this are the brutal communist regime that was 1000 more inferior to the capitalist system of west Germany, and the second reason is the development of the people. While in 1945 Germans moved from blue to Orange, Romanians just stepped into Blue, with many to this day at stage Red or even Purple. Development levels and the capitalist system is what allowed Germany to rebuild and develop into a giant powerhouse while the communist bloc was spiraling into deeper and deeper poverty. The 20th century proved beyond doubt that socialism and communism are obsolete, backward, regressive ideologies.

If Russia was a sane nation, it would ally with the western world, by doing so the whole country will be improved in all aspects from infrastructure to the economy, to the quality of life and to the reduction of poverty. Most Russians live in extreme poverty, especially in rural areas. Russia is part of Europe and it would be wise to join the EU and NATO. But unfortunately we don't live in fantasy land and that won't happen for the next 100 years.

To be frank I'd assasinate anyone who proposed the abolishing of private property. My grandparents worked their soul off to buy 2 acres of arable land, and I'd go to jail for life just to make sure I unalive any communist or fascist that proposes the nationalization of private property. Here in Europe 2 or 3 generations of people have been sacrificed for stupid retarded communist or fascist nationalization policies. How is this fairness that I get to live in a rat box of 2 square metters designed for me by the government while the socialist leaders live in 2000 square metters mansions? I've had enough of this nonsense.

I see in my country only the most corrupt devils that look with admiration towards Russia, those people are always complaining that they hate that the actual government force them to pay the minimum wage for their employees. Imagine being such a devil that you don't even want to pay 500€ a month to a human that works from dawn till dusk for you. Those devils want to pay their workers 150€ a month the same way it was before the EU. Only the people that could no longer enslave their workers they way they did before the EU, want my country back in the Russian sphere of influence. This is the reason why the west expanded eastwards. To modernize and to bring development to eastern Europe. If Russia wants a sphere of influence they should move to another planet to find one, because here on earth no one deserves to be a slave all their life for the ones that suck Russian cock for power.

Also those Russians want not only Ukraine but all of eastern Europe as their sphere of influence, in the name of a multi polar world. I'm so glad NATO expanded after the cold war, I'm so glad I'm part of the EU. Before the EU you couldn't open a little shop here, because you'd have to pay protection taxes to various mafia gangs or they'd destroy your shop. This is the model of governance that comes along with the Russian sphere of influence. Before the EU if you wanted a piece of propery that was owned by a poor farmer, you'd just bribe the ones in charge with the property deeds and the mayors and his underlings would expropriate that poor farmer if you had enough money to bribe the local authorities and if the farmer had no political rich friends. This is what the Russians are selling to the countries in their spheres of influence. Had my country been under Russian influence right now, I wouldn't even have access to Youtube and this forum, and I'd be paid 10$/day to shovel shit 24/7 at some rich Romanian oligarc farm that sucks Russian dick to have this power here locally. Why would anyone want to be enslaved by the Russian way of doing things just for Multi Polarity? Fuck multi polarity, fuck Russia, and fuck anyone who supports and justifies what Russia is doing in Ukriane. Anyone who is sided with Russia in this conflict is a shameless, corrupt, evil devil who needs to move to Russia to feel on their own skin what the Russian system looks like.

Yes, it is a humanitarian tragedy. But this very tragedy shows how evil Russia truly is, and that it was the correct thing to do to dare to exit from its sphere of influence. After all if the massacre happening in Ukraine is what Russia is offering, it is the right thing to do to align with the west and ditch the friendship with Russia for good. Also the justifications and the framing done by Russians is disgusting, calling Ukraine a nazi state. This is ludicrous. By all historical accounts Russia is the one behaving like Nazi Germany, not Ukraine. The war made Ukraine very nationalistic, which is expected when a neighbouring Russia wants to make Ukraine their colony the same way the Ottomans did with Eastern Europe.

The war itself proves that Ukraine choose the correct path. The war itself proves that their decision to ditch Russia to the trash can was the right one. Russia has enslaved the Ukrainian people for the last 300 years. Russia wants a sphere of influence? Then they better learn to behave towards other nations, for that they have waged non stop wars since the cold war, yet they act shocked when Ukraine told them to fuck themselves when the Russians tried for the last 30 years to install puppet governments in Ukraine. Ukrainian people told them that they want nothing to do with Russia. Had Russia been a more sane society, they'd develop themselves so in the future other countries want on their own volition to be their friends, but no, they decided to level to the ground an entire nation just because they don't agree with their pro western values orientation. That's precisely why NATO exists, so that no country is forced to eat the shit Russians are selling. And the reason Russia is so afraid of Ukraine joining the western world is because if Ukraine liberalizes and becomes westernised, that will automatically export to Russia and the people of Russia will demand the same for Russia, this meaning the end of the kleptocracy instaurated by the gang of thieves that rule Russia today.

It makes my skin crawl just when I hear the word nationalization. For me personally the communist regime gave me PTSD. I was born in 2000, 11 years after communism ended in my country, but even to this day I can still observe and feel the communist aftertaste all over the place. I've also been in Germany and it blew my mind to see how much more developed that country is. Also there I felt no communist aftertaste whatsoever. It felt all so capitalistic and fresh, whereas in my country everything still had that soviet shit vibe. Everything from the buildings, the cars, the philosophy of the average people, to the way business is done. I like the state to provide the infrastructure and the safety mechanisms necessary for the individual people to run businesses and manage them. From my experience a private owned factory will always deliver better products compared to a public funded and managed one. I still have a lot to learn about economy but I have a really strong bias against government owned factories and businesses because of my background of living all my life in what resulted of half a century of communism. I think that the government can only produce amazing services like policing, maintaining roads etc. I have the opinion that the government does a horrible job at producing goods like cars, chainsaws, tractors, excavators, trucks, goods made from steel and iron etc. Because the people that manage and work for the state owned factories don't really care about the end products, don't strive to work out of their way for the survival of that factory whereas if the factory is private owned, the owners work to make that factory profitable like their life depended on it, which usually generate amazing goods and products.

This could be summed up as: Drop idealism. Idealism is what gets people like Navalny in Russia killed. Being too progressive and idealist in a backward society as the one I live in could really get me killed if I'm not careful. I'd argue that the best reality check for progressives is spending half a year in Russia or Eastern Europe. That experience alone will cure them for life of their idealism and their fantasies. When you tell progressives that they should be dropped in a war zone with no way back home, that's literally the best advice a progressive needs. Also progressives have a very childish understanding of politics. Most progressives think that if AOC were president all the corruption and the theft of the public finances would be fixed over night. The president can't do nothing unless he has 50% of the parliament in line with his vision, and the parliament is the direct reflection of the citizenry. The same people believe that if Putin would die, Russia will suddenly become democratic and stop the Ukraine war and turn in a liberal democracy. The fundamental fact that progressives don't understand is that over 80% of the Russian public deeply support a leader like Putin. So if he dies there won't be a democratic liberal Russia. There is no such thing that Putin is ruling Russia by his own whims, he is just the front cover, there is a vast network of powerful oligarchs that own key industries in Russia, the whole giant group of oligarchs rule Russia, not a single man. That single man, who is now Putin, even if he wanted to have a form of government that is less corrupt, he couldn't do that because he would be killed instantly. Because the Russian society as a whole is so backward, even if a new group would take power in Russia that consisted of a million people that are not corrupt, those would be literally killed by the corrupt mob and oust them from power, because the corrupt mob consists of 130 million people. Progressives need to understand that in order to meaningfully change a society, you need over 60% of the citizenry to be aligned with non corrupt and high consciousness policies in order to have those policies be put in effect. To have a liberal Russia you'd need to replace 130 million backward Russians with 130 million liberal Russians, not by hoping that a more liberal group of people rule Russia. The same principle applies to all countries. I just gave Russia as an example. Society changes when the development level of the society evolves, not when you elect a president. The president is a mere public functionary, he is not God or a witch that could wave a magic wand that evolves hundreds of millions of backward humans.

Hi @Leo Gura! I totally disagree with the idea of nationalising things. Just compare Western Europe with Eastern Europe. Eastern Europe is 50 years behind in development due to the communist regime that nationalized everything. Look at the differences between East and West Germany that are still visible to this day. Nationalization of any kind is a step backward in development. The cold war was won by the capitalistic world for a reason. The reason being that private businesses ALWAYS outperform public businesses. Just look at the factories that the soviets built, those were profitless businesses owned by the communist state that offered piss poor products that required tons of money and resources to produce. To add in salt to injury, no one really wanted to buy those shit tractors and heavy machineries made by the soviets because they would rather buy the same goods at better quality from the western capitalist world. By studying the economy of the ussr and its satellite states we quickly realize that nation wide nationalizations means piss poor products and a giant deficit spending

Good, you have a set of principles that you abide by. But how does respect for human dignity have anything to do with calling someone a lowkey pedophile? That's anything but human dignity. Learn to ignore if you don't agree with. How can you expect people to take you seriously when you don't even follow the very principles you preach.

What's your deal, fam? As a mod he is doing a great job, I don't agree with many of his views either, but that doesn't take anything away from the good job he has done as a mod. Learn to ignore people u disagree with, he has stated his views, you can have totally different views, be nice and civil! Low key calling someone a pedo is disgusting behaviour from you. Especially when @Inliytened1 stated his opinions in a civil manner.

Spot on. Ultimately all the pro Russian naratives are wrong because the fact that this very war is happening is the ultimate reason why Ukraine should be in NATO. Had Russia expressed its "security" concerns via heavy economical sanctions on Ukraine, maybe Ukraine should have dropped the NATO aspirations, but since for 3 and a half years the people of Ukraine are slaughtered, their cities are demolished and so on, by a state that has waged non stop wars since the end of the cold war, Ukraine has all the rights in the world to desire to join NATO. The very war that is happening is proof that Ukraine should be in NATO.

I personally want world class understanding of philosophy, politics, epistemology, reality, metaphysics, spirituality, mastering pivotal human endeavours such as business, relationships, money, work ethic. So my list is as follows: • Reading • Meditation •Contemplation and deep attention to self deception and bias • Deep introspection and self observation •Developing all the good aspects of all the tier 1 stages while dropping all the negative aspects. • Developing tier 2 thought process and behaviour • Being acutely aware of my own corruption both corruption of the thoughts and behavioural • Always doing what I found to be the most emotionally difficult( this is from my favourite episode from you) Here my list ends, I'd like to know how your list looks like.

Hi @Leo Gura thanks for all your blog posts you published today. Really great ones. Regarding the last one, this is how all the right wing and Russian propaganda is done. Exactly the same, half truths and out of context images and texts taken from an article but 80% of the article is missing and only the 20% which is the intriguing part of the text is shown. Studying Russian propaganda is a philosophical enquiry in and of itself. Regarding the quote where you advocate to do all the things that the average humans are too lazy and irresponsible to do, could you please share with us a list that consists of those said things? I contemplated a list but I'm sure I miss some things that are important

@Leo Gura Thanks a lot for these insights! I'll keep on contemplating on how to better judge human character. From my personal contemplation I figured that it is a mistake to focus on the words and the ideas of people like Trump or Whatifalthist, but rather one should closely examine the engine that drives their speech, their epistemology, their biases, the manner they behave and speak, rather than the substance of their words. Focus on the essence of someone, not their words.

@Leo GuraDo you have any tips to determine whether someone is a corrupt devil just by observing his speech? In our current epistemic ecosystem almost all news sources represent paid brainwashing propaganda. So I no longer rely on any kind of information provided by others to asses someone's character. Imagine we lived in 1917 Russia or 1930's Germany or 2016 America, and we don't have at our disposal any information sources on Lenin, Hitler or Trump. How do I determine that Trump is a devil just by the way he behaves and talks? The reason I'm asking this is that most of the corruption and devilry of a bad faith actor lays in the shadows, probably never to be discovered. So what red flags does someone display involuntarily or voluntarily in his speech that allows us to identify that individual as a dangerous devil masquerading as a clean actor? How do we determine that someone like Navalny is a clean actor and someone like Putin is a devil? Only via their discourses and rhetoric. What tools should an average human use to accurately asses whether someone is a corrupt bastard or is a clean honest actor? Without ever relying on information or stories from others about the characters they are trying to analyze.

@Leo Gura You know which historical figure I'm deeply intrigued by? Lenin! A lot of liberal and intellectual youth at the dawn of the 20th century was drawn towards Lenin's leftist Marxist ideals. Had I been alive in 1917 in Russia I would 100% been a great supporter of Lenin and his leftist ideals especially before him taking power. After taking power he threw out the window all the liberalism and intellectual stuff the young liberals stood for. Someone like Lenin or Marx is a real danger to society! He was able to conquer deeply introspective, independent minds. In comparison, The philosophy of Trump and Whatifalthist seem like child's play compared to the philosophic worldview of Marx or Lenin that attracted some of the most cognitively developed minds during that era. It is easy to fool an illiterate red neck that has seen all his life only cow and horse shit, into far right nationalism. It is much harder to fool an introspective philosophical mind, the way Marx and Lenin did. Albeit Lenin did fool mostly rednecks, he did conquer the minds of a demographic that Nazis could never do. Fascism also attracted a base of intellectuals and philosophers but it was much smaller in size and their philosophy was so dog shit and cartoonish that it is almost laughable compared to the philosophy generated by those who were supporting leftist movements in the beginning of the 20th century in Russia, Germany, France and so on.

What are they trying to accomplish? I mean, it is clear that they want to wipe Ukraine off the map, but if they supposedly defeat Ukraine, what is Russia's endgame? Do they settle just for Ukraine? I don't think so! My personal opinion is that if they could, they would conquer Moldova, then they will challenge Nato by trying a blitzkrieg on Romania! They will try to anchor their border with the west on the Charpatian mountain range in Romania and Slovakia, while at the same time trying to conquer the Baltics! Betting that Nato wouldn't risk ww3 over half of Romania and the baltics! I contemplated on the conflict in the last year and this is my hypothesis on what Russia's endgame plan. Basically they want their soviet era vassal states back! They would leave Poland alone, because Poland, in my opinion is as battle ready as Ukraine is right now, too tough to defeat and probably isn't worth the hassle. But via heavy propaganda interference in elections, they would take control over much of the former Warsaw pact, and in the countries they didn't succeed to place a trojan horse government, they would certainly attack militarily! Bluffing that Nato is not as united as Nato claims. Also Trump would probably give Putin all of Eastern Europe if that means that all the wars in Europe end. So guys, what do you think?

Hi @Leo Gura You know what would be really dangerous? A Whatifalthist version of you. I can only imagine how much deceptive and evil such a character could be. If Whatifalthist was the evil version of you that could possibly cause a cult 100 times more dangerous than Trump's MAGA. The good thing about Trump and MAGA and Whatifalthist is that they are very limited, cartoonish and stupid. They can't do grotesque amounts of damage to the epistemology ecosystem the same way Russia couldn't overrun Ukraine in a month. The internal corruption of Russia, its backwardness, incompetence and arrogance saved Ukraine. But imagine if an evil version of you emerges, such a devil actor could corrupt and destroy the minds of generations with unparalleled amounts of vicious devilry. Leaving this hypothetical scenario aside, I noticed that when a devil encounters your teachings it makes that devil even more dangerous and manipulative. I shared the spiral dynamics model with a far righter and he turned it upside down to suit his agenda, calling leftists at stage red and calling people like Andrew Tate, Xi Jinping, Putin and Trump at stage Yellow. Imagine calling China at stage yellow..... He made that claim because he lived in China, Beating his chest that he knows from direct experience how evolved Chinese society is compared with the "decadent" West, The West which he then placed also at stage Red because it has migrants and SJW's that annoy him with their "Wokeness".. Bottom line is that Whatifalthist is an immature cartoonish child, with a sloppy and flimsy propaganda system. His foolishness is very obvious. The real mortal danger for society is someone extremely charismatic, very meticulous, very clever, very skillful at hiding bias and ideology, someone who is a master at exploiting and manipulating the self deception found into others. Whatifalthist is too self deceived and cartoonish to properly self deceive a developed and introspective mind. What I fear the most is someone who can capture my mind into fascist propaganda without me even realizing. For that to happen takes a real sociopath that knows the mechanisms for self deception, how to hide malicious intent and poisoning my epistemology while masquerading as a champion of truth.

Hi Leo! Do you think that Gavin Newsom and his vice president nominee could win against the JD Vance/Marco Rubio ticket in 2028? I don't like JD but Rubio is a decent and well respected politician as far as I can tell. I mean he is not as dangerous as Trump is. Regardless of the democratic ticket for 2028, the JD Vance/Marco Rubio ticket will be extremely hard to defeat. The dems will win only if Trump screws the economy real bad for the average folk to feel that in their pocket.