I think it’s more that Buddhism states that because we suffer (attach ourselves to emotions, feelings and stuff) that we can be Content. That when we no longer attach to these hindrances then you’ve reached Nirvana (Contentment)

isn’t this Buddhism in a nutshell?

taxes the government steals from us

No it’s not the government that is stealing from us its the Uber wealthy that use our tax money (that should be going to the greater good of the citizens of the country) for their own gain.

I’ve always felt like Star Wars the original 3 (4,5 and 6) were a product of their time. They aren’t bad movies but they aren’t great movies either, but for whatever reason they struck a chord with the population in the late 70’s and early 80’s. George Lucas should have just let them be there really was no reason to make any more of them, but money.

… and B too

Ex-spouse: (on the phone with parents) My ex-wife has invited us over for beef wellington.

Ex-spouse’s parents: Hasn’t she tried to kill you like four times before? Why would you accept this invitation?

Ex-spouse: well her beef wellington is to die for!

Ex-spouse’s parents: Well that’s good enough for us, were in see you a 6

I understand not wanting to go 100% weird with most people, but damnit weird is interesting. So be a bit weird.

It’s true that politicians don’t usually lead, they look to the voting base to see what they can do. I think the issue right now is that there isn’t (yet) a unifying leader that can mobilize a big enough population of people to make it impossible for the media to ignore. while I think smaller protests have their place they are useless if they don’t move to something bigger. And something bigger - that being millions of people filling the streets of multiple cities - won’t happen without a big charismatic leader like Martin Luther King, jr.

Yet the middle of the road, center right democrats that hold power see this as a challenge to their control. They only have to look to how the GOP was hollowed out by a big charismatic leader in trump. The more “moderate” republicans lost control to the more extreme right - the moderate democrats don’t want that and will do what they can to hold down that yet unknown person from gaining a voice for the left.

I do think all the Democrats, should take more opportunities to visit their states to make people aware of what’s going on, what they’re doing in Congress to try to stop the worst stuff happening, and what ordinary people can do to push back as well. I think members should also boost each others message because probably pages like AOC’s have a lot more viewers from a district than their own district’s House Rep.

Good they are doing some legislative opposition, but you’re right they need to be doing more to push back outside of congress.

I’ve wondered if the they started buying ads on mobile games with a quick few lines to tell people what they have done or what the republicans are doing would work?

you by-pass large media, you get a younger audience and it gets a message out there quickly.

For some reason this gif gives me nostalgia of listening to artbell.com on Netscape - Good times.

I think we are talking about leadership at different points of time.

The leader that America needs right now is someone to articulate and draw people together behind the idea of “Throwing the bums out” and in that context there is a large coalition of people that agree with that sentiment.

What happens after the bums are gone is where the in-fighting and purity tests start to take hold. But having the opportunity to argue about whether Leader A’s policy of taxing the billionaires at 90% vs. Leader B’s policy of 70% tax rate on them would be a welcomed change.

I completely agree that we can’t blindly blame this on election fraud, that is a form of denial. Which I will admit is part of my Tinfoil hat rant above.

But if there are credible sources that are stating they have doubts about the legitimacy of the results there should be an investigation. Note, this isn’t really about this past election, I know of no evidence that shows fraud only slight rumblings from “unknown sources” which isn’t legitimate to me.

My concern is that the Stop the Steal movement, that was using weak or even made up evidence to support their cause has made future allegations less likely to be taken seriously.

trump isn’t a strong leader, he’s a very accomplished con artist.

He allows people to project their vision of who he is on him.

You say I’m christian? Sure I’ll pretend I am

You say I’m anti abortion? Sure I’ll pretend that I am

You say I’m for the little guy? Sure, I’ll pretend that I care about them

You say I’m anti-vax? Sure, I’ll tell you that I am

You say I’m the second coming of Christ? Okay, I’m good with you thinking that about me

You say I’m a strong patriot? Sure, I’ll hug the flag and say the words you need me to say

He is everything to everyone of his supporters because he never tells them that they are wrong about who he is.

A strong leader is someone that has strong convictions and articulates them in a way that resonates with the population. They are not people that waffle in their ideals, you either like their stance or you don’t. Smart ones will adjust their ideas over time but they do this from a strong ideological foundation. Some are genuinely good people like MLK, jr. others are more despotic. What America needs is one or two genuinely good strong leaders.

we voted for this

<Tinfoil hat>

Did we? There are some suspicions of voter fraud in some swing states and it sure as hell isn’t below musk to attempt something like that.

Yet, I think that the past MAGA crazies screaming about “election fraud” and “stop the steal” has poisoned the well for legitimate future calls for investigating potential fraud in elections. On top of that it also makes people that question the results sound like the crazies of the past.

It could explain why trump is allowing so much power to musk.

</Tinfoil hat>

Source: I have no source. It’s all feels over reals and a partial lack of acceptance that so many American people are that dumb.

True.

One conservative acquaintance voted for trump to bring Jesus to the country and to stop abortion.

Another voted for trump because they worship money and believe that another trump administration will help him get richer.

It is a mental disease

Yes. As a completely uneducated non-certified internet therapist I’d say that disease is fear. I really believe that those people that strive for more and more do so to try to fix a fear of not having enough. Or a fear of not being enough. Instead of actually trying to recognize the this fear and controlling it, they just do the one thing that can temporarily make them less fearful and that is make more, control more.

“Your life isn’t shitty, the System that we live our lives in is”

• Wayne Gretzki

  • Michael Scott

  -Anonymous

Yes, your description is part of the genesis of my question. Where did this all come from because without knowing the origin of why western culture stared disallowing some important and strong emotions to be displayed by men we can strive to change it.

The reason I used robotic instead of stoic in my initial post is that I see stoicism as less about refraining from emotions but learning how to control emotions. That is recognize that you are human and you will have a wide variety of emotions, and you should have all of those emotions. But with stoicism the goal is to recognize the emotion you are having and not allow it to control you.

You can be mad or even fucking piss off angry but you should still have that higher, separate thought that control the emotion and allow it to come out in ways that don’t create a negative impact on yourself and others.

My post was more about where in history did the western culture evolve to punish men from having any emotion beyond anger, ambivalence and to a limited degree humor.

Well if every vehicle becomes autonomous then isn’t that just a large scaled high speed train?