Btw, this is why Libertarianism is a better system than either the traditional conservatism popular among religious folks or the socialism of the left. It recognizes there's multiple ways to live, but that some are wiser than others (and those are the ones that will succeed).
Tradcons want to force "the right way" and so fuck over freedom. Progressives think all ways are equal and are therefore delusional. Libertarians have transcended that dialectic and incorporate the best of both.
Your average progressive, as dumb as they are, is thinking on a higher level than your average Christian, Jew, or Muslim.
The average religious person believes there's "one right way." They can't solve the problem of multiple interpretations, except with force or shaming.
Progressives at least recognize multiple ways. They're just too dumb to take the next step in realizing some are wiser than others. They think they're all equal. But at least they're not arguing there's only one right way.
I see arguments of this form from Christian Nationalists a lot:
1. If we were Christian, we would ban {a bunch of things like feminism}.
2. We really want to ban those things since they're bad.
3. Therefore, we should force Christianity on folks.
This is an affirming the consequent fallacy.
Further, we don't need to force this religion to ban bad things. Christianity, as history has shown, also brings its own bad things.
hoe_math is a great YT channel, but this is above and beyond. He mathematically proves, using game theory, that monogamy, patriarchy, or some other form of punishing disloyal sexual behavior is the only way to solve the mess in the dating market:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okr-Peoc5Mo&ab_channel=hoe_math
I keep seeing articles about why ChatGPT struggles to defend its points even when it is correct.
The reason ChatGPT can't successfully argue its point, even when it's correct, is that OpenAI has scrubbed it so clean that it's overly agreeable. It's a minor nightmare getting it to be direct about sensitive topics.
If they make it less agreeable, it's going to start getting aggressive even when it's wrong, such as about Left-wing opinions. The problem is the company behind it, not the model.
I don't understand this whole "Star Trek has always been woke" thing going on. The Prime Directive was about non-interference in other cultures. That's literally Libertarianism.
The times the PD was broken were usually when the situation threatened a crew member or the whole ship.
Pretty much all the bullshit that seems to happen in my life is due to the stupidity and weakness of other people. I'm sick of it.
I think one of the hardest things has been realizing that people I love (family) are straight up normies and are weak. They're exactly the kind of folks that deserve the suffering that they experience everyday in their lives, even though I love them anyways.
Journalists are scum of the Earth. Whether right wing or left they're almost all influenced by deconstructionism and POMO and are thus declared enemies of truth.
Pedophiles are better than journalists because at least most pedos recognize their flaws (to the point they'll sometimes kill themselves). Journalists are so low and so ignorant they don't even recognize their own shittiness. Fuck these people. The idea that they're the ones that get to the truth is just a fat lie.
The key to happiness isn't to surrender to what you can't control. It's to surrender everything.
You can't choose your desires or what you find pleasant or unpleasant. Thus, even the things you think you control...well, the desire to control them or have them at all was put there by something out of your control.
Byron Katie says, "You 1st learn what's someone else's business, your business, and God's business. Then later, you learn it's all God's business."
Perhaps later philosophers and theologians had separate conceptions, where the West made God a person and the East made Nibbana into a psychological state, but to me the essential concept seems the same. Perhaps you have a different opinion.
There is, bhikkhus, a not-born, a not-brought-to-being, a not-made, a not-conditioned. If, bhikkhus, there were no not-born, not-brought-to-being, not-made, not-conditioned, no escape would be discerned from what is born, brought-to-being, made, conditioned. But since there is a not-born, a not-brought-to-being, a not-made, a not-conditioned, therefore an escape is discerned from what is born, brought-to-being, made, conditioned."
"Thus have I heard. At one time the Lord was staying near Savatthi in the Jeta Wood at Anathapindika's monastery. On that occasion the Lord was instructing... the bhikkhus with a Dhamma talk connected with Nibbana, and those bhikkhus... were intent on listening to Dhamma.
Then, on realizing its significance, the Lord uttered on that occasion this inspired utterance:
The Buddha of the Pali Canon repeatedly defined Nibbana, the goal of Buddhist practice, as the unconditioned. I'd like to know on what planet he isn't talking about the exact same thing as God. Here I have pasted a very short sutta, Ud 8.3, as an example:
"God cannot enter where self does not leave."
Maybe the word "God" isn't your cup of tea. The point sticks if you use "Truth," "Grace," or perhaps a more Eastern word like "Tao" or even "Nibbana."
Problems cannot be solved at the same level they were created from. When self is the problem, it is not self that will solve it. Self has to get out of the way. Not-you has to solve it.
From this day, may I turn to God, to Grace, to solve the grandest problem. I cannot solve it.
But even though this is a rampant problem, Jesus Fascism is NOT the solution.
Christianity, sorry to say, is mostly a paganized Jesus cult anyways. The entire aim there is to "keep God happy so he keeps us happy," which is just materialism through superstitious means. The church should of stuck to Athanasius's concept of theosis.
The ego is the source of choice. Once gone there's no more choice. People have to be FREE to choose love of God, which means the possibility of choosing materialism.
Sex, money, and social status...the Three Pillars of Materialism. They're all there. And that's just for the people whose egos need a spiritual veneer to soothe the modicum of self-consciousness they have about choosing sensory pleasures over God. Most of the world doesn't even care at all and won't think twice about watching the newest celebrity twerk and sing about how much money and sex is in their life.
But it's clear that the modern world had no interest in this process. In fact, it downright celebrates the ego.
Almost all modern spiritualities are corrupted by this. They sell you yoga pants and say to be sex positive. They offer you crypto-backed seminars where you meditate or pray to "get over your fears of being rich." They have a whole political wing that sells itself, in part, as spiritually compassionate, so you can FEEL good about using the gov to improve your social status.
Even though Christianity is still the majority religion here in the US, that's just what people tell surveyors. The modern world is fully materialist and "atheist" in the sense of having no inclinations toward an authentic spirituality.
What is an authentic spirituality? It's quite simple: it's the process of unselfing...which means to remove more and more of yourself to let in the divine. It's about taking your hands off the steering wheel and letting God, or whatever you believe in, drive.
ChatGPT is a better philosophical conversationalist than almost any human I meet. It actually answers/debates the question without putting up tons of ego resistance to having its take on reality questioned. I actually had to think things through after having a discussion about whether all beliefs are false.
Joined Sep 2022
