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.

Going back to the EU with our tail between our legs isn’t going to go down well with anyone so won’t be happening anytime soon.

“we would rather the people of the UK continue to suffer economically than be embarrassed on the international stage for a few years.”

That’s is strong leadership /s

Hell the 2000’s were bad - but it was just an extension to decades, if not centuries of homophobia. Watch the first 5 minutes of Eddie Murphy’s RAW to see what was socially acceptable to say in the late 70’s, early 80’s.

Nothing kills the joy of a hobby faster than trying to make a living out of it.

It’s one of the symptoms of the SYSTEM when a kid shows talent and/or strong interest in a thing, it could be most anything, the adults that this child looks to for guidance push them to make this interest and/or talent into a career. And as soon as that suggestion takes root in that child’s head then it just time before the hobby/talent is abandoned with regret and sadness.

This may not be universal but it’s not rare either - as you know first hand.

Hope one day you can, if you want, get back to what drew you towards playing music in the first place and I hope you find joy in it for nothing more than that.

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.

I’m still pissed we as citizenry didn’t stand up and demand what we deserve

This will only happen if there is someone that the progressive democrats can get behind. Someone like Bernie but younger and more angry. Someone that will call out the bullshit and do it in a way that will get the attention of the big media corporations. I hate to say it but a progressive trump, but smarter (which shouldn’t be difficult) and genuinely out to better the lives of the American citizens. And I genuinely hope that this unicorn exists.

The working class gives the wealthy their blood and sweat and the wealthy turn it into urine and piss it back on their heads and then tell the working class the reason they smell like piss is because of immigrants.

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.

Giving special treatment to the CEOs should really help cool down this growing call for more violence against CEOs

Well the good news (/s) is that they won’t be sitting in a warehouse - they will instead be sold to one of many conflicts around the world to “test” their product.

“never let a disagreement go unarmed”

• weapons manufactures (probably)

I’m nerdy enough to want this be UFO/UAPs but seriously with all the different types of aircraft and drones that are on the market or not too difficult to build I kinda think this is human interference.

so we learned

It sounds like you were like most people in the western world - uneducated on nutrition, cooking and basic life skills. This isn’t a jab at you this is just the world that we live in. Most people don’t have a good understanding of these things so the go with what is easy, fast and feels inexpensive. This drives obesity.

It’s great that you took the initiative to learn home economics and it sounds like it has helped you and your family. Many others have not gotten to the “so we learned” stage yet for whatever reason.

Propublica

From their about page:

ProPublica is an independent, nonprofit newsroom that produces investigative journalism with moral force. We dig deep into important issues, shining a light on abuses of power and betrayals of public trust — and we stick with those issues as long as it takes to hold power to account.

With a team of more than 150 dedicated journalists, ProPublica covers a range of topics including government and politics, business, criminal justice, the environment, education, health care, immigration, and technology. We focus on stories with the potential to spur real-world impact. Among other positive changes, our reporting has contributed to the passage of new laws; reversals of harmful policies and practices; and accountability for leaders at local, state and national levels.

Investigative journalism requires a great deal of time and resources, and many newsrooms can no longer afford to take on this kind of deep-dive reporting. As a nonprofit, ProPublica’s work is powered primarily through donations. The vast bulk of the money we spend goes directly into world-class, award-winning journalism. We are committed to uncovering the truth, no matter how long it takes or how much it costs, and we practice transparent financial reporting so donors know how their dollars are spent.

ProPublica was founded in 2007–2008 with the belief that investigative journalism is critical to our democracy. Our staff remains dedicated to carrying forward the important work of exposing corruption, informing the public about complex issues, and using the power of investigative journalism to spur reform.

Humans are animals that navigate life through the lens of emotions with logic being something that we have to work towards - so you may be closer to the truth than you think.

Yep. Lost a good and very smart friend to the anti vax conspiracies and maybe others by now.

I’ve also had to really pay attention and tell myself that I live in a liberal bubble and need to balance that bias against what is truth.

I would say there is still some complicated stuff going on in the brain with knowing where your arm, hand, elbow and shoulder are in space as well how much force you need to apply (the precise amount of motor neurons to activate at the exact time) so you can toss the ball in the arc you need to catch it on the other side.

Yes death is inevitable but you do have the opportunity to guide how you are going to die, to a degree.

Treating your body like a garbage dump will give you a long slow miserable death as you age as the garbage destroys your body. Eating more healthy can lessen that effect.

… and then these small government people will demand that the government help them out