Cosmopolitan bias

[HomerJS]

One of the definitions, "a Russian epithet" These Trump people can't even insult the press without a Russian connection.

History

• Rootless cosmopolitan, a Soviet derogatory epithet during Joseph Stalin's anti-Semitic campaign of 1949–1953

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmopolitan

 

[pmv]

One of the definitions, "a Russian epithet" These Trump people can't even insult the press without a Russian connection.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmopolitan

My first thought on this thread was "is that some sort of code word for 'Jewish'?" In retrospect, that's the term I was half-remembering. Is it naive to think they didn't mean that, or cynical to think they did?

 

[brycejones]

My first thought on this thread was "is that some sort of code word for 'Jewish'?" In retrospect, that's the term I was half-remembering. Is it naive to think they didn't mean that, or cynical to think they did?

Their biggest boogie man is a Hungarian Jew.

 

[Perknose]

What it is saying is that you are stuck with one side of an argument that is the mirror image of the other. .

,

Stop trying to equivocate. Education and experience are vital in politics, and in life in general.

My Dear Mr. Beam, while I do understand your message, you are missing the forest for the trees. Please climb down from the lofty perch of your particular tree and see the peril of our political ecosystem. The arsonists are abroad in our arboreal lands, trying to burn us all down. Remember, only you can prevent nativist right wing forest fires!

 

[Jaskalas]

The topic itself is confounding, as Trump's campaign theme... the very message that people voted for last year is the antithesis of being world citizens. The election was anti-Cosmopolitan in every way. Looking at the OP miss the meaning of the word and ascribing his own negative definitions is an astounding display of having no idea of "the enemy" is. This topic is a fancier, longer winded way of playing Agent and calling your others degenerates.

Chest bump if you like, I'll wait patiently. I figure there's only so much excitement in rolling around in mud with pigs. I've done enough of that myself.

 

[Commodus]

I discovered Zen Buddhism by accident because I was desperately in need of answers to the crushing blackness of existential despair. I had to read what I found because my life had ended. I found people laughing about what I knew, that life has no meaning at all. That gave me the key that I needed to end my suffering I realized in a flash that everything that I believed had to be true for life to be good didn't have to be true at all. All of my cherished sacred cows died but their death didn't actually ever really touch me. Being joy is when one is. So the Buddha just figured out what I did long before I did and some of that reached me thought Zen. There is one truth and it covers us all.

Ah, here's the nugget that explains everything. You were in a bad place, turned to religion to get out of it, and are now trying to push your religious views on everyone else. You think you've discovered a universal truth because it made you feel better at a dark time, but you haven't. It doesn't offer an explanation; if anything, it runs away from explanation. It lets you avoid dealing with unpleasant realities by pretending that they don't exist or don't count.

The universe doesn't care about your dualities and other attempts to equivocate. Certainly the American political system doesn't. What Trump and crew think they have for relevant experience doesn't matter -- all that matters is that they don't have it, and that's damaging both their leadership and the country. They're implementing policies right now that make innocent people suffer, and we're not going to fix that by pretending that no one is really right or wrong.

 

[Jhhnn]

The topic itself is confounding, as Trump's campaign theme... the very message that people voted for last year is the antithesis of being world citizens. The election was anti-Cosmopolitan in every way. Looking at the OP miss the meaning of the word and ascribing his own negative definitions is an astounding display of having no idea of "the enemy" is. This topic is a fancier, longer winded way of playing Agent and calling your others degenerates.

Chest bump if you like, I'll wait patiently. I figure there's only so much excitement in rolling around in mud with pigs. I've done enough of that myself.

And what have the warriors of insular rural/ small town white culture won for themselves in electing a charlatan of the multinational & highly cosmopolitan financial elite to represent them? What have they gained in voting for trickle down economics for decades?

 

[Moonbeam]

Ah, here's the nugget that explains everything. You were in a bad place, turned to religion to get out of it, and are now trying to push your religious views on everyone else. You think you've discovered a universal truth because it made you feel better at a dark time, but you haven't. It doesn't offer an explanation; if anything, it runs away from explanation. It lets you avoid dealing with unpleasant realities by pretending that they don't exist or don't count.

The universe doesn't care about your dualities and other attempts to equivocate. Certainly the American political system doesn't. What Trump and crew think they have for relevant experience doesn't matter -- all that matters is that they don't have it, and that's damaging both their leadership and the country. They're implementing policies right now that make innocent people suffer, and we're not going to fix that by pretending that no one is really right or wrong.

All you found was a box you could label, 'bad times religious conversion', and into which you could drop me and put me on a shelf. You not think I had not expected this reaction. To me you are a machine that reacts mechanically within your structured program. I know you like the back of my hand. I know you because I know me. You imagine I tricked myself with some mental rationalization provided by a religion when the reality was that I lost that war and was completely defeated, something you have likely never faced. I gave up and surrendered to a realization and acceptance that I would never ever be happy again. I gave up was totally defeated, surrendered to hopelessness forever, get that, nothing at all could save me, no exit man, no answers no way out. That is when I found myself in the saddle of a horse with no name, free forever of that kind of suffering. You are still fighting that war. Perhaps you were lucky, perhaps not, but I don't think you have had to fight as hard as I did. My war took everything. I defeated the nothing. Everything you fear happened to me. You could say, in the case here, that Trump won and then he disappeared. There is no Trump and there is no war, there is no spoon. There is only the beauty of the universe. Have a care as to what you box away. There is not one thing that I can do to help you, and I haven't the slightest need. All of the horses of your imagination are full of Greeks. And then you stumbled on me. You say no and I say yes.

Now that that's out of the way, (hehe, as if that could be, it can be right), we can look at your position. The Nazis are taking over the world and America is going under, our beloved America. The ignorant morons have voted a monster in. Well, I have been warning since the day he was nominated that he was likely to win, at a time when I appeared to one and all to be the odd fool you claim I am. Then I warned that Clinton would likely lose because her message was weak and that people should vote Sanders. The fool again was told that Clinton would win and Sanders would lose. Then I called on Democrats to drop the hatred of Trump and focus on getting a decent message that would win over the idiots that voted for him by understanding how those people became idiots via endless political inattention and the resulting frustration. Nobody cares for the least among us. Remember what Christianity is?

So now it's your turn in the box. The Nazis are coming to get you and you are handing them the excuse. We become what we fear and thus it is us who creates the monsters we face. We have met the enemy and it is us. Meanwhile, this fool is still standing on the hill and his guitar still gently weeps. Well, my dear Don Quixote, welcome to a world full of wind mills. You can check out, but you can never leave.

So lets take a look at the dragon you want to slay. Think of the enemy as a giant impregnable machine. How are you going to defeat it. It has been destroying humanity for thousands and thousands of years, so what is your plan. What truth and what light have you got to defeat it? What makes you think you can? Why do you need to? Is it you or me who is trying to save the light, who is on a holy crusade, has a sacred task? I think it is you. I was defeated. I took a side-step into a world of magic. Duality simply collapsed and there I was in the ashes.

May your dreams come true all the way up to the highest.

 

[Moonbeam]

And what have the warriors of insular rural/ small town white culture won for themselves in electing a charlatan of the multinational & highly cosmopolitan financial elite to represent them? What have they gained in voting for trickle down economics for decades?

The satisfaction of taking everybody else down with them. This is the mechanical nature of self hate. Misery loves company. It is just so very simple and yet so impossible to understand. Only love can break your heart and only love can mend it again.

 

[Moonbeam]

,

My Dear Mr. Beam, while I do understand your message, you are missing the forest for the trees. Please climb down from the lofty perch of your particular tree and see the peril of our political ecosystem. The arsonists are abroad in our arboreal lands, trying to burn us all down. Remember, only you can prevent nativist right wing forest fires!

This is exactly what I believe. Only I can prevent forest fires. The only one I can prevent from starting one is me. I am talking about what I have learned to do that so that maybe somebody else will do the same. To do otherwise is for me like bringing gasoline to the fire. What is the fuel these fires are burning. I think it is the rage and hate of the ego. Good against evil and neither exist. All that is, is attachment to good and if there is good then there must surely be evil. Actually there is nothing but the silence of perfection. Step off the machine. You are right about everything but every reaction to that fact is gasoline. There is only love. Bring that. I am talking only to myself because love, real love, where will I find that within me. I am a nobody.

 

[Commodus]

All you found was a box you could label, 'bad times religious conversion', and into which you could drop me and put me on a shelf. You not think I had not expected this reaction. To me you are a machine that reacts mechanically within your structured program. I know you like the back of my hand. I know you because I know me. You imagine I tricked myself with some mental rationalization provided by a religion when the reality was that I lost that war and was completely defeated, something you have likely never faced. I gave up and surrendered to a realization and acceptance that I would never ever be happy again. I gave up was totally defeated, surrendered to hopelessness forever, get that, nothing at all could save me, no exit man, no answers no way out. That is when I found myself in the saddle of a horse with no name, free forever of that kind of suffering. You are still fighting that war. Perhaps you were lucky, perhaps not, but I don't think you have had to fight as hard as I did. My war took everything. I defeated the nothing. Everything you fear happened to me. You could say, in the case here, that Trump won and then he disappeared. There is no Trump and there is no war, there is no spoon. There is only the beauty of the universe. Have a care as to what you box away. There is not one thing that I can do to help you, and I haven't the slightest need. All of the horses of your imagination are full of Greeks. And then you stumbled on me. You say no and I say yes.

Now that that's out of the way, (hehe, as if that could be, it can be right), we can look at your position. The Nazis are taking over the world and America is going under, our beloved America. The ignorant morons have voted a monster in. Well, I have been warning since the day he was nominated that he was likely to win, at a time when I appeared to one and all to be the odd fool you claim I am. Then I warned that Clinton would likely lose because her message was weak and that people should vote Sanders. The fool again was told that Clinton would win and Sanders would lose. Then I called on Democrats to drop the hatred of Trump and focus on getting a decent message that would win over the idiots that voted for him by understanding how those people became idiots via endless political inattention and the resulting frustration. Nobody cares for the least among us. Remember what Christianity is?

So now it's your turn in the box. The Nazis are coming to get you and you are handing them the excuse. We become what we fear and thus it is us who creates the monsters we face. We have met the enemy and it is us. Meanwhile, this fool is still standing on the hill and his guitar still gently weeps. Well, my dear Don Quixote, welcome to a world full of wind mills. You can check out, but you can never leave.

So lets take a look at the dragon you want to slay. Think of the enemy as a giant impregnable machine. How are you going to defeat it. It has been destroying humanity for thousands and thousands of years, so what is your plan. What truth and what light have you got to defeat it? What makes you think you can? Why do you need to? Is it you or me who is trying to save the light, who is on a holy crusade, has a sacred task? I think it is you. I was defeated. I took a side-step into a world of magic. Duality simply collapsed and there I was in the ashes.

May your dreams come true all the way up to the highest.

Could you please stop pretending that cute quotes and platitudes ("there is no spoon," "horse with no name," "you can check out but you can never leave" and others) represent meaningful thought? You're worse than a self-help guru's infomercial, confusing what sounds good with what actually makes a difference.

Here's the problem: while you lie to yourself that "there is no Trump," other people are suffering as a direct result of Trump's inexperience and anti-knowledge policies. If you explained your position to a poor family threatened with losing health care for a sick child, they wouldn't convert to Buddhism; they would rightly kick your ass. You want Trump's harmful behavior to end? Do something. Don't just pretend he doesn't matter; do something. Otherwise, you're not achieving Zen -- you're being selfish, letting others suffer in order to feel good about yourself.

Here's what I believe in: observable facts. Evidence. Science. I want to know that what I see, hear and touch is real, not just something that I've imagined in my head. I believe in proving that something is true rather than merely believing something is true. I do share a belief that the universe has no inherent meaning, but unlike you I don't see that as an excuse for inaction. There is such a thing as objective reality, and it is possible for someone to simply be wrong.

 

[Moonbeam]

Commodus: Could you please stop pretending that cute quotes and platitudes ("there is no spoon," "horse with no name," "you can check out but you can never leave" and others) represent meaningful thought? You're worse than a self-help guru's infomercial, confusing what sounds good with what actually makes a difference.

M: It's always somebody else that is at fault. You never notice you can't be reached by reason or platitudes. You are simply a worthless disciple. I don't hold it against you.

C: Here's the problem: while you lie to yourself that "there is no Trump," other people are suffering as a direct result of Trump's inexperience and anti-knowledge policies. If you explained your position to a poor family threatened with losing health care for a sick child, they wouldn't convert to Buddhism; they would rightly kick your ass. You want Trump's harmful behavior to end? Do something. Don't just pretend he doesn't matter; do something. Otherwise, you're not achieving Zen -- you're being selfish, letting others suffer in order to feel good about yourself.

M: I know your pain. Nobody can look at the world and be truly happy. What one can strive to do is not add to the pain.

C: Here's what I believe in: observable facts. Evidence. Science. I want to know that what I see, hear and touch is real, not just something that I've imagined in my head. I believe in proving that something is true rather than merely believing something is true. I do share a belief that the universe has no inherent meaning, but unlike you I don't see that as an excuse for inaction. There is such a thing as objective reality, and it is possible for someone to simply be wrong.

Yes, I agree. Science is beginning to come to grips with altered states of consciousness of the kind people have been having for thousands of years. Perhaps one day all you will need is a pill. I was lucky. I see nothing about me that is special or deserving or a reason to feel good about myself. Grace saved me from suffering. I didn't have a hand in it. The machine causes others to suffer, I only suggest there is a way for you to step out of it. But you are full of savior passion. You are going off to save the world and you can't even save yourself. I understand. We are all the same.

 

[agent00f]

Cosmopolitan bias? Is that supposed to be an insult? Let's looks at the words opposite to cosmopolitan:
Antonyms to cosmopolitan:
guileless, ignorant, innocent, naive, unsophisticated, untutored, unworldly, wide-eyed.

The man speaking for the president literally told a reporter that having a cosmopolitan point of view was biased and less than ideal. That's right, the current administration wants you (needs you) to be:

guileless, ignorant, innocent, naive, unsophisticated, untutored, unworldly, wide-eyed.

How in the fsck is any thinking person still supporting this absurdity?

It makes perfect sense for people who benefit more from an uneducated/unsophisticated world to hate on education/sophistication.

 

[agent00f]

Commodus: Could you please stop pretending that cute quotes and platitudes ("there is no spoon," "horse with no name," "you can check out but you can never leave" and others) represent meaningful thought? You're worse than a self-help guru's infomercial, confusing what sounds good with what actually makes a difference.

M: It's always somebody else that is at fault. You never notice you can't be reached by reason or platitudes. You are simply a worthless disciple. I don't hold it against you.

C: Here's the problem: while you lie to yourself that "there is no Trump," other people are suffering as a direct result of Trump's inexperience and anti-knowledge policies. If you explained your position to a poor family threatened with losing health care for a sick child, they wouldn't convert to Buddhism; they would rightly kick your ass. You want Trump's harmful behavior to end? Do something. Don't just pretend he doesn't matter; do something. Otherwise, you're not achieving Zen -- you're being selfish, letting others suffer in order to feel good about yourself.

M: I know your pain. Nobody can look at the world and be truly happy. What one can strive to do is not add to the pain.

C: Here's what I believe in: observable facts. Evidence. Science. I want to know that what I see, hear and touch is real, not just something that I've imagined in my head. I believe in proving that something is true rather than merely believing something is true. I do share a belief that the universe has no inherent meaning, but unlike you I don't see that as an excuse for inaction. There is such a thing as objective reality, and it is possible for someone to simply be wrong.

Yes, I agree. Science is beginning to come to grips with altered states of consciousness of the kind people have been having for thousands of years. Perhaps one day all you will need is a pill. I was lucky. I see nothing about me that is special or deserving or a reason to feel good about myself. Grace saved me from suffering. I didn't have a hand in it. The machine causes others to suffer, I only suggest there is a way for you to step out of it. But you are full of savior passion. You are going off to save the world and you can't even save yourself. I understand. We are all the same.

The situation is really quite simple. People who benefit from education/sophistication argue for it, people who don't argue against. Commodus el al are obviously the former, and you argue for the latter because you're smart enough to see that progress implies less space for religious zealotry.

 

[Commodus]

Commodus: Could you please stop pretending that cute quotes and platitudes ("there is no spoon," "horse with no name," "you can check out but you can never leave" and others) represent meaningful thought? You're worse than a self-help guru's infomercial, confusing what sounds good with what actually makes a difference.

M: It's always somebody else that is at fault. You never notice you can't be reached by reason or platitudes. You are simply a worthless disciple. I don't hold it against you.

C: Here's the problem: while you lie to yourself that "there is no Trump," other people are suffering as a direct result of Trump's inexperience and anti-knowledge policies. If you explained your position to a poor family threatened with losing health care for a sick child, they wouldn't convert to Buddhism; they would rightly kick your ass. You want Trump's harmful behavior to end? Do something. Don't just pretend he doesn't matter; do something. Otherwise, you're not achieving Zen -- you're being selfish, letting others suffer in order to feel good about yourself.

M: I know your pain. Nobody can look at the world and be truly happy. What one can strive to do is not add to the pain.

C: Here's what I believe in: observable facts. Evidence. Science. I want to know that what I see, hear and touch is real, not just something that I've imagined in my head. I believe in proving that something is true rather than merely believing something is true. I do share a belief that the universe has no inherent meaning, but unlike you I don't see that as an excuse for inaction. There is such a thing as objective reality, and it is possible for someone to simply be wrong.

Yes, I agree. Science is beginning to come to grips with altered states of consciousness of the kind people have been having for thousands of years. Perhaps one day all you will need is a pill. I was lucky. I see nothing about me that is special or deserving or a reason to feel good about myself. Grace saved me from suffering. I didn't have a hand in it. The machine causes others to suffer, I only suggest there is a way for you to step out of it. But you are full of savior passion. You are going off to save the world and you can't even save yourself. I understand. We are all the same.

I can be reached by reason... you're just not using it. Reason means using observable facts and logic, not feel-good statements and well-wishing. And do you know what a "platitude" is? It's a saying that's so overused it's devoid of all meaning. And that's pretty much your modus operandi, unfortunately. You've managed to write whole paragraphs, and not just to me, that say absolutely nothing meaningful.

Science is coming to grips with altered states of consciousness, but not the way you think it is. Science still rejects spirituality, because there is no evidence of spirituality; synapses firing differently in a brain are still just synapses.

And again, I see nothing to suggest that you're anything but selfish (ironic given your self-proclaimed Buddhism). Rather than pledge to fix things or at least acknowledge that a problem must be solved, you take the coward's way out. You hope that pretending a problem doesn't exist will make it cease to matter, so that you can focus solely on yourself. You acknowledge that Trump has done bad things, but your solution is to close your eyes and act as if no one will be hurt simply because you can't see them being hurt.

 

[Jhhnn]

It makes perfect sense for people who benefit more from an uneducated/unsophisticated world to hate on education/sophistication.

Please. Small town White America believes in education as much as everybody else. It's just that their most ambitious young adults follow the opportunities that simply don't exist where they come from. It's been happening since the end of WW2 & has accelerated over the last 30 years. Their whole way of life is being destroyed for the sake of greater profit. More money goes out of their communities than goes in. It tears down the very structure of the community.

That's just as true for Patterson & Detroit. It's all the result of unrestrained capital migration.

 

[agent00f]

Please. Small town White America believes in education as much as everybody else. It's just that their most ambitious young adults follow the opportunities that simply don't exist where they come from. It's been happening since the end of WW2 & has accelerated over the last 30 years. Their whole way of life is being destroyed for the sake of greater profit. More money goes out of their communities than goes in. It tears down the very structure of the community.

That's just as true for Patterson & Detroit. It's all the result of unrestrained capital migration.

Funny then how much they trash everything that results from education: science, arts, higher ed, liberalism, automation that replaces their trivial jobs, etc. All the things that make white nationalists increasing irrelevant, and all the reasons why kids with any future leave. They all know what's up, even it's in the interest of dumbshit tier democrats to never figure it out.

The fact that you'll side with them over any sort of liberalism any day of the week speaks volumes about american politics.

 

[Jhhnn]

Funny then how much they trash everything that results from education: science, arts, higher ed, liberalism, automation that replaces their trivial jobs, etc. All the things that make white nationalists increasing irrelevant, and all the reasons why kids with any future leave. They all know what's up, even it's in the interest of dumbshit tier democrats to never figure it out.

The fact that you'll side with them over any sort of liberalism any day of the week speaks volumes about american politics.

Having a job isn't trivial. It's mighty elitist of you to say so. Can you just say "the little people, the ones who don't matter"?

As I pointed out, it's not just about white people no matter how badly you want it to be.

 

[Moonbeam]

The situation is really quite simple. People who benefit from education/sophistication argue for it, people who don't argue against. Commodus el al are obviously the former, and you argue for the latter because you're smart enough to see that progress implies less space for religious zealotry.

You see good and evil. For you there are but these two options. You are good and I am evil. What I see is a third option that is invisible to you because you will not let go of your emotional needs, needs you fave no idea you feel.

 

[Moonbeam]

I can be reached by reason... you're just not using it. Reason means using observable facts and logic, not feel-good statements and well-wishing. And do you know what a "platitude" is? It's a saying that's so overused it's devoid of all meaning. And that's pretty much your modus operandi, unfortunately. You've managed to write whole paragraphs, and not just to me, that say absolutely nothing meaningful.

Science is coming to grips with altered states of consciousness, but not the way you think it is. Science still rejects spirituality, because there is no evidence of spirituality; synapses firing differently in a brain are still just synapses.

And again, I see nothing to suggest that you're anything but selfish (ironic given your self-proclaimed Buddhism). Rather than pledge to fix things or at least acknowledge that a problem must be solved, you take the coward's way out. You hope that pretending a problem doesn't exist will make it cease to matter, so that you can focus solely on yourself. You acknowledge that Trump has done bad things, but your solution is to close your eyes and act as if no one will be hurt simply because you can't see them being hurt.

Now just imagine that everything you just said had to be unlearned, that all of it is based on the exact same unconscious assumptions I once had and lost. You would be in a hell of a pickle seeing as how you're so certain you are right. Good luck, then. When you unlearn all that can be unlearned, you can't unlearn what is left. There is only love, my friend. Journey, journey, until you arrive at where you have always been. The wind mills beckon.

 

[Commodus]

Now just imagine that everything you just said had to be unlearned, that all of it is based on the exact same unconscious assumptions I once had and lost. You would be in a hell of a pickle seeing as how you're so certain you are right. Good luck, then. When you unlearn all that can be unlearned, you can't unlearn what is left. There is only love, my friend. Journey, journey, until you arrive at where you have always been. The wind mills beckon.

There's a hilarious irony in how you call on people to break free... so long as they become slaves to your ideology. You're effectively calling me deluded, yet you believe that everyone will inevitably see things exactly the way you do. That, to me, isn't Zen... that's egocentrism.

The beauty of relying on observable facts and science is that it acknowledges the possibility of inconvenient truths, and the need to act on them, without shattering your entire world view. If we suddenly found conclusive evidence that aliens had created life on Earth... well, aliens created life on Earth. When you see Trump dragging the country down with anti-intellectualism and harmful policies, you don't pretend that it'll go away if you just "step outside the machine..." you do something about it. You have a perpetually flexible view that's grounded in what's actually happening, not what you want to happen.

 

[Moonbeam]

Commodus: There's a hilarious irony in how you call on people to break free... so long as they become slaves to your ideology.

M: Entertain for a moment another kind of irony, One that would apply if what I tell you is so, that a third point of view can't be had if there is an ideology present, that it is what it means to be ideology free. Imagine the confusion that would cause.

C: You're effectively calling me deluded, yet you believe that everyone will inevitably see things exactly the way you do. That, to me, isn't Zen... that's egocentrism.

M: OK fine, but imagine for a moment that I'm not calling you deluded, but pointing out that you are. I don't need or even want you to be deluded. But It would only be a flattering lie if I told you you're not. I remember reading from Zen the statement that everybody is enlightened, it would be nice to know it. I think it would be nice if you knew it. Ego is created and caused by competition, being compared to something evil with the need to deny that feeling. What Zen did for me, I know very little about it or about Buddhism aside from this important fact that it taught me, is that I had unconscious assumptions I didn't realize I had. I suffered from the delusion that happiness requires meaning. It doesn't require meaning, it requires being. The thing we stand in terror of is our own love. To love is to say yes to a world screaming no, I want to get even.

C: The beauty of relying on observable facts and science is that it acknowledges the possibility of inconvenient truths, and the need to act on them, without shattering your entire world view.

M: That would be nice if your entire world view wasn't made up of convenient lies you tell yourself to maintain your delusions. You are cling to a beauty you do not have. Everything I'm telling you is based on science and observable facts you do not see.

C: If we suddenly found conclusive evidence that aliens had created life on Earth... well, aliens created life on Earth.

M: If in the midst of an internal investigation into the nature of suffering, you suddenly find yourself with insight that frees you of it, well, aliens are easy.

C: When you see Trump dragging the country down with anti-intellectualism and harmful policies, you don't pretend that it'll go away if you just "step outside the machine..." you do something about it.

M: Yes you do the only thing one can do, save the one person you can save, yourself. You can pass on advise after that if you wish. People who have defeated misery have a tendency to wish that for others.

C: You have a perpetually flexible view that's grounded in what's actually happening, not what you want to happen.

M: Yes, but you can't make the assumption you know what is happening when those assumptions are false. You can't know what you wish of the world without knowing what you feel. You're unconscious wish is for disaster. You do not know you are a monster, that you have a monster within that you project to create the other. You are too much in need of being on the good guy team. I was not so lucky. I know that monster is me. The only proper action for any of us is humility and shame. I am sorry you do not know this. Jesus said let he who is without sin cast the first stone. There's a platitude so deep you could die in it's contemplation. There are bars on your cage and they are the impotency of rage. You have not been angry enough to realize that. I know a monster who has.

We have met on the ground of being. I salute you my friend and wish you well, monster and all. I vow to save every last monster as best I can.

 

[sandorski]

This is the kind of thread a Cosmopolitan would start.....

 

[agent00f]

Having a job isn't trivial. It's mighty elitist of you to say so. Can you just say "the little people, the ones who don't matter"?

As I pointed out, it's not just about white people no matter how badly you want it to be.

It's an undeniable matter of factual reality that some jobs are much easier to replace than others.

You see good and evil. For you there are but these two options. You are good and I am evil. What I see is a third option that is invisible to you because you will not let go of your emotional needs, needs you fave no idea you feel.

No, it's easy to read that I see self-interest, for example your self-interest in playing too dumb to read.

 

[Jhhnn]

It's an undeniable matter of factual reality that some jobs are much easier to replace than others.

So what? That doesn't change the necessity of having a decent job to live a decent life in this country. Well, unless you're independently wealthy at which point you're obviously entitled to look down on working people because they're not.

You go on about racist degens while taking a classist degen attitude yourself.