Kwakigra @ Kwakigra @beehaw.org

Posts

32

Comments

536

Joined

2 yr. ago

Republicans are getting rid of all pretenses average people use to justify the function of our society. Non-profits shouldn't exist and the real government should be addressing all the problems they have historically been leaving to burnt out newly grads begging for money from corporate funders, mitigating the problem slightly, and showing up for corporate media campaigns about how happy the few people they helped are about it. We used to pretend this was a solution and now the pretend solution is being taken away.

After having chronic insomnia from my literal earliest memories, I can assure you that you already know all the "tricks" if you've done any research at all. There are no real tricks for chronic insomnia, only lifestyle changes which help over the long term. I so desperately wish it wasn't the case, but you need good physical and mental health to have good sleep. Sleep apnea can be fixed pretty quickly if that's the problem, otherwise therapy, exercise, and sunshine for a year or two is your best bet.

Honestly, it's a great source of truly stupid ideas. It's convenient to have a total idiot on hand at all times to make dumb suggestions when asked, inspiring me to think of something better since the standard was set so low.

Something slow or still and beautiful. I relate to wanting some of my time back whenever I get the smallest moment only to find that nothing is good enough to balance out the activity of rest of the day. Low stimulation activities are also not good enough and are boring but can be a much needed moment to get grounded. The best solution is to address what's really draining you and address it in a way that is not as draining for you. Far easier said than done, I know.

You get to impress the worst people in the world by giving them a number which generally indicates the quality of your education. Other than that, it's pretty useless.

I think the main reason Trump wants Greenland is because it looks larger than the entire US on a flat map and he forgot the Earth is actually round.

Go somewhere private and explain to yourself out loud your objection to this girl having this doll. Don't think about it, just talk and listen to yourself. Be honest.

Since you're speaking English, I assume you're familiar with racism. When you're raised in a racist culture you end up with racist ideas whether you would like to or not. It sounds like your reaction here made you uncomfortable. Reflecting on it rather than burying it is the right thing to do. If you identify as someone who is ok with any girl playing with any kind of doll, whatever latent belief you have causing you to feel differently can be dismantled once you know what it is.

I wish. You're giving right-wingers way too much credit. Most of those craven idiots do it for free for the opportunity to lose themselves in a gaggle of other morons. They are vulnerable in a way that is easy to exploit for people who know how to do it.

Keep pulling until you get hierarchy out.

Happy Birthday! Sounds like you're having the kind of birthday you want to have today.

The word "lazy" exists for exploiters to shame their thralls if they aren't profiting them enough. Think about anyone who might call you lazy and their relationship to you. They are not your friends; you don't have to serve them.

If you're not satisfied with how you're living your life, that's meaningful. The protection from loss you have gained through your job doesn't balance against the stress of what you're doing. There are no easy answers but something needs to change. I would suggest working on those changes before you get burned all the way out, because at that point you'll be making changes whether you want to or not.

I made the mistake of reading a few bestsellers in a row a few years ago and I'm now convinced the book industry depends on people buying books on bestseller lists and not reading them.

I've heard of one big protest song by a pretty mainstream artist which didn't autofill on youtube when I just searched for it and was apparently buried. I wonder how many other songs were buried.

It doesn't have to be all or nothing, because in that case it usually ends up being nothing. If you have the desire to limit what you described in any way you can as much as you can, it'll be something. If everyone does as much as they can, it'll be a huge something.

He did in a way, as many did. Not that the old pre-pandemic Russel Brand was better, because he was always out there being a sex pest, but his old public personality is dead and gone while his new performance is born-again evangelical because they're the most supportive of this kind of behavior.

Also, a point of note for my Hitler example. I do not think that Hitler was a monster or particularly unique. I think Hitler was a man similar to millions of people who exist on Earth today. Some of these individuals capable of what Hitler did have chosen instead to behave differently, while many who desire to emulate Hitler are unable to do so because of the state of their societies. I don't think Hitler was a special being who single-handedly enthralled an entire nation and forced them to do things they didn't want to do. I think there were many elements in their society which contributed to Hitler's rise and continued support despite his absurd statements and atrocities. While we can never live in a world totally free of people like Hitler or people who want a leader like Hitler, I think a world where people like Hitler can't access the power to do great evil is possible.

Sure, I'll consider psychopathy as a disability rather than an illness. Regardless, it's pathological.

I think your point about proper support and monitoring is key. Why do we have the problem of psychopaths masking their lack of empathy creating success for themselves in a way that doesn't involve human connection? What if they didn't have to mask their personalities or tendencies at all? If I met someone and understood they were a psychopath incapable of empathy but trying to live a peaceful stable life for their own self-interest, which includes not risking that stability by causing grave harm, I would engage with that person until such a point that they expressed a contemptible opinion or did something unsavory. This is the same metric I would use with anyone. Of course I would understand that because the psychopath lacks empathy there are bad things they might be more likely to do, but in a society which is equipped for psychopaths hopefully they would also understand the greater risks for themselves due to their pathology.

I don't think there are natural born killers even if I do understand that some pathologies, whether inborn or trauma-induced, would make the act of killing unburdonsome to that person. Personally, I can come up with a very long list of why I shouldn't kill a person other than that I would feel bad about it. I don't think all people who wouldn't feel bad about it are unaware of the myriad other consequences which come with causing such grave harm of this or other kinds. If someone truly doesn't understand in any way why they shouldn't kill someone and then go on to kill someone, I think that is much more of a problem of the society. That would indicate a severe lack of education and support in addition to their pathology.

To clarify, I am not anti-judgement. I think people's behaviors should be judged good or bad regardless of whether anyone would judge that individual or their group to be good or bad. Also, I can pass character judgment on the dead because there are no longer unknown variables. I can condemn Hitler as an evil person because as he exists right now as an idea, he is pure evil. The historical human Hitler I can condemn worse because even though he was fully capable of good and fully capable of not doing what he did, he chose to do evil consistently. I condemn historical human Hitler not because I believe he was an evil being incapable of doing good, but that he was capable of both good and evil and chose to do evil. In my mind this is a harsher judgement than excusing bad behavior because of their corrupt soul or any such nonsense.

I’m saying we should take sociopathic tendencies a bit more seriously and address them directly with trained professionals rather than waiting for them to cause damage. That would require judging people’s character.

This is where we agree. If every narcissist, sociopath, psychopath, pedophile, etc could be open about their tendencies and receive specialized assistance and accommodation before they commit a crime due to mismanaged illness it would be ideal. The only thing I disagree about is that these are not representations of internal character but are illnesses. For example, the pedophile who gets accommodation and doesn't go near children is doing less evil and probably has a better character than a preacher who uses his position to abuse young boys because he likes the feeling of power but isn't a pedophile (this happens).

I have indeed been the innocent victim of narcissistic abuse. It would indeed have been much better if my parents worked through their trauma before me or during my childhood rather than never. Narcissistic tendencies weren't considered dangerous when they were young though, as evidenced by almost the entire boomer generation. If we were living in stronger communities cooperating with one another instead of competing, I think those narcissistic tendencies either never would have existed to begin with or would have been recognized and counterbalanced by other community members. I do not think I would have been better off if they were punished, but it's likely it would have made my situation worse. At this point I'm more concerned with my own well-being than getting retribution.

I think evil behavior should be denounced and everyone should be encouraged in every way on every level to do good rather than evil to one another. I want to be clear that I am expressing that no one has the excuse of their poor internal nature to do evil things. Everyone is capable of both good and evil and everyone regardless of their condition is fully responsible for their behavior. There's no obfuscating evil in my arguments. I am arguing that the social structure supporting instead of preventing and/or condemning these evil behaviors is the problem rather than some people being good and others being evil.

Yes, our system is cutrently built for that. An optimal system wouldn't allow for it. We have obviously not discovered the optimal system yet but we can identify the fundamental issues of our present systems. Prison is another fundamentally flawed system which causes a lot of its own problems. I would prefer a victim focused restorative model to imprisoning groups of people based on diagnostic critera written by people who think you need to imprison groups of people based on diagnostic critera.

Fortunately in your example, the general can still serve the general as anti-social personality disorders will always be in the minority especially if that society functions properly for the general welfare of its people. As for doing it naturally, we naturally live in hunter-gatherer bands. Society is fully socially constructed and requires all of us to resist many aspects of our natures for it to function in a way that benefits us.

What I am arguing for is that these individuals are honestly acknowledged for their tendencies and deficits so that they can get the help they need while serving in a capacity which limits their ability to harm others due to their negligence and benefits others by utilizing their strengths. A psychopath can understand that it is in their self-interest to live in a stable friendly society. Honestly I don't personally know to integrate a full-blown narcissist, but I expect it's possible. I don't think it's possible or advisable to make any effort to remove all psychopaths and narcissists from society since eugenic thinking is responsible for many of the worst atrocities in human history.