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Mental Wealth

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Re: Mental Wealth

#221

Post by ifokiedoke »

austincheney wrote: post #183
karatestomp wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't like the framing of the behavior as somehow irrational or random or clinically-diagnosible. It's not irrational to get involved more in a movement when it is a movement, and seems like it might be gaining traction. Just like it's not irrational to not-boycott some useful, cheap product even if you strongly disagree with some of the practices that go into its production, but to join a boycott if it starts and…

Objectively speaking becoming involved in a trend only for the sake of a given trend becoming more trendy strikes me as directly irrational. It’s following for the sake of following only because that’s what followers do which is circular and absent of any original consideration.

But humans are social creatures, beholden to social norms. Doing something just because other people do it is literally how society works. There are very, very few (if any) "well-adjusted" members of society who don't do many things just because that's how other people do it (a.k.a. it's "trendy"). If you behave otherwise, you're likely be socially outcasted.

Of course, if you're saying society at large is irrational I pretty much agree... but within the context of social expectation, I'd say it's pretty rational to compute that your contribution is more likely to land once a movement has already started. If anything, those who first begin the movement are the most irrational (since the likelihood of success is much lower compared to the personal cost to the individual).

In other words: if you live in an irrational system, the only way to be rational is to behave irrationally.

EDIT: Italicizing.

Re: Mental Wealth

#222

Post by TheHegemon »

austincheney wrote: post #129
pjc50 wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, I'm going to have to lean harder on this question: you're a military man, in the US Army, who's been deployed overseas, and you can't recognise insurgency/counterinsurgency when you see it? I mean, I'm just following along at home and that's clearly what the situation is and also why the police are losing for exactly the same reasons as Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq. Because they're making the same mistakes. The…

From a military perspective I would be hard pressed to recognize my fellow citizen peaceful protesters as enemy combatants. Those that are not peaceful (actively destructive) are petty criminals and still not enemy combatants. According to the definitions though it is not an insurgency. An insurgency is violent opposed to a non-violent rebellion. Most peaceful protesters appear to disavow violent rioters. https://en.…

So you missed the entire point of their reply.

Re: Mental Wealth

#223

Post by caogecym »

resiros wrote: post #132
vgchh wrote: post #94

Recently I had an epiphany and I felt as if I had cracked the code to living a good life - 1. Exercise everyday 2. Eat and drink clean. As cliche as it sounds it felt like if I took care of these two things, everything else will take care of itself. Since last 15 days, I feel reinvigorated once again as I focus on these two things. There is a long way to go to fully undo all the damage, but I feel I am on track.

Although exercising and eating well are very important for our well being, they're not enough. The most fundamental thing is having the right mindset: Some beliefs are so destructive that no amount of exercise will alleviate their effect. For instance, some people are what I call blamers. They believe that their misery is because of life, others, society... They refuse to accept what life has given them (whether thei…

Agreed on having the right mindset. Dalai Lama's "The book of Joy" is a good one talking about the perspectives that would help you navigate through difficult time and emotions.

Some examples:

* treating all human beings as a whole, which allows people to share happiness on other people's achievement - this kind of resonates with the theory of Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins, where it argues that the goal of all humans is to maximize the chance that the entire gene pool will continue to exist

* reduce sense of one's own identity - which helps people during hard times by thinking about how small one single person is compared to the entire race, maybe even the entire universe

And of course, there's the advocate around being grateful, being compassionate, do more meditation etc.

Re: Mental Wealth

#224

Post by koolba »

pow_pp_-1_v wrote: post #203
christiansakai wrote: post #142

For myself. This is what I've been doing and working for me. From the outside, generally, stay away or just observe from far away: - People who post political/religious/racial comments every 5 mins or so on social media, whether their view aligns with yours or not - People who are too passionate about one thing - People who don't keep their identity small in public, be it digital or real life - People who have black…

> - People who are too passionate about one thing People who are passionate about something are generally interesting people. They know the obscure ins and outs of the thing they are passionate about. You can learn a lot from such people. At least, that's what I always felt.

Amen. I’ll take a conversation with a head over heels weirdo over anyone considered normal any day of the week.

Re: Mental Wealth

#225

Post by tim333 »

pow_pp_-1_v wrote: post #203
christiansakai wrote: post #142

For myself. This is what I've been doing and working for me. From the outside, generally, stay away or just observe from far away: - People who post political/religious/racial comments every 5 mins or so on social media, whether their view aligns with yours or not - People who are too passionate about one thing - People who don't keep their identity small in public, be it digital or real life - People who have black…

> - People who are too passionate about one thing People who are passionate about something are generally interesting people. They know the obscure ins and outs of the thing they are passionate about. You can learn a lot from such people. At least, that's what I always felt.

I guess you should be a little selective about what the thing is. I've got friends into vintage sports cars and cartooning who are cool. Anything along the lines of extreme politics I'd avoid.

Re: Mental Wealth

#226

Post by Fezzik »

pow_pp_-1_v wrote: post #203
christiansakai wrote: post #142

For myself. This is what I've been doing and working for me. From the outside, generally, stay away or just observe from far away: - People who post political/religious/racial comments every 5 mins or so on social media, whether their view aligns with yours or not - People who are too passionate about one thing - People who don't keep their identity small in public, be it digital or real life - People who have black…

> - People who are too passionate about one thing People who are passionate about something are generally interesting people. They know the obscure ins and outs of the thing they are passionate about. You can learn a lot from such people. At least, that's what I always felt.

There seem to be stark contrasts in this regard, depending on your personality (for obvious reasons, depending on how the person comports with your ideals): I find Alex Honnold to be one of the most fascinating humans ever and, say, the pope to be one of the least. Obviously many would disagree with me. Both are very singularly focussed individuals.

Re: Mental Wealth

#227

Post by thaumasiotes »

mfcl wrote: post #150
thaumasiotes wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Have you even seen a riot started out of nothing? Just for fun? It's a pretty well-known phenomenon. You hold a sports riot when your team wins , not when it loses.

Then the team losing is what started the riot. I never said the reason had to be worth rioting for. I only said that riots start from somewhere.

Did you read my comment as if it said the opposite of what it actually says?

Re: Mental Wealth

#229

Post by austincheney »

thebean11 wrote: post #217
austincheney wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Were you attending protests about systemic racism or police brutality before two weeks ago? They were certainly there to participate in.

It seems perfectly rational, or if not rational at least intuitive, that momentum of a movement would increase participation from people who already agreed with the movement, but weren't doing anything about it. I guess I'm not totally sure what point you're trying to make, what's your theory exactly?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23427232

People are coalescing into groups more so for non cognitive behaviors than for deliberate premeditated concerns but when confronted by that reasoning deflect. When confronted they don’t deny it or excuse it but instead argue defense of positions that were never in question.

Re: Mental Wealth

#230

Post by ShrCul »

sprsimplestuff wrote: post #112
austincheney wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Politicians think that riots are the problem and if they stop the riots with force the problem goes away. But riots are just a symptom of a sick system. No the system and other systemic or social problems are just a excuse. Riots, at least those in recent events are an example of contagious social behavior. That is evidenced by the fact that the blamed issues have been known problems for longer than two weeks with…

It's quite clear that recent events, specifically the death of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor are the exact reason why people have decided to "suddenly congregate into emotional hysteria". Yes, these issues have been present, but, undoubtedly, those deaths sparked something across the country. Are riots and violence the solution? That's debatable, but they do send a message in a society where money is…

> People are grieving pain that has been present for years. People grieve in different ways. I don't agree with using violence, looting, rioting

I stumbled on an interesting phrase for the looting: "looters are not protestors, and protestors are not looters." Some may even distinguish protesters from rioters. Indeed, there are black people still peacefully protesting, even against the use of uncontrolled destruction. It doesn't make sense for people (of different races) to destroy and at the same time rake the reputation of black people through the mud for a moment of... satisfaction (?) without care for the people - even black people - who will be suffer for it.

But I am certain that whoever, regardless of race, is stealing from some designer store does not give a flying fuck about the movement - at least when compared to their greed. BLM is not about the use of slave labor predominant in the clothing industry.

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