Money is a carrot on a stick. It’s not fulfillment.

We find lasting fulfillment and self-worth through our connections with each other. With your kid, with your co-workers. With other people in your life.

Try consciously putting your attention on the things that are actually fulfilling. Money doesn’t buy happiness. It does make life easier. But happiness is the time you spend with your kid, not the money you spend on him.

The similarities I see between them and the Aztec corporation from shadowrun is pretty astounding. Both primarily sell consumer goods.

Technology generally isn’t good or bad. A surgeon’s scalpel for example, can both heal or hurt, depending on the skill and intentions of the user.

What AI is, is powerful. Which makes it good in the hands of some, and very, very bad in the hands of others. This isn’t just about censorship or capitalism. One of the first of the newer AIs was able to generate 1,000s of novel lethal compounds overnight by changing a single parameter. That’s just on the medical/warfare/terrorism side of things.

Social trust is likely to erode as deep fake technology gets into the hands of literally everyone. State actors will go after other states, as we’re seeing in elections already. And rogue actors will be able to spread misinformation or use the technology to con people. Corporate actors are already using the technology to manipulate people for profit. With harmful outcomes apparent.

I’m not an AI hater btw. The advances we’ll see in medical technology, microbiology, and understanding large systems like weather and societies, will be and is amazing. But, there’s no guard rails at the moment and won’t be any likely in the years ahead. It will be a wild ride and AI is just one more thing that’s going to drastically change our world in the coming two decades. Some of it will be good. And a lot of it will be bad.

Amazon?

Jobs that typically women do also pay much less. Regardless of if the women in question take any time off to raise children. Or if the individual employee happens to be a man.

Teachers for example. But also human services workers and similar jobs. And this doesn’t get into hiring biases for high paying jobs, like management positions in any field, which tends strongly to break for men.

The idea that women take time off from work to raise babies, and therefore they get paid less, isn’t the issue, in other words. Women don’t take 25% more time off then men. And not all women are having babies. But we’re affected by the gender pay gap all the same.

When Trump’s health catches up with him and he dies. And his cult of personality dies with him.

Of course, by then, the fascists will have already done a lot of damage as far as cementing future authoritarian regimes.

Mass strikes, mass protests. In other words left organizing is the only positive I expect out of the coming term.

And I expect it will be met with state violence and terrorism because Trump has already said that’s his plan.

Maybe if it bent around me in particular. I watched an interesting sci-fi movie that was on a similar concept of temporal bubbles.

But I forget the name.

Just like the first time over and over.

Space and time or inseparable, and we are inseparable from space and time.

Which is saying, if time is a knot we are part of that or knot, just like everything else and would have no idea that we are in it.

Optimally observing the breath and the body first. Trying to observe thoughts without that solid foundation, tends to get us caught up in our thoughts.

And yeah, we do have to be aware when our thinking hijacks are attention. But the focus of attention should first of all be on the breath and the breathing before it shifts to any sort of deeper observation of thoughts and feelings.

And that’s generally good advice whether you’re on the cushion or not. Thoughts and feelings can easily carry us away. Our body and our breathing is always in the present.

If sitting meditation doesn’t work for you, there’s walking meditation, Qigong, body scans.

Really it’s just about finding your breath and your body and settling into the present and sitting meditation is just a tool to teach us how to do that.

The meme is shit by the way.

The idea isn’t to build up tension all day and then let it go when you finally get to the cushion. The idea is to learn to let go on the cushion so all day you can let shit go.

That’s why we call meditation practice. It’s so we can implement it in the moment when we need it.

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Well since we have to teach them to count and they do appear to have some form of language, they could just split themselves into a line and count off.

They would need poll watchers of some kind though, to be sure the count was done fairly.

They also live in smaller communities than people do, so I wouldn’t imagine this would be a great solution for a whole nation of dolphins. But it would work for a large pod.

I don’t trust cops. Even when they are nice to you they’re not your friend, trust me.

Have a good relationship with doctors. I have met some arrogant doctors but for the most part they’ve treated me with kindness.

Psychiatric doctors on the other hand have never been open to hearing me. As my diagnosis isn’t one that’s officially recognized in my country. And the treatment options aren’t well developed here either. CPTSD.

Thankfully I do have a good relationship with my primary care doctor and a decent understanding of pharmacology myself so he helps me with stuff that he can help me with.

Teachers were hit or miss for me. College professors generally much better as they should treat you like an adult.

I’m also white and was male presenting for most of my life. People’s perception of gender and perception of race will definitely affect how they treat you, unfortunately.

I tend to think of most people as being alienated by capitalism because of their jobs. Endlessly fed propaganda and given treats to keep them placated and docile.

We’re animals after all. So I don’t think of them as shitty people but I instead look for compassion.

That said, unless I’m working for a small business owner I tend to absolutely feel alienated at work and it’s crushing. I also have health issues that make work difficult so my relationship with it is extra alienating I suppose.

I guess what I’m trying to tell you is look at your boss as maybe the source of that feeling rather than your fellow working-class people.

Edit: I also live in a working class city, with strong socialist roots. So my view is pretty biased I suppose. In the sense that I’m not living in the middle of a conservative place surrounded by people with vastly different views than myself.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2821508

I sent you this in a DM after the previous thread got locked, I’m not sure if you saw it or not.

I was curious and dug this up. I haven’t read it yet, but here you go. I’ll read it now too.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/why-both-abortion-and-infant-mortality-rates-have-gone-up-in-post-roe-america

Yeah I haven’t actually paid that much attention to their new titles. I see that they are publishing it and it doesn’t matter how good it looks I just don’t.

I think I would still enjoy some their newer titles.

I just don’t think I would enjoy them enough to deal with the predatory behavior from the publisher.

I don’t support Harris, but I will vote for her because Trump winning will only make things worse. And accelerate the climate catastrophe, which will hurt everyone who lives here, animals and plants too.

As far as how I will get the US to stop funding Israel… I won’t. It’s a bigger problem then myself.

But, organizing outside of the election cycle is the way to do it. Protests, strikes, not paying our taxes. Those are the ways to change things.

A third party protest vote won’t change anything. It will just get your candidate and those who voted for them blamed for spoiling a two party election and putting Trump in office.

P.S. The framing of your question sucks btw. For reasons I pointed out above (I don’t support Harris, and I don’t propose that I can do anything personally to stop the genocide outside of organizing with others. And, if Trump is elected, the genocide will accelerate and likely spread to other middle eastern countries, and everyone will be suffering greatly by 2075 due to climate change).