If thou gazest long into the Pit, the Pit will also gaze into thee

I've always thought that people here were wrong to think they were on some kind of moral high ground, compared to people in the FTB faction. I've changed my mind about that. I haven't seen people here trying to ruin other people's lives as much as I've seen people doing in the FTB faction. I see mor...

... I've noticed that our groups have plenty of people who have good personal reasons to hold some degree of animus towards organized religion. People from abusive, controlling, even cultish religious groups and/or families. Agreed. I want to learn to use "some" and "sometimes" more often. I think ...

I said that one possible reason I see for gravitating towards maligning people is that when we're feeling oppressed, repressed, intimidated, or resentful, it's gratifying to have those feelings validated by other people. I thought of two more feelings that might be involved: feeling betrayed, and fe...

Out of interest, how easy is it to get into China and like, live there forever. Just incase the West is pretty much in its death throes right now, I'ma going to have to find a new country. :lol: Well, it does feel safer here to us, in the part of China where we live, and there's no counterfeit soci...

I was pondering some things that have always intrigued me about the atheist and skeptical fellowships I've seen on the Internet, and suddenly it dawned on me that people use "atheism" and "skepticism" to excuse and camouflage their anti-religious prejudices and animosities.

A while ago I was wondering why we gravitate so much towards maligning people. One reason I see is that when we're feeling oppressed, repressed, intimidated, or resentful, it's gratifying to have those feelings validated by other people. I talked to my wife about that, and while I was talking the th...

From what I've seen, there isn't any limit to how much people will deceive themselves and compromise themselves; or to the atrocities they will ignore, deny, or excuse; to feel welcome in some fellowship. I see some possible explanations for the animosities between factions, and for the increasing c...

This summer my wife and I made our second trip to the US in the nine years that we've been living in China. It also happened to be the first year that the immigration office required us to have copies of our letters of no police record, and of my wife's master's degree diploma, authenticated by the ...

Police should use canes on bad guys. First trick them into thinking you are a cripple, then... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbzeDxepasQ :lol: Last Friday my wife and I watched "Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief." One of the heroes, who was pretending to need crutches to walk, us...

Our problem with ArenaNet was finally resolved. My wife and I had each bought two expansions for Guild Wars 2, using my PayPal account. We were able to play one more time, then the next time we tried to play, we both got error messages saying that our accounts were suspended. We submitted tickets, a...

GenerallyFading, I've sent you some PMs.

Good. Many streams make a river. Thanks for sharing that with me.

I'm thinking now that everything I've been saying about criticism of Islam applies also to defense of Islam, maybe even more. The things that people are saying and doing against criticism of Islam might be doing more to perpetuate, and even intensify, anti-Muslim animosities, more than any criticism...

Education is key ... - and training. I agree with everything in that post. I like it a lot. I agree that offline work can be more fruitful than online work. I think the integration needs to go both ways. I think that there should be people from the dominant cultures integrating into the other cultu...

One way I see to help to reduce anti-Muslim prejudices, is to diversify people's images of Muslims, and of Muslim-majority societies. I was trying to do that on Facebook for a while, posting images of Muslims, and articles about life in Muslim-majority societies, showing their diversity. One way I s...

I'm starting to have a more sympathetic view of some people accusing some other people of trying to repress criticism of Islam. I've been looking for examples of criticism of Islam that is not intertwined with excuses and camouflage for prejudices and campaigns of defamation, and I haven't found any...

I'm starting to have a little bit of a paradigm shift here ...

I've revised my view of the criticism of Islam that I've seen in media stories and Internet discussions. Maybe most of it is not excuses and camouflage for prejudice and defamation campaigns. I still think that the excuses and camouflage for prejudices intertwined with it are what make it popular in...

The trick to deal with demographic concerns is to abandon the race-based identity politics and adopt a national identity based on service/participation/integration. The trick to deal with conservative islam, for example, is to get muslims to integrate by promoting secularism instead of giving platf...

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who came away thinking the alt-right concerns about demographic changes have some weight to them. Admitting as much makes me literally Hitler. Not to me. I agree with you. On the male birth control front, has everyone heard about RISUG? A polymer is injected int...

I don't think that the camouflage that Harris is selling, is only for anti-Muslim prejudices. I also think that the popularity of his talks and writings about religion, God, and atheism, has been at least partly because they've helped excuse and camouflage anti-religious prejudices and animosities. ...

... a more Spencerian (Herbert of that ilk) approach that tries to see both positions in the best light and extract whatever genuine insight that both have, would be more fruitful - and in the long run conciliatory too. Over the past few months I've been digging quite deep into Alt Right thought .....

I think you mean "Islamophobia", not "homophobia". Yes. It's probably an auto-correct issue. No, it was an actual blunder. Thank you for those names of people whose views have been called "criticism of Islam." I think that anyone who continually criticizes Islam, without ever saying anything about ...

Do you really think that Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Bill Maher and Sam Harris are camouflaging prejudices and starting campaigns of defamation? Or am I reading your post wrong? They might not be prejudiced themselves, and I don't think that they've started any campaigns of defamation, themselves. I think tha...

Kirbmarc, I'll answer your questions later, but now I just want to revise the question that I asked in my last post. Besides Harris, Ali, and Maher, has anyone seen any other particular person's views being called "criticism of Islam," in media stories and Internet discussions? Also, I want to say t...

Most or all what I've seen people calling "criticism of Islam," in media stories and Internet discussions, looks to me like camouflage for prejudices, and defamation campaigns, against Muslims. Any specific examples of media stories exemplifying this phenomenon? I did a search on Yahoo! for "critic...

- Most or all what I've seen people calling "criticism of Islam," in media stories and Internet discussions, looks to me like camouflage for prejudices, and defamation campaigns, against Muslims. - I see prejudice against Muslims being facilitated by racial prejudices. If people thought of Muslims ...

UKIP MEP Gerard Batten said on twitter recently that if Muslims had predomnently white skin the left would be shouting from the rooftops for Islam to be shut down; and there is the crux of the matter, the colour of skin trumps everything in SJW la la land. :o :shock: :rimshot: The other side of the...

- Most or all what I've seen people calling "criticism of Islam," in media stories and Internet discussions, looks to me like camouflage for prejudices, and defamation campaigns, against Muslims. - I see prejudice against Muslims being facilitated by racial prejudices. If people thought of Muslims a...

@free thoughtpolice, and yes it does anger me to see anything being packaged and promoted dishonestly and treacherously, whether it's NLP, or drug abuse, or anti-white and anti male prejudices, or massive murderous global campaigns of plundering and pillaging, or anything else.

Habits, reflexes, and other spontaneous and involuntary behavior, can be trained. That includes internal behavior, including thinking processes, and the regulation of body chemistry, including whatever chemistry is involved in producing the symptoms of mental/emotional illnesses. One way that self-...

Habits, reflexes, and other spontaneous and involuntary behavior, can be trained. That includes internal behavior, including thinking processes, and the regulation of body chemistry, including whatever chemistry is involved in producing the symptoms of mental/emotional illnesses. One way that self-t...

Now I'm ready to go back to the life improvement techniques that I was trying to explain. I brought them up as a way to help improve the lives of people who are facing recurring or continual mental/emotional adversities, but actually they aren't only for that. They're techniques for helping to impro...

I'll review what I've said, then go one more step. - I think that drugs can sometimes help improve the lives of people who are facing recurring or continual mental/emotional adversities. - My objections to most perpetual daily use of drugs for that purpose are not against the use of drugs, in itself...

The serotonin chemical balance fairy tale about SSRIs, that was popularized for marketing purposes, was a deliberate fraud from the very start, witu tragic consequences for multitudes of people, including teen suicides. I see no reason to think that any of the succeeding chemical theories that have...

What can you do to guard against self-deception? I like that question very much. I adore that question. One way I try to do it is by spending a lot of time with some of the people whose ideas and interests alarm me the most, and with people who think my views and values are wrong, trying to see thi...

re: SSRIs and teen suicide: https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/teen-suicide-tries-increased-fda-toughened-antidepressant-warning-201406207226 I meant to include this link in my post to jet lagg, but I forgot: https://www.fda.gov/downloads/Drugs/DrugSafety/InformationbyDrugClass/UCM173233.pdf That'...

A syndrome is a collection of symptoms that are lumped together for medical purposes, regardless of whether or not they have any single common cause. They're lumped together because people have found ways of treating them together. I'm replying again without being caught up, and I know I'll regret ...

The serotonin chemical balance fairy tale about SSRIs, that was popularized for marketing purposes, was a deliberate fraud from the very start, witu tragic consequences for multitudes of people, including teen suicides. I see no reason to think that any of the succeeding chemical theories that have ...

All of my objections to what I think is happening in most cases, are because of the dishonesty, treachery, self-deception, and self- betrayal that I see in it, not to the use of drugs to relieve symptoms, in itself. I think that in most cases the problem is ignorance. And I don't mean the ignorance...

In short reality isn't plotted, it's not scripted, but a lot of people are like actors who need some kind of script to play their part, while some can act without any script and improvise. Not everyone is psychologically fit to handle the idea that reality might not have a plot (some people are, th...

What can you do to guard against self-deception? I like that question very much. I adore that question. One way I try to do it is by spending a lot of time with some of the people whose ideas and interests alarm me the most, and with people who think my views and values are wrong, trying to see thi...

All of my objections to what I think is happening in most cases, are because of the dishonesty, treachery, self-deception, and self- betrayal that I see in it, not to the use of drugs to relieve symptoms, in itself. Either I don't know what you are taking about or you don't. It might be either one ...

I want to try to explain better my approach to recurring and continuing psychological adversities. It might help if I first explain more about how I view what doctors are diagnosing as psychological disorders. I think that drugs can help improve the lives of people with mental/emotional disorders, a...

I do see some fatal flaws in that article, not in what it says, but in what it doesn't say.

I hope that everyone facing depression, or who has friends or family members facing it, will read this article recommended by free thoughtpolice, carefully and thoughtfully.

free thoughtpolice wrote:https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and ... depression

I said that the biggest influence in my ways of thinking about mental/emotional illnesses might have been studying and practicing NLP. That needs to be qualified. That might be the biggest influence in my ideas for what do about mental/emotional illnesses. It isn't the biggest influence on my ideas ...

Lsuoma wrote:Well, it looks like the ol' horse buggerer hasn't improved during his long absence. Still as incoherent and woolly as ever...

Thank you! That's the nicest thing you ever said about me.

Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) is an approach to communication, personal development, and psychotherapy created by Richard Bandler and John Grinder in California, United States in the 1970s. NLP's creators claim there is a connection between neurological processes (neuro-), language (linguistic...

Contrary to what some people think, clinical depression is not just a bunch of symptoms that no one has any idea of the mechanics of. It is a complex disease/s that vary somewhat from person to person and because they are a neurological disease it is occurring in a system that is difficult to obser...

How do you define syndrome precisely, and how do you define disease? What, in your mind is the distinction? A syndrome is a collection of symptoms that are lumped together for medical purposes, regardless of whether or not they have any single common cause. They're lumped together because people ha...

Bringing myself up to date on terminology, I see that what some people mean by "disease" in discussions of mental illnesses, is the symptoms themselves, and they see alleviating those symptoms as curing the disease. In that terminology, it seems indisputable to me that mental illnesses can sometimes...

The biggest influence in my ways of thinking about mental/emotional illnesses might have been studying and practicing NLP. Another influence in my way of thinking about everything, including mental/emotional illnesses, has been Alfred Korzybski. I've also learned lessons about ways of thinking from ...

I wonder if there is a potion or a spell to cure passive-aggressive behavior disorder? Or is it a syndrome instead of a disease? :think: I think It's a syndrome in most or all cases, but since the medical profession has redefined "disease" and "disorder" to include syndromes, it's also a disease an...

jet_lagg wrote:... I'm clearly not the only one that's come away with the impression you're arguing for some Scientology-esque self control cure.

I've noticed that too, but that doesn't make it any more true. I'm not arguing for anything like that at all.

Steersman wrote:Generally a bad idea to be putting much weight on stereotypes - while they can be quite accurate, at least relative to segments of a population, there are still many other segments for which they're clearly contradicted by facts.

Exactly.

free thoughtpolice wrote:And there is this clip showing Jim Bahai battling depression with a spell, his preference over potions which are (subject to abuse).

:lol: :clap:

Free speech: - My interest in free speech is not to be able to say whatever I want to say. It's to be able to hear what other people want to say. - I'm against repressing any views or topics of discussion in public spaces. I'm against trying to appease demands to turn entire campuses, and even all o...

I wouldn't presume to know anything about a person's personality, character, or emotional health, just from knowing that they're selling or buying sexual experiences.

It sounds like you think a full understanding of depression would allow someone to cure their depression without the need for any sort of chemical treatment or physical tinkering with the brain. Considering what you might mean by "cure," and what you said about saving lives, I want to say that I th...

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