Do they have a good reason not to get high? Alcohol is different because it’s much less healthy, more expensive, and causes hangovers. I can’t think of any side effects of non-smoked cannabis that last beyond the evening except for the stuff that matters in 30 years
Perhaps it wasn't clear, but here I mean they think people with gender dysphoria should be "cured" in the sense of "go through some therapy" or "change your outlook on life" and it'll go away.
Certainly transitioning is one way (and a seemingly very successful one) at dealing with gender dysphoria. Whether or not accepted psychological practice would call that situation "a cure for a mental illness" is something I don't know.
The Industrial Revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race. They have greatly increased the life-expectancy of those of us who live in “advanced” countries, but they have destabilized society, have made life unfulfilling, have subjected human beings to indignities, have led to widespread psychological suffering (in the Third World to physical suffering as well) and have inflicted severe damage on the natural world. The continued development of technology will worsen the situation. It will certainly subject human beings to greater indignities and inflict greater damage on the natural world, it will probably lead to greater social disruption and psychological suffering, and it may lead to increased physical suffering even in “advanced” countries.
I'm with you in part, but I think it would be good to try to be fair: life as it was before the industrial revolution wasn't exactly paradise either. The industrial revolution solved some problems and replaced them with far larger ones. And for those far larger ones we don't have solutions, even after the thing has run for a couple of hundred years the problems are still increasing. And coupled with runaway economic systems, massive imbalance in the world with respect to where the benefits landed we don't look particularly good when it comes to the historical record of such revolutions.
The government will reclaim the land unless I pay for it with money I make from the system. It’s not possible to opt out anymore. They stole the land too but my guns are smaller.
You still need to pay property tax in perpetuity (in the US at least). Taxes can only be paid with USD aka “system money”, so you’re not really outside of the system in this situation. Plus there is eminent domain.
The only way to avoid needing system money would be to live on national land for free, but then you cannot have a permanent dwelling like a cabin.
Not a chance of that around here. And with any solution you have to ask yourself: does it scale? What if the current population of the earth would want to live in a log cabin in the woods? The woods would no longer be the woods.
You don't have to ask yourself that because almost no one actually agrees with this person that the 'industrial revolution had disastrous effects on the human race'. They don't even believe it.
What if the current population of the earth would want to live in a log cabin in the woods?
They don't and no one said anything about that.
The woods would no longer be the woods.
That's what we have now because that's what people want.
The problem with this theory is that almost nobody who lives in these cities is paying current prices for a home. A person in Vancouver or Toronto needs a top 1% income to buy a detached house. Almost everyone with a home can only afford it because they bought a long time ago. Almost every city is like this so “just move” isn’t a realistic option. People will continue living here because they either don’t have to care about the price (bought long ago, inheritance, love with family, etc) or because they’re a poor immigrant that’s happy to share a 1 bedroom apartment with 5 strangers for $600 a month
The average Vancouver house dweller makes 44k which is way lower than people in any other home type. People are buying houses with wealth, not income. It doesn’t matter what jobs pay.
Homeowners don’t as a rule directly set prices just as people holding stocks indefinitely don’t set stock prices. However there’s a constant stream of people dying etc which brings such homes onto the market and needs to be offset by people buying in.
Renters are different because they regularly sign a new lease and so very much do care about changes to the prices. Renters leave cities for many reasons, but high rent is a common one especially at retirement.
> market themselves as being the height of meritocracy
This is how they market themselves to the general public, but everyone knows that Harvard and its admission policies were designed by and for the ruling class to educate their children and build connections. A Harvard degree would have no value if it selected based on merit alone.
A meritocracy would turn a school like Harvard into a factory for upper middle class people like doctors and lawyers and defeat its purpose. Harvard wants to educate presidents and CEOs.
Would you please explain the logic for the dishonesty as you explained the logic for diverging from meritocracy? Surely there is a good reason for such an allegedly respectable institution misleading the public that pays its bills, yes?
When the measure of success is how much money you get to make for other people I don’t think “mediocrity” is the right word. Maybe 5% of people will ever be successful by an objective metric, and the rest are just trying to be a good little wagie for their boss
I’m one of these people. I think romantic relationships are extremely important for pragmatic reasons (housing affordability, having children, as a safety net, etc) but I choose not to date because I don’t know how to find anyone I actually like. I don’t understand how people get into relationships without treating dating like a job search.
“Just put yourself out there”, “you’re overthinking it - a relationship will come when you least expect it”
But what if that doesn’t work? I’m pretty sure eventually I’ll need to settle for whatever I can get and try to make things work out like it’s an arranged marriage
I’m almost 30 years old and still in the closet because I feel like there’s no benefit to coming out. A straight and gay incel have the exact same life other than porn preferences.
You are right, but expand that horizon a little bit. Dating has to be given consistent time. You're unlikely to get lucky. But, it does not have to be separate activity.
Choose a co-ed hobby / co-ed workout, and stick to it. Your workout becomes where you find people to date. If you aren't actively looking, then see if you can build a rapport with someone first. If you see some potential, then you can make the move. If not, you still got a workout/hobby and a friend out of it.
The stigmatization of approaching someone in the workplace, and increasingly in any non-bar public places is an impractical solution with more negative side-effects than many realize. Work dating is becoming a no-no, but I would suggest that you be more brazen in otherwise semi-acceptable public places.
(p.s: make necessary adjustments to the comment acc. to your dating preferences)
> don’t know how to find anyone I actually like
That sounds like a bigger underlying problem. It is the same steps as I mentioned above, but finding your community is incredibly important to general well being.
Most of the people I know that pursue relationships for purely pragmatic reasons and fail seem to forget that people won't fit into boxes because you want put them there. The people I see that are successful meet people where they are, and let their positions in their life reveal itself as they get to know the other person. I don't know if this applies to you or is even helpful, but it is a pattern I have noticed in my life.
I'm not sure what you mean by pseudo arranged marriages. I mean successful at building new interpersonal relationships in general, and generally that translates into more opportunity for romantic relationships.
The idea of romantic love is pretty new. Knowing how lame humanity is, I'm not surprised that no culture has found or integrated yet the replicable way to find and properly develop the relationship with a "soulmate". It doesn't mean that the way doesn't exist.
