SomethingMusic
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User ID: 181
SomethingMusic
10d ago
I don't even want to imagine what it's like trying to drive in urban India. Of course, my poor American perception of India is bifurcated between 'enlightened' gurus whose philosophy saves humanity, people living in extreme poverty bathing in cow dung, and the people trying to scam me from call centers.
SomethingMusic
10d ago
I'd donate for that. Give me some time and proper motivation and I could probably write it.
SomethingMusic
10d ago
Was this in India or in England?
I live in a city where the road rules are decaying every day. Red light? Suggestion? Stop sign? Suggestion. Left turn from the right turn lane on a red light with oncoming traffic? Fuck you get out of my way. Speed limits? Square the number and you get the speed of the average driver.
I hate driving, but the alternative is a bus fill with drug addled obnoxious lowlifes who are one bad look away from starting a fight on a bus. Also they never run on time and are simply inefficient ways to travel.
SomethingMusic
11d ago
I somewhat agree and disagree. I think 'dead' time can be repurposed over time, if not to enhance productivity but instead to do something marginally more constructive, such as reading a book or picking up a room a little bit. Assuming you don't replace it with TV/vidya/low hanging fruit.
I think 6 days is too short of a time to have any significant effects or adjustment. A month or more might be a better sample.
SomethingMusic
11d ago
That is a good point. It's easy to skip the introductory literature of an author for their more comprehensive works once you know the depth of their writing.
On the other hand, It's not like Smith or Dostoevsky wrote children's stories, so either way can work?
SomethingMusic
11d ago
It is a good point, I don't know the breakdown of the money spent on immigration in a place like NY if it's simply housing/food or if it includes translators, lawyers, social workers, etc. I'm sure someone knows, but articles are largely rage bait or too sympathetic to really dig into how these dollars are being spent.
SomethingMusic
11d ago
You're missing the forest for the trees. You're focusing on Amazon as a company rather than the issue of finding undereducated, isolated, an unemployed young men/women an attempt to integrate into society proper as a successful alternative to violence, drugs, and petty crime. It doesn't have to be Amazon, just any job that doesn't require a high level of previous training and education.
The other aforementioned people you created to dismiss my idea don't necessarily need the program I'm proposing, it's not like those people are about to resort to criminal behavior or aren't going to be assisted by other government programs or are incapable of finding work themselves.
Having that experience on my resume would make me less likely to get a real job (to say nothing of the opportunity costs, where I could be using that time to upskill or expand my resume) and more likely to stay dependent upon the system for life.
Could you expand on this? I feel like this is just rageposting instead of an actual example. Also, you don't necessarily need to put work on your resume if it's something temporary while looking for a permanent position.
Of course you're under no obligation to provide an alternative, but poopooing something just because you don't like my general idea doesn't really disprove what I'm getting at, either.
SomethingMusic
12d ago
I always find it a pity that CS Lewis' most successful work is Narnia series, considering so much of what he wrote exploring the human condition is so eloquent and excellent.
SomethingMusic
12d ago
It was a spitball idea, not one that I think should be implemented verbatim into government policy. There needs to be a way for at risk and poor people to have constructive outlets and understand the importance and value of gainful employment. If you think its so juvenile, can you think of something better?
SomethingMusic
12d ago
He had a recent interview with Lex, apparently it was a false allegation because he was coming into some HBO $$ for a documentary film he created with Jonah Hill and others.
SomethingMusic
12d ago
Why America's social policy is not helping the poor
There's a section of Youtube lately that is focusing on the faces of poverty in America. Not in a predatory way like 'get rich quick' influences, crypto scammers, and redpill adjacent-sphere individuals like Andrew Tate who are looking to exploit the desperate poor to make profit, but rather to shine a light on the mindset of poverty in America.
One of the most recent videos is by Andrew Callaghan interview and documentary about the Kia Boys, a group of young teenagers around New Haven notorious for stealing and lifting Kia's and Hyundais who had a vulnerability in their system allowing easy theft. It's a fascinating watch, but what's most interesting is how they want to spend the money they earn from carjacking. Not to support their families, not to pay for college or to get a GED, but rather to consume the latest fashion trends and to aspire to selfish hedonism.
Another youtuber is tackling American consumer debt and looks at how consumer choices end them in significant, and often insurmountable debt without extreme lifestyle and person changes. Caleb Hammer interviews people (in a fairly obnoxious and click-baity style) in significant loan and credit card debt, breaks down their finances, and tries to get them on a budget with a varying amount of success. The most common factor of the guests he has on his show is eating out- for most of his guests, almost 33% of most of their monthly income is eating out at various establishments and other spending that does not significantly increase their quality of life. Many of his guests would have significant personal income if they could have some self-control in their consumptive habits.
The problem America is currently facing is not entirely related to HBD, which is a low hanging fruit for discussing antisocial behavior. Rather, it is the culmination of various American policies which have created an underclass which sucks endless resources and only returns crime. It is plenty possible to gainfully employ low intelligence people into socially acceptable positions even as technology improves and our AI overlords come near. In fact, it would probably significantly increase the quality of life of many jobs having lower intelligence people working menial tasks to the best of their ability alongside more trained and capable individuals. The problem is that we have created a society in which there is not enough incentive or will to create the stability necessary to turn around these neighborhoods and communities.
This is the same problem America had in the occupation of Afganistan. A true occupation and social change would need significant more support and time than what the American politics around. It would probably need a full generation to be educated as well as an extreme prejudice to crackdown on Islamic extremism for Afganistan to actually significantly change, maybe 40-60 years.
Unfettered illegal immigration further strangles poverty-stricken America. The social resources are stretched thinner, to the point our politicians decided it's better to serve incoming illegals than their own constituents on the off-chance they're willing to work the menial jobs for well below livable wage for the area. Of course it helps the government are subsidizing migrants to the tune of $350 per day, or $127,750 per year per migrant which would launch them almost into the top 10% of earners in the United States.
So the question remains, what can be done? It's quite possible liberal policy is somewhat correct but doesn't go far enough. Instead of social security checks, benefits should be more tied between work programs and corporations. Imagine that individuals in section housing have to work at Amazon fulfilment centers. Perhaps the government and Amazon could strike up a deal that with enough workers, Amazon could lower the throughput per worker (to increase livability) in exchange for a tax subsidy to offset the cost of having to hire a non-optimum amount of workers. People in section housing could be bussed to the job, and also have regular police presence and social workers more intimately involved in their lives along with people helping them understand budgeting. It would require insane amounts of manpower, but it would also be the first step in actually beginning to address the problems of the slums.
comment deleted because I posted in wrong thread.
SomethingMusic
20d ago
There is a plethora of factors that is infecting all of media, resulting in subpar writing. I would push back a bit in that games like Red Dead 2, The last of us (at least part 1, maybe part 2), It Takes Two, Control/Alan Wake 2, Balders Gate, Cyberpunk etc. all have reasonably coherent and compelling storytelling from the last few years.
So part of your reasoning has to come from separating the wheat from the chaff. There's simply MORE video games being released with varying degrees of writing quality. Of course, many game don't worry much about the writing quality and are still successful (Balatro doesn't have a plot, for example), so writing doesn't determine if a game sells well as much as one might think. Market saturation really does make it more difficult. The barrier of entry of making a game and publishing a game has become much lower, so more people are making games on the off chance they make an insane return on investment.
But let's pretend to ignore that for a bit. I believe 'creative' commercial arts has a too many cooks problem. So many people want to put their mark on a game and implement their ideas into a game. The great works of the past had a few people working on a project - Shakespeare, Tokien, Stolzheneizhen, Wagner, Mozart, are all singular people who had maybe one or two additional contributors in the creation of their works. Video games have hundreds of people included in making a game which can create too much noise. This makes some sense as games are much larger and require a lot more additive details than the historic games you reference.
Another problem is voice acting in modern games force succinct writing - now that major games are all fully voiced, it caused a sudden change in how game characters are written. The biggest example for me was the difference between the characters in FF9 and then in FF10, where in 9, characters had to be unique through how they're written creating dynamic, nuanced and unique characters. FF10's characters weren't nearly as dramatic because of the difficulty of writing for recorded voice.
While blue tribe organizations like Sweet Baby probably has a negative effect on modern game writing, I think it's fairly minimal considering the volume and quantity of games produced.
SomethingMusic
25d ago
I'm not a priest nor an apologist, but this reasoning seems incomplete-
The God of the signifier, the God who turns everything upside down. Ancient commentators, in traditions as diverse as neoplatonism and Buddhism, recognized a problem: if God is perfect, unchanging, atemporal, mereologically simple, then how was it metaphysically possible for him to give rise to this temporal, dynamic, fallen, fractured creation? How did The One give rise to The Many? The orthodox answer is that “He did it out of love”
Love is partially the answer, but as you observed it is rather incomplete. The traditional Catholic response is that free will and original sin, which causes suffering, is part of His divine plan of giving people free will and the autonomy to disobey him. Imagine for a second that you have no choice but to worship a deity, is that actual worship? Is following a law with a gun pointed to your head a good law? Free will and its consequences of suffering ultimately stems from the truth is that adoration without choice is not worship.
I understand your conflict about Christianity, but it seems a lot of your conflict comes from the popular social media representation of Catholicism. CS Lewis points this out in the Screwtape letters:
One of our great allies at present is the Church itself. Do not misunderstand me. I do not mean the Church as we see her spread but through all time and space and rooted in eternity, terrible as an army with banners. That, I confess, is a spectacle which makes I our boldest tempters uneasy. But fortunately it is quite invisible to these humans. All your patient sees is the half-finished, sham Gothic erection on the new building estate. When he goes inside, he sees the local grocer with rather in oily expression on his face bustling up to offer him one shiny little book containing a liturgy which neither of them understands, and one shabby little book containing corrupt texts of a number of religious lyrics, mostly bad, and in very small print.
This quote also addresses the next thing you mentioned - the declining attendance and participation of the Church. I agree that it is a sad state of affairs that church attendance is largely the invalid and the old. However, I also see it as a chance for the Church to realign itself to church teaching instead of chasing the leaving masses. The 'trad catholic' you see and push against online is, as you see, disingenuous tik tok coomer bait for lost meant to spend their simp bucks on their OF equivalent. However, I see the performative aspect is rooted in a desperate desire to get back to the Church forms that go back to its foundation. Even though the pope has been cracking down on Latin mass, I highly suggest trying to attend one in your area if it is still allowed to be performed.
From what I've read of your criticism, your problem is the state of your local church and the online personas that 'promote' it rather than church teachings or doctrine. I would argue that if you think the church is so lacking in direction, volunteer and participate in your church as much as possible! I am a big believer of being the change you want to see in the world, where you see decline, I see opportunity (if I have time, I currently am pretty swamped).
Attempts to give art a rational “purpose”, saying that it “teaches us moral lessons” or “provides entertainment”, all sound so lame because they are so obviously false. The purpose of art is to bring us into communion with The Beyond - that’s it, that’s the long and short of it. To make art is to attempt to do magic, and to be an artist is to be a person who yearns strongly for this Beyond, at least on an unconscious level. If the artist does not ultimately believe in the possibility of transcending this realm, he simply dooms himself to frustration - but the fundamental animating impulse of his actions does not change. The aesthetic is what remains when the vulnerable overt metaphysical claims of religion have been burned away: under threat of irrationality, I am compelled to reject God, free will, and the immortality of the soul, but you cannot intrude on the private inner domain of my sentiment and my desire.
Maybe because these aren't the purposes of art? Art's primary goal is communication. To convey an idea or thought that words fail to fully transmit. Beethoven's 5th symphony communications the light triumphing over darkness. The Sistine chapel exists to celebrate and communicate the love of the divine Christ. One of the reasons why I'm somewhat okay with AI taking over productive is because it will fulfill the commercial and consumptive aspects of art, leaving the artists who are looking to express and idea that is difficult to put into words.
Can you expand how the failure of the artist leads you to compelled to reject God? I fail to see the logical connection there, but I may be misreading something.
Unlike you, I am not particularly worried about the end of the Church, but actually rather hopeful that the 'decline' of the current church is a rejection of the modernizing reform from Vatican II and for the church to find its way to better represent the core beliefs of the church. Catholicism has been historically persecuted and actively hunted for long stretches of time, so the latest pushback against the church is nothing new and in the long term not something I find particularly disheartening.
SomethingMusic
29d ago
The adaption of Islamic catchphrases and memetics is not just due to the integration and adoption of Islam and Arab communities onto the western internets, but also a subversive statement against both Red and Blue political bastion. The Red tribe, especially evengelical christians, are way too pro-Israel for the average terminally online pro-Palistinain. On the other hand, Islam's patriarchial beliefs also appeal to the anti-woke pro-feminist movement while also still being Blue coded, as Blue tribers are overwhelmingly on the side of Palestinians, which was demonstrated recently in the city I reside in.
Islam is still a significant threat to Western values, though these values are being abandoned as quickly in modern 1st world governing bodies. A lot of the appeal of Islam is aligned to the exhaustion of devalued men and workers in modern society. Using force when reason doesn't work to achieve your goals, trodding on rights of individuals for the sake of self-preservation and the patriarchy and finding an ideology not of mutual servitude but of domination and strength has a lot of appeal to disaffected western men.
SomethingMusic
1mo ago
I appreciate that you did the research that somewhat proves what I have hypothesized about the housing market in general - as the cost of money decreases, prices of goods increase. House supply is relatively constrained and are unable to meet demand. This goes both ways - people leaving the area causes price shock as less and less people are in the area, usually houses aren't destroyed when someone moves out. Goes the same in reverse, it can take a year or more to build a house and longer for an apartment building so if there is a sudden influx of people, there are more people trying to buy the same basket of goods and prices increase.
SomethingMusic
1mo ago
They like to live and dig near house foundations. Generally not as bad as other varmints but can be pretty destructive.
SomethingMusic
1mo ago
I call this 'city insanity' in which urban dwellers over fetishize what rural homeowners know as destructive pests. Squirrels, Rabbits, and Possums are other frequent pests that urbanites consider needing special protection. I believe it's some weird combination of personification and lack of personal experience that create these attitudes.
SomethingMusic
1mo ago
Butlerian Jihad, ho!
SomethingMusic
1mo ago
Thank you! It's strange that while I'm excited to be married, I'm not particularly excited about the wedding. In part because of all of my ideas basically got shut down, but also the realization it's so incredibly performative that I feel like the vast majority of it is farcical. I might get a rice cooker and a new bed out of it so that's worth it, right?
SomethingMusic
1mo ago
I generally don't participate on ground level wellness Wednesdays, but I'd like to announce some personal breakthroughs!
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I'm getting married! We've been engaged/planning for several months already but it's finally beginning to feel real. There are a number of hurdles to overcome, but ultimately I'm quite happy with the person I chose and that we'll be able to work together to have a healthy relationship.
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I have spent my entire life perusing classical music on the professional level, and I feel like I've had personal breakthroughs with my playing. Some minor setup changes and a couple successful concerts has increased my confidence as a performer, especially from last year where I had some abysmal concerts/auditions where I was quite unhappy with how I played. I need to practice more to help increase consistency but I feel a lot more confident performing.
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I finally tackled my health a bit and got back on asthma medication which has helped my lung capacity significantly. I really want to get back into exercising but time constraints/energy make it difficult. It has some strange side effects, but the upside for me outweighs any downside.
SomethingMusic
1mo ago
This is really cool! Not only a concise summary of some of their philosophies, but how other philosophers supported or rebutted their claims. I been realizing my browsing of the internet, like so many others, is increasingly stagnant and I only frequent about 5-10 websites regularly. Anyone else have some cool websites to check out?
SomethingMusic
1mo ago
A quick perusal of the summary makes me wonder what's the % difference between these groups. It could simply be noise or it could be statistically relevant and worth a closer study. The weird superposition of people as both individuals and social communities, and the fact that the summary doesn't say the exact usage difference between these groups, makes me wonder if it is actually relevant.
SomethingMusic
1mo ago
And deprive your friends of telling you their misguided thoughts of what said girl is implying? Everyone needs some entertainment in their lives!
Basil, Mint, Rosemary (not all at once)
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