Nice quote, i've seen it before. And i do think that it has a certain amount of value. But i also think that it is a bit of a cop out blaming someone else for rocking the jar, rather than taking responsibilty on how we react to other people and situations.

True. The quote doesn't entirely speak for me, I just find it to be an interesting analogy.

I am not an american myself, so i don't know if i am realy in the position to say something about this, but at least from the outside it very much seems that this statement does not realy apply to the united states as a whole.
Places like california or massachusetts don't seem to have that much a culture of misogyny, while states like alabama or idaho seem to much more accuretely fit that description.

And while in terms of geography those more "traditional" states do make up most of the US territory, in terms of demographics they don't.

I believe that in most polls, the majority of the US population these days, does not subscribe to those traditional views at all anymore. And the trend is also in favor of more modern and liberal views. A recent gallup poll showed that now only 13% of the american population is against abortion for instance.

It is true that in that same poll, 50% of the population is, although pro-choice, also for certain restrictions on abortion, but the poll does not say what those restrictions are so they could be things hardly anybody disputes, like a ban on abortion after 8 months of pregnancy or something like that.

This is true. Also true that the vast majority of U.S. citizens support common sense gun reform. But our democracy is flawed (if you hadn't yet noticed...), and because of the electoral college (which was originally established in order to increase the political capital of slave states...), the law of the land all too often doesn't reflect the will of the people.

Example:

An assault weapons ban was put into effect in 1994 (by whom I won't say...). It expired 10 years later, and the party which was then in power (courtesy of the electoral college - as its leader had lost the popular vote...) and was/still is heavily dependent on lobbying money from the NRA (I won't name any names...) chose not to renew it. This same party (still not naming...) has since stymied all subsequent attempts by the other party to enact common sense legislation regarding background checks, gun show loopholes, limits on domestic abusers' ability to legally purchase guns, banning assault rifles, high capacity magazines and bump stocks (which essentially turns the AR-15 you just bought at Walmart into a machine gun), etc. - until last year, when the first significant piece of gun legislation in the past 30 years was passed (by whom? Give it a google...).

Or, take your other example of only 13% of the population opposing a woman's right to abortion. Very true. Also true that this simply doesn't matter in terms of what has since become law - because the last guy in charge (who also lost the popular vote by a wide margin and took office only due to this same electoral college which exists as a means of usurping the will of the majority...) stacked a wholly illegitimate Supreme Court (and you can do your own research on that...), which despite explicit assurances to the contrary from each of the newly proposed conservative justices in the course of their Senate confirmation hearings, promptly overturned Roe V. Wade (which, as the law of the land, had previously protected a woman's right to choose for the past 50 years).

So, now there is legislation in the works at the state level (in Texas, South Carolina and elsewhere) which proposes to seek the death penalty for women who obtain abortions, and other states are seeking to jail anyone who crosses state lines (or assists another in crossing state lines) for the purpose of obtaining a legal abortion (and most without exceptions even in cases of rape or incest...). And Mifepistrone, which has proven safe and effective for decades, is now expected to become banned at the federal level - set in motion by a Texas judge (who was appointed by guess who...).

It's impossible to deny that a war has been waged on reproductive rights - in contravention of the will of the populace - because the system has been consciously designed to serve a vocal minority (guess who...). The gender wage gap exists across the board; red state, blue state, doesn't matter. And women have only been allowed to vote in this country for the past 100 years, so I would say that, yes, along with a deeply embedded history of institutional racism and a horrific relationship with guns, misogyny is also baked into the cake of American life.

Yo I don't know whats happening here, and frankly don't have time to go through it either, but wanted to drop a notice that there have been multiple people complaining about the thread, and arguing and whatnot.

Are we sure the standards of the forum are being followed throughout these posts?

Sincerely

quick edit

and before some iq fighter thinks this is commented towards the mods, it is not, it is every users responsibility to keep the standards of this place and be mindful of where the conversations are going, make sure to remember that when posting

Complained? To who?

Sometimes the universe is lined up for confrontation. Nothing we can do about it. Even in a place as high quality as the nexus there is a scale either side of the balance. It is unavoidable.

While very high on acid last week, a friend and I mulled over the impossible concept of a purely good society.

If we take the premise that:

1 is the worst behaviour of a group

5 is the baseline behaviour

10 is the best behaviour of a group


So we can comfortably sit at 5 but we have to accept the 1 and the 10 are inevitable.

Or

We can all strive to elevate our behaviour as a group to 10. Let's say we achieve that hypothetically.

Now the baseline is 10
The worst behaviour is 5
The best behaviour is 15

So we are back to square one because a drop of 5 from the baseline still feels the same.

Perhaps it's possible to force a situation where we all manage to stay on the baseline indefinitely but then we dont get the 5 or the 15.

Our acid musings highlighted that it is impossible to live in a better world than we have ever had at any point in history. Baseline always feels like baseline and the +5/-5 always feels as good or bad respectively.

The scale goes in both directions infinitely. There can never be any improvement apart from the brief moments where a new baseline is set.


Makes me wonder. How many times have we as a species tried to improve ourselves only to realise that nothing changes. People from 50,000 years ago might think what we have now is either incredible or terrible compared to their baseline.


In any case, the worst behaviour here on the nexus is still better than the best behaviour out there in the world for the most part. This thread ain't so bad.

Sometimes? (I mean I agree) From bacterial level to galaxies, it's all about confrontation, protection, attack, eat or being eaten, the bigger stronger squashing the lesser.
Then "we humans" should suddenly stand out differently because of ethics and knowledge? Good luck with taming the inbuild frenzy. We ought to know better? We ought to not obey the most fundamentals of nature at large? Like dismissing half of it for principles?

I'm not remotely surprised anymore of anyone's poisonous behavior, shootings, Putins, etc happening. I expect it, given "nature".
I understand absolutely that they happen. As long as there is not this understanding (it doesn't need approving though) you block yourself. You're stick in the mud which is in itself also a very normal thing to happen.

To me mother nature is an all out bitch and we're extractions of it. The acceptance of this keeps me calm in the presence of fucked up people, and they notice and this is how I plant a seed in them hearts, wordlessly, by example. The precondition is to accept the ground zero of nature's hostility basics and the reflections thereof in the creatures small and big. Nothing in the world can calm me down like this acceptance. TBH it was trips learning me that, and take it back living in the world.

Aho.

"Mother Nature is a bitch... Aho!"

Kind of an oxymoron phenomenon there :⁠-⁠D

To me the fucked upness of humans is a layer on top of the brutality of nature/the universe. Not caused by nature. Like there are or have been tribal peoples which while living out the brutality of nature in certain ways, were not psychologically messed up as moderns. This should be easy to see and I don't intend to get into the content of it. But there are many people so hopelessly locked into to the artificial perceptions of their cultures that they will never consider such a possibility. Psychedelics are supposed to help transcend these distorted perceptions and bring one to naked truth, but I have come to the conclusion that they have been so deeply integrated into the modern world at this point that they have become mostly ineffective for this job. Fifteen years ago I got excited when I met a psychedelic enthusiast. Now I mostly want to avoid them. The latest wave of amanita medicine culture has been inspiring. And there still are genuine seekers of truth and healing. They just are not as easy to come by.

Yeah. Whatcha gonna do. There are multiple whiners among us.

This thread began with "Awareness is painful", and the OP was an honest and heartfelt expression of grief for much of the stuff that's followed. So, it's been a discussion. Some feelings have been bruised, some people have gotten pissed. So what. We're all adults here.

I will never understand this expectation that all here pretend the world isn't burning all around them, and that everyone limits their commentary to whether or not tripping entities are real. See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil is not the sign of a strong community. It's just the sign of a group of people who are locked in a pact of denial.

I think the gentle petunias who have been traumatized by adults talking should endeavor to grow a backbone, and maybe try to understand that the world is bigger than their kitchen chemistry sets.

Oh yes, exactly jees and dithyramb

Take a drop of pond water and look under the microscope. Everything life is at a fundamental level can be seen in that drop.

It's a massive privilege that we are not constantly killing each other and stealing each other's energy. We, some of us at least, live in an era of unfathomable ease and comfort, so we forget the game.

Ah yes depends on how aho is defined, I used it as a I-have-spoken, kind of amen. What I stand for.

For the rest we disagree, no problem with that. I think people are not that different, swap their circumstances and get similar stuff going on. Is my suspicion.

The rage, confusion and tempers over this and all other injuries and injustices in our societies is completely valid. This is the 130th mass shooting in the USA. It is not okay. As a father I am mortified, as I am sure others on this site were, and even though I do not live in the US, the rest of the world is composed of tragedies just as ghastly. Not talking about these things, sweeping it under a rug or hiding our head in the sand solves nothing. Sometimes I wish everyone can have a good dose of DMT to break their ego down but then I wonder if its a lasting solution. I have seen my local high school over run with crack cocaine, drug lords murdering each other, by the grace of Aya I escaped. I feel so much pain for those 9 year old children's lives just snatched away. If it does not make you angry or sad then what will?

Psychedelics might make an impact, but, then again, the Aztecs were a pretty brutal crew, and they were pretty familiar with psychedelics.

Perhaps. I wonder how much of that is the conquerers justifying their conquering by saying the natives were like that. The victor writes history so to speak. Im not saying the Aztecs didn't do those things, yet I dont trust history either on that note.

Its also been said that the Maya were like that. Yet the Maya in today's meso america are peaceful people, and still theyve got gotten over on by the modern world. While the modern world's historians claim all that sort of stuff about their ancestors.

In other words, Its not hard to say that some recepticle was for collecting human blood. what if they ground up plants and collected the liquid in such recepticle. what if they sacrificed animaks.

At any rate, there was certainly a motive to cause the natives to appear less civilized- non-civilized even. Even non-civilizible. Why else would their gods be demons?

No, with the Aztecs it’s pretty well documented in their own records. They were as intense as they were reputed to be.

But who translated it? Im suspicious of all of that. By the time modern anthropology arose, how many aztec could read their own ancient writing? And could the anthropologists from the modern world read it at all? What if they know nothing?

Im not saying youre wrong, only that Ive seen alot of examples of groups f**cking each other over with words and disciptions, as justification for conversion to one's religion, having a group submit to the hegemany of others, so forth and so on.

Actually, I don't know how to read it either, truth be told. Just sonetging I've thought about quite a bit.