The ideal government is the one that doesn’t exist since there are too few humans to require one.

Barring this, the ideal government is one that seeks to prioritize and protect individual freedom above all else and whose participation in/allegiance to is entirely voluntary and transparent.

Sure, I like to discuss stuff like this. I personally don’t believe in God, so the short answer is no.

There are too many examples throughout human history of people attributing stuff they can’t explain to a God, only to find out later that it was just something they didn’t understand.

I have a much easier time believing that humans are just ignorant and prone to magical thinking than the existence of some being in the sky that decides everything.

That said, I don’t mind if others find comfort in that kind of thing. I just expect for their beliefs to not affect me in any way, like mine shouldn’t affect theirs.

Indeed.

Trying to figure out what we are wrong about is so much more productive than trying to prove what we are “right” about.

Surviving a pet means being confronted with the harsh possibility that there is no logic or fairness in the universe, just a cold and indifferent void in which our feelings and actions have no bearing whatsoever.

Nothing helps except sleep. REM sleep in particular is needed so avoid alcohol especially during periods of peak grief since it interferes with this a lot.

That said, sleep will only help with blunting the pain over time. Note that it is NOT time that heals all wounds, but rather good REM sleep. Other things to optimize are exercise, diet, limiting caffeine, etc but doing so while grieving is admittedly hard. Just do your best.

Grief is otherwise the excruciating process of reclassifying all your memories (and associated cues like those you describe) to include the fact that your friend is now gone. The unique cruelty of it all is that each memory (when they happen to enter your consciousness) means having to experience the pain of their loss over and over again.

That said, my own approach was to embrace that pain, to feel it as fully and deeply as possible, every time a new memory came up. I do this to this day even though years have now passed. This is how I chose to honor my friends’ memories and special place they held in my life. It is how I thank them for all that they gave me.

Even if you believe as I do that nothing matters beyond our own experiences in life, pets surely form one of the very few genuine things worth living for.

I’m sorry for your loss.

#grownostr

#grief

#petsarebetterthanpeople

nostr:npub17u5dneh8qjp43ecfxr6u5e9sjamsmxyuekrg2nlxrrk6nj9rsyrqywt4tp

Thank you for your recent efforts to highlight some of the more interesting/difficult aspects surrounding freedom of speech. This is a great altruistic use of your popularity and intellect in my opinion although I’m sure it has its downsides for you on occasion.

I agree that the trend is quite solidly and disturbingly in the direction of sacrificing freedom of speech so as to protect the delicate feelings of the majority. This is the vehicle that has allowed the ruling class to create all the tools they could ever want to silence dissent.

For this reason, it is very important to me to see difficult conversations like the ones you started here on #nostr. In fact, if I’m not getting offended on #nostr, I’ll probably stop using it.

I’ll take the occasional offensive image that I have to mute/ignore or crazy person rambling on about some nonsense that is real only to them (like most of my own posts), in order to have some sense that censorship doesn’t yet exist here.

Thanks again.

#grownostr

#thinkdangerously

#getoffended

Sounds pretty reasonable.

War is like a reset button for the global elite. If too many people start to smarten up, just spin up a conflict or two. The distraction and fear always work to keep the plebs in line.

I see the veil is too thin for you as well.

More people should consider reading “The Dawn of Everything”.

I believe the bulk of us are hard wired at this point to accept that government is needed for humanity to function.

The fact that this is not the way humans functioned for thousands of years is lost on most people. We think we are civilized now because we have institutionalized violence. The irony is incredible.

While I agree with you, the possibility exists that we are very much in the minority.

Some humans like us have the luxury to stop and think about such things, but most are far too distracted, and lots simply won’t care until something bad happens to them directly. There is also the possibility that we are wrong to care about such things, and that none of this matters at all or to the extent that we think it should.

I am personally coming to the conclusion though that we are just a fundamentally flawed species that peaked some time ago and now is on a very dangerous downslope as far as evolution goes.

It seems as though only the dimmest are breeding now, as anyone who can count or do basic math might be inclined to think there are too many humans already. Of course this isn’t universally true but it does seem that way to me at least. The result is the kind of human we have now, the kind that is not only maximally distracted but in fact seeks to be even more distracted at every turn.

After all, if we can’t even control our numbers, what chance to we have of solving complex higher order problems such as sound money or free speech?

I’m just glad I have access to such tools in my lifetime. I’m also fine with the rest of humanity imploding around me under the weight of their own misguided decisions and priorities. No child of mine will ever have to suffer with them.

#grownostr

#thinkdangerously

I appreciate you taking the time to craft a genuine reply. I am also happy for you if the advice you give has been successful in your own life. Certainly, community and social interactions work well for many to feel ‘better’ about themselves. Shared dreams are the easiest to believe after all.

I agree also that most humans are not possessed of terrible intentions. I do see many as being frustratingly simple and prone to magical thinking in order to avoid the harsh realities of their existences however. Religion and spirituality being the apex of such mental gymnastics. For instance, I don’t think it’s mere coincidence that religions often argue for unchecked human reproduction.

The products being sold in churches and other markets of cultural programming (namely hope, meaning, and purpose) are hard to resist when the reality is that none of those things truly exist anymore.

I should point out that the sort of existential dread I feel is not borne of some terrible depression although I can understand how it could easily be misunderstood/dismissed as such. It’s just that unlike most, my goal is not to escape, distract, or hide from tough realities. Instead, I seek to experience their full weight and still find joy and happiness despite them. In this respect, I have been quite successful but admit it’s a lot more work than simply swallowing some prepackaged version being sold by someone looking to profit off my human weaknesses.

Thank you again for your reply and I wish you and everyone the best on our shared and complex human journey.

It’s not so much thinking highly of myself as not being able to elicit much in the way of rationale from others who think differently.

I would love nothing more than to be wrong about the direction in which humanity is headed, but sadly, this doesn’t seem yet to be the case.

If you can help me out with reasons why I am wrong to think this way, I would be very very grateful.

We have become a species of dreamers and simpleton romantics who are largely unable to see the world and the state of humanity for the dystopian hellscape that it really is.

For most of my life, I have been puzzled by how most people can look upon their own lives and the lives of others and say “yeah, I want more of this - I’m going to have kids!”. But it makes perfect sense from an evolutionary perspective. Most of those humans who had the capacity for introspective thought and the ability to develop realistic perspectives have long since died off. They saw the world as an overpopulated shithole and said “fuck this”.

All that remains now (save a few genetic anomalies like myself) are the mindless dreamers.

I’ll be happy to join my kind soon enough.

#grownostr

#thinkdangerously

#childfree

Unless you’re the one playing them to extract the joy that can only come from physical exercise, sports worship is just more mindless brand tribalism like loving Apple products, worshiping a God, or supporting your chosen political party.

Granted, it is incredible what pro athletes can do, but it’s almost never healthy or good for them to subject their bodies to that kind of strain. That is to say nothing about the terrible ways in which fame and sudden wealth can ruin a young persons life.

Please don’t let greed enter what should otherwise be a logical decision. I’m sure not all leverage is bad, but it is a tool of the fiat world after all. I proceed only with extreme caution in that world since I neither make nor (I’m sure) know all the rules.

I should add that your point about restaurants, entertainment, etc is not entirely lost on me.

The problem that I found after a while though was that the cost of such experiences has really just become ridiculous (and I say that as someone who can afford most anything). It’s either like $2500+ for a mind blowing dinner or show or else it’s just meh.

Now I truly just prefer to cook really tasty stuff myself (I’ll invest in shipping stuff from all over the world if needed) and buy nice audio equipment etc. to have those experiences without a bunch of strangers around.

Granted, I’m not single and hate being around almost all people. :)

First, I’m sorry for your loss. :)

Second, as a reformed but former city dweller, I would suggest taking advantage of the freedom to travel without concern for house maintenance etc. Condos are great for that. Plus you are hopefully within proximity of a more major airport which is nice for frequent travel purposes.

Now that I am much more remote, but still travel a shit ton, these are literally the only things I miss.

Oh, and Costco. :)

We have “freedom”TM. It, like most everything nowadays, is largely fake.

We are then given false comparisons to make ourselves feel better. Are we more free than the people in Yemen? Maybe, but then when did that become the agreed upon benchmark?

Either way though, we have steadily given our actual freedoms away for the promise of “safety”TM and “equality”TM.

It’s all bullshit. We are captives in a slightly nicer cage, that is all.

While I’ll resist the urge to jump all the way back on my soapbox, the root of the problem in my opinion is the fact that people continue to breed and provide the masters with a limitless supply of slaves (at the parents’ own expense!). Until things change, I don’t understand how people can still bring children into this dystopian hellscape.

I see how you could reach that conclusion and I respect the feedback.

Language is a notoriously low fidelity system for communicating an internal state (or idea/concept/feeling/whatever) to another person.

Often our intentions are quite different from our perception by others. This, coupled with the fact that we tend to only see the best in ourselves and the worst in others, makes communication quite challenging.

I’ll continue to try to modify this pattern.

Thank you for a great and well-reasoned reply.

I do appreciate your point about opportunities for improvement. There are definitely many ways in which #Nostr can and hopefully will improve. It is very young tech after all.

That the growth happens in a way that protects the fundamental purpose of the technology (Ie: censorship resistance), as opposed to merely recycling the same tired top down strategies of the advertisement based platforms, is where I hope to see things go though.

In that way it really can be the content that has value, as opposed to the number (or rather suggestibility) of users.

Thank you again for sharing your thoughts! :)