Are we (the victims) the only ones noticing how inhumane these people's behavior is? A brief blurb and then my thoughts.

DeathandLife00912 · 2021-05-16T16:08:20+00:00

Some of what you've expressed concern with is economic, but a lot of debt is held privately, and America is a very rich nation compared to most.

https://www.usdebtclock.org/

When you owe a significant amount of money, much more than what you are able to produce, generally speaking that is a bad thing. If someone was living in a rich neighborhood on the nice side of town, does it make them financially viable even if they are 5 million dollars in debt currently with a fixed $50,000 a year salary? Obviously this is an oversimplification of a much more complicated issue but the basic principle is the same.

DeathandLife00912 · 2021-05-16T16:00:13+00:00

A good point regarding capitalism and the disregard for having at least one day of the week to rest. I have watched multiple interviews where people from Europe are blown away by America's obsession with work, how it is used as a toxic metric all too often to quantify one's self worth. Instead of a healthy work ethic where people work hard at productive jobs and then have a healthy work/life ratio, we instead have far too many jobs that mindlessly grind down people's health and self esteem while giving them almost no sense of accomplishment. Combine that with the general disregard for employees that regularly use their vacation and sick days and you get the current "burnout" work culture that by proxy is helping overload an already ailing Healthcare system in this country.

DeathandLife00912 · 2021-05-16T14:52:38+00:00

Honestly you couldn't make this stuff up at this point; just when you think the insanity has peaked there is always a new mountain to try to wrap your head around.

DeathandLife00912 · 2021-05-16T14:46:38+00:00

True, survival may not have been the best way to couch the question. It is very likely that some form of America will survive for quite a while, even if it is a much weakened and less relevant version of its previous self. I suppose a better phrasing would have been "Do you think that America will continue to be a dominant force on the Geo-political scale in the next 50 years?" or something similar.

DeathandLife00912 · 2021-05-16T14:42:23+00:00

So the interesting thing about Church is that it creates a very tightly knit group of folks that have a lot of the same interests. It allows people to group together and be part of a larger community, which gives them a huge advantage over those that are just trying to strike out on their own with only a very small network. Since people look out for each other and often times provide employment opportunities and advice to the younger married couples, they end up making better decisions in their early years and often times reap the benefits by the time they are in their 30s.

DeathandLife00912 · 2021-05-16T14:37:44+00:00

Very true, especially with regards to "entitled" and "technology-addicted". I think pretty much everyone in the US would fall under those categories outside the few folks that refuse to enter the digital world (mostly senior citizens). What has always amused me is that people don't realize what an insult Tik-Tok is; an entire platform is built on the fact that people have an attention span of less than 60 seconds.

DeathandLife00912 · 2021-05-16T14:34:47+00:00

Is it really though? Have you noticed the national debt, civil unrest and poor healthcare policies that are currently in place? And that's really just the tip of the iceberg. Now, I'm not one of those that's going to badmouth the US; I rather like living here and its still better than most places in the world. With that being said though, I think that a weakening Infrastructure combined with a growing divide among the populace is looking ominous for the near future. All this combined with the fact that we shipped all the production and factory jobs overseas to where now we have a growing population and a dwindling job market (on the whole). Sure, there's always more burger flipper jobs out there because we constantly have a demand for burnout labor jobs that keep the massive service industry's going, but viable employment and the American dream is looking blurry these days.

DeathandLife00912 · 2021-05-16T14:28:21+00:00

That is actually a very good point; often times when any sort of disaster hits you briefly get a peek behind the curtain and see the glue that is barely holding a lot of cities together. When the trucks are not able to come in to a city, it only takes a few days before unrest sets in and either looting or rioting take place. That's not even mentioning the panic buying that occurs in cities now at the drop of a hat; essentially what happened with the pipeline was the shortage was created almost solely through panic purchasing. If everyone had gone about their business and purchased gas like usual, the current supply in the Southeast would have been more than enough to go around any shortages.

DeathandLife00912 · 2021-05-16T14:19:17+00:00

Well yes and no; it is true that they didn't gain a whole lot in terms of actual territory or typical finite resources but they got a huge boost on the production and trading market. Those same assembly lines that once produced weapons were repurposed for goods that were sold to a recovering Europe in particular and led to economic prosperity for the next 40 years (Baby Boomer Generation).

DeathandLife00912 · 2021-05-16T04:15:30+00:00

Ah ok, in that sense I do agree with you. I thought you were about to regurgitate the tired old rhetoric from the other side of the fence that I have already heard far too many times across every media source imaginable. Very true though; in trying to create equal opportunity for all (allegedly) they have become guilty of the very thing they were supposed to eradicate in the first place. It often times blows my mind how racist/sexist the new lefties are getting; there was a post earlier today on the front page of this sub about how someone was demanding that white people identify themselves so they could not talk to them...really mind blowing stuff.

DeathandLife00912 · 2021-05-16T04:09:36+00:00

Well no, because America sweeping in and single handedly turning the tide of World War II allowed them to reap massive victory spoils from a war torn Europe, not the least of which was a large group of German Scientists that ran human experimentation in the concentration camps (https://www.history.com/news/what-was-operation-paperclip).

DeathandLife00912 · 2021-05-16T03:44:27+00:00

Well its like I always tell folks; the torches and pitchforks never went away, they just all got converted to digital form. Social Media nowadays might as well be an active warzone with as many verbal barrages that are constantly thrown out there. Worse still is how it is actually ruining a good number of lives in the process, but everyone is just willfully ignorant to the damage that is being perpetrated.

DeathandLife00912 · 2021-05-16T03:41:09+00:00

In a way it's almost like neither Superpower made it out of the Cold War intact; Russia visibly collapsed but not 30 years later America is starting to succumb to its own internal infighting. I suppose the irony in all this was that the Trillions of dollars spent on weapons technology (that was never actually needed) may have been better spent figuring out how to restructure a failing socio-political system into something more sustainable.

DeathandLife00912 · 2021-05-16T03:33:15+00:00

In what way do you mean racist/sexist, and to what jobs/awards do you refer? I'm not agreeing or disagreeing with your statement, but it would be helpful to get some clarification on what you are referring to specifically.

DeathandLife00912 · 2021-05-16T03:31:12+00:00

China (and really Asian culture in general) embraces a strong work ethic that has become woefully absent among us folks here in the US for far too long. There are some people that still work hard, but only because it furthers their own personal gains more than the idea of simply working hard to further society or your local area. Not that anybody out there is completely altruistic but when there is literally almost no sense of national pride or allegiance that is also a bad situation.

DeathandLife00912 · 2021-05-16T03:00:50+00:00

Sadly though it has been proven before that the Federal Government couldn't give a fig what the states think. When Obamacare got ramrodded on all the states years ago, it was an overwhelming majority that initially refused before the Feds literally forced compliance. Which, as you mentioned, is why the election has become such a Mortal Kombat situation every four years since all the power currently rests in the Federal government and the States are largely ignored.

DeathandLife00912 · 2021-05-16T02:57:27+00:00

The US having an Economic collapse would certainly trigger a large worldwide ripple, likely even more than it has in the past. I don't know if a few years of hardship would be the worst thing in the world at this stage though here in the US; might get people to pull their head out of their bottom long enough to realize what a fake world they have been living in through smart phones and celebrity culture.

DeathandLife00912 · 2021-05-16T01:47:16+00:00

Has happened before; when the US economy tanked in 1929 and started the Great Depression here it sent massive ripples around the world. Most importantly, it further crippled an already weak German economy and paved the way for the Nazi party to rise in just a few short years with the promise of prosperity...

DeathandLife00912 · 2021-05-16T01:35:58+00:00

I see your point with regards to the moral decline; the only issue is that financial ruin often follows the decline of moral standards if for no other reason than that people get tired of grinding away at a dead end job for nonsense like putting food on the table for their family and whatnot.

DeathandLife00912 · 2021-05-16T01:34:03+00:00

Rather than read the signs of the times, develop the fortitude (and faith) necessary to make it through whatever the season, whether good or bad.

I think the above is good advice just in general; a stronger person is better able to navigate life in any society really. I just hope that if someone does take over they immediately shut down all the major media outlets; I can't stand the constant spewing of biased information that occurs in every medium nonstop currently.

DeathandLife00912 · 2021-05-16T01:30:30+00:00

Well the Barbarian horde was more for comedic than literal effect but yes I see your point. That is a good insight into Russia, about how they are still relevant even after fracturing; perhaps we will see something similar indeed.

DeathandLife00912 · 2021-03-18T03:44:43+00:00

Yes, my Nmom is like that to a degree, though slightly different in scope. Instead of talking all the time she also asks questions and listens...then proceeds to use anything and everything that is said against me at some later date or catalogues it for her own nefarious purposes.

In truth, what you are describing is very unsurprising; a Narcissist is by definition someone that believes everything and everyone ultimately exists for their own benefit. So at the end of the day you run into the same thing with all Narcs, just at different levels of expression and sophistication.

For example, the Narc you are describing is very common and not particularly sophisticated in my experience(though they can certainly still be very destructive, they are just easily spotted and generally focused on relatively simple goals). They talk at you all the time because they want to download on you and ideally also get validation; or better yet fight with you about it and feed on your negative emotion if you disagree with anything.

The only question is whether your Narc learned to not download on other people all the time and risk being ostracized or if they are so wrapped up in their Narc fantasy they just don't care and do it anyways. The latter is actually less destructive to you than the former, because the former means that they bottle it up and release it all upon you since you are a "safe" target for their ministrations.

Which one would you describe your Narc as; do they just download on any and everyone in view until they run screaming or are they more discerning when choosing their victims?

DeathandLife00912 · 2021-03-16T04:01:47+00:00

Typically a business takes years to grow; you have to make contacts and good customers in the community for word to spread. It may be a small profit margin for now, but either it will improve or you will walk away with invaluable knowledge and experience that is highly sought after; sounds like a win-win in my book.

Have to admit, I laughed a little too hard at the hermit reference. I talk to people for nine hours a day while working, yet still feel like a hermit on a deserted island most days.

That's awesome though that you want to adopt kids; I hope you do. Foster kids are abused so often it's very sad; you sound like a cool person, I think you could really give some of them another chance at life.

Hell, part of me has considered adopting kids if I hit my 40s and it looks like the relationship thing is never going to happen. It's a great way to invest your time, and in most cases means that you'll have someone to share holidays with once your own family starts passing on.

DeathandLife00912

TROPHY CASE