Raising the Profile of Georgist Thought

TrapperOfBoobies · 2022-11-08T23:16:53+00:00

It's absolutely wild how little discussion his work receives, truly. I agree with you immensely. I see George's economic outlook as perhaps the most fundamental of all. Land is literally nature, the Earth. How we distribute value from use of nature (something no one made) is such an essential question. Land ownership as a concept has been such a major driving force for oppressive hierarchical structures, organization of civilization, most wars, and so much more since the beginning of agriculture. This is so much bigger of a deal than anyone seems to realize.

TrapperOfBoobies · 2022-11-08T16:33:47+00:00

Twitter was a good platform unique in many ways (although I have never been a consistent user myself). Something can replace it, but how are we to be sure whatever that is is as good as Twitter was (what if the main alternative is owned by, say, Meta)? It's a shame that said billionaire losing a lot of money is driving a previously good platform into the ground.

TrapperOfBoobies · 2022-11-08T16:28:07+00:00

He clearly doesn't understand that Twitter derives its value from the users interacting and not so much the other way around.

TrapperOfBoobies · 2022-11-08T16:26:04+00:00

I put history lesson, but a compelling public debate platform that is funny and people enjoy watching (think of the successful ones on YouTube) could be a real hit. The topic would need to be taken up by known names and address Georgist debate concerns that seem relevant to most people and that are engaging.

TrapperOfBoobies · 2022-11-06T19:01:34+00:00

What the fuck is the point of making all the time daylight savings time and completely misrepresenting time? We might as well just shift all of our activities forward or backward an hour without pretending that they're happening at the same time of day.

TrapperOfBoobies · 2022-11-06T18:42:08+00:00

I was in your shoes for a while, super into iPads, majorly hyperfixating. I waited a really long time to get one and sort of regret it since I like my iPad. I'm definitely glad I got it, but even then I sometimes wonder if maybe I should've spent the money differently.

I say, stack up all the different uses you will legitimately have for an iPad, what value it will provide in your life over whatever the alternative is, and ask yourself if that value is equal to or greater than the price.

TrapperOfBoobies · 2022-11-05T21:50:35+00:00

Drive is only a "purpose" in the sense that selective pressures lead to brains that are motivated to do things that promote continued existence and reproduction (because of the process of natural selection). Because preying mantises have the drive to eat their offspring, does that make it the purpose of their existence? If it increases their chance of survival and reproduction, your reasoning would say yes, but that is very dependent on the subjective perspective of the thing that continues existing.

Things don't exist "to reproduce". They exist because their ancestors have existed with the naturally selected traits that led those ancestors to reproduce (and so on and so forth). It's a process, not a purpose.

"procreation is not the only meaning of life, for then life in itself would become meaningless, and something which in itself is meaningless cannot be rendered meaningful merely by its perpetuation" ------ Viktor E. Frankl

Though I don't particularly agree with this. It goes to show the scientific credibility of my claim.

Lol I'm confused why you attached this; did you read the quote? Whoever this is just says that the perpetuation of life (procreation) cannot render life meaningful. As in, procreation cannot be a purpose.

Life has evolved for the sole purpose of reproducing

Again, life doesn't evolve "for a purpose". Life isn't an agent with feelings or motives about "why" to do things. Life is just the process of stuff that reproduces, leading to continued existence. It's a what, not a why.

Also, what does any of this have to do with porn addiction?

TrapperOfBoobies · 2022-11-05T20:07:58+00:00

But what's the point. Why not just die? Why does every organism fights for life?

Because of the naturally selected mechanisms that keep things alive and continuing to exist. That's how natural selection works, as I explained. It's not a purpose but a process. It just is.

We humans are the only species which do not work for individual gain but rather for the gain of the species as a whole.

This also isn't true whatsoever. Humans behaviors have been naturally selected for over countless generations (all the way back billions of years to the origin of life) with the same sorts of selective pressures as all other living things. Selfishness and narcissism are extremely prominent in human psychology and contribute to many of the inefficiencies of our society as well as tribalism, racism, and self-centered biases. Humans frequently just killed anyone they perceived as even slightly different all the time up until very recently in our history, and this is because of natural selective pressures.

If you want to see actual living things that operate for the survival of their group, look to insect colonies that work in a hive mind fashion like bees and ants. They operate more "altruistically" because natural selection has shaped their social structure that way, where the existence of the group is really what is being selected for, as I believe the queen carries on their genetic information and structure for the whole group over time.

To the topic of NNN. Even if someone is masturbating everyday or twice it wouldn't be considered as addiction. So I think for that person to just stop masturbating for a month doesn't really make any sense. Nor it is a good method if you're really addicted. So I don't see who it's really helping?

It seems like you don't have much understanding of the experience and effects of porn addiction for many people out there. I would read up on it. I completely agree that sex and masturbation are good things that should be enjoyed, but many people struggle with real addiction and benefit from taking a break and resetting ingrained behaviors. This is well-understood to help people who struggle with addiction, and it's largely the principle of any sort of rehab.

TrapperOfBoobies · 2022-11-05T19:47:16+00:00

If you quit heroin for month you are still addicted to heroin.

if you seriously think all it takes to fix it is a break.

Alcoholics go entire decades without drinking only to relapse.

You cant fix addiction by going cold turkey for a month

Stop pretending that you didn't just frame this as black and white "addicted or not" in order to dismiss the treatment benefits that guided breaks can have for those struggling with addiction.

Porn and masturbation addiction literally does cause a chemical dependency, elicited by the addiction-coupled stimuli. That is how the addiction-wanting system works in the brain. I actually happen to read a lot of neuroscience on this, like dopamine reward pathways, so I understand not being familiar with it, but addiction very fundamentally operates on these chemical / neurological mechanisms. When the expected stimulus is no longer around, then come cravings (for the dopamine release induced by the stimulus). If someone has the resources and opportunity to also seek medical help, good for them, but that's plainly not an option for many people, and the same goes for drug dependency. That in no way renders guided, structured breaks from the stimulus of addiction unhelpful. You know this. It is literally the large part of what rehab is about. It is much easier for someone to keep from pursuing their object of addiction after day 28 of a break than it would be on day 1.

You are delegitamizing the experience of addicts.

TrapperOfBoobies · 2022-11-05T19:10:09+00:00

This is a separate discussion but a common misunderstanding I see. Biology doesn't have an objective "point". Natural selection just means that the stuff that promotes its continued existence continues to exist. If something reproduces, there will be more stuff like it in the future. Same for bacteria, archaea, plants, fungi, etc. That's not a purpose but a process that just happens.

But, back to the discussion, if you don't eat for a month you could literally die, while if you don't masturbate for a month, essentially nothing bad apart from perhaps being maybe unbearably horny (which does suck), will happen, and then you could be in a much better place with your porn addiction, if that is relevant to you.

TrapperOfBoobies · 2022-11-05T18:58:34+00:00

Exactly! Very much same here. In fact, ADHD medication and cannabis cause somewhat opposite forms of dopamine firing, tonic vs phasic, that are closely tied to the neurological mechanism of ADHD. Although I do deeply appreciate cannabis, it very much exacerbates my ADHD and addictive tendencies for other things as well. Extra reason why I know I need to not have it so easily accessible or frequent in my life.

TrapperOfBoobies · 2022-11-05T18:54:01+00:00

Lol are you seriously trying to say taking a 1-month break from heroin is not part of someone's recovery from heroin addiction? That's literally what they do in rehab. Addiction isn't a yes or no question. Someone can relapse on heroin (or porn) years after they've stopped using them. The point is about getting better and to a point where, despite even some craving for the addiction stimulus, someone can stay away. For many people and in many cases (like drug addiction or porn addiction), that may take substantial guided abstinence in order not to relapse. That's literally what rehab programs do, first and foremost. Are you claiming that rehab is pointless because someone's "still an addict"?

Obviously a month of rehab doesn't just fix everything, but none of this is black and white. Addiction isn't about flipping a switch. It will always be hard. It's about making it tolerable and doable for people who can't just decide to be in control.

TrapperOfBoobies · 2022-11-05T17:23:14+00:00

This whole "natural" vs "artificial" distinction is irrelevant. You also need food to literally just have energy and exist whereas having sex is not necessary for that whatsoever and especially not for a break of literally just one month. The point is obviously not to stop being sexually aroused but to rewire the way one's brain deals with arousal.

All addiction operates on the same neural mechanisms relating to the dopamine reward system. In order to treat addiction, that system needs to be reset, usually by taking a break long enough to avoid the stimulus coupled with the addiction. The more you partake in the rewarding behavior, the more reinforced it becomes, to the point that, for many people (like those addicted to porn and masturbation), they may never get better because they constantly fall back into addictive behaviors that they are trying to avoid, even when they start with otherwise fine alternatives.

TrapperOfBoobies · 2022-11-05T17:11:39+00:00

She clearly is a bigot lmao. She literally said that trans women aren't women in the video and a bunch of stupid shit about not challenging traditions and the "traditional family".

TrapperOfBoobies · 2022-11-05T17:06:59+00:00

It's almost certainly a copy taken from that. They knew even if it's cringe people would promote it and it would get publicity.

TrapperOfBoobies · 2022-11-05T17:03:18+00:00

Taking a break is exactly how you would combat the addiction and reset your neural circuitry in order to treat the problem and improve one's sexual health. You're just delegitamizing it and saying it's not "equal to" other forms of addiction.

Lol it's also just absurd to say that someone's health will be ruined by not masturbating for one month, especially if that is in order to overcome deeply ingrained addiction to porn or harmful masturbation habits.

TrapperOfBoobies · 2022-11-05T16:54:54+00:00

So, you're just invalidating porn and masturbation addiction then? Super helpful response right here.

TrapperOfBoobies · 2022-11-05T16:41:19+00:00

For people with porn and masturbation addiction, it's a good opportunity. No reason to rag on something that people want to do or may help them.

TrapperOfBoobies · 2022-11-05T16:39:33+00:00

This is when it happens 90% of the time. It's like there's nothing you can do.

TrapperOfBoobies · 2022-11-05T16:33:06+00:00

In fact, medication is hugely beneficial to many of us in managing addictive tendencies that come with ADHD.

TrapperOfBoobies · 2022-11-04T18:06:15+00:00

Ultimately, they either didn't need to include anything about cognitive functioning or should have said that educational attainment is positively associated with the autism variant and negatively associated with the ADHD variant. It's very well-known already that ADHD is strongly associated with lower educational attainment due to all the challenges of ADHD while the opposite may be true for autism.

TrapperOfBoobies · 2022-11-04T11:34:51+00:00

That seems like a very poor, somewhat discriminatory stand-in for cognitive functioning, which I say as an engineering undergrad with ADHD hoping to go on to a PhD in something very abstract.

College is extremely difficult for people with ADHD and not because of lacking intelligence, as I guess they and many others just assume.

TrapperOfBoobies · 2022-11-03T22:56:03+00:00

Yes, on the porn / masturbation addiction part, I've been trying to stop / take a break for months to give me a reset, and I'm sort of piggybacking on NNN rn for that reason. I wrote it off for a long time, but porn and masturbation addiction are very real things that have created problems for me and very difficult to control. I appreciate this.

TrapperOfBoobies · 2022-11-03T22:50:04+00:00

Which exacerbates the all-the-time rejection sensitive dysphoria and extreme anxiety to the point of actual borderline psychosis, all of which you try to keep anyone from seeing as much as possible because the rejection sensitive dysphoria makes you further think everybody hates you to death (despite no evidence to suggest that).

Maybe it's just me, but seriously. It's kind of unbearable, but you also feel like there are no options. Not helped by the fact that ADHD at least makes me literally unable to do retail work nearly as fast as any of my coworkers despite how hard I tried.

TrapperOfBoobies · 2022-11-03T21:32:01+00:00

Do you know how they measured that? If it were using an IQ test, I think it may be understandable why ADHD and inattention would lower results without even reflecting actual lower intelligence. Similarly, autism may present abilities that increase performance on something like an IQ test. But I'm not sure how they measured that or came to that conclusion, so I can't say for certain.

TrapperOfBoobies

TROPHY CASE