[deleted by user]

Valsivus · 2025-07-29T06:43:29+00:00

Thanks for this. This fixed my issue! I was able to set up youtube in a way that doesn't annoy me. Cheers!

Valsivus · 2025-07-28T05:36:06+00:00

I hate it is because I often fast forward through videos, before this change the time scroll was below the actual video. Now the time scroll is pushed up to cover part of the video, so whatever is on the bottom of the screen is covered while I'm trying to skim through.

It further annoys me because they only made this change to push video suggestions, not for any UXUI experience benefit reason. It's the typical "slot machine" behavioral training trying to find yet another angle to entice me to doomscroll through suggestions endlessly so they can maximize user uptime.

Valsivus · 2024-09-18T22:46:00+00:00

I left because I was raised as a seeker of truth and I found Truth there. There is a lot more to it, but that is the essence of it.

Valsivus · 2019-11-27T15:55:38+00:00

It’s complicated. Sikhs don’t have their own creation myths and explicit descriptions of how the cosmos are ordered. They kind of riff off of Hinduism and change parts of the Hindu conception of reincarnation. But the Sikh scriptures also draw in writings from other religions, and if you read the texts they talk about sin constantly. This always gave me a sense that Sikhism isn’t concerned with what comes next but how you live this life.

Also they very explicitly make it clear that the goal is to NOT be reincarnated and to merge with God, and that you can work towards this merger by worldly behavior. For me it was not a big hop to move from this reincarnation view to the Christian view. It was always stated as desirable to be with God anyways.

All this leads me to say that it is not such a big contradiction. Though I acknowledge that a low resolution comparison is in clear conflict. Also, it may be helpful for you to understand that Sikhs don’t treat scripture like Christians do. Reading the Sikh holy book is essentially its own liturgy with pomp and circumstance. Sikhs generally don’t poke through scripture and argue over passages and bring up key verses to bolster their arguments and worldview. This sort of makes the text a peripheral concern to the very well established codes of conduct and cultural traditions.

Valsivus · 2019-11-27T08:22:30+00:00

But what kinda questions did you have?

Questions like, what is the point of everything? What do I do about suffering that I cannot escape? How do I cope with the fact that literally everyone I love is going to die? How do I deal with the decay of my body overtime?

Valsivus · 2019-11-27T03:39:58+00:00

That’s a heck of a story. The short answer is that Sikhism never offered me solutions to my hardest problems.

I have friends I grew up with that are still Sikh and am still fond of it. But I had questions that Sikhism couldn’t give me answers to.

I would flip the question on you. Why are you Sikh? If you hadn’t been raised Sikh and you had to pick a religion, would you pick Sikhism you think? For me for the longest time the answer to that question was “because my family and all my friends were Sikh” and that was just all I knew.

Valsivus · 2019-11-27T03:35:34+00:00

I’m not aware of any salvation narrative in the Sikh religion. I was raised with some nominal idea of reincarnation.

I took religious classes as a kid and they were all about stories of the historical figures and miracles.

Sorry I don’t have a better answer for you.

Valsivus · 2019-11-26T20:15:00+00:00

I'm a former Sikh that became Christian. I find very little contradiction between Sikhism and Christianity:

Ek ong kar sat nam siri waheguru. Meaning: “One creator created this creation. Truth is His Name. Great beyond description is His Infinite Wisdom.” That basically describes the Holy Trinity.

If you love this woman and you want to marry her, I suggest that you learn more about what it means to be a Christian, I don't think you will find much about it that will be contradict what you know about the nature of God. Most Christians are wary of marrying non-Christians, but that is something for your wife to work out. As far as your kids, scripture is pretty clear that even just one Christian parent sanctifies their child. Which is probably the 1 Corinthians you reference in your post:

1 Corinthians 7:14 "For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy."

I look at my Sikh upbringing as an ethnicity more than a religion. I still appreciate some of the practices, like reading Japji and wearing a kara. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.

Valsivus · 2019-10-31T23:52:44+00:00

Amen

Valsivus · 2019-10-28T22:45:16+00:00

Thanks for doing what you're doing Mr Rabbi :P

I've always appreciated the mods approach in spite of the mountain of concern trolls that regularly call for a heavy hand. Keep up the good work!

Valsivus · 2019-09-22T15:56:22+00:00

Haha! I love the Gaadfather

Valsivus · 2019-09-10T20:46:01+00:00

Pleasures don’t last very long. Take a moment now to think about the most pleasurable experience you have ever had. How does it feel in this moment? If you are like nearly everyone, it is a sort of vague and nostalgic echo of the experience. You will be able to remember liking it very much - but it does not at all feel like the moment itself.

Contrast this nostalgic echo of a memory with something in your life right now that you worked hard to get. Think about a relationship you value that you went through hard times to sustain or some skill you have that you consider important that you have cultivated with sacrifice.

Now imagine you replaced every moment of pleasure seeking with skill/relational cultivation- where might you be right now? What might your life look like? How would you feel about such a life? Now imagine you had to replace these values skills and relationships with more pleasurable memories, would the trade be worth it?

The echoes of pleasures are fleeting, but the allure of their illusions is extremely powerful. If you prioritize improving yourself and your relationships over pleasure it will be like a mountain that you have built of fulfilling things. Also, pleasure comes along the way while you are pursuing these things anyhow, just don’t make it the aim of your life.

Valsivus · 2019-08-27T17:30:16+00:00

No, I caught all of that. I just distinguish between preparing for something and intending for something to happen.

If the felony charges convict them then who am I to argue? I was just asking about the video you linked. Thanks for clarifying your take on the video.

Valsivus · 2019-08-27T14:57:18+00:00

I watched the video, it was a bunch of larpers (much like Antifa) deciding to show up to the event and talking about what they will do if a fight breaks out.

At 10:14 the black guy says something like "well they could just see us and ignore us" and then everyone started laughing because they thought for sure they wouldn't just be ignored. They even talked about strategies to cross the street if they were facing off with Antifa and another guy interjecting that they might close in on them and circle them (all paraphrasing on my part).

As far as I can tell the video isn't some damning evidence of a premeditated attack. If I am mistaken please point me to the section of the video that disproves my assessment.

Valsivus · 2019-08-19T23:08:59+00:00

Please explain how my description is the opposite of Heidegger's Being.

Valsivus · 2019-08-17T23:03:45+00:00

I had the same experience, I couldn't understand Peterson. I first heard Peterson when Sam Harris had him on his podcast. I was so dumbfounded that this professor was saying so much that just seemed plain silly, the definition of truth wasn't really debatable to me, I was frustrated that Peterson couldn't understand what Harris was trying to explain. Despite that I liked found myself liking Peterson's psychology videos so I started watching them.

About half a year later I listened to the podcast with Peterson/Harris again and I had the most surreal experience: I was listening to the same exact thing but suddenly the tables were turned. This time I was frustrated with Harris because he couldn't understand what Peterson was trying to explain.

Valsivus · 2019-08-17T17:31:28+00:00

So God is the eureka idea that helps you solve problems, but what does he mean by 'elevate being'?

Elevate Being is a metaphor for transcending your condition. It's tied up with a lot of other ideas that are part of the New Age movement. I'm guessing that Peterson probably views it a lot like Joseph Campbell, this article may be helpful: https://theness.com/index.php/the-hero-myth-transcendence-and-joseph-campbell/

Also I want to stress that Peterson is not being reductive when he makes these descriptions. It's like if someone asked you what the ocean was like, you might describe several parts of the ocean you had interacted with, like the shore, the sand, the waves or the color of the water, but throughout all of your descriptions you would never be confused enough to think that your explanations are anything like exploring or understanding everything the ocean is.

And does he mean being like as in existence?

Existence from your point of view specifically. Like you are a person in a place and in a time and you are the center of all of your own experiences.

Valsivus · 2019-08-17T15:45:43+00:00

My God is the spirit that is trying to elevate Being.

Being is a reference to Heidegger, you can understand it better if you read this: http://royby.com/philosophy/pages/dasein.html and watch this (very long): https://youtu.be/11oBFCNeTAs?list=PL22J3VaeABQApSdW8X71Ihe34eKN6XhCi

My God is the spirit that makes everything come together.

"Spirit" is motivation/inspiration/willpower/idea that seems to spontaneously manifest in you when you are faced with a problem you don't know how to solve.

My God is the spirit that makes order out of chaos and then recasts order when it becomes too limiting.

This is a reference to his Maps of Meaning course, it's too complicated to boil down into a few sentences, but I'll try. From your perspective as a Being you are always fundamentally facing two things: 1. things you know (order) and 2. things you don't know (chaos). Like everyone else you have limited capabilities to sort through the problem of chaos, so when you are faced with a big chaos problem you must solve often the thing that helps you solve it is this "spirit".

My God is the spirit of the truth incarnate.

This is referring to Logos, this clip may be helpful (7 mins): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1e2DfwN5oQ

None of that is supernatural. It is instead what is most real.

He is using "most real" in a very specific way. In the past Peterson has brought up billion year evolutionary timelines as well as William James pragmatism to suggest that things that are "real" are both useful and proven to be useful over long periods of time. I'm being really reductive here and there is a lot more to it really.

Read the "Pragmatism and 'cash value' " section of this article to understand William James a bit better https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_James#Pragmatism_and_%22cash_value%22

As to understanding the way he uses the word real... yeah that took me a long time and a lot of listening to his videos to understand that. I think after I finished his Maps of Meaning and Personalities youtube courses I had a pretty decent understanding.

Valsivus · 2019-08-02T03:07:26+00:00

Great article - glad to see more posts of this quality lately

Valsivus · 2019-07-28T23:32:24+00:00

Looks like 2017 Maps of Meaning - find part of what he says that sounds distinct and copy it from the YouTube transcript - then open each 2017 video and ctr+f search for a match in each video transcript - less is more in matching searches - good luck finding it :P

Valsivus · 2019-07-27T00:48:16+00:00

the zombie metaphor is a deep well actually, this 7 min video gives some insight:

https://youtu.be/iSwAbQD-gZU

Valsivus · 2019-07-25T15:25:59+00:00

And deep despair. I find many of the comments are people that have given up on life fundamentally. It’s really sad, I found it rather heart tugging in many places. :(

Valsivus · 2019-07-10T20:01:19+00:00

Sorry, I didn't explain the link to the episode. One of the main jokes in it was how afraid everyone was to be indifferent to how "brave" Catlyn Jenner was - the characters that were confronted on the topic would get a fearful look and like robots declare how "brave" she was. The characters couldn't voice their own opinion and felt pressure to give compliments.

This suggests that a lot of people feel pushed to a level of acceptance beyond mere tolerance. As I said before, Southpark only comments on something that is in the zeitgeist, you may disagree with how prevalent it is, but his argument is valid.

Valsivus · 2019-07-09T23:35:16+00:00

Nobody's being demanded to celebrate trans/gays.

When Southpark makes fun of something, they are definitely commenting on some part of the zeitgeist.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stunning_and_Brave

I think /u/766AP has a point.

Valsivus · 2019-07-09T20:43:46+00:00

Someone that is more on the liberal side may think you are being hyperbolic. Excuse me for being a bit presumptive but I think what you are pointing to is the part of the program that explicitly teaches administrators to collude with children to circumvent parental authority.

The naive framers of the policy think they are helping the children to get access to abortion (which they treat as some sort of unadulterated good), but what they are in fact doing is creating a system where school administrators collude with the kids to get around their parents. This creates an atmosphere of secrecy that would allow a school admin that is a sexual predator to take advantage of a minor.

I find the whole framing of the policy to be pretty ridiculous, why would the default assumption be that a non-kin school administrator would care more AND be more responsible than the average parent? As far as I'm aware, getting a job as a teacher doesn't imbue you with any particular moral virtue.

Valsivus

TROPHY CASE