I think it’s more important to accept who you are. Just pretending isn’t going to change anything, maybe deep mental health therapy can change you in some ways, but just pretending is exhausting and people will be able to tell.
Well yes, everything is hunky dory if you work in an atypically well paid industry. It’s still a problem for the rest of the country, I imagine teachers aren’t too happy about unpaid overtime for instance.
Norway effectively does as union collective agreements apply to everyone, Sweden again uses collective bargaining, Finland again covers effectively every employee with collective bargaining. Germany does have a minimum wage as of 2015 so that’s just wrong. I’m not going to fact check the others but I imagine it’s a similar situation. It’s not like these countries are lawless and allow rampant employee exploitation.
Well, Obama has publicly said he believed in single-payer healthcare, if in a sly way, in an interview. However, he recognised the practical approach is small steps towards that goal.
> "it's better for everyone to stay the same than everyone get better if some people get better by a bigger amount"
I think this falls down because things aren’t getting better, at least in the US. People are less likely to own a house than their parents were at their age, minimum wage hasn’t increased in line with inflation and has therefore effectively decreased, higher education is more expensive etc.
And then you see people who profit off of making things worse buying their third house and you start to think it’s not exactly fair.
This is my exact problem with all these studies. I thought "people who don't care about themselves eat unhealthily" was a bit of a no-brainer. I started a clinical psychology course on EdX recently and the first exercise was Common Advice. They went on the say the only useful common advice to give to a depressed person is to tell them to go for a run, as that was the only correlation supported by evidence. A RUN! That's so unhelpful that it's actually a common joke between the depressed people that I've met. If you can't get out of bed, you aren't going to be able to go for a run.
Similarly, if you ruminate on horrible things every time you stop and think, you're going to want to go on your phone late into the night until you're so tired you can go straight to sleep. If you don't even know if life is worth living, it's quite hard to avoid eating that bag of chips. I thought these were obvious, but perhaps it's not to people who've never experienced depression. Perhaps the reductionist view, as unhelpful as it is, plays into it too.
This is the viewpoint that confuses me, depending on what you mean by “default” behaviour. Do you think the everyday altruism displayed by people are exceptions? Or do you believe those people aren’t actually being nice to you/others and have ulterior motives? Such a viewpoint must make the world look like a very sad place indeed.
You may argue that altruism is actually in self-interest, by making you feel good, but that’s circular logic[1].
I think the quality of the human connection is important. The Dodo Bird Verdict[1] states that the relationship and connection between a therapist and client is the true healing factor. Indeed, a strong causal factor on client outcomes is the attitude of the therapist; whether they are warm, caring and genuine. The therapist-client relationship accounted for 7% of the variability in outcome, whereas adherence to a specific treatment accounted for 1%.
On an individual basis, the specific treatment matters, but statistically the human connection matters more. Your standard “what did you do on the weekend” friendship won’t cut it.
Yes, perhaps raising the taxes wouldn't stop more people, but lowering the taxes may encourage more people. One could imagine that having no taxes may make it easier for teenagers to start smoking, for instance.
It’s funny you say our current system enables companies to “not die” in hard times. In reality, during hard times corporate socialism is used to ensure companies’ survival wherein the taxpayer bails our big companies. I see no reason why similar corporate socialism couldn’t be used in a different system.
It’s also interesting you think capitalism allocates capital effectively. I would argue the opposite, that it aims to concentrate wealth into the hands of the few. How many life saving startups die while Apple has hundreds of billions of dollars of cash? How many brilliant people are born into poverty and can’t enact their ideas, while Bezos buys his sixth house?
I think it's more to highlight the fact that there are differing opinions, and American sensibilities shouldn't necessarily dictate what people in separate countries can do. I see no mention of popularity.
Perhaps you should be arguing against lobbying instead of arguing “well, if we try to stop big pharma they’ll just fuck us so might as well roll over and die”.
Coffee has been shown to reduce the length and quality of REM sleep, which is very important for early brain development. Read the relevant section in ‘Why We Sleep’ and you may change your mind.
I think this is painting a rather stereotyped view of people on the left. I share most of the views of the left, however don't end relationships with people over it, preach, or attend any seminars. I think you're seeing the vocal minority here, which is of course more outspoken as they care enough to talk about it. Apart from the most extreme people, I have had many productive conversations with people whose views were more left than mine and haven't been ostracised once.
When you say PTSD, would you mind expanding on how that manifests? Is it a low level constant anxiety, or more akin to sudden anxiety due to a certain trigger, or something else? I understand if it's too personal a topic. I'm very interested in psychedelics, but am worried about the potential negative side effects. Someone I know said LSD caused them anxiety once, and it lasted for a few months but eventually sorted itself out. Is your PTSD sorting itself out slowly? How long ago was your 500+ug experience?
Also you say you have some permanent overhangs; would you mind telling me a bit more so I know what to expect?
I'm not the original commenter, but here's two sources [1] [2] for the 50% number, with [1] saying this represents 5% of US retail sales. It's 50% of US e-commerce.
You're arguing gamers would have a longer life expectancy than others, and that you'd rather have your child game than go outside. Do you disagree with the widely accepted fact that exercise is beneficial to health, and thus a longer life?
It can be quite hard to ignore the smart part. For example, my TV can't even display the input selection menu properly. It moves about as it tries to load an ad, then can't.
This is assuming being gay is purely sexual, which, despite being called a sexual orientation, is misguided. There is more to attraction than sex, such as who you imagine you could be in a relationship with, who you develop feelings for, and who you love. In other words, while one may be aroused by certain sexual activities (kinks), no one develops a crush on someone because of a specific sexual activity.
Being gay isn't a kink, just as being straight isn't.
Straight people continued relationships despite being outlawed, which is the entire premise of Romeo and Juliet. Would you call Romeo and Juliet's relationship a kink?
Making an assumption here, but I assume you loathed the browser lock in because you tried using a different browser, probably Chrome. Thing is, for iOS, you have to drink the koolaid to truly see the benefit. Personally coming from Android it's so nice not being asked which app I want to open a link in all the time, I dont have to think about it. I know that sounds silly because you can choose a default, but it's too many options, I don't want to have to choose and think which option I'm going to want more often as long as it works.
I know you're joking, but you raise an interesting point. I honestly think porn is potentially harmful, and having stopped watching it myself, understand why 44% would too. It's brutally extreme depiction of sex almost desensitises the brain to the actual experience, at least in my experience. Especially with the endorphins reinforcing the behaviour, it can get close to an addiction.
You're overthinking this. People don't add up the value of a "mate" and pick the highest valued one. They look for someone they get on well with. No one cares if you fear driving, no one cares if you have student loans. Maybe you should talk to friends about your problems, I know when I did I discovered everyone's got problems, mostly the same as mine, and no one gives a shit, including their girlfriends. No one's perfect.
I've never seen this in my life in the UK. There is a guy watching over the people in the toilets in the clubs near me, but you don't talk to him and he doesn't hand you anything. Even if he did hand you something, you don't have to have a conversation with him.