Help How it is

[noaccount]

The biggest thing that defines emotional health is safety and integrity in relationships.
I do what I can to pool my energy with those whose goals I trust. Who understand that the value of a human life doesn't change based on borders or nationality. Who don't think it's fucking okay for people to get rich off the labor of those they exploit.
I think a lot about ctb'ing most days.

 

[Makko]

How else are people supposed to get rich?

 

[timf]

There is that in human nature that drives people to exploit others to get as much for themselves as they can. This characteristic has been occasionally muted by philosophy (such as the Stoics) and by religion. The Karma religions like Hinduism and Buddhism tend to view the poor as being punished for some transgression in a previous life. Islam is supposed to support charity as one of the five pillars of wisdom.

Christianity is a little like Islam in that the percentage of people in a society that actually believe and follow it probably never even approaches 50%.

A man from Guatemala was once interviewed about illegal aliens. He said that his father had worked in the US illegally and returned to Guatemala with enough money to buy four run down buses and start a small bus service. His business was becoming successful when four armed men showed up and took it over. What made America great to his father was the possibility that hard work would not be stolen.

The US and Western Civilization as a whole is deserting its Christian heritage. One of many results is that people are going to be treated more and more unfairly. Your desire to avoid the exploitive and associate with those who are just is certainly understandable. It may just be getting more difficult to find them.

 

[whywere]

Oh my, I say this aspect only as a reference point: I am 65 and have seen so much greed in the business world in all my working years that it makes my head explode with pain. From the CEO's compensation in the millions to the poor 8 to 5 office worker hardly getting by. This world will never get better till the aspect of greed is somehow brought under control. We are all the same and everyone deserves, food, shelter, clothes, medical and dental care and the dignity of feeling as part of something so much bigger.
Walter

 

[noaccount]

I am not interested in or sympathetic to Christianity.

 

[everydayiloveyou]

There is that in human nature that drives people to exploit others to get as much for themselves as they can. This characteristic has been occasionally muted by philosophy (such as the Stoics) and by religion. The Karma religions like Hinduism and Buddhism tend to view the poor as being punished for some transgression in a previous life. Islam is supposed to support charity as one of the five pillars of wisdom.

Christianity is a little like Islam in that the percentage of people in a society that actually believe and follow it probably never even approaches 50%.

A man from Guatemala was once interviewed about illegal aliens. He said that his father had worked in the US illegally and returned to Guatemala with enough money to buy four run down buses and start a small bus service. His business was becoming successful when four armed men showed up and took it over. What made America great to his father was the possibility that hard work would not be stolen.

The US and Western Civilization as a whole is deserting its Christian heritage. One of many results is that people are going to be treated more and more unfairly. Your desire to avoid the exploitive and associate with those who are just is certainly understandable. It may just be getting more difficult to find them.

It's interesting how you bring up that story about the Guatemalan. My family is Honduran (right next door to Guatemala) and if you look at the history, the violence and corruption that happens down there is directly caused by American imperialism and interference. In Honduras most specifically, banana growing used to be a trade run almost fully by small local farmers. US businesses took advantage of Honduras' development policies during this time and basically stole away all of the local lands to turn them into factory farms. The US would also train the Honduran army and politicians to protect US business interests without a single regard for the Honduran people, who suffered a lot from Americans taking over/shutting down/refusing to build essential rail lines that could bring them to better jobs or school in order to keep all of the trains supporting banana growing.

Of course your shit gets stolen in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Colombia, etc... it's because the *US* instilled and encouraged a culture of thievery, violence, and corruption, and they are funding the people who keep up the status quo. Straying from Christianity has very little to do with it. It's Christian and non-Christian Americans who destroyed the region, starved the people, and buy the drugs which fund the mara who pillage and extort local businesses.

 

[Makko]

Of course your shit gets stolen in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Colombia, etc... it's because the *US* instilled and encouraged a culture of thievery, violence, and corruption, and they are funding the people who keep up the status quo. Straying from Christianity has very little to do with it. It's Christian and non-Christian Americans who destroyed the region, starved the people, and buy the drugs which fund the mara who pillage and extort local businesses.

The US is the source of about 90% of this in the world. China, Russia and all the others share the other 10%. This has nothing to do with US as a country, but with the fact that US as a phenomenon is designed as a platform for the businesses to operate in the world. The businesses themselves and the people who run them have no national identity. They use patriotism/nationalism to control their low-IQ gorilla servants (military, media, church etc).

Whenever I come in contact with a third-world economic context of any significance, at the center of the network is always a marauding American company. Always. I gave everyone else an estimated 10% because I assume there are exceptions. There are European and Chinese companies but they're seldom at the center.

 

[motel rooms]

The US and Western Civilization as a whole is deserting its Christian heritage. One of many results is that people are going to be treated more and more unfairly.

Ever heard of the Christian Middle Ages & the unbelievably fair phenomenon of serfdom? Ever heard of slavery in the Antebellum South?
Are workers treated more fairly & is there less racism in the most religious/Christian US states than in those that are the least religious?

 

[noaccount]

Yeah I want to clarify that @timf and I simply do not have compatible or overlapping goals or values so I'd like not to discuss his feedback anymore in discussing my personal search for viable alternatives to suicide

Might come back to this later idk

 

[noaccount]

For fucks sake! I want to live! I don't want to hurt myself wtf!

 

[tabletop]

The US and Western Civilization as a whole is deserting its Christian heritage. One of many results is that people are going to be treated more and more unfairly.

Could you elaborate more on those two sentences specifically? I'm curious why you're saying this. Do you believe in the Christian God and religion? Or do you have some sort of evidence to support your statement? As others have pointed out Christians have been responsible for some pretty nasty mistreatment and war through out history. As a former Christian the only way I can see someone believing Christianity to be inherently good is if someone believes in their God. Whether they are Christian or not.

I'm just super curious how factual your statement/prediction is or if it it more based on belief. Would you say the same about other religions? I'm not saying all religions but some or even one.

 

[Alwaysbadtime]

Frankly I don't know what you mean...either one is in the economic reality of supporting themselves for relaitionships or someone is out of the loop due to being fucked.

 

[ven]

It's interesting how you bring up that story about the Guatemalan. My family is Honduran (right next door to Guatemala) and if you look at the history, the violence and corruption that happens down there is directly caused by American imperialism and interference. In Honduras most specifically, banana growing used to be a trade run almost fully by small local farmers. US businesses took advantage of Honduras' development policies during this time and basically stole away all of the local lands to turn them into factory farms. The US would also train the Honduran army and politicians to protect US business interests without a single regard for the Honduran people, who suffered a lot from Americans taking over/shutting down/refusing to build essential rail lines that could bring them to better jobs or school in order to keep all of the trains supporting banana growing.

Of course your shit gets stolen in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Colombia, etc... it's because the *US* instilled and encouraged a culture of thievery, violence, and corruption, and they are funding the people who keep up the status quo. Straying from Christianity has very little to do with it. It's Christian and non-Christian Americans who destroyed the region, starved the people, and buy the drugs which fund the mara who pillage and extort local businesses.

Your Anti-American bias is blinding you from the regions historical relationship with corruption, exploitation, and violence. It's only a small fraction of the larger picture, and American imperialism is arguably not the most significant contributing factor leading to the current woes the region faces--just the most recent.

Regional violence and instability predates American imperialism and even the formation of America, though American interference did not help. You seem to be glossing over centuries of Spanish colonialism. Compared to their English, French and Portuguese counterparts, the Spanish were particularly violent and brutal toward the local natives and created local administrative institutions for the focused purpose of resource extraction--not long-term stability, stability generated through pure violence and rape.

Even prior to Spanish colonialism, the Mayans engaged in scorched-earth military campaigns against smaller tribes. The Aztecs did the same and worse than the Mayans.

Larger, better organized societies exploit smaller, vulnerable societies; this is the human condition. Many societies preaching about human rights today, do so because they're living on a pile of wealth from the exploited and want to maintain the status quo.

 

[Kattt]

Humanity is almost an imagi9nary concept.
I quit social media because it was so soul destroying