Just asking the question is poison for the mind.

Try making this picture for blacks or asians or any non western, non white, non heteronormative, non male performing person.

The only way this picture makes sense is that you as a white man want to go back to the times where your oppression wasn’t questioned, while hiding behind the idea that screens are somehow worse than white oppression.

If you hesitate between jumping ship or jumping rope just jump around. jump around. jump up. jump up and get down.

There is good music from past centuries. Like … How many people have been inspired by Moonlight Sonata. A few songs always survive as good songs, because that’s what they are.

To understand Rock and Roll tou need to understand where it came from. You have to understand that it gave white youth the opportunity to make dance swing music in a highly segregated society. Moving away from big bands into smaller garage size groups, being able for the youth to practice in the suburbs. Entering high schools and becoming a subculture, mainly or basically exclusively, white. Where black cultural music moved towards hiphop and rap, talking about the reality of segregation and poverty. White youth was using RnR to protest systemic issues, racism, war, and the old way of doing things within the more socially acceptable ‘fad’ that RnR was considered to be.

Do you believe that any living soul 70 years in the future is going to look back at any of the crappy shit being produced now as worthwhile to even consider?

No there will only be old decrepit people, that’s going to be you btw, that continues to persist in listening to it because of some sentimental value. But say stupid shit like the 10s were the best musical years ever.

I’m in a very pleasant phase of my life. I’ve had a rollercoaster life with some deep lows in my twenties and thirties. But ever since I hit 40 my life has been much better. Stable job, stable relationship, stable home, in good health. Solid 8. But with very clear career and relationship goals, so ask me again in 10 years.

I’m not a big fan of pickled cutting boards or pickled linen, but to each their own i guess.

This is why we can say that you are not your thoughts. You are not your emotions. You are not your feelings or desires. You are the one experiencing them. You are the observer of your own inner world.

Let me try and put this into a bit of a different perspective. There is a huge effort to individualise global warming, to accomplish two things. First to guilt trip you and second to create apathy. Because it’s very easy to understand that what creates global warming isn’t going to be solved by changing your individual consumption patterns. And you’re completely correct.

80 percent of total human made greenhouse gas production is done by 57 companies. Who have increased, not decreased, their co2 emissions since the 2016 paris agreement. Because companies aren’t countries. They actually aren’t bound by any such agreements.

Imagine the future without those fuckers. It’s only a couple of companies. It’s not as if we need to destroy half of humanity or flee the planet. Chill out.

But you’re doing the exact same thing with the same outcomes.

Do you consider yourself a virus? Your loved ones? Friends, family? Nobody sees themselves as a blight. It’s always society at large. It’s the decisions we make as a collective.

And then the question is why we are making such decisions. And that’s what i mean with the need for systemic change. It’s not inherent in humans to be like a virus.

I have a big problem with that, namely that that is what Elon Musk wants you to think, it’s what Jeff Bezos wants you to think. And when you’re defending the position of ultra capital, you should at least understand why they truly want this. What they truly want is to keep this system intact, they don’t want change, they don’t want responsibility. Going somewhere else to get what you want, is the colonialist mindset, the white mindset. It’s the idea that you as a person have the right to your lifestyle, that you ‘earned’ it. It’s the way that your consumption is tied up with your identity. That your behavior is only secondary to your consumption. Your self worth is rooted in accumulation.

That’s what they are afraid to give up, and ultimately what you’re parroting. While it’s absolutely not trivial to leave, and systemic change is very much necessary far far far before we, poor people, are remotely close to living among the stars in any form of comfort or luxury. Have set up anything close to the insanly complex international trade and knowledge base, rhat depends on billions of people to function. It’s going to take hundreds if not a thousand years. All the while being completely and utterly depending on this very planet.

Well, with that logic the end conclusion is to unalive oneself or everyone else. That would Truly truly rob anyone from advertising harm.

You’re making a slight mistake in your logic. The endgoal isn’t the end of advertising, the goal is to not participate in furthering harm. That word ‘participation’ acknowledges that harm exists. And it doesn’t seek to end it but asks how you live with the fact of it existing.

Start a puppy mill, puppies have a natural tendency to draw attention and focus away from your hideous appearance. In your case I would bring at least five or six puppies everywhere you go.

Welcome to Trump’s ‘flooding the zone with shit’ strategy.

Not invented by, but brought to your attention by Steve Bannon. Trump’s advisor in the 2016 campaign. He understood very clearly that winning elections don’t happen by winning from the opposition, but by winning in the voting booth. His strategy was particularly aimed at the media. Where there is one channel that just continues a stream of populist propaganda in fox, while flooding the media landscape with scandals, lies, distractions, outrage, conspiracy, fantasies, etc. He created a safe haven for conservatives, whilst keeping the general left extremely busy.

Everything that has happened is a distraction from establishing a fascist state. Everything is theatre, everything is meant for tv. Nobody cares about the real life consequences, as long as the theatre keeps people engaged, enraged and not looking behind the screens.

We have a similar discussion in vegan circles. Where we argue against buying second hand leather, down, and wool. The reason is that the second hand market continues to give value to the exploitation of animals. I.e. It normalizes these products. It keeps those products desirable.

The same argument absolutely applies to child labour. Why would you want to keep those products desirable? Is your image, your way of presenting yourself, really more important than child labour? You really do not have to participate in this, nobody who values you as a human will think less of you. In fact, it’s the morally upstanding way to live.

The responsibility of wearing and using a product doesn’t start and end at the first purchase. It continues and changes over time. Fur coats are now generally frowned upon. And who feels comfortable wearing crocodile leather, or ivory beads. These things are out of fashion, for a reason.

And I understand the ecological argument, that it’s a waste of resources. I really do sympathise with this argument. But in the end it’s just saying no to buying something you never really needed in the first place. It’s never an actual decision. Your life doesn’t depends on a piece of designer clothing, or whatever product. And if it does, none of these arguments matter.

So, no it’s a choice and in the end the ethical choice is the one that’s most closely related to being a human being in this world.

Sounds like total incompatibility. It will take decades before we could even think about incorporating non binary based systems into our workflow.

Most of the time they didn’t. They were posted without their consent.

I was 20 and learned from an instructor. To be fair, I’m from the Netherlands and cars don’t play such a big role here. I had a moped from when i was 17, so i was motorized. Although I bicycled for most of my trips under 10 kilometer (five miles).

Having money.

No but seriously, nothing even comes close.

More than 5 drinks a week.

To me that’s kind of the cut off point. Because more than 5 you’re either drinking daily or binge drinking in your days off. If you’re an occasional drinker, 5 drinks is a lot and you’ll be drunk. Which is not something occasional drinkers are after. But leaves enough room to have a wine with dinner in the weekends or a drink with friends.

Also, any amount of alcohol is bad for you. Carcinogenic at any amount, there is no lower limit. It should be extremely simple to not drink. And if you are in any situation where you feel it isn’t extremely simple to not drink, you’re not in a good place and you need to fix that. I’m not saying to not drink, I’m saying that it’s not smart to drink when you can’t say no.

I lost my gf, my house and my job that year. I was not ok.