It's brainwashing of the highest order, what is happening to our young people. Professor Sam Valkin on Youtube elaborates on all this nonsense. Powerful forces seek to manipulate impressionable minds and make them question their own gender. The more educated and socially connected you are, the more you are at risk of the inversion tactics.
Not to actually accuse about this topic, but from a motive perspective, there are three powerful countries with first-rate technologists on the internet, all with proven hacking attacks, and all benefit from the weakening of the western world. They are also all generally allies against the rest of the world.
It sure sounds wild when strawmanned like this. Now "the Chinese will use any opportunity to reduce cohesion in western society, in particular by poring gas into culture war fire" is uncharitable, probably wrong, but plausible.
Again, that's not what I'm insinuating. Only that the first part, "Powerful forces seek to manipulate impressionable minds," does have motive and precedence. Just trying to answer "to what end?"
Demographic and Finance control is one example. If one chooses a life of Hedonism over a traditional path, they may be frivolous; e.g. a single person household that is not as efficient and pays for everything themselves. Just one example.
Nation States, Corporations, Moguls that that have no moral compass and use control matrices to sway minds. E.G. did you know that Snapchat is biggest peddler of child porn? Or how about Only fans being a legal pimp for narcissists and their enablers?
Can you explain what a control matrix is and how one might use it to sway minds? Would it bore you if increasingly many transgender people are expressing their identities because that feels safer than that used to?
About freaking time, this has been way overdue. The ability to offend is to critically think. If you have cannot handle dissenting opinions or facts, this invalidates your movement or ideology. So that is why many are silenced. Academia is full of those who stifle others for power...
Been a professional IT worker since 1999. Most of my sysadmin roles have always been on site with occasional remote work. Over the years, I've been able to swing working for a few weeks at a time while traveling abroad.
Currently based in Los Angeles and my organization is allowing us to work remote. Looking to just move abroad to Ukraine and lower my costs of living while immersing myself into a new culture and escaping the discord in my homeland. Might never come back if remote work is not longer taboo for DevOps and Infrastructure admins.
For those of you leaving the Metro areas, I encourage you to integrate in your new communities and be open minded. You will be welcomed if you leave your old ways behind and bring your talent and generosity to where you stay. Good luck!
(That WSJ Article comment section is hilarious btw, don't prove them right.)
Born and raised in California and I've been in the tech industry since 2007. I have been living abroad for almost 6 years and couldn't recommend it enough.
It requires some flexibility but it's been an amazing adventure.
I bounced between hostels and luxury hotels and airbnbs in central Europe last year, it was about $600 per month. With the luxury hotels being subsidized by reward points.
I pay over 10x more than that for pretty decadent living in SF. Not a complaint, I know what I'm doing. Just perspective.
I would highly recommend living abroad indefinitely.
Much appreciated. Looking into now. Need to use my Chase Sapphire rewards more or get an Amex travel card. Only Ukraine is open right now. Thinking about Odessa so that I can study the classical arts in between Sysadmin duties and life.
Croatia is open right now to Americans, which is decent and beautiful.
And from there you can get into Schengen if you aspire for that. Its not an Schengen wide policy so I wont say more. There are a lot of relationships in Europe.
Thanks for the advice. Will look into Schengen visa. What are the best portals for finding work? I'll be remote until end of year with my current gig. But the 10 hour timezone difference will catch up to me.
Yeah, I feel that. Not much keeping me here now and I miss the sensation of international exploration. So pissed that my favorite digital nomad spots are blocked due to passport restrictions. We'll see what the future holds.
For sure, but the language barrier and not being on the border will provide some dissonance. It's more a cultural thing for me at this point. Don't feel connected to America after falling in love with international life. Also want to escape the election cycle and local politics that everyone seems to obsess about.
Honestly just hooked on dating foreign women and want to pay $1400 for a 2 bedroom space in a quiet decent neighborhood. Born and raised in So Cal, but feel less connected and tired of the high cost of living here. Maybe if I had a fiancé that was willing to run the race with me, but I can't seem to connect to local women anymore after being international the last 6 years.
Haha, I go beautiful mind on occasion. As a system administrator, I see the entire world as systems. Everything I do is for attainment of a higher state; smooth, functional, beautiful and no wasted energy. From Unix server design, the flow of home office and way I hone my body. " want a perfect body, want a perfect soul. Want you to notice... " It' my swan song to humanity. Mostly love, with a tinge of hate at times...
I see you're a fan of Jordan Peterson as well and the red pill philosophies. Do you listen to any content creators on Youtube? My top 3 are Ronin man, Sunrise Hoodie and Coach Red Pill. Many people just see the surface of the various forums and loudest idiots and write the whole thing off as dejected young men in the thralls of misogyny. In reality, they are modern day support groups for men who have have been raised or in relationships with boderline personality women and are going through abandonment trauma and or fucked by their friends and society; the lessons these men have to teach are invaluable and lifestyle it promotes is new age stoicism mixed with self survival and the ability to see through desires and wants for others and yourself.
Yeah, that the concept I am struggling with now. Picking my damn sacrifice (been struggling to quit cannabis, been using it as a crutch since I was teen)
Cleaning the room comes first (as metaphor). Then things will start to align around that and your new, more mature self, will signal you what's the new best use of your time/resources.
Your behaviors sound very similar to my one. Sounds like you developed very good masking skills. After a QEEG brain scan, was diagnosed with PTSD and ASD. Starting to make sense of how and why brain works the way it does.
yeah, the majority of my male friends are addicted to gaming and living in an alternate reality; it is something I have struggled with as well. Though I have always held a job and currently am enrolled in college in pursuit of my B.S. Comp sci degree, I would rather relax at home and game on my PS4/PC than go out to bars or clubs. Every year I spend hundreds to thousands of dollars on new games, hardware, monitors and whatever comforts that enhance that experience.
Many of us don't see the point in chasing marriage, higher education, careers, relationships or being a homeowner. The dating game in most cities is abysmal, and the majority of attractive single ladies are high end escorts, sugar babies and or gold diggers. There are many factors in society that has led to that. Sure I can spend a thousand or two on a nice watch, but for what? I can get a high NUC PC and huge monitor for that price. The same applies to a luxury car, sure I can afford it, but I would rather walk, take the train/bus or uber, so that I space out and listen to podcasts, youtube or game while commuting.
Phillip Zimbardo wrote a recent book on the afflictions that young men are facing today. It seems dauntless. Sometimes, I too ask myself if the chase is worth it. My gut feeling is that it's not.
For what it's worth I think your views on women, at least in terms of your articulation here are pretty extreme. Attractive single women can't all be put into buckets like that, because attractiveness is not an objective quality.
In the first sentence you distance yourself from your friends who "are" addicted, but spend the rest of the time justifying your affiliation with the group. Would you like to be typecast in the same way?
>The dating game in most cities is abysmal, and the majority of attractive single ladies are high end escorts, sugar babies and or gold diggers.
Yeesh this just comes off as bitter. The dating game is hard but it's a two way street. I doubt anyone is going to be surprised that the most attractive members of either sex are taken but writing them off as sex workers is remarkably disingenuous.
Yeah I don't think Luxury cars give a big level of satisfaction.
For me, I have always felt that I can easily spend $20 and have a weekend of fun, or $100 and have a night out at a bar. The $20 for a weekend feels better.
That's the point. There are better forms of entertainment. The problem is that socializing is also a need our brain has that takes a back-seat.
Edit: Current society has most of our motivations to do things kinda met: games & tv, social media & game groups, porn. More or less you can control most of your basic motivations without the need for socializing or doing things that cost more than a bit of money. I'd argue 200 years ago it would be impossible to be satisfied even at that level without major social gatherings and such.
Clubs do suck, but seeking satisfaction through gaming is going to leave you dead inside in the long run. Can I suggest picking up some hobbies that you can do socially, where you can meet women with mutual interests?
As for your rant on the behavior of hot women... You have to understand, hot women grow up having to constantly push people away because they get too much attention. They develop hoops because otherwise they'd probably never get to be alone. In a lot of cases their demanding behavior is a veneer that you can get past fairly quickly once they realize they enjoy having you around. As long as you're really confident, when that type of woman is unreasonably demanding, it works pretty well to respond to her as if she just told a bad/corny joke.
I hear a baffling amount of this sentiment these days, and its not just gaming, though gaming is probably the most common. Do people see the only alternative to leaving their home as drinking at clubs / bars? or is it just an excuse and people don't really mean it ? I hear it enough that I don't really think it is. Do people not know there are a plethora of social activities that don't involve drinking?
Maybe it is that when are isolated long enough, you cease to know what people normally do (not having occasion to observe it) and pop-entertainment reality takes over in your mind.
Isolation does that. And majority of population was never heavy clubbers or keg drinkers. That was always only minority of people despite being shown in movies as norm.
I'm curious on your opinion, but what is the limit of addiction to gaming and just gaming for hobby? I might be reading too much on your usage of "friends are addicted to gaming"
