Contrary to the primary “Visuals” section focus of this site, “Words” consists primarily of written content less conducive to being conveyed with graphics.

This section is much more socio-politically oriented.

This section is much more inclined to the “opinion” (or conjecture, or hypothesis) end of the “opinion/fact slider scale”. It is highly subjective ...categorically what mainstream media once self-labeled as “opinion”.

 

BIAS

These analysis/opinions are based in a bias to the ideas that there are truths, that rationality, individual freedom, creativity/innovation, and the prioritization of truth and pro-human long-term results over harmony/appearances are moral, and optimal to long term human happiness/flourishing.

A fundamental goal in these analysis/opinions is coherency, consistency, principled thinking, logic, rationality, depth, and consideration of full relevant context.

The author has no expertise in sociopolitical realms. All content on this page is opinion, and therefore incorrect to some degree.

  

STYLE

The format of these essays tends to an unconventional, grammatically incorrect, emotionally vacuous, clinical, minimalist, list/logic chain/hierarchically ordered style more akin to conceptual frameworks/outlines than conventional, literary, flowing, story framed writing.

This style is aimed at minimum length, and maximum logical ordering of points and sub points.

The lack of narrative flow may be counterproductive to easy reading. It is almost certainly counterproductive to casual/unfocused reading.

The logic behind this clarified/concise emotionally uncompelling format is a hypothesis that more comfortable, emotive, flowing communication may tend to facilitate common tendencies to skip over key context, oversimplify, miss logic chains, and imprecisely/incorrectly pattern match to preconceived ideas.

 

 

 

 

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100 WORDS OR LESS

 

- Preaching unity while considering your opposition to be unworthy of respect is disingenuous, dishonest, bereft of sincere self-reflection, and usually indicative of an expectation of capitulation, not unity.

 

- Sometimes a "no brainer" turns out to be something that only stands up with no brain work. 

 

- When someone says “It's obvious” as justification for something, it usually means they are thinking in a very shallow intuitive/emotional manner.

The reason humans are making very sudden dramatic improvement in living standards these last few hundred years after hundreds of thousands of years of just barely surviving, is by thinking deeply and rationally …beyond “what’s obvious” …about complex things and not just reacting to them intuitively/emotionally.

                                               

- Anyone who says “money is evil” ...usually wants to take your money. Why would they want your money if it's evil? 

 

- Underlying bad ideas is often a good idea distorted and stretched to irrational and/or immoral conclusions.                                  

 

- Vilification of the wealthy or successful often has more to do with envy than justice.                                  

 

- The First Amendment does not protect free speech universally; it protects free speech from the only legal applier of force …government.

 

- The key human need for a positive life is creative achievement, whether that be abstract or physical, artistic or technical, personal improvement or improving your world or others in it.

The deepest, most rewarding of such satisfaction is based in ones own internally generated enjoyment.

A shallower, more indirect, reflective satisfaction is based in others positive reaction to your actions. This reflective satisfaction is not necessarily bad, but it should not be mistaken as deep or representative of your own values.

- As social and very status conscious creatures, it’s very easy for humans to mistake actions/behaviors motivated to make us look good to others, as actions more directly satisfying our own desires.

There are many good reasons to do things for others, and take pleasure/satisfaction from such actions,

but it’s critical to be conscious of, and honest with yourself, about your motivations, or you will make poor decisions and very likely do many things that you think are pleasurable for their own sake, but instead are based in a shallow secondhand pleasure of trying to impress others.

 

- Every new mind is a new potential opportunity for innovative ideas and leaps in productivity ...the life blood of human flourishing.

Millions of brilliant minds remain untapped/unutilized in much of the third world such as Africa and the Mideast by being isolated under dictatorial governments and poverty.

                                 

- I value tremendously, …and regularly seek out, nature in its’ undeveloped wilderness form as a wonderful change from my normal life.

I value more, …buildings, clothing, advanced farming, grocery stores, combustion engines, computers, information at my fingertips, power plants, sewage systems, computers, banks, free trade, individual rights, and human advancements in general.

If forced to choose between them, I’d choose the advancements of even just the last 100 years over access to untouched wilderness, without hesitation.

I’d rather have the plethora of advantages of the life of a poor U.S. citizen today, than a king 150 years ago.

                                   

- Once principles aimed at overcoming problems have successfully minimized them to significant degree, making the current situation better, it becomes easy to take the current situation for granted, and undervalue the principles that engendered it, especially across generations.

- As life gets dramatically better for humans on average, it is easy to take for granted all the things that make life better than that of the generations before, and undervalue the principles which engendered it

- It is easy for each successive generation in the U.S. over the last 200 years to be unaware of how much better and easier their life is than the generation before, fail to understand how individual freedoms engendered these improvements, and throw these freedoms away, which would reverse that trajectory of improvement to one of decline.

                                   

- Properly prioritizing self requires honest and deep self-reflection on the costs/benefits of your behavior in all respects over the long term, including both your physical and psychological outcomes.

-  - Doing so necessarily rules out taking advantage of, or hurting others, as a rational choice towards your own self-interest.

                              

- The person most motivated and knowledgeable in addressing individual needs is that individual themselves.                             

-  - Therefore, a society should first prioritize the freedom of individuals to address their own needs. 

                          

- Humans are unique in meeting needs by creating new things that do not exist naturally ...generating new things from the relatively infinite variety of otherwise un-useful “natural” things.

-  - The results of this creativity is the key to human flourishing.                             

-  -  - Humans require freedom to create these new things. The degree to which that freedom is limited, is the degree to which needs cannot and will not be met.                            

-  -  -  - Therefore, a society must prioritize the freedom of individuals to create.

 

- The first priority for a morally just and practically flourishing society is the freedom of individuals, which requires the protection of individual rights.

 

- A free society’s protection of individual rights requires:

-  - 1. The protection of individuals from force via a government holding a monopoly on force to be used only for that protection, (i.e. police, judicial, defense).

-  - 2. The protection of individuals from government force applied beyond that limited purpose.

-  -  - These fundamental goals require the understanding, acknowledgement, and prioritization of the populace. This requires ongoing education across generations, as the need and importance of such goals become less clear the more they are achieved.

-  -  -  - Optimally, they are documented, serving as a foundational touchstone of reference and center for return through inevitable deviations from their core principles.

                     

- Top-down regulation tends to shallow thinking of complex things, i.e. misses/ignores deeper, longer term, less obvious effects.                                

-  - It's also directed by people (government) more motivated by perceptual outcomes than actual outcomes, and less knowledgeable about specific details,

-  - ...in direct contrast to the individuals affected, who are intimately familiar with details, and are highly motivated towards actual, not just perceived, optimal outcomes.

- Whenever and wherever possible, solutions are optimal via voluntary individual decisions, not government control.

                       

- Government generally, and politicians or bureaucrats specifically, are incentivized to short term solutions and to ignore long term consequences.                

 

- Progressives typically exaggerate the benefits of gov spending programs and ignore the costs.

                

- The world would be much better off if everyone quit focusing on what’s best for others, and instead focused on what’s best for yourself in the long term.

-  - Rational, thorough, and realistic long-term consideration of your own best interest inherently leads to an interest in others best interest if they are similarly inclined.

-  - Short term gratification at the expense of the long term, dishonesty, cruelty, theft, and gains from other’s loss are all contrary to your own best interest.

-  - Self-serving interaction with others requires win-win interaction or trade. In the long term, win-lose interaction is not in your own best interest.

 

- Anytime a politician says something is "not about" (fill in the blank), that should be a giant red flag to analyze very carefully the distinct likelihood that that something is very much about (fill in the blank).                               

 

- Under capitalism, people are free to form socialist communities ...but almost never do, and everyone is free to leave capitalist countries for socialist countries ...but almost no one does.                             

-  - Under socialism, people are all forced to live in socialist communities, and many many many people try to leave socialist countries for capitalist countries.                               

-  -  - If socialism works, it should be a simple matter of just forming voluntary socialist sub communities within capitalism, until they de facto create a socialist society ...but socialism's advocates don't want to live in voluntary socialist communities.                             

 

- Indication/acknowledgement of varying degrees of certainty/uncertainty is a very strong indicator of good/solid/rational analysis.                            

This is extremely rare, and I suspect it is correctly interpreted positively by both deep/rational thinkers and shallow/emotional thinkers.                               

- Excessive/unwarranted certainty is an extremely common, and critical failure.                               

- Excessive/unwarranted avoidance of certainty is a much less common, but also critical failure.   

                            

- There is an extremely common fundamental failure to recognize that the incredible plethora of human creations of the last few hundred years that make most of our lives dramatically better/easier only occur when people are allowed and encouraged to benefit from crazy/ambitious/innovative behavior ...and not otherwise.

 

- People notice their condition primarily relative to others close at hand, and only relative to extremely recent history.                               

-  - People rarely notice their condition relative to the longer term, or broader world population.

                              

- Government tends to try solving problems by increasing regulations that created the problem in the first place.

                              

- Government is inclined to draconian, excessive, permanent solutions to short-term problems. 

                              

- To evaluate an opinion, a media report, or a history book, for its honesty, accuracy, or correctness, one must not only determine whether the statements are true or false, but also by what is included or left out.

-  - Lack of context, cherry picking, evasion, and misrepresentation are all examples of inaccuracy, incorrectness, or dishonesty, without actually making false statements.                              

-  -  - This has always been a common conscious or unconscious dishonesty of some writers and speakers, and it is more than ever the method or stock in trade of mainstream media today.

 

- Statements such as “I believe in science” or “Trust the science” imply that scientific analysis leads to singular clear-cut truths, and ironically, indicate a poor comprehension of science.

Science is a process, not a conclusion.

Single clear-cut answers are more the realm of religious faith than science.

Proper scientific analysis/interpretation is more often the constant/continuous competition/reevaluation/testing of conflicting ideas, and conclusions of varying degree of likelihood, in a complex/nuanced universe.                                              

                          

- The common term “settled science” is an oxymoron. Science is not facts, it is a process ...the process of constantly testing presumed facts.

If a scientist or representative of the scientific community uses the term “settled science” …it is a strong indicator of being a bad scientist and/or an untrustworthy representative of science.

                            

- Racism is an atrocious stain of American and world history that has improved greatly but is still a problem to work on here and abroad.

It's currently popular/common for sensationalist media, academia, and attention seeking panderers to suggest the United States is defined by racism.

By definition, a defining characteristic is unique/exceptional, not common/universal.

Horrible as it is, racism in the U.S., both historically compared to other countries, and in current degree, is not unique/exceptional at all ...other than that the U.S. is one of the least racist countries in the world today.

                                             

- Government financing of just about anything is like turning on a giant indiscriminate money faucet, and the water is your money ...your hours, days, weeks, months of labor.                                 

Government turns on the giant faucet full blast because politicians’ primary priority is being able to say they turned the faucet on. After it’s turned on, politicians have little interest in it further,

and it becomes the responsibility of bureaucrats hired to direct an indiscriminate and uncontrollable flood, bureaucrats who often have little motivation or interest in carefully tracking where that flood goes anyway,

so the flow goes to bad/unintended targets just as often as the intended ones.                          

When individuals are left to control each their own trickles themselves, they carefully watch every drop …and are much more likely to direct what little trickle they have to good/productive targets.

                              

- When a politician says they will work with their opposition and preaches about compromise and all sides working together ...without being specific …what they really mean is that they are willing to work together with their opposition as long as the opposition accedes to their wishes. 

                     

- Joe Biden is all about “unity”, ... “working together”, ...”respecting political differences”, and …”a willingness to  see each other not as enemies but fellow Americans”, except for anyone who sides with his main political enemy, …these people “represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic”.

                                 

- Prototypical politicians prioritize self-image over the responsibilities of their job.
Donald Trump takes this negative behavior to its most extreme, and does so in uniquely unconcealed fashion.
This contrasts with the typical politicians’ surreptitious self-serving behavior.
That contrast turns a negative into a positive for many. The worse, and more blatant dishonesty is an actual relief from the typical furtive dishonesty, in its clarity, and its dark humor.

                                 

- Any time government takes a role in “protecting“ us from bad information, you have begun the slide into authoritarianism.

- Bad information is not something government can protect us from, since government, as the one legal wielder of force, is the only existentially dangerous source of bad information.

 

- The first requirement of a free society is that government does not control information flow.

Calling that control “protection” from “misinformation” or “disinformation” does not change that fundamental requirement of a free society.

Asking government to “protect” you from “bad” information is trading freedom for dangerously short sighted, emotionally comforting intellectual laziness.

 

- The only good solution for “bad information” is defeating it with “good information” in an unrestricted marketplace of ideas.

No individual, group, organization, or government, no matter how overwhelmingly consensus supported, can consistently dictate “truth” correctly.

Government, as the sole legal wielder of force, is most especially the most dangerous risk as a gatekeeper of “truth”.

Unimpeded information flow is a challenge. Navigating it requires self-responsibility, conscious effort, and intellectual rigor, …things that do not come easily or automatically to societies raised in a culture of deference to, and faith in, authority.                               

 

- Words, used properly, are first and foremost just a tool to communicate concepts, not, as is often the case, as a fascination in themselves, most egregiously as a tool to signal the intelligence of the writer/speaker.

 

- Racism has decreased dramatically over the last 200 and 100 and 50 years, but the belief is common today that racism is just as bad or worse.

That belief makes sense given the definition of racism has changed from a definition that makes sense ..."racist actions", ...to a definition that doesn't ..."racial disparities".

Racist actions are due to racism. Racial disparities can be due to many things, of which racism is just one among many other possible causes which are not racist.

 

- Collectivism, (socialism, communism, etc.), typically espouses the idea of improving the lives of those doing worse, ...but the true focus is always about worsening the lives of those doing better, ...and the result ultimately/in the long run, is the worsening of both/all.

 

- Happiness in the sense of having highly positive experiences/feelings a majority of the time, such as joy, bliss, delight, elation, glee, exultation, elation, ecstasy, or jubilance, is not a reasonable goal. These are inherently short term in nature, and are inherently relative, requiring corresponding negative experiences/feelings of greater length. This is the happiness of orgasms, ice cream, victories, and sudden breakthroughs, ...jubilant rushes of intense emotion ...all good, and very valuable in moderation, but not the emotional food for the long run.

- Happiness in the sense of having slightly positive feelings a majority of the time, such as satisfaction, productivity, accomplishment, pride, achievement, well-being, growth, progress, fulfillment, or attainment, is a consistently attainable goal. These can be longer term in nature, and can be relative to incremental gains of the same positives, engendering a more consistent positive life, where extreme ups and downs are endured or enjoyed as exceptions. This is the happiness of intense focus on hard work, of challenging exercise, of working through difficult mental tasks, of knocking down steps bit by bit towards a long term goal, ...calm pleasure in a life progressing forward ...consistent emotional food for the long run.

- Life is by default a chaos of dramatic ups and downs. The best kind of happiness is achieved by smoothing that chaos with planning and hard work, and by consciously and judiciously choosing and inserting your own negatives and positives for more controlled/exceptional extremes.

 

- Forcing equality is the crushing of difference, ...but difference is a fundamental of freedom, and the driver of progress. Forcing equality is morally wrong, as it restrict individuals right to better themselves, and practically counterproductive, in that it inherently requires destruction to bring things level.

 

- When someone says, "The science is settled", or "The science says", or "I believe in science",  they are conflating faith with methodology. Science is not a conclusion, it is a process, and as such, it is never "settled", it doesn't "say" anything, and it is not a conclusion to "believe in".

 

- "Science" is the process of constantly reevaluating conclusions. It is not a specific conclusion held as an incontestable truth ...that's called "faith". Conflating the two is called "ignorant".

 

- Chanting by crowds is generally mindless in nature ...more emotional masturbation and disengagement from thinking than engagement in any rational thought.

This applies whether the chants are "Black Lives Matter", "We Want Trump", "No More Trump", "Death To America", or "From the River To the Sea".

As human societies become more advanced, they relegate chanting to purely emotionalist activities such as music, and use rational discourse for resolution of complex societal issues.

 

- I have no AI expertise, so it's quite possible I'm completely off base, but Chatbots today in 2024 seem like really dumb humans analytically, but with huge memory and perfect pattern matching of the most common preexisting word patterns.

They don't seem to process, frame, evaluate, analyze, sort, or filter that data with careful, deep, principled, consistent, contextualized, unified/integrated rational consideration,

but rather seem to regurgitate/predict the most consensus upvoted word patterns across mainstream media without any deep understanding of their meaning,

overlayed with some further restrictions based on programmer biases for filtering/prioritizing.

- Hence, if you think the conclusions of the majority in mainstream media are accurate, you'll be very satisfied with the current chatbots.

- Chatbots seem to be currently just a window into mainstream media consensus. Much of that can be very powerful, useful, and relatively accurate information ...but some portion of it will be wrong, just like any majority opinion. Both inherently tend to shallow analysis.

 

- Chatbot AI today in 2024 seems to be a very shallow computation of vast data quantity, with a goal of outputting the most typical, or semantically plausible word combinations from the internet as an answer, ...with some further clumsy gross filtering per the sociopolitical biases of the chatbot creator. The output seems to have more to do with consensus, or even word pattern plausibility, than truth.

 

- Many view and treat human existence as a limited set of resources that must be fairly divided.

This "limited resource" perspective ignores that the unique, extremely powerful, extremely productive, extremely beneficial skill of humans is the ability to innovate and create more from less, in an endless advance of  solving problems and discovering new and better ways to create new more useful things out of less useful wild resources.

That human superpower is the key to human flourishing, evidenced in the explosion of lifespan, health, food security, wealth, free time, comfort, ease of life, etc, in the last few hundred years.

The key to the unleashing of that human superpower of innovation/creativity is the incentive of individual freedom to keep and benefit from the fruits of their effort.

The "limited resource" perspective, if applied politically by group/society control of resource distribution, to the degree applied, shuts down that incentive, those creative efforts, that human superpower, and shuts down that human flourishing.

 

- Any problem should be evaluated/understood in a prioritized manner, starting first with the most foundational/fundamental aspects, before moving on to more derivative/secondary aspects.

The same applies to argument/debate. The primary focus/argument should be applied first and foremost to the most fundamental aspects of a disagreement/issue.

These fundamental aspects are often implicit, and/or ingrained, and therefore easy to overlook.

Overlooking unacknowledged or unrealized, but fundamental ideas underlying a problem, makes that problem impossible to understand, and therefore impossible to fully resolve.

Overlooking unexpressed, but fundamental disagreements underlying an issue of debate, makes that disagreement impossible to understand, and therefore impossible to fully resolve.

 

 

 

 

 

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100  - 1000 WORDS

 

Bad Ideas

- Some common shallow thinking holds that:                 

1. “Oppression is not just the act of harming someone else, it is not giving to someone else if you have more.”               

2. “Inequality is proof of oppression.”            

3. “The primary cause of all suffering is oppression.”            

4. “An easy life naturally arises as long as there is no oppression (by actual or expanded definition).”             

5. “The individual is never responsible for themselves if an outcome is bad. “         

6. “Government is the solution for every problem.”           

7. “Business is usually the primary guilty party in corruption.”            

8. “Judgement on the merits of anything is always relative to an impossible fantasy world of perfection.”             

- Reality is that:                

1. Oppression is the use of physical force, directly or by threat, applied in any way other than defense.            

2. Inequality is an unavoidable result of free people choosing how to live their own lives.           

3. Life is naturally brutal and difficult. Humans have only in the last 1/1000th of our existence, by breaking through to enlightenment ideas, and through extreme efforts of mind and body, continuously building on previous generations hard work, succeeded in making life much easier than it is for other animals.             

4.  Life is default brutal and difficult.           

5.  Bad outcomes are the default. They can result from doing nothing, randomness, self-inflicted damage, or oppression. Good outcomes can be the result of luck or assistance, but mostly require conscious and focused effort.             

6.  Government consists of people who get less reward (and therefore motivation) for success/less penalty for failure, in their primary tasks/goals, especially long term, than those in the free market. Given this, government is usually much worse/less efficient at accomplishing their intended goals/tasks.”          

7.  Government is always the primary guilty party in corruption. Corruption is only possible when government is corrupt. Crony capitalism is an oxymoron  - Capitalism by correct definition is the exclusion of government beyond basic protections.             

8.  Evaluation of anything should be based on comparison to the real-world alternatives, not just in comparison to  theoretical utopias.             

 

Altruism

- The ideal of altruism is impossible in 2 ways:                                

-  - 1. The ideal of altruism is for every individual to give what they have (money, things, time, effort) to anyone with less (money, things, capability, success, happiness),                              

but those on the receiving side of this are automatically being anti altruistic, since there are always others with even less.                           

-  -  - Altruism is therefore impossible as a universal. It is in fact only possible if half are altruistic, and half are anti altruistic.                         

-  - 2. The ideal of altruism is for every individual to give what they have (money, things, time, effort) to anyone with less (money, things, capability, success, happiness),                              

but living requires keeping some money, things, time, effort for your own needs.                             

-  -  -  Altruism is therefore impossible as a consistent principle. It is in fact only possible to fail in being ideally altruistic. 

-  - The alternative embrace of altruism as a moral standard is an unprincipled, inconsistent one that has no rationally determined degree.

-  -  - One must either always feel guilty for not living up to an impossible standard, the oxymoron of an unprincipled moral standard,

-  -  - Or evade thinking about too deeply.

The good alternative to altruism is consideration and assistance to others when and if it is beneficial to you …which is very often if you are thinking deeply and long term.

 

Few Would Support Government Redistribution If They Thought About It more Deeply

- Government redistribution is not benevolence, it is taking from others by force, simply because they have more.                              

-  - Those who believe redistribution is just, either assume anyone who has more of anything got it only by harming others,                             

-  - or that force is justified against good, innocent people who have harmed no one.                               

-  -  - Almost no one thinks it is right to take something by force, face to face, from a good, innocent, person, ...but many think it's right if they can have government do it for them.                      

-  -  -  - This contradiction is only possible by not thinking very deeply. It is only possible by cognitive dissonance, or evasion.                         

-  -  -  -  - One aspect of this sort of thinking is the idea that just a little force against innocents is okay for the right end. That is an example of inconsistent morals, just as the idea that murdering just a few people is okay for the right end. An inconsistent moral is an oxymoron.                       

-  -  - A few think that simply having more of anything is inherently evil, and force is justified to change that. That means that no one has a right to anything they create.                           

-  -  -  - That thinking destroys creativity, and human life. It leads to the murder of billions if followed consistently. This is the thinking of Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot.      

 

Navigating the Complex World Created By Humans Requires Deeper Thinking Than Intuition                   

- The dramatic average reduction of human suffering, and dramatic average improvement in humans living conditions that have occurred in just the last few hundred years, (dramatically increased lifespans, dramatically increased food quantity, availability, and choice, dramatic medical advances, dramatically decreased racism, dramatically increased tolerance towards other lifestyles culturally or sexually, dramatically less sexism, dramatically more education, dramatically improved sanitation, dramatically greater freedom, dramatically more information access, dramatically more free speech, dramatically fewer deaths and more protection/comfort from climate and natural disasters, dramatically more option for free time and choice/options in how to spend free time),                                

has been possible only by increasing deep and complex rational thinking, both in regard to technology, and in regard to societal governance/interaction, via innovative science discoveries in the first case, and via innovative ideas in the second.                           

- The more we advance as humans, and the more complex we make our world, the increasingly greater is the need to engage in deep, complex, rational thinking that considers long term effects, multiple factors and effects, multiple levels of factors and effects, and  nuanced tradeoffs,    

in contrast to more simplistic/shallow/primitive pattern recognition thinking strategies that served humans well in a less complex world, and recognizes only short-term effects, first level factors and effects, single factors and effects, binary tradeoffs, and only direct/simple correlations.    

- The AOC's and Ibram X. Kendi's of the world engage in that very shallow/simplistic/primitive level of thinking, and their conclusions are accordingly short sighted, unnuanced, and based on only the most intuitive, obvious and simplistic apparent correlations.                              

- This level of rational thinking is understandable and excusable in the very young, …simplistic pattern recognition and association being a first baby step in rational thinking, but such an immature and inadequate degree of rational thinking is inexcusable from supposed intellectual/political/societal leaders that direct or even dictate the strategies affecting us all in an increasingly complex world.

 

Human Resources Are Not Zero Sum

- Population growth in non-human animal species leads to diminishing returns of finite natural resources. Life for animals is a fight over limited resources …a zero-sum game.                                 

Though shallow thinkers suggest so, the same is not true for humans.

Humans’ are unique in our capability to create an infinite variety of new things out of limited “natural” resources …creating the entirely new out of the old, useful from un-useful, and more out of less, via invention, innovation, and inter-generational knowledge expansion.

- Contrary to the myopic view of socialists, communists, redistributionists, and collectivists in general, humans thrive by creative innovation that dramatically transforms life from a zero-sum existence, to an inexhaustible and ever improving one, as long as we support that innovation with individual freedom.                                  

-  - The more we restrict that freedom, the more we suppress the key to our flourishing.                                   

-  - Government forced redistribution always fails to improve people's lives in the long term, and often makes them worse. Innovation on the other hand does consistently and dramatically improve people's lives in the long term.                                 

-  - Africa will not overcome starvation and poverty by charity or redistribution, but by the results of free market innovation.  

 

Self Determination                         

(Somewhat derivative of an informal analysis by Yaron Brook on David Goggins):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQd44bCCt6g         https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDLb8_wgX50

- If you feel unfulfilled or feel that your life lacks meaning, the answer is not out there somewhere to be found ...the answer is inside you. (Roughly paraphrasing David Goggins.)

- You have to do the hard work of thinking ...self-examination, analysis, and decisions about first, what is good for you, and second, how to go about achieving what is good for you ...how to make yourself and your life, better.

That's what a good life is ...continuously making your life better. That's why humans are at another level than other animals ...as "thinking" focused creatures, human happiness/flourishing requires ongoing creativity/improvement.

Stability is a good base, worth striving for if not available as a foundation from which to selectively seek advance, ...but stopping at stability/comfort is stagnation, and ultimately unhappiness for humans.

To fully be human, to fully live, is to create ...to progress.

There are a plethora of ways/paths to be creative/to progress,

from creating physical things, to discovery/knowledge creation, to new idea formulation, to self-improvement, to improvement of the lives of others, to creating then improving/advancing the life of a child.

All of these can be the kind of rewarding/satisfying creative efforts required for the uniquely mentally focused beings that humans are to be happy ...to truly live.

David Goggins quoted:

- "Most people are missing something, because they don't know who they are. They never examined themselves."

- "...we're all lab rats, but you're also the scientist."

- "You create your own self."

Yaron Brook quoted:

- "You make yourself. You build your soul. Man is a being of self made soul ...if you choose to make it. Man is a being of self made character. ... You build yourself."

- "This is exactly the opposite of the culture in which we live. A culture of entitlement, a culture of of blaming everybody else, a culture of lack of personal responsibility..."

- "...in this deep sense of responsibility ...not just responsibility for making a living, [etc.], but in the responsibility of ... creating yourself..."

- "...turn yourself into the kind of person you want to be.."

 

Trading Comfort and Responsibility for Loss of Freedom and Progress is A Bad Trade

- Every degree of government regulation beyond protection from violence is seeking a comfort of not having to take responsibility for yourself ...of asking government to do it for you.

Every degree of government regulation beyond protection from violence is a trade of freedom for comfort.

Every degree of freedom lost is a degree of the unpredictable/unusual/fringe/oddball/abnormal/unappreciated that leads to innovation lost.

It's not the normal, well behaved, socially acceptable that improve our lives in the long run with innovation, it's the ones that want to do weird, apparently unnecessary things that turn out to do the important, best, innovative things.

Every degree of innovation lost is a degree of human advance/improvement/betterment/flourishing lost.

All those little government regulations that seem good, because they don't stop people from doing anything a nice normal person would want to do, are exactly what stops innovation, progress, and ultimately human flourishing.

Comfort by government regulation comes at a high price that is not intuitively obvious ...and that price is freedom ...and progress.

The easy comfort of depending on government to take responsibility for your life is a poor trade for the corresponding lack of freedom, and loss of progress.

 

Facts Can Be Dishonest If They Don't Include Relevant Context

This Is Common In News Media

- It's often noted, with no deeper explanation, that Humans share approximately 96% of their DNA with Chimpanzees.

This kind of context vacant sound bite so popular with our information media is a good example of shallow journalism.

More informative would be including some broader context regarding how similar or different DNA is between living creatures in general.

Even adding the tiniest additional bit of information, that humans share approximately 70% of their DNA with Acorn Worms, dramatically changes the implications.

 

Win / Win Strategies Are Required For Long Term Success and Happiness

- Win/lose strategies will not lead to long term success in business or life in general.

Long term success and happiness depends on honesty, respect, and cooperation with others on an ongoing basis, whether they be acquaintances, friends, partners, employers, employees, associates, clients, or customers.

First ...No-one will consistently interact with someone who is dishonest, disrespectful, or wants to win by another's loss.

Second ...Human happiness requires satisfaction in earned accomplishment. Any (supposed) gain achieved by dishonesty or another's loss, is not earned, not really an accomplishment, and ultimately, detrimental to the (supposed) winner's happiness.

Win/win strategies are required for long term success and happiness.

 

Choose Alternatives Based On Reality, Not Utopia

Choose Alternatives Based On the Long Term, Not the Short Term

- Bad things will always happen. There is no way to prevent everything bad. That is reality.

What we can do is minimize the bad things.

A common error is to base decisions on a goal of  perfection ...where no bad things happen. If perfection is the standard, realistic alternatives are ruled out, and only imaginary alternatives remain. Acting based on imaginary alternatives leads to bad things.

This applies at the personal level, and for society.

The best alternatives are never perfect, ...they are just the least bad.

The most common alternatives are between either small bad things now, or large bad things later. The better alternative is small bad things now.

This requires long term thinking.

The most common error is the choice of something good right now, without considering the long term bad things that will result.

This applies at the personal level in choosing intuitively/emotionally appealing, feel good, easy, immediate gratification now, (excessive yummy food, dishonesty, theft), leading to extremely bad consequences much later, (bad health, personal/business failure, death or imprisonment).

This applies at the society level in choosing intuitively/emotionally appealing, feel good, easy, immediate gratification now, (government handouts/redistribution, laws/regulations against consensual trades), leading to extremely bad consequences much later, (dis-incentivization/reduced innovation/reduced productivity/reduced prosperity/reduced flourishing).

The better choice is usually a small, difficult, bad thing now, leading to something good later.

The personal, political, or economic choices that are intuitively/emotionally appealing, feel good, easy, and have immediate pleasant results, usually have much larger negative consequences later, in the long term.

 

Often, "Helping Others", Isn't Really

- Much of what's done in the name of "helping" others does just the opposite.

Most of this is via actions providing short term positives, which have much longer and greater long term negative consequences.

The advantage of these short term good, long term much worse ideas/actions, is that they "feel" good, being based in shallow, emotive thinking.

-  - Treating bad ideas as equally valid compared to good ideas feels nice and non-judgemental, but is harmful to those having that idea, and those around them, in the long run.

-  - Repeatedly giving support to individuals who use that support as a base for destructive behavior seems beneficial if one only looks at the short term, but it is hugely destructive in the long term.

-  - Repeatedly giving support to individuals that undercuts productive behavior seems beneficial if one only looks at the short term, but it is hugely destructive in the long term.

-  - Repeatedly indicating to individuals that they are victims is an emotionally gratifying, short term balm, for both the victim, and the sympathizer, usually solving little, but undercutting psychological self-determination, (in a context where self-determination is often the predominant controllable factor).

- Some of what's done to help others is indeed helpful when it is done in consideration of long term effects, in all respects. This rarely has the same positive intuitive, emotional spike, but if done for good reasons, has a much deeper, longer lasting positive psychological reward in conjunction with the physical benefits.

 

Democracy Is Not the Key To A Moral Society, Individual Rights Are

- Democracy is not the key aspect of a just, moral, free society. Democracy is simply majority rule. The majority is very capable of unjust, immoral conclusions, as evinced by slavery in the U.S. and all over the world. (Which is just one of a multitude of democratic atrocities/failures). Democracy is nothing more than an imperfect improvement over dictatorships, theocracies, or ruling class, for making decisions on new problems.

The critical and fundamental key for a just, moral, society is the prioritization, above all else, of individual freedom from force, including from the majority, or government.

The U.S. was the first country to explicitly legislate this ideal to large degree, via the Constitution and Bill of Rights, and remains the best in that explicit documentation.

The U.S.has often failed to fully adhere to those ideals of freedom, most dramatically and horrifically with slavery.

Having that legislative documentation explicitly immortalizing those ideals provides the best chance of realizing and overcoming such failures.

The U.S. has democracy, and individual rights documented in our founding documents. It's not the democracy that is the most important ...it's the documented individual rights.

 

 

 

 

 

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