Society

Contra Points vs Jordan Peterson

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ContraPoints does a fun job analyzing and critiquing Jordan Peterson. I went into it never having seen a video by ContraPoints before, and I wondered if, based on the name, it would just be about countering views, but might fail to adequately represent the original view in the first place. I expected that it would explore the primary issue surrounding Jordan Peterson: his stand against gov enforced use of gender neutral pronouns in Canada. In the show, the narrator did a surprisingly good job exploring Peterson’s larger philosophies but didn’t make the case for gov enforced pronouns other than saying, “the very idea of people requesting different pronouns to suit their individual needs is exactly the kind of thing a person who values individual liberty over collective dogma should be on board with.“

In a 28 minute video she only directly addressed his point once.  This is the whole ground upon which he went public in opposition to the Canadian Gov move to force pronoun usage, and is the main reason for the opposition to him from the left.  So to spend over 20 minutes exploring his ideas, some of which was actually quite positive, making love to his effigy, and a significant amount critiquing his larger philosophical framing and ideas, but to wind up making such a mild and problematic single statement on the forced pronoun issue is a bit telling and suggests that she actually doesn’t have a good contra point for it.  

The problem with her one liner is it is internally  contradictory if put into context, or else it’s completely missing the point if taken out of context.  

The internal contradiction is between the idea of individual liberty and the idea of getting on board with something.  To say that someone who values the former should inherently do the latter is implicitly contradictory. Then when you add the fact that the thing one would be getting on board with is removing individual liberty by force of law and threat of punishment, the contradiction is even greater.  

The other problem with her statement is that he is not objecting to someone requesting a different pronoun.  He’s said he’s happy to have that conversation with individuals.  Given that she’s not even accurately representing his point, she’s making her own point irrelevant.  

Instead he’s objecting to someone being backed by gov power to force someone else to use any pronoun they wish.  That is forced speech and is  prone to abuse of power.  It’s a power trip.  And nothing in her 28 minute video really directly addressed this.  She made some other interesting points about his larger philosophies and accused him of using straw man tactics and psychobabble to win debates and confuse his interviewers, but all of that is beside the above main point.  In fact my impression is that she herself used a lot of psychobabble and red herrings, er lobsters, to draw the viewer away from the main point.  

My take away is that she confirmed my question, based solely on the name, wondering whether the show would be mainly about finding contradictions and counter points but might fail to adequately represent the main point that it’s attacking in the first place.  This appears to be the case, at least with this episode. 

Other

Privacy Tools

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Browsers

Tor Browser (recommended for Android and Desktop)

  • Official Tor Project browser that enables connecting to web sites anonymously over the Tor network
  • Only available on Android & Desktop

Onion Browser (recommended for iOS)

  • iOS, free, endorsed by Tor Project
  • If you switch apps alot, you’ll probably want to change the Tab Security setting to Forget at Shutdown or Remember Tabs:

Brave (recommended for regular web browsing)

  • a regular browser with some extra attention to privacy
  • ad blockers
  • desktop beta has a Tor tab
  • a crypto currency that pays you for your attention to privacy safe ads

VPNs

ProtonVPN (recommended)

  • Switzerland
  • No logs, 30 day free trial
  • Free account: just VPN, no Tor (but you can still run a Tor Browser your self)
  • Plus account: VPN + Tor. Useful for using Tor on iOS (but no support for .onion addresses). Has a few VPN + Tor nodes, one in TX, USA.

NordVPN (best $ value)

  • Panama
  • No logs, free account
  • Offers one “onion over VPN” server in the Netherlands

Orchid (blockchain, innovative)

  • Cutting edge, Web 3.0, decentralized blockchain technology – no link to identity, bank account, email, etc. Paid for with their OXT crypto token currency.
  • Earn $12 in Orchid crypto tokens by watching a short Coinbase.com video tutorial

Messaging

Signal (a good baseline)

  • secure by default
  • Ed Snowden approved
  • similar to SMS messages
  • mobile number is identity
  • It helps to set your name and share your contact with a group. Make sure when you tap on the group heading, that you see the phrase “This group can see your profile“

Riot.im

  • good for a community with multiple real-time chat rooms on different topics
  • iOS, Android, and Desktop
  • E2EE encrypted by default, both individual and group chats
  • identity is based on a private encryption key
  • email and phone are optional
  • federated, and it’s possible to run an independent server

Status.im (blockchain, innovative, easy to get started)

  • Decentralized, blockchain, crypto, the future now
  • Identity is a private key
  • Creating a custom alias like @myname is more difficult, requiring purchase using their SNT crypto token
  • A great way to learn about and gain experience with the emerging cryptocosm (the next major dominant technology evolution)

Money

Debt-free Money

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One of the problems with our US Dollar is that the management of the currency is primarily done by the biggest commercial banks via the Fed. The Fed primarily steers the currency through setting the prime interest rate on bank reserves which regulates the expansion and contraction of the supply of credit. Recently it has increasing explored more extreme policies in times of instability like quantitative easing by actually buying securities to keep markets afloat. But all of its tools are premised on the whole system being debt and backed by debt. There’s no notion of a monetary instrument not backed by debt other than cold hard cash. This makes it difficult for monetary policy to affect the economy without causing inflation.

However, today I became aware of the International Movement for Money Reform and in particular the Ons Geld idea of a debt-free money instrument called a safe account, which separates the holder’s money from the commercial debt-based banking system and causes the banks to actually become subject to free market forces. This is the best idea I’ve seen over the many years of a way for monetary policy to have a sane way to keep a currency stable and to separate it from the vagaries of a private banking system that prioritizes profits. This is mostly being explored in Europe but applies just as much to the US

Debt-free money

When the safe account is generally accepted, the money on safe accounts can become debt-free. This means that it is no longer considered a claim on the public depository.[21] It has then become the digital embodiment of the general unit of value; digital cash.[22] Unlike physical cash, digital cash can be used as a monetary policy instrument.[23] This makes it possible to expand and control the money supply without increasing debt, and without pursuing inflation. This is the key instrument that is needed to manage the euro efficiently. Debt growth, market distortion and inflation are then no longer inherent to monetary policy. Central banks, however, cannot obtain this instrument on their own. Only the legislator can call digital cash into existence. As a debt-free intangible liquid asset digital cash requires a legal basis.[24] It is therefore a political responsibility to introduce this form of money and to determine the way it is organized. It is thus not the ESCB but the legislator who holds the key to making monetary policy effective and non-distortionary.

https://internationalmoneyreform.org/news/2020/03/new-instruments-for-monetary-policy/
Poetry, Spirit

Hemmed in, but I am Free

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Hemmed in on one side by the dead and rotting, and on the other by the willfully malevolent, my heart longs for the presence of the Mystic Nightingale of Eternity, the Divine Dove of Paradise.
My flesh tingles with excitement and my limbs quiver with joy at these mere thoughts of Thee!
How miraculous that Thy verses and meanings can lift me up above this debasement to be cheered and crowned with Thine Absolute Truth and Infinite Beauty!
Even this little taste of Thine Ancient Wine is worth all of the work of polishing the cup of my heart.
Just this momentary glimpse of Thy Boundless Majesty is worth all of the years of reflection and pondering upon Thy meanings.
Of course, none of that is necessary for Thee to become known unto whomever Thou pleasest.
But I am grateful for all the steps that I’ve taken prior to these, for these moments are like crowning jewels upon all those others.
These 10,000 steps, or maybe more, that I have walked towards Thee are but a fraction of all those that led me astray.
How shockingly generous art Thou for rewarding every step taken towards Thee, each one counted as three hundred thirty three.
In the scales of Thy Most Glorious Justice, I owe Thee more than I could ever pay in earthly riches, nay more than even the richest man could pay.
Such is Thine Infinite Mercy that I am still a free man, in thought, word, and deed.
All thanks be to Thee, the Infinite, the Eternal, the Most High.

Society, Spirit

The REAL 99%

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I laid awake in bed some time between 4 and 5 AM this morning receiving some profound thoughts about the nature of consciousness and existence. What follows is an attempt to remember and assemble fragments of the download into a written form.

The greatest choice we can make is to choose to imagine, accept, know, and experience that we are more than just the physical, more than just the visible, and that our invisible aspect is actually the far more significant part of who we are, like 19 to 1, or even 99 to 1, even approaching infinity to 1. Making the choice to accept that we are more than just the physical, it turns out, puts one into a group with approximately 99% of all people, fellow choosers so to speak. This combined with the idea that our invisible aspect is far more significant than our visible suggests that this is the REAL 99% group identity, rather than some far more mundane and less profound physical economic political identity. This is REAL power, the real power that those with secrets to keep are most afraid of.

As one’s individual identity approaches the infinite, one discovers that all information in all of reality is available to one’s inquiring mind, that one’s own mind is a subset and derivative of the One Mind. This experience enables one to become free from any and all group dogmas, self-limiting group identities, reality boxes, etc. One finds that it is in fact these artificial fabricated group identities and their attendant obligatory dogmatic idea platforms that are more imprisoning than protecting.

The main problem appears to be that the human logical mind seems to be optimized for choosing the easiest path toward basic physical survival. A consequence of this is that even though the vast majority of us choose to believe that we are more than just the physical, we generally choose to identify strongly with a physical group identity that is a far smaller subset than the 99% of the total population who also believe that we are more than the physical. In other words, the vast majority of people choose a more focused or specialized form of belief in the visible, rather than the larger more general group identity who believe in the invisible. The end result of this is that we are divided and conquered by our own laziness and willingness to become attached to physical group identities that wind up dividing us against each other, possibly to the benefit of those who would exploit us for their material or metaphysical gain.

Granted, this is all a vast oversimplification, as are most such broadly general theses. This however, does not make it false.

It is of particular relevance that I had the book Remote Viewing by David Morehouse under my pillow when I received the above notions.

Poetry, Spirit

Shards of Thy Light

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The taste of Thy sweetness is more intoxicating than the most ancient wine.
Thy Spirit permeates every drop of this water of life flowing through my veins.
These arteries pulse with Thy bliss, surge with Thy wonder, flow with Thy grace.
Thy kiss brings me to my feet, to my tip toes, yearning for more, chasing Thy scent through the market of worldly delights, into the meadows of Thy nearness.
Under the moonlight of Thy beauty, evanescent glimmers of Thy oneness shine from the leaves and grasses, united in fractured shards of Thy light, whispering, “Welcome home, My Beloved!”

Spirit

The Silence Between the Words

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I wish to practice Remote Viewing regularly

Me: “You are meant for greater things”
Me: “Than RV? Like what?”
Me: “Prophethood”
Me: “I wish”
Me: “Wish granted”
Me: “May it be so”
Me: “It shall be, and is already”
Me: “Welcome to the new world, similar to the old world, but better! You made the grade! Celebrate! You are One with Us!”

—-

Wait! The silence between the words is where most of the meaning resides ….

—-

Thank you God, fashioner of All that Is, the Unknowable, the Invisible. I don’t need to see You or even fathom You to know that You are real. I am real and I feel gratitude for You. So You at least exist as my gratitude.

Spirit

Shatter Your Self

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Thanks be to God, Who created Reality, Who is Present within all beings and all things, and in every point in space and time. The Presence of God permeates all of Reality – the Creative Force, keeping, maintaining, and changing it, continuously, forever.

Me: “Why am I here?”
Me: “to be …”
Me: “to be what?”
Me: “to be Holy”
Me: “Why?”
Me: “There is no greater way to be”
Me: “How can I be more holy?”
Me: “Shatter your self”
Me: “How do I do that?”
Me: “Say, ‘I am God'”
Me: “What if I say, ‘He is God’?”
Me: “That is great too”
Me: “When I say, ‘I am God’ I experience it as total and complete submission of my self to God – utter servitude, but it also feels more natural than ‘I am a servant of God,’ which is also true, but the former feels like a more true expression of what the latter claims, similar to saying, ‘I am you’ as contrasted with saying ‘I am a servant of you.’ Some would certainly prefer the latter.”

Thanks be to Bahá’u’lláh for repeatedly rekindling in me my faith in God and bringing me back from the fire of remoteness and loss. All Praise and Glory and Honor is yours, God, the Redeemer, the Infinite.

Me: “Don’t hesitate”
Me: “What do you mean?”
Me: “Don’t hesitate to say what you mean …”
Me: “There is within us an infinite potential at all times, the Creative Force, the Spirit of God, the mind, the soul, all combine into one potential for goodness. But it is only fulfilled in good works. Action is required.”
Me: “Say what you mean”
Me: “Before acting however, it is essential that clarity and coherence be reached. Unclear and confused action is worse than no action. In other words, the infinite potential must be charged up, cleansed, made clear, before it will transmute into good works. Meditation and prayer are good ways to polish the mirror of potential, as is physical work done in service of others. In other words, action in the most good way will lead to more good, which will lead to greater and greater ways to act.”

“Alláh’u’Abhá!”

Spirit

The Oath of the Most High

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Me: “Hearken to the Oath of the Most High:
Your voice is My Voice.
Use it with care.
Speak only the Truth.
Testify to My Greatness,
beyond any ability to describe, fathom, or comprehend.
Your face is My Face.
Keep it clean, pure, and cheerful!
You are My Ambassador.
Treat My creatures with care and justice.
Keep your self free of worldly intrigue, pursuits, passions, and vices.
Preoccupy your self with My Cause, My Kingdom, My Medicine.”

Spirit

A Whisper

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A whisper: “On 9/19/19 a Most Holy Acquaintance will arrive / arise upon My Horizon. Be ready. Be pure. Be as pure light. Shed your baggage. Shed your illusions. Shine your mirror, purest polish, speak your name and truth freely and clearly. Name your price. Set your pace. Censure no one. Criticize less than a single atom. Be attuned to the magnificence and Glory with all of Creation; maintain coherence constantly; surrender completely to your own being and beauty; allow your own Grace to spread to the edge of the Universe and beyond.”

“In other words, be God in all ways, so that you might taste a mere drop of all that We Are. Be as a most cherished guest in the house of your Lord with every moment overflowing with mutual love, adoration, kindness, compassion, and devotion. Allow this infinite blessing to permeate all that this is, was, and will be.”

“Alláh’u’Abhá!”

an exploration of the Universe from the perspective of Thomas Spellman