7 ms·

Quite hypocritical of you to criticize unconstructive statements and then going around and doing the same eh? May I dare to venture why you think so?

rebootthesystem 10y ago
I don't know who you are, your age, background, occupation or where you live. Your view of reality is distorted to a significant degree. I am not saying you don't have a point here and there but things are not as dark and sinister as you seem to think they are. Again, without having an understanding of your frame of reference it is hard to know where to go with what you said. Please don't take this as a personal attack. That is and was not the intent. I simply told you that what you are describing does not align with reality to a degree that is not-trivial. Depending on your frame of reference an exploration of these ideas and their potential realignment could be a matter of a short conversation and a few links or hours chatting in person at a nice coffee shop. I can put it this way (these are just examples): Someone suffering from deep depression sees the world through a very different lens than someone who isn't depressed. A person who has success in life sees the world through very different eyes when compared to someone at the opposite end of the scale. Someone who enjoys a great family life views a reality not available to a person who's family life is nonexistent or tragically complicated. I am not saying you fit any of the above scenarios. I am simply using them to demonstrate that one's frame of reference matters, a lot. Your portrayal of reality is very dark and negative. I urge you to consider that this might not be in alignment with how things are in reality. That said, a perfect image does not exist. We are all influenced by our frames of reference to one degree or another. Nobody can claim absolute alignment with reality. However, the extremes are clearly not aligned with reality. Your view of what's around you seems to be very dark.
- cooper12 10y ago
  I can agree that people with different lives have different frames of reference. Though you're also basically implying that your "reality" is the right one and that mine, as you said before, is "distorted beyond recognition". My views are based on reality as I see it. I can link you to a reputable news source on each one happening, in fact I can link you directly to statements from the administration itself proving each of these. You say that "I am not saying you don't have a point here", so you're not exactly denying that what I've said isn't true, but then you also say that things aren't so dark and sinister... I listed actual things that are happening. I didn't say "Trump is going to put us into concentrations camps immediately tomorrow!" If I resorted to hyperbole I'd agree with you. However, everything I've said is based on actual events, and for me as a minority and someone who cares about minorities, no things will not be looking up as indicated by Trump himself and the people in his administration. Maybe you don't care if you're a well-off white male, you probably won't be affected, in fact you'll probably stand to benefit. But no, sorry, this is my reality and the people I know and talked to feel the same way. (I'm not just reacting to some possible future, I'm reacting to what's already happened) I thought Trump would just be harmless and not do much in office, but I've obviously been proven wrong and I'm not looking forward to what comes next, so yes things are looking dark in my future.
  - rebootthesystem 10y ago
    I learned that in life things are rarely true at the extremes. In other words, views that say everything is great (one extreme) or everything is horrible (the other) are rarely true. Some things can be great and some things can be horrible but not all things at the same time. The picture you are painting is one where everyone is about to be tossed into a meat grinder. This is simply not true. If you were painting a more moderate --less doomsday-- view there would be reason to discuss specifics but you are fundamentally painting a "the world is coming to an end" image and that's simply not true. In fact, it isn't possible. As for your "well-off white male" comment. I would urge you to avoid such generalizations. They are also wrong because of the same truth: extremes are never true. Not all white males are well off and not all black (or whatever) males are screwed. There are plenty of white males in skid row and plenty of very intelligent, accomplished and fantastically successful black males, from a prior President to sports and TV starts, CEO's etc. These generalizations are not conducive to seeing the world as what it is: An analog continuum of people from all walks of life who live different lives and exist at different levels of success or failure, luck or lack thereof. This, again, isn't reality. And, of course, whatever someone happens to be has no bearing whatsoever on the validity of what is being discussed. Yes, as I said, it can reveal a frame of reference, but that does not imply that their reality is accurate. A well-off white male in a deep depression sees a very distorted version of reality when compared to someone at the opposite extreme. As for me specifically, yeah, I'm white and very successful. Yet, believe it or not, I am a minority with Middle Eastern and Hispanic heritage as well as a descendant of Genocide survivors. Immigrant also. Naturalized US citizen. And, an atheist to boot. I came up from the bottom. My first job was washing dishes at a company that supplied food to aircraft back when they actually used proper dishes. I did this to help support my family while I attended college. It gets even better, my entire family was deported when I was six years old because my parents came to the US with tourist visas and overstayed. Once outside US it took them two years of hard work to go through the process of applying for and obtaining legal permanent immigration status. In other words, I could point to a dozen reasons for which I could hate or feel hated. Yet that isn't my perspective at all. Why? Because this idea that life is shit because you are a minority is a complete fabrication. No such thing. Life is what you make it. View it as a deep dark place and it will become a deep dark place. View it as a garden of opportunities and it will become exactly that. As for Trump. Forces greater than we can comprehend are fabricating all kinds of doomsday scenarios that are nothing less than fantasy. The world doesn't work that way. The political forces at play are massive. They are using every trick in the book --all sides-- to manipulate people in to frenzied drones that react to every single impulse given in predictable ways. Never forget that their game is votes. That's it. They don't give a shit about you and me. They just want power and power requires votes. And that's the only battle they fight. Trump is a 70+ year old guy who grew up around construction crews (hence the lack of smooth lawyer/politician speeches) who has achieved far more real success than the vast majority of people on the planet. Can we agree one does not get there by being a moron? Or that one does not get there without making more good than bad decisions? Or that one does not get there without surrounding oneself with extremely intelligent talented people? Or that one does not get there without listening to valuable advice? I think these are reasonable assumptions to make about this guy. And if these are reasonable and logical it only stands to reason that he is not going to blow up the world, he is not going to destroy the US and it is actually likely that he might do a lot of good. I don't agree with everything he has said. It's been crude at times and even embarrassing. Yet politicians have done a tremendous amount of damage to this country over the last 50 to 100 years while delivering well-written eloquent speeches. And this is so precisely because all they really care about is their own political survival and rise in power. And we all got caught in the middle of that mess. Politicians were not ever going to solve the problems they created. That much is clear from decades of unfulfilled campaign promises. Please not I take no sides here. I truly don't care about political parties and mono-cultures, I think they are evil. We needed a massively different approach and one contrary to what career politicians would ever even consider (because if you are a career politician it would be suicidal). And then along came Trump. Einstein said: "We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used to create them". Sage advice. This is precisely where we are. I urge you not to allow yourself to be influenced by the insanity of the political games being played by all sides. Give the process time and watch for results. That's really the only thing that matters. And, yes, mistakes will be made here and there. What matters is results over time. Above all, please realize that the world is not all negative. It's exactly the opposite almost. We have never lived better or had more opportunities. Focus on negativity and you will help promote negative outcomes. Focus on what's positive and you will become a force for positive change.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

rebootthesystem 10y ago

I don't know who you are, your age, background, occupation or where you live. Your view of reality is distorted to a significant degree. I am not saying you don't have a point here and there but things are not as dark and sinister as you seem to think they are. Again, without having an understanding of your frame of reference it is hard to know where to go with what you said. Please don't take this as a personal attack. That is and was not the intent. I simply told you that what you are describing does not align with reality to a degree that is not-trivial. Depending on your frame of reference an exploration of these ideas and their potential realignment could be a matter of a short conversation and a few links or hours chatting in person at a nice coffee shop. I can put it this way (these are just examples): Someone suffering from deep depression sees the world through a very different lens than someone who isn't depressed. A person who has success in life sees the world through very different eyes when compared to someone at the opposite end of the scale. Someone who enjoys a great family life views a reality not available to a person who's family life is nonexistent or tragically complicated. I am not saying you fit any of the above scenarios. I am simply using them to demonstrate that one's frame of reference matters, a lot. Your portrayal of reality is very dark and negative. I urge you to consider that this might not be in alignment with how things are in reality. That said, a perfect image does not exist. We are all influenced by our frames of reference to one degree or another. Nobody can claim absolute alignment with reality. However, the extremes are clearly not aligned with reality. Your view of what's around you seems to be very dark.

cooper12 10y ago
I can agree that people with different lives have different frames of reference. Though you're also basically implying that your "reality" is the right one and that mine, as you said before, is "distorted beyond recognition". My views are based on reality as I see it. I can link you to a reputable news source on each one happening, in fact I can link you directly to statements from the administration itself proving each of these. You say that "I am not saying you don't have a point here", so you're not exactly denying that what I've said isn't true, but then you also say that things aren't so dark and sinister... I listed actual things that are happening. I didn't say "Trump is going to put us into concentrations camps immediately tomorrow!" If I resorted to hyperbole I'd agree with you. However, everything I've said is based on actual events, and for me as a minority and someone who cares about minorities, no things will not be looking up as indicated by Trump himself and the people in his administration. Maybe you don't care if you're a well-off white male, you probably won't be affected, in fact you'll probably stand to benefit. But no, sorry, this is my reality and the people I know and talked to feel the same way. (I'm not just reacting to some possible future, I'm reacting to what's already happened) I thought Trump would just be harmless and not do much in office, but I've obviously been proven wrong and I'm not looking forward to what comes next, so yes things are looking dark in my future.
- rebootthesystem 10y ago
  I learned that in life things are rarely true at the extremes. In other words, views that say everything is great (one extreme) or everything is horrible (the other) are rarely true. Some things can be great and some things can be horrible but not all things at the same time. The picture you are painting is one where everyone is about to be tossed into a meat grinder. This is simply not true. If you were painting a more moderate --less doomsday-- view there would be reason to discuss specifics but you are fundamentally painting a "the world is coming to an end" image and that's simply not true. In fact, it isn't possible. As for your "well-off white male" comment. I would urge you to avoid such generalizations. They are also wrong because of the same truth: extremes are never true. Not all white males are well off and not all black (or whatever) males are screwed. There are plenty of white males in skid row and plenty of very intelligent, accomplished and fantastically successful black males, from a prior President to sports and TV starts, CEO's etc. These generalizations are not conducive to seeing the world as what it is: An analog continuum of people from all walks of life who live different lives and exist at different levels of success or failure, luck or lack thereof. This, again, isn't reality. And, of course, whatever someone happens to be has no bearing whatsoever on the validity of what is being discussed. Yes, as I said, it can reveal a frame of reference, but that does not imply that their reality is accurate. A well-off white male in a deep depression sees a very distorted version of reality when compared to someone at the opposite extreme. As for me specifically, yeah, I'm white and very successful. Yet, believe it or not, I am a minority with Middle Eastern and Hispanic heritage as well as a descendant of Genocide survivors. Immigrant also. Naturalized US citizen. And, an atheist to boot. I came up from the bottom. My first job was washing dishes at a company that supplied food to aircraft back when they actually used proper dishes. I did this to help support my family while I attended college. It gets even better, my entire family was deported when I was six years old because my parents came to the US with tourist visas and overstayed. Once outside US it took them two years of hard work to go through the process of applying for and obtaining legal permanent immigration status. In other words, I could point to a dozen reasons for which I could hate or feel hated. Yet that isn't my perspective at all. Why? Because this idea that life is shit because you are a minority is a complete fabrication. No such thing. Life is what you make it. View it as a deep dark place and it will become a deep dark place. View it as a garden of opportunities and it will become exactly that. As for Trump. Forces greater than we can comprehend are fabricating all kinds of doomsday scenarios that are nothing less than fantasy. The world doesn't work that way. The political forces at play are massive. They are using every trick in the book --all sides-- to manipulate people in to frenzied drones that react to every single impulse given in predictable ways. Never forget that their game is votes. That's it. They don't give a shit about you and me. They just want power and power requires votes. And that's the only battle they fight. Trump is a 70+ year old guy who grew up around construction crews (hence the lack of smooth lawyer/politician speeches) who has achieved far more real success than the vast majority of people on the planet. Can we agree one does not get there by being a moron? Or that one does not get there without making more good than bad decisions? Or that one does not get there without surrounding oneself with extremely intelligent talented people? Or that one does not get there without listening to valuable advice? I think these are reasonable assumptions to make about this guy. And if these are reasonable and logical it only stands to reason that he is not going to blow up the world, he is not going to destroy the US and it is actually likely that he might do a lot of good. I don't agree with everything he has said. It's been crude at times and even embarrassing. Yet politicians have done a tremendous amount of damage to this country over the last 50 to 100 years while delivering well-written eloquent speeches. And this is so precisely because all they really care about is their own political survival and rise in power. And we all got caught in the middle of that mess. Politicians were not ever going to solve the problems they created. That much is clear from decades of unfulfilled campaign promises. Please not I take no sides here. I truly don't care about political parties and mono-cultures, I think they are evil. We needed a massively different approach and one contrary to what career politicians would ever even consider (because if you are a career politician it would be suicidal). And then along came Trump. Einstein said: "We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used to create them". Sage advice. This is precisely where we are. I urge you not to allow yourself to be influenced by the insanity of the political games being played by all sides. Give the process time and watch for results. That's really the only thing that matters. And, yes, mistakes will be made here and there. What matters is results over time. Above all, please realize that the world is not all negative. It's exactly the opposite almost. We have never lived better or had more opportunities. Focus on negativity and you will help promote negative outcomes. Focus on what's positive and you will become a force for positive change.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]