Maybe it’s not just “one thing”, but ethics. How to make decisions in a systematic way; how to do it in advance; how to weight morality, practicality, and aesthetics to reach a decision that you’ll be satisfied with twenty years later, a decision you could explain and defend to another ethical person before or after the fact.
Is there something I can read to learn how to do this? A book or course? Or is this something gained only through experience and thought?
Start here: https://nesslabs.com/how-to-think-better This isn’t an endorsement (though I do like ness labs). That article offers practical evidence-based starting points and additional resources at the end.
There are many people/systems/schools that will offer strategies and solutions. Some are practical and effective. None of them are a replacement for learning what it means to think well, learning how to think well, or actually thinking well.
The next step is learning the jargon of philosophy so you can ask meaningful questions and parse the answers (this is true for any new discipline). I recommend reading anything on the topics of epistemology, ethics, and aesthetics, which resonate with you. Then find others to discuss what you’ve read. You do not have to be right or knowledgeable to earn a voice in the conversation: only an interest in discovering how you might be wrong and helping others discern the same for themselves.
If you haven’t read any classical philosophy but are interested I recommend Euthyphro. It’s brief, poignant, and entertaining.
I hope this helps! Happy to discuss further as well.
Empathy. People criticzing each other often make the same “mistakes” that are nothing but normal human behaviour. Once you understand that we are all pretty much equal, you start realizing that most bad things are sistematic. There are few bad people, most people are quite nice and forced (ot taught) to behave badly
Add on top of this “maybe you don’t need to worry about criticizing others in the first place” and you’re well on your way to a happier existence.
Disclaimer: of course thinking critically is important, and there are areas where you’d be irresponsible not to be critical of others. I’m talking about the IV drip of negativity of constantly getting annoyed at things that don’t affect you.
Adding to this, the criticism is more valid if you understand more
Understanding is the only way to solve any kind of problem
Very well said, thank you.
Empathy
That fact that psychedelic drugs like mushrooms and LSD are so so so so much less dangerous than media and politics make them seem.
They are actually among the safest drugs out there, even when including caffeine and sugar. They can be used in so many ways for self-improvement and treating depressions, anxiety, PTSD and many other conditions.
It is a real shame that illegal drugs in general have such a bad reputation even though the most harmful drugs (namely alcohol and nicotine) are legal and addictions are completely accepted by society.
The book ‘How to change your Mind’ by Michael Pollan is a wonderful read on the topic.
Mushrooms maybe, but doesn’t LSD have the power to affect someone for life? If I were to use any recreationals, I’m sticking to dreamfish, that doesn’t even have any documented cases of overdosing yet.
LSD and psylocibin work very similarly, they even have cross-tolerance. Schizophrenia and psychosis are some of the few risks you need to watch out for when handling psychedelics. If there is a predisposition present like mental illlnesses running in the family, psychedelics may act as a trigger for those and should be avoided or handled very carefully.
Also there is no documented overdose with LSD and psylocybe mushrooms either, even with doses as high as hundreds or thousands of recreational doses.
Oh yeah? Well I wish people could learn kindness.
Highroaded.
true kindness would be to not demonise and ban entheogentic medicines with thousands of years of contemporary peer review in the sickening pursuit of corporate greed
Class consciousness.
So then we stop fighting each other for peanuts and look at who gets to benefit from our generalised political apathy.
How to properly go through a four-way stop.
As a non-USA person, the existence of a four-way stop has always baffled me. I think it is the peak of awful road design. I don’t think you could make a worse intersection.
The rules for how they’re supposed to work sound simple enough on paper. Unfortunately a lot of us in the US have poor reading comprehension skills.
Or use a roundabout
Can you teach me this? I have roundabout anxiety.
Assuming right-hand side of road driving and right-hand (anti-clockwise) directionality of travel.
- Look left. Clear? Proceed. Not clear? Yield.
- When safe to do so, enter the roundabout. Locate your exit.
- Exit the roundabout.
Corollary: never stop in a roundabout. Go around more than once if you have to, but don’t stop.
I assume roundabouts in Australia and England and UK colonies that drive on the left, all instructions are direction-opposite.
Assuming left-hand side of road driving and left-hand (clockwise) directionality of travel.
- Look right. Clear? Proceed. Not clear? Yield.
- When safe to do so, enter the roundabout. Locate your exit.
- Exit the roundabout.
Corollary: never stop in a roundabout. Go around more than once if you have to, but don’t stop.
In step 1 it’s feels like it’s never clear and i don’t know how long to wait.
It’s like a stop sign entering a busy road. You stay stopped until it’s clear. Never mind the impatient people behind you that probably don’t know how to use a roundabout as well. People seem to think that you just enter the roundabout without stopping and people in the roundabout have to yield to them. The people in the roundabout have the right of way so they can get out of it and make room for more.
I did one yesterday!! There were only 3 other cars, but still, i did it!
Good job. Like anything, practice makes you better.
Good on you, friend.
Now, 2w later, have you done any more?
Also, what remains challenging?
That they need to understand others in order for people to understand them. That the “tragic prince” is just a fallacy and I would really really want other people around me to appreciate art-forms more. Most of the time they find a movie good and just list the content as the reason for it’s goodness, not paying attention to any of the craft and it baffles me that more people are not attached to or interested in how art-forms do the things they do.
Basic fucking decency would be a start
to love themselves so they can love everyone else
Wish granted, now everyone is an insufferable narcissist, because they only love themselves.
Narcissists don’t actually love themselves, they desperately need the approval of others.
Wait, really? I certainly didn’t approve of the last Karen I encountered.
Well, they probably didn’t like that, did they?
Username checks out
❤️
Critical thinking, so everyone could understand that everyone else has their own shit that matters to them.
The world would be a lot nicer to live in if entire groups of our society didn’t feel this incessant need to convert others to their way of thinking, be it political, cultural, or religious.
As long as one person isn’t hurting or subjugating another, IDGAF.
It seems to me groups have people have been choosing a king to do their reasoning for them since the beginning of humanity. And, the application of computers to communications and profits has significantly raised the bar of adequacy for wise decisions while (US) educational efforts have been in decline for nearly a half century.
How do we encourage the critical mass of free thinkers to break the current paradigm, let alone the ancient one?
Sincerely, does anyone see some sort of plan here? I often feel like I’m shouting into the void for little more than dying with self-respect. Can we reason our way to revolt, already?
Can we reason our way to revolt, already?
`twould be nice, but I see this as requiring a multi-generational solution. We need enough young voters to get out there and vote with their social conscience, to overcome the combined weight of ignorance, money and power.
Seems to me every single time Americans significantly changed their laws, they had to break laws, often pick up firearms, then boycott, illegally enforce their strike’s picket lines, riot and revolt. Perhaps you shouldn’t be speaking of the combined weight of ignorance of society. Maybe your time would be better spent reading a history book rather than attempting to teach.
Maybe you should take the time to engage your own critical thinking, and realise not everyone is American.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I scoped correctly. And, you’re Australian, meaning your government follows where we lead regardless of what you vote for. Bad faith fuck.
Jesus, talk about failing to get the point.
I’m not talking about my government or yours. I’m talking about society making a change for the better. That requires change at a generational level. Bigger guns aren’t the answer - changing people’s thinking is.
But, by all means, feel free to keep playing the Team America card. That’s what landed that orange-skinned moron in the White House for his first term.
Jesus, talk about failing to answer a simple question. If you don’t know fuck all about how to implement our shared goal, perhaps you should humble the fuck down and learn to ask good questions.
How dare u think like this i demand you change your mind.
In all seriousness tho this would never work cos it is a belief that fundamentally goes against that of those who dont already hold it. I suppose we can use the pardox of tolerance to argue that we should forcefully (using violence if nessasary) convert people to this way of thinking.
To use the bins/trash cans and stop littering. Especially on beaches, parks, reserves and on the motorway.
By extension also, cigarettes, plastic, and aluminium/cardboard. Hate that.
It’s one thing if it’s compostable fruit, but cigs… do those smokers seriously think it’ll just go away?
Situational awareness.
I’m genuinely not sure whether this is a teachable skill or something more like a character trait.
If you got really bad scores your DM may allow you a re-roll
Another language. It changes the way you see the world
ASL has made a shocking difference in my life, both opening me up as a more accessible person, but also finding a lot of use for it in my own file!!
I wish we could learn from our mistakes.
