Why? The Chinese are in no way my enemy.

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lol so what? You can convert it directly to horsepower. All energy is the same. It’s Hess law and work.

Very simple really…

China hasn’t finished their revolution yet. That’s their internal business and absolutely none of mine.

It will end up resolving and I’m pretty sure which side will end up winning but ya never know.

Not sure why anyone thinks they get to have an opinion.

That’s a pretty strong claim.

Days are reaaaaalllyyy long without tv or books.

I think republicans is a much better moniker. It indicates exactly who we are talking about.

Your “friends” and family members. All the people who voted for and continue to support this. The people on your socials who continuously move the goalposts and argue in bad faith.

Have you ever read Of Mice and Men?

Sometimes we have to do hard things.

I disagree with the thinking for yourself part.

I honestly believe that “American independence” has a lot to do with the current state of the system. Bowing to your friends knowledge on a subject is frowned upon. Folding one’s position is seen as weak.

Every day laborer is told they should “form their own opinion”. As if they are anywhere near educated and informed enough to form a conclusion on some of these complex topics.

So that’s one problem.

The next is that money talks. Money informs and money is in the hands of capitalists. They further their ends and have controlled what people thought for a very long time. It is extremely telling to see my grandmother receive the newspaper and go through it like a YouTube conspiracy video. All orchestrated to bring your thought pattern to a predetermined conclusion. Moving forward and backward from there…

What was before that? Town criers? “Go tell the people the news, tell them xyz”.

And after that of course it’s the same just with data aggregation, mining, and algorithms. “Move the opinion 5% in the aggregate in this direction”.

I wish people would be more comfortable identifying experts in their actual social groups and letting people specialize and disperse opinion for the good of the group. They THINK they are but they are not. Often times people sharing something they believe with their friends is not malicious it’s just they are stupid. Like letting me know that the earth is flat this really good guy who is plainly not smart recently did. Like wtf? How does this happen? How do we fix this?

I have no solutions… but independent thought isn’t it I don’t think.

Okay can you share our next moves?

Because my calculus says civil war is inevitable and better earlier than later as they are actively preparing. They will look to build camps and disarm. It should crack off now.

The longer we wait the stronger their position became.

But please if you have a grandmaster mate worked out let’s hear it.

If you play it all out to its logical conclusion you are absolutely right.

Depends what you mean by regular gym goers…

You got the new years people.

You got the regular “schedule 3 days a week” but really go like 2 or 1 and mostly play on their phone.

You got consistently go 3 or 5 days a week.

You got “I go every day no matter what”.

The last two aren’t missing no days.

Pudding pops.

How about we remove the b?

Universal income. No accumulation of Capital. No robber barons. Everybody gets the same and you use it as you see fit.

Just… live your life.

Hope he keeps that same energy when the mob walks him up the scaffold.

In the general case my house is clean because I find it to be so. However you feel about that is on you(grandma I’m looking at you), trying to elevate yourself by picking apart other people is toxic.

If I am hosting I will make it nice. I chose to host and so I chose a big event and I will decorate and deep clean and move stuff into the garage and whatever else.

On a random day if you show up or are coming over I am doing absolutely nothing different. I don’t expect you to either. We are friends/family and I take you as you are. I expect the same.

For specifics on the day to day. There are never dirty dishes in my sink that’s about all I can say lol.

Interesting. Would you care to address any of the sentiment I have expressed within the framework of the OP?

Or do you just want to attack me?

Care to share anything about yourself, your lived experience? I’m not even sure you qualify to comment on my thoughts at all.

Do you have or have you ever been in an LTR? How long? Is it successful? Kids? What are your regrets? What do you struggle with? Are you, ahem, a man?

Consider the OP. I certainly didn’t just pop up with this. The premise is literally that a huge majority of married men express regret. Then I share my experience. Here you come “pshaw that’s not even real!! You are sick and need help.”

Hmmm. I wonder who is honestly working through their issues and who is simply denying. I’m willing to bet it isn’t me. Or perhaps we are just different.

Because we are lacking actualization. I will use I statements but there is LOTS of consulting with other men and reflection in this.

I enjoy making my wife and kids happy. I get some satisfaction from compersion. A lot in fact. But that is not primarily for me. I am not filling my own cup as it we’re.

But what I really want is to win women. I want the admiration and loyalty of women. I essentially want a harem. That is a huge ask and not realistic but deep down inside that is what I repress all day every day. I am hardwired to pursue women. I have found this to be true of basically all men in private conversation, whether they verbalize it in those terms or not. It is not politically correct and so crazy to say out loud that the very idea of my true sexuality is essentially a thought crime.

I don’t want monogamy.

I will never be really satisfied by sports or fishing or whittling wood or any of the things that we take on when we retire from life by participating in monogamy.

The grass is always greener it’s true and I think a lot of men have experienced loneliness and are happy to have someone. I have always had an SO and a waiting list. My wife is so incredibly good to me that I just can’t leave to fulfill myself. It’s fucked up honestly and I carry a lot of resentment.

This is just the part you asked about and there are complexities throughout but that’s the gist.

I agree wholeheartedly. A practical discussion should be had first. Some of the real concerns:

Securing oil for whatever conflict they are brewing. (China probably, whether they view China as a military aggressor or a threat to their hegemony in general).

Energy needs because we are so crazy far behind in our electrical generation.

What will Venezuela, and more importantly their sons after we criminally murder swathes of their people, do? Are we looking at more 9/11? We will certainly deserve it but is their culture setup for such?

How about South America in general?

What about China et al? Will they back Venezuela? The oil there is a very important resource in whatever is coming up.

Then we can moralize.

The dishonesty over the premise is absolutely disgusting though. The action is as well but the lies… that part is weak af.

So if you think about it…

You are required to essentially stay destitute for their risk? They choose to drive around in a 180,000 dollar car and “the poors” better have insurance on those Toyota Yaris in case something happens.