To nitpick further…

It’s yet another iteration of the rich destructively oppressing everyone else. Capitalism is yet another system built and modified by the rich to keep themselves in power. While it may be a preferable system over most of what came before, it’s still not good enough to protect the rest of us and the world from their destruction. When their greed yet again goes too far, the cycle will repeat yet again. We might want to take that opportunity to build a better system specifically without the rich dipshits.

Holy shit, 100% agreed, no notes. GenAI ain’t the problem, it is but a symptom of a fucked up system.

I’m not a doctor. You absolutely should speak with your prescribing psychiatrist as soon as you can about your concerns.

Most everything sounds normal outside of the euphoria. I’m not a doctor, but from my understanding of reading adhd studies, people with adhd usually don’t experience euphoria when taking stimulants, especially compared to neurotypicals. And people with adhd also experience a lower risk of addiction when specifically on stimulant medication. However, I think it’s important to point out that while these things are statistically unlikely, they are not impossible, nor should this be ignored. If you are concerned, that’s reason enough to bring it up with your doctor sooner rather than later. Before you jump ship entirely on stimulants, I would consider an extended release, as stimulant medication is extremely effective for adhd. However, again, I’m not a doctor, and I would defer to your psychiatrist’s advice.

Since you did ask about experience, I don’t think I’ve ever experienced a euphoric reaction to stimulant medication myself, especially not methylphenidate. I currently take vyvanse and it does elevate my mood, but more in the sense of clarity rather than euphoria. I’ve never experienced a craving for medication, and have forgotten to take my stimulant medication multiple times. I have wanted to take more of my stimulants than prescribed before, not because they make me feel good, but more out of desperation to continue being able to do things. That’s about what I can think of for my own experience.

At this point, it’s hard to say. It’s still a bit early in the presidential cycle to ask if anyone has a plan for post-trump. You won’t really see that rhetoric popping up until early 2028.

Is it possible/likely the next admin will be able to repair America’s reputation abroad? Again, hard to say at this point. Anyone telling you we’re all fucked forever or whatever is a silly doomer. Even someone worse than trump couldn’t dismantle the kind of influence/power America has diplomatically irreparably in such a short time. However, to help inform us of how things might look in the future; every region is the world has pivoted to moving to be more isolationist. Distrust and tensions are and will probably continue rising. Corporate capture is continuing to be a major worldwide problem. Conflict due to climate change is also on the rise. Many conservative movements, strongly encouraged by corporations, are doubling down on old tech in energy infrastructure and strongly pushing a [kinda] traditional nuclear family. Now without consequences, corporations are jumping hard into enshittification. Polarization in American politics just keeps getting worse and so much more stupid. I think these are many of the major issues that the trump admin has been directly responsible for either creating or making worse.

Many of the elements that are currently changing the political landscape because of the trump admin really falls into two major categories: alignment of foreign powers and the problem of domestic corporations. NATO is likely to survive as-is. However, Europe is not only talking about becoming more independent militarily, they’re already actively making it happen. NATO will still be the primary military alliance for the foreseeable future, but if the American government continues to prove unreliable and the EU military reorganization is successful enough, I don’t see NATO continuing to be relevant. As for the trump admin cozying up to dictatorial states, I don’t think those relationships are sustainable due to their very nature, let alone the kind of attitude a Democrat administration would have toward those countries. More neutral countries are finding the increasingly unstable nature of American politics as a kind of vindication. While they aren’t exactly running into China’s arms or whatever, they’re certainly using the time of trump’s second term to ‘play both sides’ and are building some economic goodwill with China. Optically, China is looking pretty alright right now. It’s nothing that will guarantee China true superpower status that the ccp seems to be so horny for, but they can be kinda comfortable with their current position. Their aggressive rhetoric and economic practices will continue to hold them back in the eyes of the rest of the world, though. Russia/Putin? lol.

So, all these things considered, America losing superpower status is extremely unlikely still. The dollar still reigns, the American military is still oversized, and American political influence is still very strong despite being weakened. Life in the west is still too comfortable to shake up the world order. While the trump admin is really fucking it up, the infrastructure to leave American hegemony is still fairly nonexistent. China is still not trustworthy and just not really built right for the task. It seems American allies are kinda holding their breath for the next admin to be more cooperative because they don’t have much of a choice. However, for Europe being put in this kind of position, it seems as though it was enough of a wakeup call for them to seriously make an effort to build themselves an exit. Canada is kinda geographically and economically stuck with the US. And Australia? lol, their government officials are basically just as unhinged as their American counterparts. While the political rhetoric of traditional US allies has been pretty vocal about permanent loss of trust in the US, it’s far from being so irrevocably broken as to kick the US out, less so because they don’t really want to leave, but more so because American power and it’s resilience tends to be underestimated somehow, realistic and desirable alternatives don’t exist, and the amount of damage trump can do/has done is usually blown wayyyy the fuck out of proportion. American hegemony isn’t under existential threat, but it has been weakened. Less like “THE CRACKS ARE SHOWING” and more like HP is at 95%. I’d keep an eye on how things develop over the next two years, but the needle only just showed it’s ability to move.

Hitler and king Leopold are great answers. The things they perpetrated are very difficult to stomach. I consider myself someone who is fairly desensitized, especially growing up during the wild west of the internet. Unit 731, though? I can’t. Absolutely the most vile humans to have walked the face of the earth. Humans aren’t born good or evil, but rather have potential for either. The fucking shitstains of unit 731 found a way to maximize the human capacity for evil. Naming anyone in that group is the correct answer.

This is so catoonishly evil that if you write something like this in some dystopian movie or game or whatever, you’d tell those edgelord writers to calm tf down. Like seriously, what the fuck.

Well, at least he’s dead. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

I don’t know who that is, but if I could verify/clarify by looking at their post history, I’d probably block them if what you say is true… ohhhhh hey, looks like the dipshit himself commented on this very post like an edgelord and is conveniently the most downvoted comment.

Joke with a message aside, I noticed I already had downvoted the guy multiple times before. Looks like he likes to post ai slop as well and becomes a combative baby bitch when called out. Even better, some of the ai slop uses the “hUmAn BaD” trope. And I did indeed check up on and confirm the cropping out artist credit. He’s a combative baby bitch when called out on that, too.

Guys, look! He’s so cool! It was a post about how much of a dickhead he is and he still upvoted, what a Madlad(inc)! Even taking a stand against all those invasive ads like uhhhh… an artist’s signature on their own artwork. It’s basically the same thing as those overly sexual ads for dishonest mobile games cramming themselves into videos made for kids, amirite??? He definitely understands the ethical principles of advertising without lazy hasty generalizations.

Also, it’s such a great idea to comment on a post about your own shitty behavior. No one takes that opportunity to look at your profile to verify the behavior themselves. And it’s not like when you comment to identify yourself that you give a convenient link for everyone to block you without having to look you up. Truly some kinda 5d chess move. I tip my fedora to you m’sir.

Well, I worked as an apprentice for a bit doing commercial work. It’s pretty easy to hit up the local union to work as a wireman to get into the apprenticeship program. You’d be working full time with good benefits while getting all your classes in. Not sure how involved you’d be willing to get to “try out” electrician work. You might call one of the local electricians around to see if they’d be willing to let you job shadow. Some master electricians run off to run their own business once they get their hours and pass the test, so who knows what they’d be willing to consider, although I imagine a majority probably wouldn’t be too comfortable with the liability risk.

Either way, you could probably call the local union to see what they have for those curious, might let you sit in on a class or something, I dunno. I can answer some questions as well if you’d like.

I’m not sure what you guys are worried about. All that extra heat will just dissipate into the atmosphere and eventually radiate into space. It’s not like there’s anything in the atmosphere that would interfere with this cycle… right?

Most people out there are looking for their person. They wanna know who the right person is for them. Most advice out there is about how to attract whatever kinda person you want. The world is full of selfish people. Your first question was about how to be the right person. You’re much more solidly on the right path than you give yourself credit. You demonstrate both a willingness to honestly examine yourself and a desire to change for the better. To be clear; you’ve already started the process.

As for what you want to accomplish, knowing what to do is simple and easy, the work itself is difficult and takes time as you’ve already anticipated. I could get into the neurological framework behind it if you like, but basically it’s just like the process of working out/going to the gym. You do the things that strengthen those “muscles” so to speak. Uncomfortable with your own appearance? Stand in front of the mirror and be cognizant of your self-talk. Your goal is to be able to look at yourself without making value statements about yourself. Your focus should be on your reaction rather than the initial observation. You always have the option of having no opinion. Train yourself to not be critical or prideful of yourself, but rather to be honest. “I am me, to expect more or less of myself is a choice I’m under no obligation to make”.

To make lasting change within yourself, you must become more mindful of your opinions and reactions. No one can make you angry, or cry, or happy, it’s your opinion of whatever happens. You’re not angry because that guy cut you off while driving, it’s because you belive he was unjust to do so and he did it with malformed intent. Is it possible he did it to avoid hitting a dog? How could you be angry then? Even more realistically, it could be that he wasn’t paying attention, but even then, why be angry? “He should pay more attention!” That’s not up to you, so what good is your anger? “He could have hurt me or someone else!” Then adjust your behavior accordingly, and shouldn’t you expect this behavior already? Humans are well known as distracted drivers, how can you be angry with something you expect as a byproduct of one’s very nature? The goal isn’t eliminating emotion, but to not be controlled by them. Anger has it’s place, but it’s abused to death the world over. Anger should motivate you to move into rational action, not consume you with rambling outrage. This is just an example of how you work out changing your own behavior, and in turn, changing yourself.

The difficulty is that you have to do it consistently. Just like working out, starting is hard and won’t really show results, but it gets easier over time as you progress. You have to constantly remind yourself, you must constantly refocus your attention, and you must constantly find new ways to practice being uncomfortable. The process is difficult, but more than rewarding when you look back on your progress. And when you simply become someone who is more in control of themselves, the self-love/confidence follows close behind. This way you treat the cause of the symptoms. I have much more on the subject if you have questions. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius is a good read for this.

TL;DR: Stoic philosophy.

Man, witnessing the whole country losing their minds at the time is so wild looking back on. Some weird cloud of security paranoia just kinda crept in and never left. No more kids running around wherever, no more shrugging about locking everything, cameras popping up everywhere, airports becoming completely unrecognizable, more invasive security, and conservatives suddenly becoming so much more trusting in the government increasing it’s surveillance power. Some real jackasses took advantage of us coming together as a country and grotesquely perverted our unification in shock. I mean, why waste a perfectly good opportunity to create a massive amount of passive wealth in government defense contracts in the long term, amirite?

I just don’t understand, are these politicians really that stupid? You do shit like this when the general public is more cognizant of distrust in government institutions, you start building factories for more Luigis. If your average normies are experiencing a noticeable and tangible decrease in standard of living, are personally and physically seeing more live protests, are constantly seeing a stream of authoritarian moves from the government, and you pile on this blatant miscarriage of justice seen from both major parties, where do you think people are gonna turn to for justice? And when you’re this public and blatant about it, who’s head is on the spike first, historically speaking? I really don’t think everyone is prepared for the consequences of continuing down this road, because participation in the consequences will likely be much more mandatory than they have been historically.

Jeez, so many things. The most influential 180 for me has been from being what others have called a “super Christian” to an atheist. This caused a few 180s for me: young earth creationist->evolution is a fact and the cornerstone of biology/big bang cosmology is probably the most correct Sex outside of marriage is bad->sluts are cool as fuck, actually Marriage is hierarchical->loving someone is a partnership and marriage is tax break for it The Bible is a revolutionary infallible divine guide->the Bible is an interesting, remarkably well-preserved text, a wildly inconsistent mythology, and with a weirdly cobbled mess of regressive morality even for it’s time Gay bad->ARM EVERYONE WHO IS LGBTQ

My political journey has been pretty wild, too. From a self-described “ultra-conservative” to Christian liberal to Christian “anti-patriot”(an aggressive political apathy because Jesus) to full communist(anarcho-syndicalist…ish) to Christian Socialism to Market Socialist to DemSoc to Libertarian Socialist to a kinda Cosmopolitan Anarchist/Socialist.

Another 180 for me that has strangely stayed independent of my religious and political views(mostly) is my views on feminism. I guess more specifically my views on what feminism is. I’ve always been a feminist deep down, but I had some pretty warped views on what feminism is, especially in my conservative days. The two things that always bothered me as a Christian about Christianity were slavery in the Bible and the treatment of women. The thing is, I really bought into the whole “feminism is when men bad and women rule world” bs for an embarrassingly long time. I may be a straight cis man, but even as a kid I thought the systemic unfair treatment of women was a real problem that urgently needed fixing, but feminism is just a pendulum swing to the other side. lol. Not only have I come to a better understanding of feminism with the goal of establishing equal rights for women, I’ve come to understand the role feminism plays for men’s liberation as well. Bell Hooks has really opened my eyes to the simplicity of feminism really being about our collective liberation from patriarchy. I truly appreciate feminism because I finally joined the movement in order to fight for the rights of others and instead of turning their nose at a perceived enemy, I was taught to fight for myself as well. I think it speaks volumes when a movement seeks to empower everyone that joins, despite the gargantuan disparity in the level of oppression they experience. I’m not a sideline cheerleader, I’m a fucking comrade. So I guess: feminism bad-> FUCK THE PATRIARCHY

It’s interesting that they use the word responsible, since I would agree with one definition, but strongly disagree with another. Pretty apt analogy of this administration, a living logical fallacy and psychological phenomenon!

That’s almost TWICE what I paid for a fucking RTX4090 last year.

Aha, I gotcha. That’s a pretty apt analogy, I like it. Yeah, it’s pretty frustrating talking philosophy with someone and they’re all like “it’s not that deep, bro”, when in reality, it’s a hotly contested topic in academic philosophy. So I guess it’d be like “bro, it’s just a flat, red surface” when you’re trying to talk about how the stem is attached to the core in a way.

I’ve found that I generally don’t look down on anyone pretty much ever. I don’t get it when someone lacks intellectual curiosity, but I never look down on them for it since it’s just not everyone’s cup of tea. However, when someone has disdain or actively rejects deeper inquiry, hoo boy, I can’t help but suddenly feel a pretty aggressive anger as if they not only choose to be stupid, but are trying to socially pressure everyone else to choose to be stupid. That’s just not acceptable.

What are non-apple rotators?