Scottishhh

Hi PatrickC. I don't know. I think I avoid real emotional issues with him, because I know I'd get a disappointing response. Which would probably just hurt me. I mean, he's always been reserved. We try to hug once, and it was horrible. he's never said I love you, ever. Even when I've said it to him. I've been keeping all of my family at an arm's length for some time now. We never talk about feelings. Except in the abstract. I think that's why I haven't sent my response to him. I know it won't make any difference to his behaviour. He's an english teacher, and so, he intellectualises everything into the abstract. There is no right or wrong. Everything is relative. Truth is not 'true', it's dogma. It's paralysing, and infuriating. I've been upset all day though, because, I'm angry that he can still affect me. I should know better. The problem is that I am opposed to his relativism. His belief in fate. His unwillingness to stand up for something, consistently. I think I've been avoiding the conversation for 3 years now, since I am sure it will probably end badly. If he accepts my arguments, and changes a lifetime of irrationality, then it might mean he has to go through another divorce, and completely alienate the rest of his family as well. If he doesn't, then I don't know if I can continue to have a relationship with any of my family. Or more likely, I won't be taken seriously. And I take my life very seriously. I find it very hard to calm down once I start. I used to drink a lot, and get in fights, and have real anger issues. I am trying not to go back down that road at all. I'm doing well. My wife loves me. I guess the weird feeling now, is that I'm torn between including them in my life, and looking out for my future daughters' needs. It's a new situation. Thanks for listening matey. I need to think about this for a few days. This helped.

nobody can stand a full frontal assault from people they depend on all day every day.At this point in their life they are like religion inflicting robots. They want a choice in the matter but they probably don't have that choice anymore. A contract won't be worth the paper it's written on. It is important that you both go into this with eyes wide open knowing that she is going to need your support. Snakes don't do a very good job of biting you if you're looking out for each other and you are aware that they are there. Thanks man, that helps. I'm so used to relentlessly fighting my parents when I was younger, that this stuff just gets my alarm bells ringing. It scares me. But you are right. It's not their choice any more. I shouldn't let my father get inside my head, and make me 'self-attack'. I think it's helping me think about a career change too. But the dilemma is that I get good enough money doing this for wife to never have to work again. And I do get a full 5 to 6 months per year, of quality time off. I think we just have to keep monitoring my daughter's contact with the family.

We have thought of it. I mean.. I plan to work ashore again one day. But it's not possible until I get a green card. But as I reflect on it, the worst thing about his statement is that, he is implicitly trying to tell me to 'give up', and accept it. That's what he did. And that's why he married two insanely irrational women. I'm honestly thinking of making all of them sign a contract, promising to respect my wife and my beliefs. Her mother actually said she would sneak religious things into our apartment when we weren't looking. My wife needs their help whilst I'm away though. But she is confident she can keep them in line. I just feel betrayed. They've been lying to me for years now, saying that they are ok with my beliefs. Clearly not. snake! danger!

I thought I had reached a good point in my life. I thought people were respecting my beliefs, and could see the evidence that I am improving my condition. I got married last year, and our first baby is on the way. But boy, howdy. Do the vultures start showing up as soon as a fresh baby brain is available for abuse. My wife and I are choosing to practice peaceful parenting. She is more or less an anarchist, after being kicked out of my home country two weeks after our wedding, due to a visa technicality. However, her parents are Jewish. My father is a kind of presbytarian. He is married to a muslim. My birth mother was brought up catholic, and has become a kind of mystic humanist. And my brother is a buddhist. And now the baby is on the way, her folks are very keen to instill jewish rituals, etc. I thought my wife dealt with it very bravely. But I told my father about it, and now he has revealed his true opinions. Please, somebody have a look at the following conversation. I am not sure whether I should even bother to reply or not. It's upsetting me now. But I'm so angry at the fact they've been flying under the radar for a couple of years. And now I'm having a baby, religion is suddenly a problem. First email, me to my father : Hows it going dad? The past three months have been very interesting for me. Last night was the first joyful fruit of my labour.When we moved house, I convinced (My wife) to try giving up television. It's been a great success. She's happier, and we have great conversations, more often. Last night her parents mentioned something about giving our daughter some Jewish trinkets. Prayer book to keep under her bed. A Talismen to nail outside the front door. Superstitious stuff.I was within earshot, cooking. (My wife) really amazed me with her response. She courageously told her parents we're against superstition. We are not going to tell our dauhter things are true, if we ourselves don't believe in them. She said, we feel it would violate the trust our daughter would have in us. It could harm our relationship. And we don't want to give her the paranoia associated with original sin, & an invisible man following her day and night. The response from her mother was an outburst of distress. Claiming 'tradition' was important, the Holocaust, etc. The father was saying, 'if you can do something harmless to keep us happy, why won't you just do it!?', etc. Quick as flash, (My wife) said, so what if (My father's wife) wants her to wear a Hijab? Should we follow her tradition, to keep her happy? Is it harmless? And, my personal favourite, 'tradition is not a reason'. The parents flipped out. On the other end of the computer, her brother happened to be walking by, and chimed in with 'oh yeah, did you know there isn't even any archaeological evidence that the Jews were ever in Egypt'. I was incredibly relieved. And proud of my wife last night. Rational and brave woman. She has changed a lot in the last 2 years, just through conversations with me. And so have I. And I got to thinking today, that I owe you one. You taught me conversation from early on. So thanks. It's making life a lot better. And we had a good chat after it about how all the 'people pleasers' in Germany, went along with the holocaust. My father's response: It is really tricky sometimes. When I was younger I used to be brutally direct in my opposition to some of my parent's Christian beliefs but as they got older and less capable of of grasping complexity I resorted to keep it more subdued. It becomes harder because you see how much it hurts them. It's also more complex for me because I do believe in an invisible guy following me around, albeit an invisible guy within me. I also believe in life after death, but not out of superstition but because of the evidence I have gleaned and reasoning. But following a religious tradition has to be a personal choice. If it is imposed from the outside it becomes a tyranny in which structure becomes stricture. You and I know how religions have deviated from their original purpose because they have been co-opted by political entities, but that is esoteric knowledge. It is not for the average intellect. As James Corbett replied to a listener's question who seemed to be offended and outraged at James' suggestion that a particular musical genre had been co-opted to the purpose engineering public behaviour: "I am not suggesting the music isn't good, of course the music has to have intinsic merit, if it didn't it would not be effective as a devise of social control..." The true purpose of religion is to cultivate a rich inward life; anyone who thinks they can bully others into inward growth is a fool. If putting something under your bed achieves it, I want it. I somehow doubt it though. Bottom line , and take my word for this, this is only the beginning of your struggle but this will not be struggle you can walk away from. Embrace it. Enjoy it. Learn to have a chuckle for it will not end. Struggle is good for the soul. And never ever become dogmatic, leave that to them and Richard Dawkins, just remember dogma is to protect ourselves from the unknown. You will find it difficult at times but remember that your struggle is not a random accident, on some unconscious level you sought it, perverse as that might seem to you right now. His follow up email after I ignored that one: The reality is you are going to be away working a lot and after baby is born! (Your wife) is going to be too busy to constantly fight it. They will have little else in their lives to expend their energies on... ( I work offshore 6 months per year. 28 days on, 28 days off. I have to continue with this, whilst I await my US green card, which can take a long time.) I have written the following response, but not sent it yet. Any advice from some smart people on here? Don't accuse me of being dogmatic. To do so is dogmatic, and quite arrogant. I don't accept that.There is no such thing as brutal honesty. There is only honesty. Truth is that which can be verified. And truth can only be defined as that which is true for all people, in all places, for all time.Dogma comes from authority. Dogma is inconsistent. And I have read the bible. It is inconsistent, and violent. It serves Authoritarians. Religion has not deviated from it's purpose. It's purpose is to serve the priest class / witch doctors. The claim that religion is supposed to create moral behaviour in people, but the jury is in. 200 000 years of violence, and life expectancy of 20 years old, has only come to an end since the separation of church and state. They are beheading Christian children in Iraq and Syria now, whilst the Jews and Muslims are murdering each other daily in the middle east. The old testament condones violence. The ten commandment originally said 'thou shall not kill other Jews'. By the rules of the book, murder and the death penalty are OK. And transgressing the ten commandments were punishable by death. The definition of god as all powerful and all knowing is contradictory. Everything in the book is contradictory. It says you shall not kill, but god can kill. And he constantly does. Not to mention 'spare the rod, and spoil the child'. It's all in the handbook. It is entirely designed to make you servile to authority. I'm supposed to avoid hurting people's feelings? OK, Granny, I would never try to upset her. She is closer to death than I. And even you, (His wife), and my mother, and the in-Laws. Believe whatever you want. The point is not to convert other people. The point is to protect the clean and innocent brain of a newborn baby.I'm responsible for her. And the people she comes in contact with, can tell her damaging lies.But you don't get to say that I shouldn't hurt the feelings of others. Then expect me to stand by and let people scare my daughter into believing that she is always being watched and judged? Or that If she pisses off a man she can't see, then after death, she will be punished without end, for all eternity, a fate worse than death? Or that if people use certain words to her, they will cause physical changes in the world? It's entirely based on fear. I consider it an act of aggression towards a child. I've grown up scared, paranoid, and uncertain because of this stuff. And the idea that I should fear or obey authority has literally been the hardest thing to overcome in my career. It has put my life in real physical danger. And I have seen superstitious sailors narrowly avoid death, and sustain real injuries, because they failed to take responsibility for their own lives. I want my daughter to be able to know when she's being lied to. Or when her authority figures are failing her. that means understanding and respecting property rights, and Non-Aggression. For all people, in all places, for all time. Including priests, imams, rabbis, gurus, cops, robbers, politicians, teachers, parents, grandparents, friends and enemies. No exceptions. Religion is immoral, precisely because it allows for exceptions. It's not tricky. It's a case of being consistent. And children know that. They know the difference between fantasy and reality. They know about consistency, as soon as they learn that falling over hurts. They don't believe in things they can't see or feel or touch, unless they spend hundreds of hours being indoctrinated. And (My wife) knows it too. And the in laws are easy to argue with. They have a homosexual daughter. If they ever want to say that we should follow Judaism, then they have to turn around and stone their daughter to death. Check mate.

Outstanding

Hello fellow freedom lovers, It seems like an eternity since I was last on this site. I don't know what the 'topic' really is for what I want to say, but I would like to share my recent experiences with some relatively like minded people. The world can be a lonely place for an anarchist. So, in October I got married. I am super happy about my relationship with my wife. She is the best. And she herself is not the problem. The problem is that I committed the cardinal sin of marrying a rival gang member. You see, my wife is American, and I am Scottish. Not the original West Side Story, but you get the idea. To cut a long story short, the visa process in the UK is now extremely convoluted, expensive, and deliberately confusing. After months of reading the forums, reading the small print reading the forms, we started to make our application. Then as far as I can tell, the UK Border Agency changed a few details and forms. So we made our application online for a marriage visa. This would allow my wife to come and stay in the UK for 6 months so that we could be married, and then once she was here we would apply for her temporary residence status for 2 years. In theory that would allow her to live and work in the UK as my spouse. So this was always known as a 'fiancee' visa. It is now known as a marriage Visa. We didn't know that there are two types of Marriage Visa. They are stamped as 'Marriage', or 'Marriage-Visitor'. So we filled out the paperwork, made our appointments, paid our £1000 ($1600 USD) appointment fee, to make the application in person. So, we went to a prison style detention centre in Glasgow. It is literally crawling with thug like security guards, and all of the immigration officers were behind bullet proof glass, for obvious reasons. The incompetence of the guards was the first omen that struck me. We went through the pat down and metal detector just like at an airport. Except this guard who searched my bag removed a leatherman multi tool/knife from my bag. I thought 'great, here we go'. But to my astonishement, the guard said, 'oh wow, thats a nice tool, etc, and started showing to the other guards, before handing it back to me on the other side of the gate 'Great Leatherman Pal'. Unbelievable. Anyway, we were shoved from window, to window to be interrogated by various thug-aucrats. Nobody really cared about our marriage certificate (We had a beautiful god-free marriage, but we were forced to at least have a city registrar do our ceremony in Edinburgh. It hurt deeply for me, to ask any kind of permission to marry. Let alone, only be allowed to marry in 'city approved locations'. But I had no choice but to play the statist game.) Instead, they were more interested in me proving my income is greater than the 'legal minimum required to sponsor a spouse as a resident'. This is a recent requirement in the UK. In any case, I was not worrried because our marriage was legitimate in the eyes of the state, and my income is double the minimum requirement even after tax. So I brought my contracts of employment, and salary statements for the past 18 months as proof. But that wasn't enough. I had to leave the immigration centre, and run around town for an hour to get bank statement s for the last 2 years, stamped as authentic by the bank. Of course my question was 'why didn't you tell us that requirement on the form or on the website?'. She looked at me, like I was an idiot. Her reply was 'How else do I know that your payslips actually mean you are recieving money?'. Anyway, after an epic run around town, and coming back through security, they sat us down and told us, that because our fiance visa had one little word extra on it, my wife had to leave the country. We replied, 'but the fiance visa no longer exists. This is a marriage visit visa. Now we're married, she's applying to stay'. Imagine a Big 'Game-Show sty;e noise of incorrectness'. They started trying to explain to us like we were idiot children that 'you got the same visitor visa that madonna got when she visited Scotland for her wedding, what you need is the other one'. Rage building. So, what do we do now? Well, you leave the country and apply again. Which form do we fill out? The same one you have in your hand now. Right. How long does that take? Oh, nobody knows. What? Yeah, 2 months, up to 8 months, no guarantees. OK. So we have no way to appeal this? Here's an email address where you can complain, but the error was yours, so it's unlikely you have a valid complaint. Excuse me? Yes. OK, but your website specifically says 'we cannot tell you which form to fill out'. So how were we supposed to know? I'm sorry, thats all I can tell you. (THIS WAS THE MOST GALLING BIT:) "If it's any consolation, the marriage visa used to be the easiest one to get until quite recently, but now they're cracking down on dole (welfare) cheats" Right. So I said, 'but my wife has £12k in her checking acct, I have £6k, and my salary more than double meets your requirements. You are telling me that she will be kidnapped and forced away from her husband for getting one word wrong on a form, that you guys invented. So she and I have no right to be together, and even a government sponsored marriage certificate means nothing any more. 'I'm sorry, that's the rules', was the predictable reply. My wife was in tears, and I was shaking at this point. Rather than take someone hostage with my trusty Leatherman, as I apparently DID have the right to do, we dragged our Non-Aggressive arses off out the door. It was at this point my wife told me, that whilst I was running between banks trying to get evidence for my 'Application-Not-To-Be-Kidnapped' form, that a South African (White) woman was sitting in the window next to us explaining 'why she had been arrested so many times whilst she was here on a student visa'. Literally, her response was 'It wasnt my fault, they just came into my house and set me up. My wife was shaking and crying and saying 'I don't understand? If they government gives out welfare, but they don't want me to take welfare, then WHY DONT THEY JUST 'NOT GIVE ME WELFARE'? Exactly. And here is kind of my tralking point in this post. This was as clear an epiffany as I have ever had. They create all these bullshit departments, so that when they do something bad that causes you pain, they can call it 'Immigration'. When they do something you like, that gives you relief when you're in another form of pain, they call it 'The National Health Service', or 'Welfare', or 'Free Shit'. Just like Zeus blames Thor when it rains, or whatever. You get all these little subdivisions of government departments, to obfuscate the concept of 'Government / Governance by force'. Just like the bible bashers say, well I like this little bit of the bible, but ignore the rest of it, so I cannot question the concept. And none of it made any sense. My wife literally had her dream job, lined up and waiting for her in Edinburgh, managing a bridal store. There is some tax-paying economic value they are missing out on right now, because of their retarded policy. Anyway, I work offshore in North Sea Oil. This all happened on the Thursday of that week. I was due to go back to Sea on the Monday. My wife had to book a flight home for the sunday night. I had to strip down our apartment, and move everything into my folks house for storage. At the same time all weekend I had to look into a green card application for me to go the US now, since it is the only way my wife and I can both continue to work and earn money. She had abstained from working for over 12 months, so she could be with me in the UK. The stress of moving out of my apartment, and preparing to go back to Sea, in the middle of a North Sea winter, was so much for me, I had my first panic attack. I went to hospital, in Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. A prestigious looking building, until you get inside the emergency room of this Socialised healthcare hell-hole, and find bloody bandages under your seat in the waiting room, the hallways FULL of people in beds with no ward to go to, folk in wheelchairs pissing and shitting all over the floor, and the sound beeps turning to solid tones all around you. Truly, a bad fucking weekend for us. Get one word wrong on a form, and god help you. Anyway, my free market god-send of an employer is very kindly now paying for my flights to the US every month. I have the lofty privilege of 'Visitng' my wife, for up to three months at a time now, under the US Visa Waiver Program. Last week I sent in my application for a Green Card, and my wife has kindly spent half of her savings setting us up in a lovely apartment in Charleston. So now, I'm living without the right to 'work' in the same land as my wife. This obviously adds all kind of risks and stresses to our plans on having a baby at the moment. (Yes, Charleston, SC. My father btw is an Alex Jones fan, and even after knowing that I'd been hospitalised the night before with a strong panic attack, spent our last few hours together as we gutted my Scottish apartment, telling me exactly how, if I make it through the airport without being irradiated in the US, then I'm just gonna get Nuked in Charleston. Way to show some empathy Dad ) The upside of all of this trauma, is simply this: My wife officially posted on FB 'I'm now an Anarchist'. So that is my story. Here is my question. To what extent do our 'statist priestly class', use the ideals/tricks of polytheism, to manipulate our emotional attachments to government? And how does epistomology help us deal with this trauma, of threats of violence inflicted upon us at every turn in modern society? I think seeing violence and tax farming for what it truly is, has really helped salvage the first year of my marriage, and helped reassure my wife that we are not 'deserving' of such treatment. Knowing for sure, that injustice has been done to us, and what caused it all, was very little to do with our own actions, has truly, truly helped our emotional survival. Does Philosophy help you survive?

Anything that starts with the collectivist premise 'we all need to do x, or think about y', is lazy. There is no brand or flavour of collectivism that solves problems.

Yes. Piracy is no threat to a naval vessel. Merchant Vessels are entirely regulated by the UN, and have been disarmed. We are not allowed to carry guns, and therefore have no right of self defence against those with guns. This is because 'Nation States' make the rules at the UN, & IMO (UN agency called International Maritime Organisation). They are the ones who legitemise state claims of ownership over the seabed & continental shelf, entirely so that they can tax anyone who decides to generate wealth from the un-owned wilderness of the sea. And, merchant vessels being armed would certainly interfere with tax collecton and boarding. The state hates competition.

So, captain Phillips, the movie!!!, has grossed over $70 million USD so far. I'm a sailor, and I've seen it. It is a great movie, made entertaining by Tom Hanks. Great, great actor. I just thought I engage in some confirmation bias, and propaganda bashing. In real life, the peak of piracy kidnapping in Somalia was around 2008, with over 1000 sailors kidnapped that year. The Maersk Alabama was hijacked in 2009. I was the there a few days before on a passenger ship, and I can tell you that there was a lot of activity. And it is almost impossible to identify a pirate until he starts shooting at you, since all of the local fisherman are armed for self defence as well. There has been some controversey in the New York Post regarding the competency of the real life captain Phillips. As a mariner I'd just like to point out two things, which may be of interest to those of you who know a bit about the Admiralty Law Vs Common Law, Straw Man trickery dating back to the great fire of London. Firstly, sea captains are not Captains. Their proper legal title is 'Master'. The contract between a ships crew is literally a 'Master', slave relationship. Secondly, the 'Master' is the shipowners representative on board, however since the East India Company days, almost all ships are individually owned by dummy corporations, LLCs. So, somali piracy was caused by governments, destroying somali fishing grounds etc, and governments are responsible for the violence in somalia. Merchant Vessels are heavily regulated by the state and the UN, and have been disarmed decades ago by states, who wish their Naval Boarding parties safe access to board ships for 'customs checks', etc. Easy. The movie however, is a sneakily quiet bit of propaganda. And as Stefan Molyneux has often pointed out, 'when a problem is close to being solved by the free market elements, the state is always there to take credit.'. After 2009, the International Association of Classification Societies capitalised on raised public awareness of the Somali problem for seafarers. Vessels transitting the horn of africa were allowed to start employing private security firms whilst transitting the Horn of Africa. Self Defence from a ship is very easy if you have a few assault rifles, etc. One ship I was on employed 4 Israeli guys, to protect a 700ft passenger ship, with 1000 people on board. This has now become common practice. A little self defence goes a long way. from over 1000 sailors kidnapped per year in 2008 / 2009, there have been NO HiJackings in 2013. ZERO! There are still 250 people and 8 vessels held captive right now in Somalia, according to the ONI weekly bulletin. Allowing self defence again, and letting private firms find the optimal solution, have completely solved the problem in a matter of a couple of years. So cue the Propaganda to justify the massive Naval presence in the Middle East, Africa & Indian Ocean. So, time the release of the Captain Phillips movie, which presents the military as the all powerful defender of freedom, to coincide with the end of the problem. Here is a video that will make your skin crawl. Overview%20Piracy%20Incidents%20CN%2030%20Apr%2013.pdf

Hi guys, I just made my first donation, & it feels good! I'm glad to finally be supporting freedom and philosophy. Hopefully the first of many. Thanks to Stef for all the great work and guidance. I'm learning every day, and I have been for quite some time now. It's hard to express how greatful I am for your work. I wasn't sure how, so I guess 20 bucks is a start Thanks! Scott