DaVinci

Having had panic attacks I can relate some of what has worked for me. Breathing helps. Take a deep breath, as much as you can take in. Hold it for as long as it took for you to inhale and then release the breath for the same amount of time. So equal parts breath, hold, release. Do this as many times as you need. Especially to help fall asleep at night. Another thing you can do at night when trying to fall asleep is to fantasize about something. Not necessarily something sexual, but it could be. Fantasize about being a rock star, or flying into space. Just whatever to help your mind relax. You do sound very flustered. I'm sorry that whatever is going on right now is making you panic. Panic attacks can suck. Are you talking to anyone outside of here about this?

I'm sorry you went through that, and I'm sorry you are feeling so much anger. If you don't want to spend more time on video games, which I understand as I have played my fair share of them, then what do you want to do? When I ask you "What do you want to do with your life?" there must be at least a couple of things that pop into your mind immediately. If you asked me that question I would tell you "Drawing" right away. After that I would say writing, game design, etc. I have a list of things I like to do and I prioritize them in my mind. So what is your answer? If video game time is wasted time then what wouldn't be wasted time for you? I know this probably doesn't help with what happened to you and how others have treated you (parents, peers, etc) but I hope it does help change your mood. Anger and depression can both be strangling and I've found myself confronting them many times myself. Now I'm not saying jump into something you like as a distraction from confronting those issues, I'm just saying if you really feel like you are wasting time with something you need to try to figure out what it is you would rather be doing with that time.

What exactly do you mean here? Objective morality is simple? I'm not trying to be argumentative here, I'm actually just curious what you mean? Can objective morality be boiled down to a few sentences or words?

I'm in a similar place in life so i can understand what you are going through. Send me a private message if you need to, or continue posting here in this thread. I'll try to help.

What exactly constitutes objects/systems? That seems rather broad. I'm not disagreeing with you, I'm just curious for some clarification.

I didn't take an economics class until college and I don't think I learned about division of labor even then.

That's awesome. i guess Uncle Scooge was right. A giant building made out of gold would go "BONG" when struck by another equally large object.

It sounds like a control issue to me to be holding back the money. If the dad thinks his son (your cousin, right?) isn't responsible, then it seems reasonable to give him a chance to prove otherwise. Do A, B, and C responsible things and you get the money. Even then, the kid might just be doing the things to get the money, which is just more reason to believe it is a control issue and that it should not be withheld from him at all. If the money was left to him then give it to him, and if he blows it on lollipops and trading cards then whatever.

Thanks for sharing these videos. Do you think division of labor is becoming frowned upon?

That is highly likely, and I can sometimes catch those feelings being provoked the more I am aware that it can happen. It's a skill I'm trying to get better at. Thanks for your responses.

Thanks for your response! I've also wondered before if I've explained something as well as I could have after running into so much resistance to specific topics. I'm always striving to be able to explain things better, and expand my vocabulary. However I'm begging to wonder if these thoughts that I need to explain myself better after I've had a difficult conversation are me playing a part in my own manipulation. Instead of trusting that I have explained something adequately, and someone who cares about what I have to say will then ask questions or be empathetic, I take the resistance and push against what I'm saying as a sort of deficiency on my part and question whether I know what the heck I'm talking about.

"Childish", for me, is an odd way to insult someone. There are many things about being young I miss. The energy levels. Eating an entire box of Twinkies with no real side effects other than temporary sugar fueled super powers. Running around outside all day. No drudgery to do to pay bills so you can do more drudgery. etc. Childhood was freedom... in a sense. Yeah, horrible parents, and mind numbing school kinda killed it overall, but there was a freedom in childhood that is missing from adult life. A playfulness. A sense of fun, exploration, and adventure, that you're just supposed to give up at the arbitrary age of 18.

Out of curiosity, what do you do when you use an analogy to reveal bad logic and the person you are talking to responds with the "We aren't talking about 'X' (The thing you used as an analogy) we are talking about 'Y'." (The thing you needed an analogy for to help point out the bad logic)? In other words, what do you do when people try to circumvent you pointing out their bad logic and try to bring the conversation back to their own conclusions. I run into this problem a lot with family.

Number 3 is interesting to me. Sparring with trolls. I have two thoughts that pop into my mind about this idea. One is that it is probably unhealthy and pointless. It's time spent better somewhere else. Especially given how much time I know I have wasted debating people who have no interest in truth, or what I'm going through in life, or who really care about me. The second thought, and I know this might sound strange, but I can't learn certain concepts as easily without the challenge of opposition. In other words I can read a statistics book, or be taught statistics by a teacher, but I won't "get it" till I run into the statistics problems and challenge them, and conquer them. I learn more this way than just passively listening to a teacher or reading a book. So in certain instances trolls actually challenge me to understand my position better. Their unrelenting-ness raises questions I wouldn't have asked myself and I have to reexamine my views on a subject. Now of course I would prefer a teacher to a troll, but sometimes there are no teachers. There aren't even any peers to turn to who may be in the same boat as you, or have the same thoughts or confusion on a particular subject. I guess you could say it's like, "Well, I need a hammer, but I don't have that. But I do have an old soup can. I can use that!" I'm in the wild and I have to use what I've got. I think trolls, in a market sense, are filling a niche. There aren't enough teachers and peers to engage with and challenge us in an empathetic, honest, way. At least not ones that are in the open and easily accessible. I think trolls as a whole are a challenge to get better at communicating with each other. Just my thoughts on this. I'm open to what anyone thinks about what I'm saying.

And now I have the Captain Planet theme song stuck in my head. I think the point you made about grades at the end makes a lot of sense. We get sort of conditioned to the idea of grades after 12 years of school that the idea that they are just a letter scribbled on a piece of paper seems weird. It becomes hard for anyone to challenge the notion of a grade even when you take them out of context. Like, can you imagine if someone walked up to you after you finished filling up your gas tank and handed you a piece of paper with a big letter "F" on it and told you that you failed. You would probably just find that bizarre. Yet in school everything depended on getting good grades and those people who find getting an "F" at the gas station weird will still defend grades in school. So I think it is challenging for a lot of people to get past the thought, "This answer is right and this one is wrong and I have to be right" even when no one is handing out pieces of paper with big letters on them. Good video. Your sense of humor makes them quite enjoyable.

I also wonder what else is happening in the world that is getting overlooked when stuff like this happens.

What's wrong with the talking animals?

Except he did walk away? After trying to negotiate? I'm confused by your point. Most places don't set terms ahead of time. The terms ahead of times is that there are no terms that can be set ahead of time. And since there is no recourse for bad business people end up stuck.

I don't think I even have the ability to down vote. I just shake my fist in the air at my screen.

To be fair there are plenty of men who aren't happy with how male they are and turn to steroids to bulk up. There are people who lose weight just to get bypass surgery so they can have a smaller stomach or whatever. So there are more than just the transgendered getting surgery and taking drugs to feel normal. In that sense "go get a job and be happy" sounds strange. I doubt most transgendered people are masochists for pain. They do want to be happy, but happiness will be in spite of the world around them. It might be a bad example, but what if strawberry ice cream was suddenly illegal, and you love it? Sure you could still get some "Black Market Brand: Strawberry Ice Cream" (sounds scandalous) and enjoy it in secret in your home, but what about everywhere else? What if you want to eat strawberry ice cream in your car, or at the park, or at work? Some people might be okay with the limitations. Others won't. Does that mean something is wrong with those who aren't okay?

There is nothing wrong with teaching kids that stuff, but even for adults trying to teach those topics is difficult. In terms of entertainment it can be tough to make anything educational first and entertainment second without feeling like you are being beaten over the head. People don't generally go to entertainment for an ethics lesson, though there are exceptions. What would you propose? How would you teach children complicated topics in a simple way?

Sounds awesome, but it also sounds like it is quite a ways out. But, hey, hopefully someone will speed that process up.

Hey, first post! welcome to the boards! Unfortunately living a life outside the illusions is going to be a lonely life wether you are looking for a wife, girlfriend, or just a friend. I'm not sure what advice to give you, but I will tell you I underdstand how you feel and I'm sorry that you have experienced all that grief with trying to find other like minded people.

I could probably talk for two hours straight about my last job. I'm also like you. I refuse to go back unless I have to. My problem with most jobs isn't the work as much as it is being treated as less than human. @NotDarkYet I have to say getting over that hump is not as easy as you make it sound. At least not for me. Sometimes I think we should all team up and live close together. Find a dentist, a doctor a garbage guy, etc and all move into the same neighborhood.

So the issue is how childhood interests segway into adult interests? Your post sounds a lot like that rant from Simon Pegg that he made recently. That their is an infantilization of society. To be quite blunt is this really that important? So someone watches the Avengers rather than staring at the sun and pondering the universe. So what? A thousand years ago people stared at the sun and then cut a kids head off as a sacrifice to it. So the fact that people are like "Hey that movie was cool!" isn't the most pressing issue to me. I would rather people be participating in these voluntary past times than chopping and hacking at each other for life.