the wandering shaman

you can be responsible for the level of risk you put yourself in and be aware of the reactions you may get from people who don't have a moral compass but i can't see how one person could be responsible for some else's immorality

i specifically chose heterosexual because i've seen many TV shows or films showing gay couples in an admittedly cursory and unexamined way as these kind of very smartly dressed very happy, balanced loving couple, like the movie American beauty, the gay neighbors are presented as these perfect well groomed, very well off, very comfortable couple, but i saw no heterosexual couple that wasn't riddled with simmering unaddressed hostilities, i've seen other shows where the gay male couple have been presented in this way and the lesbian couple as very 'empowered' and 'sisters doing it for themselves' but i do notice a lot of attacks on fathers in heterosexual relationships on TV, the list is endless peter griffin, homer simpson, ray barone etc, i don't care to watch the newer shows like this any more. i chose heterosexual because of the toxic effect of feminism that belittles and devalues masculinity and takes away moral agency from the wife and puts her in the 'victim' box and so she can constantly be on his ass all day criticising every tiny thing but it's just seen as 'what you need to do' to get a man to do what you want them to do rather than very unfair bullying. but with lgbt relationships being seen as 'protected' they seem to be shown in most media i've seen as both not this dysfunctional but also not given much depth unless the drama is specifically centered around the depths of their relationship. I'd be very interested to see any RTR based virtuous, honest, open and functional homosexual relationships i just thought I'd give the reasons why i happened to choose heterosexual relationships

a man walks in to a bar...ouch

if you listen to the gabor mate and robet whitaker interviews (also read 'anatomy of an epidemic') to be clear stefan is saying he doesn't believe mental illness is just a biological condition that just 'happens to you due to dopamine or seratonin levels or genetic reasons and THATS IT, he posits that a psychosocial component may be the root cause ie that the environment or a persons treatment can cause these 'illnesses', robert whitaker also points out that 50% of the psychosis patients in the system were initially there in their first psychotic break from use of illicit drugs and then instead of treating this as a one off incident of drug psychosis that will wear off they put these people on anti psychotics for many years and these drugs over the years cause further mental decline and then become the cause of further episodes of psychosis and then more and more medications are piled on, since the use of anti psychotics the number of people utterly disabled by psychosis has increased a lot as has the rate of readmission for psychosis, i urge people to read 'anatomy of an epidemic' by robert whitaker he makes a VERY good argument as to how people can start off with short episodes of extreme psychological stress which can lead to patients then being sucked in to cocktails of psychoactive prescriptions which just leads to a downward spiral of further and much worse and much more reoccurring things like psychosis. one woman started by taking a tablet as a child to stop bedwetting, she had a negative psychological reaction to the drug, they then put her on psychiatric drugs and over the years her mental stability spiraled to the point where she is now in a near catatonic state and cannot even talk. my empirical sources can be found in anatomy of an epidemic by robert whitaker, he has a mountain of data and case studies on psychiatry in that book

i don't see the difference between unsolicited companies using the 'official' postal service to convey 'junk mail' and what you're doing, it may be unwanted mail to some but that is about it, it doesn't violate the non aggression principal or UPB or just common sense empirical morality

i was assessed by mensa 146

i can't think of any, there are so many highly dysfunctional relationships in movies and TV shows repackaged as 'true' love, so can you think of any movies or TV show where there is a positive, RTR based and equitable heterosexual relationships portrayed in popular media? as a side question are there any members of AVFM forum here?

i understand addictions are an attempt to escape unresolved traumas, i have had a lot of problems with morphine addiction because 'it feels like love'...it's a warm feeling similar the the womb and it feels like a replacement for a life without love, i must admit to having a very addictive personality, I'd be interested in discussing the philosophy and self knowledge angle of addictions, specifically addictions that cause you an immense amount of physical and psychological pain to quit to the point where your Dr tells you that you cannot quit due to how dangerous it is physically to stop, I'm talking about for example opium/morphine addiction anyone with thoughts and experience on this from a self knowledge and philosophical perspective?

about a year ago my mother had a stroke and my father spends all his time taking care of her and the entire family has revolved around her and i can't get something out of my head. my father once said to me when i wasn't getting on with my mother because she was 'highly' strung' as he put it, he said when i was 12 'one day you'll cause her so much stress that she'll have a stroke and you'll be standing by her bedside knowing it is your fault', i see it as my mothers choice to react in such a way to just a child growing up and trying to find some kind of connection, that she had 50 years of life time to gain the self knowledge to not react to a child in this way. this is of course a horrible thing to say,, my father spends every waking second running himself ragged and giving his soul away taking care of my paralyzed mum (it was a long time before he even sought a medical carer) and he has a terrible memory due to aspergers (not making excuses but he constantly forgets things every 10 seconds but he does have a fairly retentive long term memory), I'm wondering if i ever should or ever could bring this up because, this still really hurts, not in such an immediate way, i just want to hear what he has to say about that now that this has happened (my mothers stroke was likely down to the terrible diet and 20 cigarettes a day she smoked since she was 14) but he's so run ragged these days that i don't have the heart to tell him what he said to me. my memory is in a way unfortunately near photographic so i remember every trauma, every punch, all of that stuff, and this has stuck with me for some time, can i reasonably and empathetically bring this up NOW? I'm sure many here have experienced something similar, what are your thoughts?

yup i can understand why determinism is a closed down discussion, i don't think i need to say why. i don't want to claim I'm a philosopher' in the sense that I'm some kind of special creature removed from everyone else i just think that everyone who applies to their lives and 'lives' rational and empirically based concepts based on first principals and applies it to their every day actions and uses it to work through their own psychological roadblocks is a philosopher but that can be debated some other time. i take philosophy quite literally as 'the love of knowledge' the love of knowledge gained from rational first principals, i have an endless thirst for knowledge and interesting ideas, even if some well known philosophers don't make much sense i can take their ideas on board and find the gems in there that ring true to my own reason. i was wondering does anyone here listen to Alan watt? not Alan watts the Buddhist but the Scottish Internet radio host, NB: i can listen to someone without believing what they say i just think he has a very interesting world view

hello, i'm from south east england, have been an anarchist for many years and a philosopher since i was 19, i've studied moral philosophy, political philosophy, epistemology and the philosophy of mind. my motto is nosce te ipsum, know thyself, i have looked at the ideas of an anarchist DRO based form of social organisation, it has some loopholes and problems that i'd like to explore. i'm also a member of a voice for men but i assure you i won't be ranting on about MRA issues, that's not what this forum is about. well anyway my moralphilosophy is based around aristotalian virtue ethics, i'd like to explore moral philosophy, randian objectivism, DRO's and aristotle with the many great minds on this forum, i hope to have many an interesting discussion. i'd also like to discuss the psychology of addiction and how to apply ethics in a world of statism. anyhow hello to everyone, i hope you're all having a wonderful day