tux

It would be handy if the FDR globe logo was a link to the main site.

I can see how this has caused you problems with motivation and knowing what you genuinely want to do with your life. If I were you I would also dive deep into how your family dynamics have affected your life. You father is a narcissist and your mother chose to be with him. And then you chose to comply with a narcissist's demand, in some ways repeating the patterns of your mother. This is not something you want to keep falling into for the rest of your life. Do you talk a lot about this with your therapist? I can really relate to this. It angered me to see and hear about how old classmates' lives had went on while I was "stuck" and things were falling apart for me. They travelled, studied and partied. I felt like I had been robbed some very important years of my life. Everyone else seemed to get a head start. When you get older and see it from a more experienced perspective, a year here and there may feel minuscule, but as a young person in a modern and highly materialistic society, many see their youth as an exhausting competition. If that is the case for you, try to step out of it. You are writing here so you are obviously aiming for self improvement and knowledge. This will, in the end, give you a more rewarding life. You can have meaningful relationships, a working marriage and strong connections to your future family, things that lots of of "accomplished" people never get to and never knowing why.

Are you doing any self knowledge work in between your therapy sessions? One thing would be to write a diary. I think putting thoughts into words on a paper (or as binary data) helps you define what you feel and lets you see any changes in your emotional life as time goes on. It is challenging at the beginning to express your thoughts in text, but it gets better. There are plenty of great things you can do with your computer, but it is also a common tool for procrastination. Do you often feel that it is an escape from everyday life?

If the theory that "diverse" societies have lower trust between members, even in in-group interaction, then I am not surprised that people engage less in civilian action and feel less engaged in the care of their local community, and instead let the faceless government take care of disputes and violence.

I can absolutely understand that you are excited to have met someone who shows an interest in self-developement and knowledge, but I suggest that you be more careful. This way of looking at and handling life is farily new to her and radically different from her prior lifestyle. This does not mean that you shoud be hostile towards her. Give her time, if it suits you, and see if she can stick with her new lifestyle and become a virtuous person. In the meantime, focus on your own development while you keep in touch. She may not be appropriate for you, but then you will at least have had time to become an even better person who will hopefully attract other quality people. This is something I also suggest that you be aware of. Are you codependent? Is she fulfilling some unmet childhood need?

Here he is, the "15 year old" murderer. This tragedy is just another important event weakening the tight grip of political correctness in Sweden. AFAIK, the Daily Mail is censoring itself to Swedish visitors to avoid legal issues, whatever they may be.

You are correct, I don't have any weapons training. I can see how these rifles could cause damage, but I find it much more likely that terrorists would buy more efficient weapons from yugoslav gangs or so. A very small fraction of immigrants are terrorists. I just find it unlikely that they would join this sort of association. It is not impossible though.

Is this a fictitious person or someone you know? You have provided few details but what you tell is interesting. That this man has a history of dating single moms is no coincidence. There could be many reasons to why he chooses them. Single moms do have a harder time to find a quality partner as their being single with kids is a big yellow/red flag. Do you think that he thinks he is not good enough for child free women? Or that he suffers form of some white knight syndrome - to "save" these single mothers or their children?

I do believe that Sweden, like other Northern and Western European nations is under threat, but I don't think this sniper association will make much difference. When an attack takes place, the terrorists will probably use real guns efficient for killing, not sport rifles. Perhaps the aiming practise would be of some help, but I doubt that dedicated terrorists will join these clubs to become solid killing machines. I will admit though that it is not a complete impossibility that these gun practices will help the enemy. "If 50 people wanted to build a nuclear power plant together, but you thought it likely that 1 of those 50 was planning to build a nuclear bomb and use it against you and others around you... don't you think it would be a bad idea to sell those 50 the radioactive material they asked for?" Sure, but we are not talking about nuclear power plant associations now. The first group is small and does not need to consist of many members. The second group, the supporters, are however an underestimated group - particularly in Sweden. If I seem a

The Swedish mainstream media has been through some shaky last few days. Since it was revealed that the best selling morning paper likely chose not to report the attacks when they took place last summer, the confidence in mainstream media is falling. The (center-) right is now openly talking about culture incompatibilities. The left, on the other hand, claims that it is a matter of male culture - "males in geoups" and that the ethnicity of the perpetrators is irrelevant. Something similar is probably taking place in Germany.

This is like watching a Fox News report about Sweden. Things are getting bad, but not in the way it is portrayed in the more sensational right wing media. Publicly funded associations are very common in Sweden. Shooting weapons are not accepted as a mean of self defense, but very much tolerated for hunting and sniping sports. Engaging immigrants in various activities is a popular strategy to make them more assimilated and establish contacts with Swedes. The fact that one of those activities happen to be sniping is not surprising when you consider that it is a not too uncommon sport, especially in the less populated regions where refugees and immigrants are usually placed. If sniping was ordered specifically by the political class as a large scale strategy to integrate immigrants, I would become higly suspicious, but as for now I see it as nothing but another activity to engage a few people in. Sweden does have a growing gun problem though. In Malmö, the third most populated city, shootings are becoming an everyday thing, blasts as well.

It's funny that this movement appears to be fueled not by tired worn workers who have been fooled into believing in LTV, but by young privileged students, a majority of them thinking anything below a MacBook Pro is below their dignity. Sure, intellectual revolutions have been lead by the educated classes, not workers, but here you actually get a glimpse of what sorts of people who see themselves as victims of capitalism. It becomes hard for anyone to sympathize with them. This is a fad that will be forgotten in a few weeks.

In the wake of the events in Cologne, news have been leaked about similar events in Sweden. I am not talking about the NYE attacks in Kalmar, but mass gropings that took place during a concert small music festival in Stockholm last summer. Not until now, after there was no way of hiding the Cologne disaster, did the mainstream media pick up on the news. The perpetrators were reported to be young foreign men. Many of them are classified as unaccompanied refugee children as they claim that they are under eighteen years old, though they look like full grown men. One gets the feeling that the house of cards is collapsing, but then again this is a feeling a believe Europeans will experience many times in the next five years.

A month ago, or two, I had a weekday off and went to a newly opened cinema oriented on less popular quality movies. Without too much pondering, the choice fell on Amy, a documentary about the artist, as I thought it would be an interesting watch considering her quite recent death and what tabloids described as a messy celebrity life. I had the privilege to sit in a small ~40 seats theater with great speakers, a big plus for a music themed movie. To the benefit of the filmmakers, there is plenty of video documentation of her life. The audience is shown the artist handling and escaping from paparazzi, interviews on national TV, captivating performances, but also personal recordings. Birthday parties with the typical faded colors and blur of a 90's home video, shaky filming sessions with friends and business people in her daily life, it is all mixed together so that we can follow her from a shy girl in the suburbs to a world famous soul singer to her death in her home in Camden. The movie timeline is like a rollercoaster continuously going up and down, with periods of success and joy, to lows of despair and chaos. The pattern is repeating, but I never experienced it as boring. You will understand that Amy was a particularly talented artist and unique character, which made her such a hot topic in British media. I think I would have found her to be a bit annoying with her childishness if I had met her in person, but she has a certain charm that makes it hard for me to not like her as she is portrayed in this film. The typical narrative of describing someone leading such a troublesome life would be that she constantly had to fight these mystic inner demons, but in this documentary people who knew her are allowed to say what they thought was the main cause of her pain: her father. I will not go into details how their relationship affected her, in order to not spoil too much, but you will likely see the connection. This is a well made documentary that I especially recommend to all of you who are interested in how childhoods affect people.

I am usually for changes that lead to me keeping more of my money and a smaller government, but I don't bother support such political causes as it is not worth the cost and the pendulum might as well turn in the opposite direction the next day in this experiment of colliding interests we call democracy. Even if it was the case that basic income may be more efficient and save us some tax money and bureaucracy, I remain skeptical to possible degenerating effects it may have on society. Most industrial nations make demands before handing out welfare money. In some cases it is easy to fool the system, but it is still obvious to most people that other taxpayers' money will not be given away just like that. With basic income, the money is just magically transferred to your bank account on a regular basis. It will be taken for granted and younger generations will believe that they are entitled to this money for the simple merit of existing and being citizens. In a free society, I think individuals and charity organizations would make demands. Even if it was work of very little value, they would still demand some effort by the recipient to maintain the dignity and respect of both parts. Our current welfare system is often degrading, crippling and involves meeting bureaucrats with varying degrees of friendliness, but there is at least a human component to it. Ironically, communitarianism enforced by government was thought to encourage unity and strong relationships between people, but in practice it results in suspicion, disdain and anti-social behavior. I see BIG as a further leap in that direction.