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.

Sign me up.

The social justice movement has gained enormous momentum for the last few years and will be even more present in the coming year. That is, concepts like white privilege and cis will be recognized in most households. The media will continue to subtly portray the white man as the power keeping us from a progressive utopia, but no noticeable effects will be seen yet. In other words, business as usual. I see it not as much as propaganda, as I see it as a reflection of the state of Western society. I'm interested to see what will happen to the Black Lives Matter movement. They have really gotten on people's nerves by blocking high ways and yelling in libraries. Black communities have been subsidized (and inhibited) by pity, but there is only so much that can be tolerated before pity turns into contempt, and that can turn out ugly. As for Europe, nationalist parties will gain voters, but not nearly as fast as is feared. These are just some conflicts that are brewing in modern states, but it will take many years before average Joe is fed up and cut his ties with the media establishment. Reddit's Sanders fans will be devastated when the Bern doesn't become president, but they will soon forget the old man. This all sounds pessimistic, but on a private level we can all still enjoy our lives. Have a good 2016!

Don't you think that the viewers and listeners will almost exclussively be young white libertarian males? :-D

I am still skeptical to whether one can derive an ought from an is and make objective statements on how the world ought to behave. I plan on studying more philosophy in the future to form an opinion on this with works by Hume, Nietzsche and many others. Right now my focus is more directed towards self knowledge and relationships though. Sure. It has better feedback mechanisms than a democratic state. It offers more options on radically different lifestyles. More wealth is created. I would benefit much more economically from having an education, thus having more money/resources to spend on myself and the people I care about. Without the state subsidizing destructive behavior, I believe we would see healthier families and communities. The standard response among many libertarians in Scandinavia is that they live in a socialist hellhole. This is however a common response from libertarians everywhere, including the UK and even the US and Switzerland. I have a relative who grew up in a European communist state, which has given me some perspective. Sweden has a history of being one of the most economically free nations in the world, from the 1870's to around the 1970's. When our social democratic movement started and grew, the government was still fairly small and made wealth accumulation and a high economic growth possible. Today, Sweden is a mixed economy and we are still able to enjoy the prosperity made possible by our past. Government spending is high, but there are also some comparative advantages, such as well functioning institutions and low corruption. Stef did an interview with Johan Norberg that was very good, but unfortunately, the podcast appears to have been deleted: https://board.freedomainradio.com/topic/22842-interview-with-johan-norberg/ As for the current refugee situation, it is definitively interesting to see shat is going on in Sweden right now. It is the main topic in the media. Many people have been led to believe that the high immigration numbers are due to the Syrian war only, but I think that only about a third of the people arriving are actually from there - according to their own papers. Other common nations are Eritrea, Iraq, Somalia and Afghanistan, just to mention a few. Between 2006 and 2014, our left wing government was replaced by the right opposition. They opened the borders more, but did not reform the labor markets or the welfare system. Our then prime minister even told us to "Open up our hearts", by which he meant our wallets. Some people claim that this was all part of the plan to destroy the welfare state. As the left took over again a year ago, things have not gotten any better. As economic reality catches up, I think our government will eventually ease up the labor laws, but probably not lower the taxes... The refugee crisis has not affected my life yet, but it likely will. My future plan is to go back to university in about 1.5 half years and get a bachelor or master degree in computer science. The education is almost completely subsidized so the incentives are there. Then I will probably leave Sweden for the following reasons: Education doesn't pay off as well as it could in other nations. Sweden ranks the worst among the OECD countries in this regard. A large part of my wages goes to financing pensions for the older generations, with a promise from the government to pay me a pension one day. I don't expect the state to keep this deal. Sure, the US social security system is unsustainable, but at least I would have more private savings there. Government really enjoy controlling the education of children. Alternative schooling is strictly forbidden unless your kid has very special needs. I think modern feminism here is a bit worse than in the rest of Western society. Mothers are encouraged to leave their very young children at daycare despite their instincts, and being a stay home mother is considered slavery. I want to accumulate lots of human capital to be a good provider for my future family, and Sweden might not be the best place to find a partner for that or live such a life.

There wasn't much of a description of the movie here, so I decided to re-watch it today. Despite being almost two and a half hours long, I enjoyed watching it again all through. The story is full of ides but still not to hard to follow. The story begins with our protagonist Nemo, now a 116 (or so) years old man being interviewed, 70 years in the future. He shares memories of three different stages in his life: as a young boy, a teenager and an adult man. The memories are contradicting, though, and show different timelines depending on important choices he makes. I will not spoil the story more as I highly recommend members to watch the movie. Mr. Nobody is a beautiful film. It does not become one of those overly complicated and pretentious movies where most people lose interest halfway. Neither would I describe it as a sci-fi movie despite its surrealistic and futuristic elements. The cuttings from one timeline to another are nicely done and discrete. Some people might get annoyed at the more surrealistic scenes, but I suggest you then think of it metaphorically, which also goes for the entire concept of remembering the future. The ending is gratifying and had me inspired and enthusiastic about life. The main topic is the choices and I am sure FDR listeners can make some interesting choices Nemo makes. In case you need a trailer to be convinced to watch it, this one captures the film quite alright and doesn't reveal to much: The movie ranks 7.9 on IMDb, which I think is promising for this type of somewhat indie work.

At first, I thought one of them was running a massage business and needed a high-end chair for clients, but then I realized that it is probably just one of those comfy chairs that vibrate here and there. Which is just an insane buy in their situation.

Hi, I am a young man in my early 20's living in Sweden, the nation of IKEA and progressive dreams. I discovered libertarianism about five years ago and still find it appealing. Going through various videos and discussions on boards, I saw Stefan's name mentioned once in a while and decided to check it out. Since then, I have listened to his podcasts occasionally until a little more than a year ago when I started to give the call-in shows a chance. They lead me to the path of self knowledge and once introduced, I could not let go of these ideas. They were are contributing factor to my ending my relationship with a family member, which I don't regret to this day. The last year has been turbulent but emotionally rewarding as I am slowly discovering who I am and the life I would like to live. I created an account here to engage in conversation with people who also pursue self knowledge and deep relationships, both young and old.