Greetings fellow thoughtcriminals from sunny Florida!

[J215]

I would like to introduce myself to you all with a quote from George Orwell, because that is very much how I feel while writing this,

"To the future or to the past, to a time when thought is free, when men are different from one another and do not live alone -- to a time when the truth exists and what is done cannot be undone: from the age of uniformity, from the age of solitude, from the age of Big Brother, from the age of doublethink -- greetings!"

Currently I am 27. I found FDR several months ago through Youtube's automated recommendation system; I am pretty sure I was watching videos by Larken Rose at the time. I have always been a practical philosopher thanks to the way my parents raised me, though mainly through my father exposing me to different schools of thought and religions and insisting that it was my choice and no one else's what I adopted.

With that said I was only given some of the tools of thought and only recently have found how to verify truth (the all so comfy free market/anarchist/atheist cheese grater), what an argument actually is (good bye calm conversations with family, friends, and Facebook), and the all so important realization that empathy must be reciprocal. (shaming from hypocrites used to work on me like a charm, the question "what's in it for me?" was like controlled demolition in my life).

My family has for multiple generations been pathologically altruistic towards irresponsible family members (and everyone else it feels like) at the expense of it's children (each generation), While I have not done it yet (we are saving up funds), I am going to break that pattern and make a foundational change in how my family functions, by focusing all of my resources into the next generation, as well as making sure they have the tools to defend their minds. While we have no children yet my girlfriend is fully on board with peaceful parenting and living a thrifty life in order to funnel funds into giving our children all that they need to thrive, be rational, and morally good (UPB).

PS: I am a subscriber and am working on getting the genuine ones of my friends acquainted with FDR and subbing as well. 

[Kevin Beal]

Hi J215! 

 

Is that your real name?

 

That's fantastic to hear about your commitment to integrity and peaceful parenting!

 

Your story sounds a bit like mine. The pathological altruism sounds very familiar. I think, in my own parents' case, they were managing their own anxiety and then coming up with an altruistic rationalization after the fact – and maybe a bit of humble bragging. That stuff drives me a little crazy.

 

I'm curious about your transition into understanding arguments, if you felt like sharing. I know that for me it was pretty exciting. I got bullied at home and in school as a kid, so the prospect of being able to wield arguments like swords and shields really appealed to me. I know that it helped me be more sure of myself and my thinking. Is that similar to your experience?

[J215]

Thank you! Nice to meet you Kevin, my name is Justin.

That does sound very familiar. They usually help someone to avoid the personal stress and discomfort of telling an irresponsible person 'no' and then use it after the fact as something to point at as an example of how selfless they were, at the cost of their own family's resources and happiness (immediate and future).

Understanding what an argument is and what it isn't was like a light switch for me; it went from completely unknown to feeling obvious (with the frustration of knowing that I had to rethink everything I held as true). If someone made a claim before but provided no reasons or evidence then I didn't know that anything further was needed.

Now I know (especially with extraordinary claims) to ask how people know things are true, to look for logical consistency and then actual evidence before accepting that something is true. Appeals to authority, popularity, and ridicule don't work when you know that people actually have to prove what they are saying if it is a claim of truth.

It does make things really awkward when the person you are talking to realizes (consciously or not) that they have nothing and I am working through how to have people not get hostile towards me when they reach that point.