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History, Logic and Reason. Education. Reading. Staying away from the TV and Radio.
Lots of personal experience. Meeting people not born here and traveling to other countries.
The most firmly held beliefs I currently hold are that:
1. Things change - a LOT. This is the problem with the "traditional" crowd.
2. Americans are Idiots. I am an American, so by definition included.
I also believe we are done for. When the POTUS, who we KNOW has abused many a female, can pontificate about Roy Moore yet a former comedian who puts his hand around the waist of a woman for picture is pilloried....something is BIG TIME wrong. We seriously do and think what we are told - period.
But a more important question - as always - is the meaning of life. This has changed. Survival was the Meaning of Life for 99.9% of our history. Now we are in a position where that is not as important for BILLIONS. So what now?
IMHO, Pleasure is the answer. But due to religion and tradition, people feel that pleasure is "bad", so they don't take to it like they could.
If we don't all kill each other first, I'd like to see a future where we all enjoy ourselves a lot more. Note - I am speaking of the USA.
It's a serious question. And in the proliferation of news and events that has hit you lately, it is IMHO getting more important than ever.
What made me open this thread is that old moon landing debate. But it also could be anything we heard about Trump this morning. Doesn't matter.
Now, re moon landing – several months ago I repeated my argument below a youtube video and it was not based on my knowledge on astrophysics or expertise in space engineering. Which are, both of them, non-existent. But you can't say that most of debaters have any, either.
So, what I was relying on is what I always try to use – logic and common sense. I said Russians would have laughed NASA out of existence if NASA had faked that landing. They would have been laughing to this very day. In the time of cold war and all that race and espionage, wouldn't they have found out about it.
This of course couldn't save me from the attack of you tube „experts“ . Now, since I am in the group of those who think offence is more taken than given and am also not too attached to those of my opinions that can't be based on the knowledge of the field, I just let it slide with a thought – when guys like Musk start talking about fake Moon landing, I'll reconsider.
But the whole thing left me with this question – how do people choose sources they trust.
We can't be experts on most of the things we hear on daily basis.
We can't witness practically any of that.
We need reliable sources.
How do we find them?
Simple answer to that question. Find the people of character, those who have consistently shot straight with you throughout your life - and then trust what they tell you. Don't know about you but I have a built in BS detector that goes off a mile away when someone is slinging a pile.
Ok, we're going somewhere with this. Let's say you hear two opposed versions of an event listening to the multiple sources you mentioned. Like the example I gave above. And I'm trying to avoid anything related to left/right, Trump/antiTrump bcs it leads us nowhere. I tried to use common sense and logic - how would people (the other side) behave? Who profits from this? What's in it for them? What are the risks? I try to use what I know about psychology, history, sociology (not an expert either, but still know something). This is basically what I do whether I'm trying to choose my sources or assess an event or events myself. What do you do?
I think you are complicating things way too much.
Use the Golden Rule. Be nice to people. Make a living in a way that helps people.
Don't screw people over.
It's a cliche but love yourself FIRST (that's the pleasure thing mentioned in my other post)....
I think, largely due to religion, but also to class and politics that we are a Nation of self-haters and like any of those, try to make up for it in strange ways - including excess violence.
We just need to cool down and enjoy life. The Amazing things. I take pictures almost every day. It puts me in the moment and makes me appreciate how every day differs. Here is this morning...a hard frost!
(the fall colors were 3 weeks ago!)
History, Logic and Reason. Education. Reading. Staying away from the TV and Radio.
Lots of personal experience. Meeting people not born here and traveling to other countries.
The most firmly held beliefs I currently hold are that:
1. Things change - a LOT. This is the problem with the "traditional" crowd.
2. Americans are Idiots. I am an American, so by definition included.
It would be pointless to argue with a self admitted idiot. But it can't hurt to point out where they are wrong.
Quote:
I also believe we are done for. When the POTUS, who we KNOW has abused many a female, can pontificate about Roy Moore yet a former comedian who puts his hand around the waist of a woman for picture is pilloried....something is BIG TIME wrong. We seriously do and think what we are told - period.
But a more important question - as always - is the meaning of life. This has changed. Survival was the Meaning of Life for 99.9% of our history. Now we are in a position where that is not as important for BILLIONS. So what now?
So here we are.
Survival is the necessity of life. If its to continue. Not the meaning of it which is an individual philosophical question with no one correct answer.
The monoculture liberal group think does not concern itself with the needs of the individual leaving survival in the balance.
Quote:
IMHO, Pleasure is the answer. But due to religion and tradition, people feel that pleasure is "bad", so they don't take to it like they could.
If we don't all kill each other first, I'd like to see a future where we all enjoy ourselves a lot more. Note - I am speaking of the USA.
I can say you are closer to what you want to see than you may know. Your comment was the source of greater enjoyment today. Thank you.
But the whole thing left me with this question – how do people choose sources they trust.
We can't be experts on most of the things we hear on daily basis.
We can't witness practically any of that.
We need reliable sources.
How do we find them?
I don't believe that we can with 100% certainty trust any ONE news source they all tend to slant one way or the other. With that said I like NPR I can't remember them really bashing anyone specifically. I am sure they have and I just missed it but even then I listen carefully to them. I think we all tend to pick and choose what we watch/listen too. Can't trust anything that comes out of the WH staffing we all know that.
Use ones best judgement is all I can say remember that these news sources will be biased they will tell you SOME truth then slant it to suit them.
You'll have better luck searching for a four leaf clover than an unbiased opinion these days.
Look for the obvious motives and as always......follow the money.
You just gave the answer without even thinking about it.
If you want to be unbiased or correct or moral or ethical.....
DON'T FOLLOW THE MONEY......
I have a friend who just found a bug in an important computer program - the maker promised up to 30K to those who found important bugs...and the manufacturer agreed to pay this guy the 30K.
Then they had lawyers send him a bunch of NDA's and other papers basically holding him to certain standards for the rest of his life.......
He turned down the money.
So, if you or your representatives takes the money - well, you get what was paid for.
Every person has their price - but what is it? If you were Flynn and a GENERAL with quite a bit of fame, plenty of ways to make millions (defense contractor consultants) and a great pension and benefits...would you sell out the USA just so you could make a little more quicker?
I wouldn't. I would be proud to be a General. But the thing is - it's likely people like Flynn (and MANY MORE) were compromised long before they were found out. First it was $1k, then 10K, then 100K and maybe some women....who knows?
Say what you want about Al Franken - he was one of the few in there who was trying to work for the mass of the people of MN and this country. Hopefully his replacement is similar because I think 90% plus of Congress is not up to his standard.
Concrete things that have been proved to be factual, that is what I try to rely on most in my life for decision making.
But there are a lot of thing in the world that fall into a gray area. 9-11 for me is a perfect example.
I guess some would call me a nut because I VERY MUCH question things about 9-11, and that is only with bits and pieces of evidence supporting my beliefs.
Location: By the sea, by the sea, by the beautiful sea
68,329 posts, read 54,400,252 times
Reputation: 40736
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cape Cod Todd
Ha that is true. Yesterday I saw a posting on facebook from a liberal "friend" that followed his daily bashing of Trump posting. The posting was from a feel good group about how we need to accept and love kids that have developmentally or physical issues. Ok that is fine, the kids can't help it and we do need to be more accepting of them... I wanted to write back that Trump was a child one time and some might say he still is so shouldn't charity, good will and acceptance be channeled his way?
I say it is Liberal hypocrisy to be accepting of one group and hating of another.
As for believing, I don't.
How can we believe the media, the Left, the Right, polling or news? Everyone is pushing their own agendas and a smart person will bob along through the tsunami of earth shattering hype. To believe one way or another is to buy into the hysteria and we have seen examples of this from the Liberals and their Trump Derangement Syndrome.
It is not healthy.
A smart person takes everything they see and hear with a grain of salt and listens to multiple news sources before forming an opinion.
Multiple sources have reported on Trump's lies and shaky business practices for 35+ years yet people still believe him, I guess they're not the smart ones.
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