[Shawk]

Originally Posted by Gustoo [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Don't give it to your kids.

Your kids can pull the others up who had parents that didn't think as clearly as you. Sorry that may be their role as leaders of the next generation.

We can collectively agree that social media is poison (which it is) and we can dismantle it and continue to demand that policies be made to change it.

But regardless of your stance on policies on this or other topics, love your neighbor. There will be no utopia because you're still going to be dealing with people full of problems. But we can make it better.

Look at the way you just described some fellow human beings in your last paragraph. Think about what that means. Think about what that looks like when someone else is saying the same thing about you. It gets us no where. They may be lacking empathy and so many other things, but what are we going to do about it. Every shit life is worth fighting for, or none are. Every person hunching over a shopping cart sunburnt looking like they are 80 years old (at age 35) from sun exposure going to die of kidney failure some cold night next to a convenience store, every single one of these adults was born as some mother or some fathers precious perfect baby, or might have been. Or they could have been the precious perfect baby of some adopted family. Or they could have been killed before they were born.

We need to give up on "give them what they deserve" this is all culture poison that we got from the "war on drugs" when the for profit prison industry like 1500X'ed in size in our country and crime did not decrease and safety and quality of life did not increase. We literally send people in to places we know they are raped and guaranteed to never recover or be rehabilitated at all. It would be more humane to have firing squads but for some reason we've been convinced that prisons are just a thing we all have to deal with.

So lets choose to care about each other. Lets choose to care about children even the children of known scum whatever that means. People don't choose to be homeless and they don't choose to be addicted to drugs and they don't choose to be poor. They get there somehow. They don't want to be there but their brain is trashed and they can no longer make good decisions.

Personal responsibility is real, and compassion is also real. I am personally responsible to make use of the gifts that I have. What am I supposed to do with the non drug addicted brain stuck in my skull? Use it to pile up wealth for myself so that when I die my (neglected because of my focus on wealth collection) kids can squander it or remain wealthy while being complete slimeballs? What is the point. "From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more." This is the classic reminder you can give to your Christian neighbors as they scowl at the human filth polluting their streets wondering why they don't just chose to be smart and successful like they are.

Think about what everyone produces in their life, and what they get for it. My most wealthy friends and acquaintances work just as hard and are as just as miserable as the middle class guys that I know. It takes a lot of time and effort to manage significant wealth and the stakes are higher. Everyone ends up with their face on the grindstone feeling miserable and heaven forbid we have time to care about anyone around us. We all produce a lot of shit for no reason and then die and take none of it anywhere. I'm not going to try to tell you what the point is. Our culture makes it seem great to wear the best clothes and go to costly restaurants but the level of joy is no greater than the level of joy a walmart greeter has on BBQ sunday with his walmart greeter neighbor.

Way off topic but since its basically a RnF thread I'm just going to let it go.

P.S. the social media thing is just another example of being sold down the river. The folks in charge can't be relied on to care about well being. They are collecting paychecks with their face to the millstone like the rest of us, making side deals as is required of their station and trying not to lose their job.

Again, I agree. I don't want to get into disagreement because I agree with the notion.

But I also think there is a side that wants this narrative, wants to say their way of living is the healthy only way, they find it easy to facebook and be what they are on there, grand standing in a way, or faking that their life is like that, influencing children like crazy. My children won't be on there but that isn't necessarily a common opinion today, it needs to be expressed more. Yes I agree with what you are saying sure but we have a problem, one that has no solution yet in facebook etc.. the bubble needs to pop and aggressive action will need to be taken and the left needs to work with the right on that.

This is like a bezos and musk needing to work together situation.. Instead of musk acting like a pompus dick head and bezos acting like a safe space whiny little baby, it just needs to happen, I am expressing things "of thy neighbor" in a way to exaggerate the issue, sure but only to bring attention to it, i suppose.