We talked stuff that works you up, how about things that you do to calm down? What techniques, activities, mantras, stims, etc. do you do to keep yourself comfortable and safe? Feel free to share what you’d like - and something kinda cool is that you might end up helping someone else down the line.
I mean I don’t think we can focus to much on the whale. Its dragging the whole ship in the direction it goes. I 100% think we are overpopulated by a lot, but for me overpopulation is the number of humans that can live a nice modern and life and continue to advance while the planet can recover from most of the resources we take form it and heal the damage we do to it on a yearly basis which would also slow down our use of non renewables till we advance enough to not need them. This to me is about a billion. I think we could go to like 4 but that is a pipe dream situation where we do things as sustainably as possible across the board as a species. The way we actually do things its about a billion to me. I don’t think anyones existence should stop but myself and other folks just are not bringing more into existence. Only some of us can do that. Education mostly helps as well as realization. Im sorta lucky because I grabbed a double major and spent five years at the bacheloreate level and then did a year in a PhD program before starting in a career that paid meagerly. If I had done a more lucrative major and gotten going financially I might have had kids but by the time that was even an option we were in the new millenium and things were getting obvious.
I argue that we’re overpopulated, but my girlfriend argues that we have so much land and can practice much more efficient forms of farming/housing/trades -> that we don’t because of capitalism that it’s not the amount of people that we have but more so the greed. Idk though, I think it’s crazy that we poo-poo on cats doubling with each generation (fix your cats) but we don’t seem to have any issues with us doubling every generation. But anything else is creepily Eugenics like, so eh. But the birth rate has slowed down, so there’s that. I know a whole lot of people who are like me and never really had any interest in having children. I always figured if it’s something you’re interested in pursue the venture. People always say have the cash, but you can raise a kid on nothing and still get by. Just try and be there for the kid as much as you can.
I only brought up eugenics (keep bringing it up?) because there’s a sick underlying issue that is going to be more and more present in our lives in that many people are going to be displaced at minimum and killed at maximum over global warming. And it’s crazy because we as a people get to say now - when is enough, enough and we pull back and stop living in excess as we do and start doing what’s right for the greater good. And that drives me banana bonkers. Because who’s to say x-life is more valuable than y? Although I guess we’ve been down this route before (I mean it’s basically the trolley problem right?) and I feel like the large issue as a whole is democrats move too damn slowly (they sit on their hands) and republicans don’t do shit but put up straw men and jabber.
If you want kids, and you are in the space that you can have them you really should consider adoption if you can. Or just like, go have a kid. I know that’s fucked up to say especially after what we’ve talked about. But I have a friend who wanted a kid. I mean that’s all he wanted, to be a dad. And he has health issues, and he has mental illness. But he just wanted to be a dad, and he works for the public school system so it’s not like he’s rolling in it. But he became a dad six months ago with a woman who’s on-board with him and he’s like the happiest I’ve ever seen him. I really honestly believe if you have a drive in your being to have kids you should find someone else who’s about it and consider it only on account of living life half-boiled probably feels rotten and I know I sound anti-children but really I don’t have any skin in the game because I never wanted kids so it’s easy for me to talk about it. But beyond all the doom and gloom consider enjoying what you can now. But also realize that it’s a lifelong commitment, which I think you’re smart enough to know.
Also education changes so much it’s absolutely insane. I had no clue. It makes me want to slap someone. They keep people from it, and we should be taxing people equitably and providing services for the betterment of everyone. In fact I think just that act alone would unionize America because people would feel less put out. The legalization of drugs would also assist, because even though I am stone sober - if you can’t push a bunch of shit garbage on the street what is the next gang war going to be about? Bring education, and legalize this shit you idiots =P! Then again, I heard you need to keep elements of the seedier side of life going. But that might literally just be a means of oppression so in that case? Eh, what do I know =P!
Also, I’d agree that 1 bil seems like a earnest cap and I think it’s kind of a double edged sword because I heard so many people call for stable living = kids. But at the end of the day I always think about that mouse study they did.
Yeah that mouse study is crazy. Its like the better things are the worse they are. I knew what it was going to be before I clicked it. Mouse utopia to dystopia just like us. I get your girlfriend but again I still estimate the top to be 4 billion if we did things perfectly with our current technology (currrently in practice technology) Its possible advances outside the lab could get us further but we are overfishing as it is and its not like we are using fish for a bunch of industrial practices Heck people are even avoiding eating to much fish due to the health issues. If everyone on the planet ate a healthy amount of fish (lets not bring vegan things into this for purposes of argumentation on this theoretical we will assume a varied omnivore kind of diet) we would have to catch more than we have now at 8 billion. Now if petri dish fish gets to be a thing maybe that is no longer a blocker but we all know there will be some percentage, and maybe a high one, that will insist on it coming from the animal and the petri dish is unnatural. Like the population and those in existence we can’t just take out anyone who is not compliant. Its much easier to encourage not reproducing. Im not to worried about the young having to support the old. I really don’t want to saddle kids with that responsibility anyway and much like with the way of doing things environment wise there are plenty of humans that will keep the meat worker train going.
I actually wonder about this. Because I am a complicated character, that enjoys eating vegetarian to vegan food (It’s hard to break away from eggs on account of rice -> eggs kinda being programmed into my mind as the best breakfast). But I’ve eaten most things by this point (outside of frogs, seems stupid to eat your luck away) and I would agree that eating more fish is good (on paper?) I am not sure if it’s sustainable though, because didn’t the North East of North America kill off their fish by overfishing? So it has to be paired with sustainability. But I also heard something about how direly polluted our waters are currently and that it’s being leaked into the fish. BUT!!! I also think a lot of Americans on the whole do not like seafood unless it’s mashed, breaded and fried and that’s always been a strange affair to me.
I talked about the petri-meat on here before. I think it’s really crazy that most people I know don’t even eat real food - and I am sure it’s not just my folks living in isolation. I really think most Americans on the whole do not eat real food - and yet people are freakin’ livid that the thing they’re eating that is substantially meat didn’t once live breathe or suffer for the cause…of feeding humans? Kinda weird stuff, but I can’t say much because I do get how food companies bastardize food until it’s just a slurry of diabetes inducing shit. I think more people like me are coming about and becoming nature’s birth control. That’s how I always saw myself, because I really had no interest in children ever. But equally, I think there’s been studies showing that gay kids tend to act sort of as such. But idk, because I’ve known plenty of gays who want babies. I think it’s more of a personal thing now.
We’ve always sort of had the system where the young take care of the old, and I do actually believe we have a duty to care for those who need assistance. And I mean it in all forms. But at the end of the day, I am not really sure of the systems we can put in place to do so. It’s perhaps one of the biggest brain-teasers of my own life. Because I am not sure what is going to happen when I age. But bleakest outcome is - if I get sick and there is some sort of legalized assisted suicide - bing there. But I really do have this feeling like “I’ve so much to give.” And have heard even Buddhist monks express mortal terror in the face of death. So humans, as a whole are just funny little creatures and we’re throwing our shit all over the place but I think we’re acting up because we’re all (for the most part) a little scared and pretty burnt out by the way modern society has moved us against ourselves for such an extended period of time.
I so get your last paragraph as that how it is with me. One of my goals with buddhist philosophy and mediation is just acceptance of death as I to would like to be able to decide to do it before life becomes to miserable. I also get your second paragraph although my experience is with my wife on eating bugs. Im like im all for it in processed foods (she is a no way, no how type and is actually the same with petri dish meat). Does it matter what the chocolate protein powder is made from if it tastes good. Will the high protein cricket pizza crust matter. I may not want to eat one whole but once its ground down to powder and mixed with other things its just protein. As for the first paragraph I would love to be sorta a lacto-ovo fruitarian. I view milk and eggs to be like fruit of the animal. That being said I am lazy and weak. Coming to terms with my inability to stop eating meat changed my mind about fictional tropes actually. Vampires. I used to think. Oh come now just don’t drink human blood. Now though I think of how meat is with me and I think that if I became a vampire im not sure I would have the strength of character to not prey on the humans I used to be.
Munchy, crunchy cicadas and crickets =P! You know in the situation you’re talking it’s a processing of organic ingredients. Which is way different (and actually pretty healthy) as compared to things like the fire-retardant I just saw them pulling out of sodas in the US (thanks PieFed!). Fruitarians I’ve met have always been peaceful souls but you’ve got to be careful because I am not entire sure about the balance of the meal. It’s why I get the concept behind a majority plant-based diet as a whole. Because vegetables seem to be the simplest way to shovel nutrients and fiber down your gullet. But I will also say, and idgaf what anyone else says - it’s freakin’ HARD to keep up on your protein. And likewise, it’s really easy to miss the mark on certain things. Like I bleed like a stuck pig on my period (whee!) and getting my iron back no matter how much kale I shove into my face always seems like an uphill battle. I was actually medically advised to be omni, and that’s where I am sitting even though my grumpy cheating ass always peddles back. (Just don’t tell nobody). But I will eat chicken sometimes (sigh) and I will be like - oh okay - this is why humans eat meat protein. So they can have puppy power, I get it now.
But most days I am just shoving piles of beans down my throat and smiling like a fiend because eating meat literally makes me gag…which I think you might be talking about right there =P! I often wonder (and worry) about how many dystopian science fiction theories are going to come true. Because universally, across our societies - once we left bands and tribes - we really stopped being egalitarian in form. And instead became something far worse and exploitative. And I am worried (and yes I know we’ve always been exploitative of people in other countries and to some extent) that capitalism isn’t going to stop until the human spirit is demolished.
That was fun food for thought at the bottom there, it’s got me cheesin’ over here! By the by, my mom is in a vegan food cult (as I calls it) - and so I get it. My mom won’t touch a damn thing unless it’s like next-level “clean.”
depending on how often you cheat you may not be able to handle the meat. I had a friend who I thought was vegan as she pretty much said she was but turns out she was just against factory farming. So we had this friends thanksgiving and got a wild caught goose and she had some and well. She did not feel well when it hit her stomach but she had not had meat in years, possibly over a decade.
Oh yeah for sure, I remember I had been a while without meat but wanted to eat something my mom made when I went home and I got so sick that I spent the rest of the day with a fever just gripping my stomach and knocked out on the couch. It was beef, and I think it did me in some kind of way, because I was just in another world after eating it. I think about it some times, but also my gal says pretty often she just thinks my body wasn’t made for meat @_@!!!