What's the cost of water salination? California has a coast.
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azth commented on The fight against drought in California has a new tool: The restrictor lite.cnn.com/en/article/h... · Posted by u/Bender
azth commented on Religion as an Ego-modulator superbowl.substack.com/p/... · Posted by u/superb-owl
I agree.
Like many people, I draw a distinction between religion (read: organized religion) and spirituality. From what I can see, religion can have the effect of hardening the ego, by creating an us-vs-them mindset. As an American, I see this as perhaps the fundamental dynamic driving our country at a national level, both in domestic politics and foreign policy.
On a personal level, I was raised in a very religious household. In our particular fundamentalist Baptist church, there were strains of ego minimization, in the sense of subordinating the individual to the identity and outlook of the group. But within that identity, I saw ego maximization, in the sense of the feelings of superiority of our creed.
As I became alienated from organized Christianity and its dogma, I've found that I am thankful for many of the ego minimizing aspects. And now, as a parent, I'm interested in the ways in which I can raise my children to have these benefits, without all the harms I experienced and see from organized religion.
Incidentally, I just read all of the books from Arbinger Institute: Leadership and Self-Deception, The Anatomy of Peace, and The Outward Mindset. The Arbinger Institute was founded by Latter-Day Saints folks, and while I definitely register the vibes of Christian thought, they are fundamentally secular books, devoid of dogma. I do think it's very possible to draw from the more positive, ego-dissolving parts of religious spirituality and teaching, while rejecting the divisive parts.
Completely aside from the ego conversation, another thing I have noticed about raising kids outside of a church is that my family lacks the same community that the Baptist church my household growing up attended. I think this is one of the major functions of organized religion. Provided you can remain in good standing with the church, you get a community, which serves all sorts of useful functions. Outside of a church, you have to manually find this, through friendships and other organizations. But there's big replacement cost to everything a church community gives you "batteries included". I'm very pro secular society, but I don't think we've come up with great answers to this problem, leading to potentially catastrophic levels of social fragmentation and susceptibility to cult-like online movements.
That's a false dichotomy, because nonreligious people find some other ways to create an "us vs them" mindset. We see it all the time.
It's also a fallacy to group all religions under one banner and claim that they all say the same. Even among what you call "organized religion", while there is some overlap between say Islam and Judaism/Christianity, once you start looking at things deeper, you'll see how Islam comes out different, and as a Muslim, I'd say on top.
What effect will this have on its price?
azth commented on I'm 30. The Sexual Revolution Shackled My Generation commonsense.news/p/im-30-... · Posted by u/hirundo
Blame the apps. None of this would be possible if it weren't for tinder and friends making hook up culture a thing. I would bet dollars to donuts that the folks thriving in this environment would not have the confidence to do the same thing in person.
Those kinds of apps appearing are due to circumstances that set the wheels in motion a long time before.
When religions like Islam, Judaism, and Christianity heavily control mixing between the genders, it's for a reason. Once the boundaries broke down and the so called "sexual revolution" took hold, it was only a matter of time.
azth commented on I'm 30. The Sexual Revolution Shackled My Generation commonsense.news/p/im-30-... · Posted by u/hirundo
"All girls and women [...] should avoid being alone with men they don’t know"
I guess the default setting for my gender is 'predator'..
That's a straw man. Speaking as a Muslim, Islam controls mixing between genders of people that are non-Mahrams (i.e. people who are able to get married to each other). The same applies to Judaism and Christianity. Interactions between the genders is controlled and under specific circumstances, based on necessity, and no such thing as "casual friendship" exists between the genders.
The reason of course, is that the natural desire of humans, as well as the influence of Satan, will cause things to end up badly, as we've seen time and time again. Wasn't there the "metoo" movement that we saw?
I have not seen any Muslim scholar declare men as defacto "predators".
azth commented on What Beirut was like before the war (2019) the961.com/this-is-what-b... · Posted by u/mmastrac
Lebanon became independent in 1945. Civil war began in 1975, largely as a result of radical Islamist Palestinians who had left Palestine and wanted an Islamic state in Lebanon.
Lebanon beforehand, it is important to note, was not Muslim majority at all. It was Christian and Druze, and that was the very foundation of the country itself. It was never the country of Muslims in the first place.
Iran was also never colonised by European countries. Its decline began with both theocratic rule as well as sanctions, but even despite this it’s still remarkably functional and developed in comparison to a ton of countries that weren’t put in such a position.
Lebanon was literally formed by the colonialist West, who used divide and conquer to strategically place people there so that the conflicts keep going.
azth commented on What Beirut was like before the war (2019) the961.com/this-is-what-b... · Posted by u/mmastrac
A huge issue in the middle east for democracy is that muslims, or the very very substantial percentage of them that are fundamentalist, want democracy if they aren't in power, and a super oppressive totalitarian state if they are in power. To the point that it isn't just about establishing islamic states and oppressing non-muslims, it's about establishing an islamic state of the Sunni or Shia variety and brutally oppressing the other islamic branch.
The Kurds are an exception, arguably should have their own state and would be the most sane partner in the middle east, but the US can't get its shit together to stand up to Turkey. Alas, we routinely screw over the Kurds as they get gassed by Saddam Hussein, ethnic cleansed by Turkey, abandoned to destruction by Russia when they were our best anti-ISIS ally.
Oil money and the wealth inequality that came with it certainly don't help things to engineer functioning democratic states, and then as stated elsewhere, neither does the CIA toppling democratic governments because multinational corps find them inconvenient.
America building "democracy" in Iraq was a telling process. All we cared about was oil and maintaining political control. We didn't care about making the lives of the everyday person better, which is the true fundamental path to a functioning democracy (it's why the USA's is gradually apart after all).
I disagree that Muslims want democracy (I'm Muslim). Present day democracy generally contradicts and is against Islam, so I'm not sure where you're getting your information from.
Nothing in the world justifies a Russian invasion of Ukraine, because this isn't the 18th fucking century.
Stop trying to justify the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Plus, you furthered his point by calling the western atrocious as “conflicts”.