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Most people are firmly entrenched in their label-identity and work really hard to defend it, no matter which "side" they might be on. The same people are almost all "guilty" of the same behaviors that they accuse their supposed enemy of. People do so little introspection into their own minds, hearts, and behaviors that they just enjoy accusing someone else of doing something while they do it themselves...and they truly don't see it because they are so entrenched in the importance of their assumed identity labels that they feel justified in defending those labels no matter how hateful they have to be to do it.

I live in MN where our democratic state legislators were attacked and killed in June. People who I know actually said things like "That's what you get for being a liberal." And now when someone says the same thing about Charlie Kirk, they say "You are a horrible person, NO ONE should die for their political beliefs." And they absolutely refuse to see how they are exactly the same thing. And there is no hope to point it out to them, even if you screenshot it side-by-side they do mental gymnastics to convince themselves they are not the same.

What frustrates me the most right now is that our politicians and political activists (on all sides) seem to believe it is ok to say whatever you need to "stick it to" the other person, but that they believe themselves to just be playing a game, that words don't matter, that they are just campaigning and that's how it works. They don't accept that their words have consequences, that they contribute to devaluing people and creating desperation and desperation always breeds violence. Then they say, "Political violence should not exist, people shouldn't die for their beliefs!" As if the games they play during fiery speeches don't have very real world impacts on people's lives.

The older and more curmudgeony I get, the more I think social media is the worst thing to happen to humanity. It allows people to immediately share the diarrhea of their thoughts (most of which do not deserve the power of a voice) and cement it as real. Then they are shown algorithms that reinforce the collective mind diarrhea. The amount of hate hiding in people's minds is astounding.

I am endlessly grateful for my meditation practice and my time spent in Nature, which, as Mary Oliver said, "they save me, and daily."

I guess you could say I consider myself a radical Buddhist, not “radical” in a violent sense, but radical in that I challenge systems of oppression through peaceful protest, boycotts, and pickets, which on a personal level are part and parcel of my Dharma practice

Certainly you are welcome to practice Dharma as you see fit 🙏

But I think one Dalai Lama or Thich Nhat Hanh has an impact far overshadowing most boycotts or pickets, and perhaps it might be worthwhile to write letters to Buddhist worthies calling on them to support the practice of peace in word and deed…

Can I just say that it’s wonderful to see you post something here again, even if just to say “social media is the worst thing to happen to humanity” 😂 Very happy to see you!

Bohemian Rhapsody Flashmob Paris

I mean that if violence has a culture I'd rather be known as non-violent. Which, in that way would seem like the radical alternative.

Violence and Disruption in Society
A Study of the Early Buddhist Texts
by
Elizabeth J. Harris

https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/harris/wheel392.html

All tremble at violence,
All fear death;
Comparing oneself with others
One should neither kill nor cause others to kill.
Dhp. v. 129

Victory breeds hatred,
The defeated live in pain.
Happily the peaceful live,
Giving up victory and defeat.

Dhp. v. 201

@Linc said:
Microsoft et. al. are trying to sell AI as the inescapable future of business.

That is very much true. NVidia, OpenAI, Microsoft, Elon Musk with xAI are all involved in this. But there still needs to be quite a lot of work done before an unassisted AI can take over the work of a human.