Best Of
Re: Just for fun: the random, useless announcements thread!
I am off to the Wild Wild West - eh - World Wild Web
https://fyr.io/post/world_wild_web
Sharks? (Rock Salmon) Yum! - oops ... still not vegan
lobster
Re: Understanding dysfunction
Good post @lobster
It is hard to define what sanity really is, it is easier to look at what is insanity. Somehow there is some agreement over insanity — like repeating behaviour that is harmful to yourself. I think to be sane is to be free from these compulsive behaviours.
Any type of addiction or compulsive repetition has elements of insanity. Sanity is to be found in liberation and a thorough understanding of what is beneficial. Kindness comes after that, in bringing first an understanding of what is beneficial, and then real freedom to others.
The mind is first of all a survival machine, that is its main purpose. It picks up on the needs of the body, which generates emotion in response to thought. You can release yourself from these things, survival is just of the body, in whatever form “the body” takes in the mind. The mind works hard at this, but it is ultimately a futile pursuit.
Jeroen
Re: Understanding dysfunction
It seems to @Jeroen
It seems to agree with psychology and psychiatry that part of the spectrum of human experience is covered by insanity and dysfunction. This seems true on the scale of nations as well as individuals.
Strangely enough, I live in an insane world, with insane people everywhere. And
I am one of them. 
- In other words it is a question of how crazy our nation, our social experience and our interior function is
- Do our thoughts, emotions, support structures etc. help or increase our insanity/dysfunction?
- What in us is (ideally) sane?
For me sanity is simple:
- Being kind and putting others before our inflation
- Offering wisdom, whatever the source (the saner and less hypocritical the better)
- To be sane is a hard job.
- Don't expect anything in returns, is a good start
...and now back to the 'Agony Ants' or is it aunts... 
lobster
Re: What documentary are you watching?
Thanks @Shoshin1, I enjoyed listening to the two talks.
I used AI to give me some definitions of fascism a while back and got inconclusive results on whether Trump can be seen as a fascist. He definitely checks some boxes, but to my mind not all. This does not mean that I dislike him any less. And then of course there is the problem that there is not a single definition of fascism.
Personally, today, I think that by calling him a fascist we lose much clarity and precision. It's intellectually lazy. Nearly a hundred years have passed - things have changed. Political scientists should define (and probably have) what precisely "Trumpism" is in its main elements in detail. The details matter because we can then better see, keep noticing, and follow the development of the phenomena. Also, then we can better counter it.
Just my 2cc this tired evening.
marcitko
Re: What documentary are you watching?
Interesting take on Trump and what is happening in the US and elsewhere.
Two members of the debater's teams
Professor Roger Griffin Cambridge Union debate (opposition) "Illiberal democracy" 
The term "illiberal democracy" describes a governing system that hides its "nondemocratic practices behind formally democratic institutions and procedures."
There is a lack of consensus among experts about the exact definition of illiberal democracy, however, it may be used broadly to refer to the notion that some governments attempt to look like democracies while suppressing opposing views.
Zack Polanski Deputy leader of the Green Party of England and Wales ( proponent )
Results on the debate whether Trump is a 21st century fascist .
Ayes - 219
Abstain - 118
Noes - 160
A final note from Stephen Fry
Shoshin1