Best Of
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
Re: All Things Apple (was MacBook Air, but things evolve...)
@Jeroen said:
iPhones are definitely getting more expensive. The newly announced budget iPhone 16e is €719 in the Netherlands including VAT, and these budget iPhones used to be €500 a few years back.But then, I don’t think there is a lot of reason to buy a more expensive iPhone Pro anymore, especially at €1229. Most of the good photographic features like 48MP, Portrait Mode and 2x zoom have made their way down to the 16e, and it’s very debatable whether 2 extra gpu cores and a 5x zoom mode are worth it.
This has kind of been my way of adopting new tech. Wait a few years and all the leading edge tech will be commonplace and half the price.
person
Re: No Buddhist Quotes
Why are you so enchanted by this world when a mine of gold lies within you ?
Open your eyes and come, return to the root of the root of your own self.
~Rumi~
Shoshin1
Re: Understanding dysfunction
Eckhart Tolle is another person who talks at length about the ego and dysfunctional patterns in the mind. If we take the Bodhidharma quote, understanding the mind means understanding its dysfunction as well.
I find it interesting to read about these dysfunctional patterns, all the ways in which ego can steer the mind to go awry, and to stir deep emotions which otherwise wouldn’t exist. For example if you were sitting at a restaurant and you heard a car in the car park had been crashed into, it might raise mild interest. But if you heard it was “your car”, you’d probably feel quite different. It’s amazing what a difference a little word like “my” might cause.
It is in large part about owning, about identification with, about making-into-yourself and the psychology of loss. For example your reputation is something you might or might not have thought about at length, but if a newspaper was going to place an article which was going to cast you as a liar and a cheat, you might suddenly be concerned.
The ego uses all kinds of tricks to make itself bigger, to try and increase its importance. It is always worried about survival, because it is a thing built of illusions and shadows, fragile when you recognise it. As long as you identify with it, make it’s thoughts your thoughts, it steers you and causes no end of trouble.
But when you start being careful about saying what you own, when you look at renouncing, at letting go of things and mental constructs, then you start deconstructing the ego. The ego’s basic move is to “make things yours” mentally, to make it feel like it matters when something that is yours gets damaged, to expand your “self” to include “things”.
Jeroen
Re: No Buddhist Quotes
“You don't have to wait for something “meaningful” to come into your life so that you can finally enjoy what you do. There is more meaning in joy than you will ever need. The “waiting to start living” syndrome is one of the most common delusions of the unconscious state.”
— Eckhart Tolle
Jeroen
Re: Death
What is your favourite part of Death?>
I'll let you know when I get there. Maybe it is like being born, or growing up, or getting old - a rebirth, a whole new set of reference points to navigate. Or maybe not. Perhaps the uncertainty is the best part.
Fosdick
Re: No Buddhist Quotes
“Stillness is the language that God speaks, and everything else is a bad translation.”
— Anonymous
Jeroen
Re: Death
@lobster said:
What is your favourite part of Death?
This is still theoretical for me in a lived sense, but my favourite part of death is that once we lose the fear of it, we lose all - at least chronic - fear. And can finally really live.
A quote comes to mind:
"A mystic is someone whom - quite fundamentally - you can't scare with death" (Allan Watts)
marcitko