Brisbot

i used to watch TYT until i realized they get about 90% of their stories from huff po and just summarize it nowadays i don't have a one-stop-shop for all my news but rather just get headlines sent to my phone from multiple sources I haven't really listened to them since 2016. I tried again recently and quickly caught them ignoring facts. It's hard for me to trust political news from any media I've seen being intellectually dishonest. Such as CNN with their BS polls showing Biden ahead of Bernie. Yeah he is ahead of Bernie, if your poll focuses on people age 50+. Conveniently left that out of their reporting. The reason I like Secular Talk is that he tries his best to stick to the facts and changes his mind based on new info and won't BS you... at least I haven't caught him doing it. Oh I read Politifact. I'm not sure I would like that app since most right wing news is BS. I use politifact to fact check right wing news often considering I live in a conservative area with mostly conservative friends. Some time back a buddy showed me this bs article on a prominent conservative news site about the lie that is climate change (that I can't remember the name of but it describes itself as 'alternative news for conservatives'... fitting) and I replied with relevant politifact 'fact checking' and he mirrored what I said, that he is distrustful of any left wing news, period. Called Politifact fake news. Man I hate politics. If Trump wins again I will just ignore the news for 2 to 3 years. Barring WW3.

Well yeah that's a given. I have the bad habit of over-exaggerating things by using 'totally' or 'incredibly' for whatever reason when I don't really mean that. As long as unconscious biases exist in people, nothing pertaining to media will be 100% objective. I only know about the Associated press from reading manufacturing consent ( I think, as I've read a number of his books) by Noam Chomsky where he recommends it as his go to source of news before. oh come on now I was kidding. Though I think the echo chamber critique is kinda moot as it's human nature to want to be around like minded people from culture to politics.

Those 5 seconds could remind you of any funky solo bass guitar around that bpm

I think every single prominent news source is biased in some way. From what I understand there are totally objective news sources that only state the fact of what happened that other sources then take and spin it to fit into their narrative. Associated Press seems to be one of them. But personally I prefer an echo chamber. In other news more Trump Dementia stuff that may or may not mean anything but is bizarre nevertheless: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tHCUX0K8nM

I have a question. Where do you guys get most of your news from? My favorite news source is "Secular Talk". I kinda iffy on The Young Turks.

I just said that because it was the only way I could refer to the 'oranges' incident. As far as the report go yeah I think the whole report should be released, 100% transparency always. That said 98% chance it's just a longer version of the "synopsis" we got. I watched a video that suggested that trump is tied to Russia in some way. They didn't interfere with election but that he is indebted to Russia from before Trump got in office. And so now after the election he is pulling strings on Russia's behest. I don't follow the Russia ties news much as I felt it came off as Hillary's emails 2.0 but this time it's the dems doing it. However Trump having private meetings with Putin where no one else is present is suspicious. But then again why would Putin need to come to America to give him his 'orders' so to speak. Do I think Russia/Trump ties need to be investigated? Sure. But I think there are better ways to get at Trump, such as forcing him to release his tax returns, or paying off supermodels.

Those of you STILL going on about the mueller report need to move on... there were never any oranges.

Individualistic was a bad word choice. I meant they're more willing to try out new things than conservative, they're more exploratory. It's right in their names as well with liberal/conservative. I read an interesting article a while back where they did a study on how fear leads to conservatism. Most conservatives down in here Texas live and associate with people like them. Segregation has been abolished for a long time, but in a way it's still there. Anyway it came to the conclusion liberals tend to be more trusting of others, conservatives more skeptical of others intentions. Although the really interesting part of the article was that libertarians and liberals are neck and neck in that area. I feel that both have a good shot at winning the general election. I think the dems will rig their primaries well enough against Bernie, just like last time. They will lie and misrepresent him, and depending on how the deception plays out, we could get a repeat of last time where Bernie supporters won't vote for the corporate dem.

Good advice, in general. Although I don't think it'll really work when you're really depressed. The third person perspective of yourself can be so incredibly distorted, it becomes impossible to "visualise" getting yourself back on track again. It's been a while, but I distinctly remember a feeling of being a ghost. Or having become an invisible black hole of sorts. I basically stopped existing for a bit. I believe that's a consequence of having blocked out emotions. And it's hard to imagine a third person perspective would have helped. On my bad days I'd get pissed at myself, I believe. And on other days, I simply wouldn't care. Or just couldn't do it all. I don't know. Might depend on how deep you are in it, I guess. Or it's related to the reasons of the depression. But in all honesty, that was more than a decade ago. So, I'm going with my imagination here. If it works, it works though. And the ability to consciously change frames and perspectives in general is a precious ability. Regardless of your emotional state. Good thing you stopped taking medications, btw. And happy to see it serves you well. Thanks. It's odd how some habits feel perfectly fine, but as soon as I look at myself in third person I wonder "wtf that guy" is thinking. I 100% agree on the applicability front. I only think it can help with minor depression where your depression is caused by your actions or rather lack of them and you're able to "steer" your direction in life. If your depression is more environmental to where it's out of your control almost no matter what you do, then for sure it wouldn't help. Depression seems to take different forms.Even though I feel like I understand what it's like to be mildly depressed I've never felt like a ghost, ceased to care (well I will procrastinate but it's more like "I'll care tomorrow"), blocked out emotions, etc. I can only understand mild depression because I've felt it. But I've never been so depressed that I felt like I couldn't get out of bed. That is a different feeling entirely I think. I knew someone who had severe depression her whole life since she was a kid, and was diagnosed with it at 11 though she had it years before then. The thing is she grew up upper middle class. Lots of family and friends, etc. But it didn't seem to matter. She had major depressive episodes which would fluctuate between being a little depressed to severe depression, in the same way manic-depressives fluctuate between mania and depression, except with a lower baseline. Her lifestyle didn't seem to influence mood much. Very good things could happen for her, but if her brain was in 'severe depression mode', she could care less. That kind of depression is entirely different from the one I had which was (mostly) triggered by circumstance and can be fixed accordingly. Whereas she is at the mercy of her mind.

yeah I kinda feel that as well. I think it has to do with Abundance feeling 'lighter' creating more contrast between the two tracks.

IDK. Who knows maybe they will knock another one out between 5 and 10 years. It seems like they straight up didn't work on new music due to that lawsuit for like 3-5 years in earlier half of the decade. But I think it's pretty much guaranteed to either be the last or second to last.

Every time Trump does something for his base it comes off as throwing them a bone. Then conservatives pretend like the bone is a steak. I got into a debate yesterday with a buddy who's a Trump supporter. I stated the self evident fact that Republican politicians are just using their base to make the rich, richer. Why Trump could care about some random middle class white guy in the country when he barely cares for and constantly backstabs the people in his life. He rolled his eyes and said, "Okay that's one of the stupidest things I've ever heard. Why would Trump and other Republicans enact policies to become richer when they already have all the money they will ever need. Do yourself a favor and think about it for longer than 2 seconds." Oh, and he also thinks lobbyists aren't there to push their agenda, but that they just want to meet the president of the US. Definitely the kind of things that just kill a conversation because they are already too far gone and trying to dig them out of their hole is much harder than the effort you're willing to put forward.

I bet there was relief when your mood was dictated by environment again. What's funny is that before 2015 I never drank or smoked and didn't even really understand the degree of how the environment controls your mood until I short circuited it with 'medication'... biggest waste of time ever, at least for me. How long were the benzos effective for you?

three years without a president and somehow 8-16 years of progress wiped clean.

I wonder how nervous the members of Tool are. The thing about spending so long to release a new album as a band with classic albums under their belt, are the sky high expectations due to fans speculating on a new album for so long and following news of its progress/ups and downs from beginning to end. It's kinda like Syro in this regard. There's also the understanding that after this album it could be it for the band, or at least there will be a 10-15 year wait for the follow up. So if this record isn't great then that's the last tool album for many people.

oh damn. how long did you have to take it initially to 'get up' to the dose you tapered from? Were you in a bleh mood for that entire year? the sucky thing about a lot of drug fixes for depression is that it only seems to be effective for the first few months, then when it's no longer effective you just want to kick it, but then it takes a year or two to do so.

I'd also like to share a technique that's been effective for me. My depression in 2015 was most caused by feeling stagnant in life. There is something inherently depressing about knowing exactly where you'll be in 10...20..30 years time. Though I think people with this causing depression only tends to be minor depression, any maaybe a low moderate depression. Obviously anyone can have depression for any reason... and sometimes it doesn't even need a reason as it's a chemical imbalance so I don't think this will work for everyone. But I got 85% out of my rut by externalizing it. I imagine myself from a third person perspective doing whatever escapist activity that will perpetuate depression such as spending too much time browsing the internet. I imagine someone in my family, friends, or anyone who cares about me is watching me and I think "what do I think this person needs to do in order to get out of this rut, because what he's doing now isn't it that thing" and I try to follow that advice, Instead of just following an impulse based off feeling or habit. It doesn't work every time, but it helps.

Wondering if sitting most of the day due to work/university/going home and internet surfing or working on music will result in major health problems in my 40s or 50s.

I feel anxiety in a way is depression. I don't think someone in a good mood most of the time will also have bad anxiety. How long did you withdrawal? Or did you do a gradual taper. I hear benzos make you WD for 1-2 months straight if you've been taking long enough and that it's much worse than even H or fentanyl which seem to last around a week at most. I was taking something with a similarly long WD. Won't go into details, but it isn't as bad as any hard drugs or anything. After taking it for 2 years I went cold turkey and my WD lasted a month and a half straight. And heightened anxiety didn't go away for 2.5 months.

I hate to be negative, but even though my favorite candidate is Bernie. I don't really think he will win due to the abundance of propaganda, the revelation a few years back of how easy it is to hack voting machines. Underhanded ways to cut down on Bernie votes, such as the fact that in many states would close polls early if Bernie was the more popular ones. they'd close it around 12 at noon, basically making it where if people have a 9 to 5 job they wouldn't be able to vote. On the bright side centrist dems are by and large in their 50s and 60s, perhaps due to the fact they don't know how to fact check using google. The same people who fell for Bill Clinton in the 90s, and who still vote on candidates as if it were the 90s. I think the whole justice dem thing will become the dominant 'fraction' in democratic party, perhaps in 10 to 15 years. But deep down I really don't think they will win the primary, least not yet.

marf, on 04 Apr 2019 - 11:14 PM, said: Yep. Most of my family hated Trump in the primaries, but boy oh boy did they suddenly end up liking him after after the primaries were over. It's almost like they were collectively forcing themselves too. I said this a number of pages back but the basic belief among conservatives/republicans is that "we just need a republican in office". Liberals tend to I think be more individualistic. Among a large portion of liberals there is no belief of "we just need a democrat in office". At least in 2016. Now in 2020 that belief rings true. On an unrelated note, sometimes I wonder if the democratic party is just there to keep the 'overton window' from shifting left of center. Basically telling American citizens that if you want to 'rebel' against the status quo, the democratic party is as good as it's going to get for you. yeah. Though much like Trump she was painted to be two-faced when it comes to caring about policy. It's hard in my mind to differentiate the 'real hillary' from super villain Hillary. If I remember correctly she also voted with Republicans a great majority of the time. I wonder if centrist democrats stole the Russiagate stuff from Hillary's emails. They figured if the propaganda worked soooo well with the emails then maybe you can use that on liberals. I also think the electoral college is sooo rigged, that even if Bernie gets more votes, a few schmucks for the electoral college will just vote for the corporate dem or republican even if the Bernie 'wins'. To me I think it's so obvious all these contrived 'rules' are there to make sure who they want in power, stays in power.

sarcasm? I doubt it, lol. You know, even if she's a chameleon I still think she doesn't have to supervillain status various media outlets portray. She would have just been Obama 2.0 though probably somewhat more conservative.

So who likes the EP more now than when it came out? Who is bored of it? I still listen once or twice a week, not really growing old at all.

Oh man if trump and biden ever debate I feel like Trump will smash him the same way he did Hillary due to how fake they are/were. And somehow the narrative will be spun making Biden look like a full on sexual harasser, and Trump 'normal' or more benign, even if that isn't true in the slightest. It's already screwed up if Trump can share that with his grabby pas, his tendency to walk into women's dressing rooms, and his apparent wish to sleep with his daughter. Also highlights the selectiveness of conservatives. If our candidate does it, it's okay. But if the liberal does it, we are appalled.