Open Thread

Open Thread #5

[EDIT: New Open Threads are only posted on my other blog from now on.]

The Open Thread is a forum for readers of my blog. It is an opportunity to leave comments and start discussions that do not fit under an existing post or which would derail ongoing debates.

A new Open Thread will be posted whenever it seems suitable. There is no fixed time interval and no set number of posts.

Every Open Thread is easily accessible via the “Open Thread” category on this blog.

24 thoughts on “Open Thread #5

  1. Hello Aaron,

    I wanted to thank you for putting out a no BS guide to meditation. Trying different Soto groups in my area in order to get the proper technique down was very off-putting to me. Unfortunately, I laid-off meditation all together for almost six months after that.

    Your book played a vital role in bringing me back to daily meditation. However, I am still very skeptical about the effects of long-term meditation. I just finished a book called The Buddha Pill about adverse effects of meditation (mostly inside the context of religion/ guru-worshiping). This is, of course, something no one is interested in. But the book also just addresses possible negative effects of meditation in a non-spiritual context.

    So, my question is if you experienced any adverse effects of long-term mediation? And if so what would they be? What do serious mediators need to be aware of? It is worth noticing, that I follow your advice and will only meditate alone at home and do not seek any group practices ever again.

    PS: Under this link, you can find some excerpts of “The Buddha Pill” if you search for it. http://www.strippingthegurus.com/stgsamplechapters/wakingup.html

    1. Thank you for your thought-out comment, and thank you for buying my book.

      Negative long-term effects of meditation depend pretty much on your perspective. The biggest change is that it will make you emotionally rather detached. (A fun consequence is that you can reach a point where you learn to ‘observe’ emotions in your mind and, almost like thoughts during meditation, you can learn to drop them.) As a consequence, some people may think you are aloof. For instance, I would be very surprised if a master meditator got caught up in some irrational, fleeting emotions, unlike the vast majority of people. Now imagine you interacted with such people regularly. You would feel alienated from them, and your ability to stay composed would make them wonder what is wrong with you. Then again, I consider the company of common people rather undesirable, so the supposed negative of extensive meditative practice is a distinct positive to me.

      1. Aaron,
        I believe you’ve stated that you no longer meditate as long as you used to . Despite this,do you feel you’ve retained all the benefits you’ve achieved from having done serious meditation in the past?

        BTW,I also bought your book in the past,but unfortunately was bombarded with numerous life problems(and caused me to be depressed)during early attempts and so I ended up stopping. Now that I’m in a better place,I’m taking up meditation again. I just started today with a 10 minute session earlier. (was planning to start with 15 right away but my meditation timer app has 10 minutes as the default and so I decided to go with that.) Definitely challenging,but I can do it.

        Another thing I’m curious to know about though,but do you write a diary/journal? Along with starting meditation,I’m also starting to write a journal as a way to both introspect on myself and my life,but to also keep track of the consistency of my meditation routines.

      2. I discuss this in my book. It’s due to effectiveness as I can enter a deep meditative state very quickly nowadays, whereas this may take someone who is less experienced easily half an hour, if not a lot more. Thus, as you gain more experience, you will retain the benefits of meditation with less practice.

        Ten minutes is a good goal to have. You may want to start with five minutes and ramp up, if it’s too challenging.

        I used to write a journal in my teens for two or three years. In my later adolescence, I wrote a pick-up journal, which ended up as Sleazy Stories (there are more books forthcoming). I think if you seriously pursue any goal, then keeping a journal is very helpful. These days, I tend to record brief bullet points when I work towards a goal, which helps me monitor my progress.

  2. Hey Aaron

    This is some interesting documentary by SRF on Unschooling/Homeschooling.
    I picked a relevant moment about career women.
    https://youtu.be/8q9jqSols4s?t=629

    It’s partly in Swiss German, but I assume you do understand a bit of Bavarian, so that should help.
    NB that in Switzerland homeschooling is regulated on a cantonal level.

    1. I’ll look into this. I think I mentioned this before: homeschooling is no option in Germany, and next to impossible to get approved in Sweden. However, in Singapore that is not an issue at all. I have been looking into local Montessori kindergartens here in Sweden, which I consider preferable. So far, I have not found a good solution to primary and secondary education. There are expensive private schools for the well-off, which aren’t as obscenely expensive as their equivalents in Germany or Switzerland, but they are generally pretty weak academically. Some have outcomes that are downright mediocre, which goes to show that even the elites have fully embraced the leftist lack of standards.

    2. @Neutralrandomthoughts – are you the reader from Switzerland? If so, has Switzerland been invaded and infected like France, Germany and Sweden with refugee issues?

      1. Hi!
        Yup, reader from Zürich, Switzerland.
        Uhm, I guess the simple answers is “no, not quite to the same extent”.
        I moved here in 2014 and today there are more worthless n*ggers hanging around at the central station compared to then. So, the trend is the same, albeit a bit surpressed. Switzerland has still not given a definite decision on the UN Migration bullshit treaty, the social state is expanding, taxes are on the rise, the goddamn leftists are winning over the youth with “free shit” and “tax the rich”, we can’t get the fucking Eritreans out of Switzerland, who came here for a non-asylum reason (military service), leftist shit propaganda is being taught at school (UNIA sponsored economy books), so… what should I say? We’re going down the same route, just a bit slower.
        I’m thinking of packing my shit.
        If my portfolio moons, I’ll very seriously be looking to buy an EB5 Visa for the U.S. and move my ass over to some lost small town in Idaho.

      2. @Neutralrandomthoughts:
        The States? Really? Isn’t it the case that they’re collapsing, too?

      3. Let’s see about the US. Its constitution has been changed 18 times over the last 200 years. Compare that with Germanycs “Grundgesetz” which has been amended 62 times since 1949.
        I don’t underestimate the still somewhat intact mechanisms for limitations of state power. If a local sherif in Wyoming can say “fuck you” to federally imposed restrictions on the 2nd Amendment, it says quite something. Look, everything, every state with a domestic money printing press (aka Central Bank) is collapsing. You can’t print the shit out of a currency, totally destroy purchasing power and expect people not to fall for redistribution schemes such as socialism.
        The easiest way to enrich yourself is to take something from someone. Put that on a moral high ground like “paying your fair share” and whatever else cunts like Chiquita Breshnev, aka Occasional Cortex, aka AOC are giving the masses as an excuse for 80% taxation and suddenly you are getting damn close to Venzuela. As long as the state has no incentive to be sensitive about what money is being spent where, we will get socialism. It’s not like you can really claim a bad service by your state and go to court with that, although you paid for a service. And it’s not like you really can counter the statement that “taxation is theft” , because in the current form of a national state it is. From an operating perspective there is ZERO difference between the Mafia and a goverment. “Pay me or I’ll use violence. I decide what service you get for your money I extracted from you.”

        I also have Free Private Cities Inc. on my radar. Twitter exchanges with them and rumour has it Roatan island in Honduras will open this year as a free private city.
        Yeah yeah, I know, Honduras…
        I think one should not be afraid to buy low. I might be a first mover, but I’ll have ideological reasons.
        I do not believe that you can change the current system or cure it for the better. And since revolutions have a very poor track record historically, I’d rather support the competition, so that the old, corrupt and broken systems we have now can bleed dead faster. Don’t forget, in Germany there are 15mio net tax payers vs 50 mio workers vs. 80 mio citizens. Everyone of these 15mio who leaves hurts the system disproportionately, the same way each additional social welfare leech hits these 15 mio in a disproportional way.
        Yes, Germany will go Ctrl+P, but when nobody wants to lend you money anymore, IRRESPECTIVE of the interest rate you offer them, you’re fucked. So let them die faster, but let them die in favour of something that actually works and not for the same, just in a different shape. Competition will be the death for the current system and if I can contribute to that, I will.

  3. @Moonman of course, but the states is a massive chunk of land with some small towns and rural sections that are still white. You are right though, ultimately I don’t think a single inch is safe from multiculturalism and poz.

  4. Hi Aaron,

    Another reader implied this in one of your other posts but what do you think about the possibility of financial abortion laws for men getting up? I think they are unlikely to be legislated in the West anytime soon.

    There is an interesting article here by Australian feminist arguing for financial abortion laws for men: https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2016-12-04/financial-abortion-men-opt-out-parenthood/8049576

    Cheers and greetings from Australia

    Tom

    1. I like the idea, but I don’t think we will see it happen anytime soon. What may happen is that we get such laws and then male expressions of financial abortion will be declared invalid by courts. Just look at what has been happening to prenups.

  5. This is from last year. Austria takes a huge stand against muslims.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ez4N3sjhSHU

    Honestly, I would be okay with immigration of people from those countries if they met 3 criteria:
    1. Willing to renounce completely one’s place of origin and previously held religious beliefs in favor of any already practiced in the target country
    2. Would only be allowed to have children with a native or stay celibate (don’t know how this would be enforced)
    3. Can pass a test (like the SAT) in the target country’s native language.

    With regard to the second one, lefties have been going for biracial couples for a while now, but since they’re emotional thinkers, they would probably say that forcing immigrants to assimilate their genes into the native population would somehow “oppress” minorities or something.
    Anyhow, it seems a little tyrannical, but just a thought.

    What do you guys think?

    1. I have been watching Austrian politics in that matter with great interest. It is the sanest country in central Europe by a wide margin. I think that tying immigration to quantitative metrics would be an excellent step. Canada, Australia, and Singapore do that. Canada, of course, has many exceptions if you are an oppressed minority.

      1. I don’t think Australia is doing a good job either, as evinced by their no-go zones.

        But Italy seems to be climbing out of its hole. I guess some people do learn after hitting rock bottom:

    1. I have read it. It lays out that guy’s motivation in quite some detail. While the mainstream media portrays him as some crazed lunatic who got radicalized by memes on 4chan, the reality is that his extensive travels, which allowed him to witness the disastrous effects of “diversity” first-hand, prompted him to take action. What you may find particularly interesting is that he hopes that his actions will cause a greater rift in the United States. His line of reasoning is roughly that if the Second Amendment gets repealed, then the union will break apart along political and racial lines.

      1. Apart from the unionizing/minimum wage nonsense, some otherwise protectionist measures as well as other general rather pro-government tone here and there, I must say his reasoning seems pretty spot on.
        And for any non-muslim reading this: Ask yourself, how did you feel about Bataclan, vs. how did you feel about Christchurch. All I’m going to say is: “different”

        “he hopes that his actions will cause a greater rift in the United States. His line of reasoning is roughly that if the Second Amendment gets repealed, then the union will break apart along political and racial lines.”

        Aaron, what do you think about that? I mean gun laws will toughen in NZ, that we know already.
        Further, do you think that the scenario of a breaking apart “along political and racial lines” is realistic? You think that pro 2A Americans have the guts to fight?
        Also, do you think it will inspire more such attacks?

      2. I do think that the Union breaking apart is a realistic outcome within our lifetime. However, I don’t think it will be because of a repeal of the Second Amendment. Instead, the Mexican colonization of the Southern states, in particular California, will lead to ever-increasing friction. Whites are already a minority in that state at below 40%, according to the figures I looked up. Give it two more decades or so, and watch what will happen. There is also the cultural issue among Mexicans that the belief that California should be part of Mexico, not the United States. I can even see meek white politicians campaign on behalf of Mexico and voluntarily give up that state.

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