Libb

I always work towards being better,

Imho, it's the only thing that should really matter to anyone willing to change. Looking forward, not backward and not judging anyone (including myself) but trying to understand. To me, that's what 'getting better' means.

I accept that this is the world, it is fucked up but it also has all of tgese amazing things in it

There are amazing things indeed, and they're priceless. And we're lucky to be able to appreciate them.

The thing is that what you call 'bad things' are also part of the package. Like all of us not being perfect. Not a single one of us.

Bad things are legit part of the world. They're not an accident. They're not an error. Like the shadow goes with the light, you cannot have the good bits without also tasting the shittier ones. No one can.

Like no one can be perfect either. As a matter of fact, I will say that we're all shitty persons and the difference is in how we teach ourselves (and kids) how to deal with what we are, the good as well as the bad, and how we learn to better control our worst traits (I call that "keeping the animal under leash").

this is just something that is out of my control but also directly affects me.

try to really think what is under your 'control' and you will realize it's not much beside your own thoughts, emotions and reactions to whatever may happen around you.

You did not control being born, nor who your parents are or your friends (working hard enough, you may be lucky to be able to pick your foes). You barely control how you look. You don't control with whom you (don't) fall in love. You don't control the weather or who is deciding what in the rest of the world. You don't even control if you're enjoying spinach, or not ;)

None of us control much.

More often than not, the need for control 'control' is a way to avoid facing our fear (fear of the other, of the unknown, of the uncertainty and fear of oneself). It's that fear trying to hide itself behind something seemingly actionable, and therefore so reassuring. Like little kids checking under their beds every night before going to sleep. Cute but also not the most effective way to fight a monster... when there is one.

The day I started welcoming that fear and doubt in my life (and in my head) is the day I started getting bett... less shittier of a person myself. At least I think so ;)

For example, on a really depressive day I might end up staying in bed for the first 4 hours, while with weed I might get up and clean and shift my mood towards a more hopeful one

Don't be afraid to admit you depend on that. I depended on my own addictions back then. Admitting it is the first step to effectively getting rid of it.

Imho, weed is not the issue as I reckon it does to you more or less exactly what you want it do? The issue is you not realizing you could get the same or a very similar result without relying on weed. Which would be cheaper and much healthier choice for you,. A choice without any bad side effect btw.

When I ask Copilot something, the response usually starts with “Great question!”, followed by emojis and encouraging words that gently pet my fragile ego. Pretty much anything seems to pass for a “good question”, so if my questions are able to surpass that exceedingly low standard, I no longer feel very confident about their quality.

Don't mistake AI for someone. AI is just computer code trying to mimic understanding and empathy. There is no one behind AI but a vast emptiness and imho a rather poorly devised mirror made out of random shreds of knowledge.

Am I the only one feeling this way? Anyone else noticing how excessive encouragement can have the opposite effect?

That's 100% normal imho, it's your brain/gut feeling letting you know something is not as it should be. You should not rely on AI to feel 'validated'. As a matter of fact, you should not rely on anything and probably on that many actual persons. Only the ones you truly care about.

How do you feel when discussing with a real person, someone that won't feel obligated to be flattering... like I am not ;)

But what if you were in a situation where it did impact you? In a way that is part of your everyday. What if for years you are struggling with the internal conflict of “there is nothing I can do about it” and “I can’t continue like this”?

Let's imagine you do drug for that painful 'thing happening in your life' and then something new also painful happens, what would you do? Take even more drugs?

As an ex-addicted I know quite well the seductiveness of substances. And how easy they are to fall back into. They never helped me get better, they just... numbed me down and not even enough to not feel the pain.

What helped me get better, almost instantly, is to decide I should accept the world around me was something like a shithole (and that I too was an asshole) and work my way out from there and not from some wishful thinking about what I would do and how great it would be if those shit that were happening to me and had been for years were not a thing.

It's humility (I was an absolute turd and i was living a shitty life even if I earned good money, and I most certainly at least partly still am an asshole) and sweat. I literaly started moving my body to get back into shape (I rel-learned to walk, one step at a time painfully for a few weeks/months and nowadays I will gladly walk 10+ miles a day without breaking a sweat)

Edit: published too fast:

Don’t bother with telling me that even the individual has the power to make great changes, I believe it and I’m doing my best, but I am also aware of the fact that this situation will not be changed in my lifetime probably.

Well, that can be true but that should not impact your willingness to get better. I mean, I can't get back that body of mine I ruined years not caring about it but I can make it work as well as it's able to. and that's what I do. I can't get back all those wasted years either, but I can better use what's left. and so on.

Hope this helps. Wishing you the best

Indeed but, to me at least, this is not Trump/UNESCO-related issue. It's a Western societies issue.

We have very similar issues going here in France. For me, it all begun back in the 80s so, yeah, it's not really something new. But things have been going worse since then. And it has been accelerating. Quickly. Badly.

In France, our educative system (it's called l'éducation nationale, aka a nation-wide highly centralized system deciding what kids are to learn and how they should be educated) and since the mid-80s the level has collapsed beyond belief. Kids aren't being taught much anymore, and math as well as reading are vanishing skills. Let's not mention history and civic education (which help in any working democracy). Things have become real worse in recent years. Like, a lot worse.

Obviously, it's not the kid's fault. It's us the adults, teachers, parents and elected representatives voting absurd laws who have failed. But it's them kids who will pay dear for our mistakes (like with the climate crisis, btw).

They already started paying.

I mean, who has the best chance of getting a qualified job between say a lower or, nowadays, even a middle-class kid barely able to open a book and to understand what's written in it (and barely able to spell their name correctly) and a kid from a family where knowledge and teaching are still considered valuable investments worthy of sending their kids into private schools in which, unlike public schools, they're actually being taught how to read (and how to properly use books), and do math, and learn some history, philosophy and so on?

Those wealthier and better-educated kids will get all the rewards, while all the others kids will be fucked up, for their entire life (but hey, they will know how to watch ads on YT and TikTok).

They already are being fucked up btw, they just can't realize it as we have not given them the basic tools required to understand what's happening around them.

But the real worse is yet to come. Here in France at least even our private schools are subjected to the dumbing-down of the entire educative system, as they also depend on nation-wide laws and controls... Controls that have been getting harsher and harsher and, unsurprisingly, even those private schools are witnessing a sharp decline. Sure, it's less sharp than in public schools but still very worrying. So, what will happen? Well, I can't predict the (very near) future but would I have school-age kids myself and would I have enough money to send them to a private school I would simply pack my things and move abroad in any other country but France, in a country that would not actively be trying to ruin our educative system.

France was rightly regarded as a country of readers up until the late 70s to early 80s. Books (serious books, I mean) were a popular discussion topic, it was in the newspapers, magazines, radio and TV, it was discussed between people (the Internet and social media of back then). It was popular. Nowadays? It's not rare at all to enter a house where there is not a single book to be found. A house where no one owns a library card either (or read ebooks). Kids are just not encouraged to read books. Even comics are starting to become a happy exception.

Once again, this is a failure that will cost dearly to kids growing up in those families.

Without any reading culture and habits, not only will they be at a disadvantage when competing against 'reading kids' but they're also much more vulnerable to the stupidest ideas floating around... provided those already stupid ideas are simplified enough for them to instantly grasp them without much effort.

What kind of adults and citizen will that create? I'd rather not imagine. That's a fucking nightmare happening right in front of our eyes and nobody seems to care.

If a zombie loses blood, they aren’t going to keep walking, their muscles won’t work without blood.

Isn't that the whole idea behind zombies: they need no circulating blood nor an heart pumping it? Soulless and heartless bastards, you know.

If you have a strong door, zombie arms will break before the door breaks.

One zombie no doubt, but like we all know those assholes are often moving in hordes.... Sure, the first zombies squashed against the door won't like that very much but then neither will the door and once it breaks under the weight of all the other zombies... Or if it is not the zombie-proof door, they will inadvertently press too hard on one of those nice large windows we often see in the hollywood type of houses, a window that isn't zombie-proof obviously and then... bon appétit, like we say in my country ;)

The only kind of zombies I really worry about is the quickly and very much non-fictional ramping up illiteracy among younger generations. To me, this kind of cerebral death is much more worrying than hordes of dead people suddenly wanting to take a bite of my sorry ass. That said, maybe I should see that as the latest kind of zombification? Pure brain rot instead of flesh rot?

So, what would I do if illiterate zombies were to try to eat me or turn me into one of them? I would be throwing all the books from my personal library at them, knocking them off one by one with some (not always that) serious knowledge I suppose :p

Or maybe it's time I learn how to pray? Because if those illiterate zombies become dominant we'll all be screwed once and for all I'm afraid.

An adult that refused to stop using diapers, while complaining that their their poopy bottom smells like poop.

I quite like this approach :)

Any suggestions?

Ignore the nuts, like we all do?

There is no way to go from the one to the other without flight

People have traveled the world for centuries before the Wright brothers devised the first plane. Boat and road are slower and less convenient but it's still doable and have been done (think the old silk road). What I will agree with is that it's often not... realistically feasible to do in our days and age but it's still doable ;)

thx for the clarification :)

I've not clicked the link (without any description or comment, I see no reason to follow a link to YT). That being said, I would agree with your comment if the video was also shared elsewhere than on YT since non-YT alternatives already exist. I insist: also shared elsewhere, not published elsewhere as I'm all for reaching people where they are, not where I would want them to be. But I'm also all for not bowing to simplicity, conformity and, but isn't that linked, to laziness ;)

Thx a lot, it's very interesting.