That sounds like it would require leaving the house, which I am less and less inclined to do. Hypothetically though, sure!

How will my friends know I care if I can’t lick them? (I don’t actually have any though, so it’s hypothetical)

We live in a parody.

It functions. That’s part of the issue. It’s mostly there to protect the rich and fuck the poor and minorities.

The media is almost wholly owned by the same people responsible for the policy setting. The people are propagandized into acceptance and complacency. Even the “left” in this country is in fact made up of capitalist apologists and collaborators. They installed “compatible leftists” into universities wholesale in the 60s and it hasn’t changed. Milquetoast criticism of the most egregious harm is all you can ever expect. I have no idea how to overcome 80 or so years of brainwashing the populace. I am glad I never had kids.

I’ve been on about that for about 3x as long, and roundly met with blank stares and outright denial. Once again, not at all happy about being proven correct.

I’m disabled and autistic with no work history but menial jobs that I couldn’t do for more than a year before massive burnout. I’m sure that some country somewhere would want me, right? I can play the guitar for a few minutes before my messed up hands hurt too much.

Kinda ready for the extermination camps, tbh.

To be clear, I am not a Buddhist, just a long time student of trying to figure out what the fuck is going on here. Closest thing to a philosophy that I follow is the Taoism of the Chuang Tzu which is basically the position of “it’s all a muddle and anyone who tries to tell you they know what’s going on is full of it, best to just be quiet.”

Actually none of it was relevant to his actual words. All of the mythologizing came later. He pretty much summed it up as “What have I elucidated? The cause of suffering and it’s cessation, that’s all.” (to paraphrase). The main problem was he was from a culture with a boatload of nonsense that got grafted on to the teachings. Religious Buddhism is awash in Hindu/Vedic add ons.

If you actually read the words of the Buddha on reincarnation he was quite explicitly clear that he never endorsed the idea.