if you're into meditation, you'll probably enjoy this piece a lot.
if you're not into it, or you plan on responding below in a way that suggests you didn't read the article -- you'll appear somewhat as proof of what the article contends. but even if you don't meditate or even spend time on social media, you'll completely understand the weird physical feeling you get from a disturbing thought (a remembrance of a past embarrassment, for example), and the similar feeling you get when you are hit with a tweet (or whatever) that irks you.
the analogy fits: the feelings arising from thinking a troubling thought are almost no different than the feelings arising from reading an upsetting tweet.
the conclusion is to operate social media the same way you monitor your own thoughts - which is to examine what the thought might actually be, and then disarm and discard it. which is what one does often in meditation.
What are you cooking tonight that requires two sticks of butter to make it truly great? 😂 This Mustards Napa cornbread is getting the full honey-butter treatment.
Congratulations to @SoCalMike and @Watchinaw. Your questions were chosen for tonight’s Ask Greg and the Panelists.
@SoCalMike Is there a television family your family was most like growing up?
@Watchinawe Did you ever find yourself rooting for the bad guy in a movie?
Happy Monday, Gutter Friends! It's a beautiful 70 degree sunny day here in the windy city. Had a wonderful weekend with family and hoping to get a lot done today. Up early and started. Hoping my car will be ready today, dealer has had it for a week, but have to say I have not minded driving the brand new loaner they gave me. I offered them an even trade, I keep this one, they keep my 5-year old car; the guy said, "You're hilarious!". I took it as a compliment. Doesn't hurt to ask. 🤣 Wishing everyone a wonderful Monday. JM
“Conversations with GROK”
Question: “Which modern political ideology is responsible for the most human death and suffering?”;
Answer: Communism (in its 20th-century implementations as Marxist-Leninist, Stalinist, Maoist, and related variants), by a very large margin.
This assessment rests on the scale of democide—government killing of civilians outside of conventional combat, including executions, engineered famines, forced labor camps, purges, and mass deportations—documented by historians and political scientists. The 20th century’s record of ideological mass killing is dominated by communist regimes.
Scale of the numbers
R.J. Rummel’s extensive democide research (University of Hawaii) remains the most systematic quantitative effort. His estimates for 1900–1987 put communist regimes at roughly 110–148 million victims (later upward revisions for China’s Great Leap Forward famine pushed totals higher in some presentations). A Reason summary of the same data framework lists ...
