Free AI web copilot to create summaries, insights and extended knowledge, download it at here

Abstract

ing the media world in a fairly unique and trusting way for months now. Most public figures in his position have people advising them on media strategy, what to say, and what not to say — how to frame things so you are not misquoted. Which interviews to take on and which to refuse. Moreover, probably not to allow two solid days behind the scenes to someone who you think may have an agenda.As far as I can tell, he doesn’t have this and has embraced and is fully living out his own dictum — “speak the truth and let the pieces fall where they may”.So far speaking the truth has worked out well for him — he was lucky that Channel 4 News put up the Cathy Newman interview unedited — a decision I’m sure that they quickly regretted. This New York Times piece feels different — that it will solidify impressions of him on either side.“Bad faith changes everything”As Eric Weinstein, Bret’s brother, and another member of the unofficial ‘intellectual dark web’ said — “bad faith changes everything”. It’s possible to have any kind of discussion with people you disagree with so long as they are approaching it in good faith — as soon as they are not, they’re just looking to boost their position, look good in front of others or advance their career within their tribe — as Peterson alleged Cathy Newman was — then true exchange of ideas is impossible.I would argue that this journalist is indeed acting in bad faith. Some of the misrepresentations cannot be put down to simple misunderstanding.The piece of the interview that has been seized upon is this:<blockquote id="f129">“Recently, a young man named Alek Minassian drove through Toronto trying to kill people with his van. Ten were killed, and he has been charged with first-degree murder for their deaths, and with attempted murder for 16 people who were injured. Mr. Minassian declared himself to be part of a misogynist group whose members call themselves incels. The term is short for “involuntary celibates,” though the group has evolved into a male supremacist movement made up of people — some celibate, some not — who believe that women should be treated as sexual objects with few rights. Some believe in forced “sexual redistribution,” in which a governing body would intervene in women’s lives to force them into sexual relationships.</blockquote><blockquote id="8111">Violent attacks are what happens when men do not have partners, Mr. Peterson says, and society needs to work to make sure those men are married.</blockquote><blockquote id="005a">“He was angry at God because women were rejecting him,” Mr. Peterson says of the Toronto killer. “The cure for that is enforced monogamy. That’s actually why monogamy emerges.”</blockquote><blockquote id="f00b">Mr. Peterson does not pause when he says this. Enforced monogamy is, to him, simply a rational solution. Otherwise women will all only go for the most high-status men, he explains, and that couldn’t make either gender happy in the end.”</blockquote>The framing of it makes it sound like he’s advocating for some kind of “government/state enforced” monogamy — which is malicious. He — as anyone who has been listening to his lectures will tell you — is making a more subtle point.That monogamy is an evolved trait to stabilise societies — it’s “enforced” only as a social rule. Many societies in the past have had polygamy or other situations where a small number of men had access to many women (as do many animal societies), and that proved to be unstable and a bad long term solution to social harmony.So in this argument, the reason that monogamy evolves (and is socially enforced) is to avoid the kind of situation where you end up with too many bitter young men wanting to tear things down. Which — whether you agree with his reading or not — seems to be happening.And he also argues — that one of the consequences of the sexual revolution of the 60s is that it has loosened sexual behaviour. When that happens, and there are less social and physiological downsides (pregnancy is not inevitable) — and more sex is being had — the spoils go disproportionately to the most attractive men.He is arguing that there are deeper reasons for the morality that we evolved over our history, and that there are consequences to the kinds of lifestyle experiments that we saw start to accelerate in the 1960s. This is what the essence of Peterson’s message is about.You can disagree with Peterson, but many people are recognising that this fits their experience of the world — hence his popularity. That the increasingly boundary-less world we’ve created is not working and we need a reintegration of these traditional values.Ideological fixationPersonally I agree with Peterson that much of our culture and media is in the grip of an ideology that styles itself as open, inclusive and tolerant, but actually has a shadow side of intolerance towards those that don’t share their values. <figure id="3404"> <div> <div> <img class="ratio" src="http://placehold.it/16x9"> <iframe class="" src="https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2FaMcjxSThD54%3Fstart%3D1511%26feature%3Doembed%26start%3D1511&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DaMcjxSThD54&image=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FaMcjxSThD54%2Fhqdefault.jpg&key=a19fcc184b9711e1b4764040d3dc5c07&type=text%2Fhtml&schema=youtube" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="480" width="854"> </div> </div> </figure></iframe></div></div></figure>One of the sacred cows in this is the belief that the only reason that men and women don’t have equal representation in many industries and top jobs is because of discrimination, not differing choices. This was famously the subject of the clash with Cathy Newman.If these activists (and the liberal left generally) has to accept that there are measurable differences in temperament, values and life choices made by men and women, and that some of them are likely tied to biology and evolutionary history — then the entire edifice of this ‘gender ideology’ movement starts to shake. We would realise that it would be irrational to expect 50/50 representation in many jobs, for example.And realise that this is not just a social movement — this ideological framing — it’s a big industry. There are charities, organisations and groups that are funded on the basis of this that have huge impact on the media conversation, and business practice.So left-wingers who are usually concerned about the impact of money on ideology and political decisions from corporate interests, might wish to look at the fact that these are major financial interests as well. It is not possible for this entire industry to look at the data accurately.I would also frame it in this way that might resonate

Options

with left-wing thinkers. Why are you using capitalist metrics like pay to decide on whether women have achieved equality? Isn’t that just another version of the ‘patriarchy’ controlling your minds? How has “the man” persuaded you that equal pay is the right metric to look for equal respect and value?What makes women actually fulfilled and gives genuine meaning in life? Is it the same as for men? I doubt it, and I personally know many women who made that realisation too late in life to easily have a balanced life that included children.But anything that argues against leftist ideology is attacked and smeared. For example the infamous ‘Google memo’ was a case in point, being described as an ‘anti-diversity screed’ throughout the media despite the author, James Damore, specifically making suggestions that would increase the representation of women in tech. This article from the Atlantic — from a writer who doesn’t agree with Damore’s conclusions — gives good context to its misrepresentation: “To me, the Google memo is an outlier — I cannot remember the last time so many outlets and observers mischaracterized so many aspects of a text everyone possessed.”Liberalism as an ideology, with those inside and outside the tribe. Those outside the tribe, like Peterson — deserve scorn, derision, and even misrepresentation.Another hard to explain mischaracterisation, if the journalist had any familiarity with Peterson’s work is this:<blockquote id="33b8">“Mr. Peterson illustrates his arguments with copious references to ancient myths — bringing up stories of witches, biblical allegories and ancient traditions. I ask why these old stories should guide us today.</blockquote><blockquote id="f195">“It makes sense that a witch lives in a swamp. Yeah,” he says. “Why?”</blockquote><blockquote id="69ec">It’s a hard one.</blockquote><blockquote id="0ac8">“Right. That’s right. You don’t know. It’s because those things hang together at a very deep level. Right. Yeah. And it makes sense that an old king lives in a desiccated tower.”</blockquote><blockquote id="fc08">But witches don’t exist, and they don’t live in swamps, I say.</blockquote><blockquote id="e8f8">“Yeah, they do. They do exist. They just don’t exist the way you think they exist. They certainly exist. You may say well dragons don’t exist. It’s, like, yes they do — the category predator and the category dragon are the same category. It absolutely exists. It’s a superordinate category. It exists absolutely more than anything else. In fact, it really exists. What exists is not obvious. You say, ‘Well, there’s no such thing as witches.’ Yeah, I know what you mean, but that isn’t what you think when you go see a movie about them. You can’t help but fall into these categories. There’s no escape from them.”</blockquote>He is deliberately framed here as an old crank, an eccentric who believes in dragons and witches. Yet throughout his lectures he has made clear he is talking psychologically, archetypally and mythologically.In this view they exist in our mythology in a very real way as representations of psychological realities, for example that the dragon is the mythological representation of the ‘unknown’. Throughout our history if you ventured out into the unknown you could die — but there was no other way to discover new information or new rewards.So the dragon is a composite predator of all the animals that used to prey on humans — a cat/snake/bird — and of course in mythology dragons have gold (or virginal women in captivity). The deep psychological story is that by confronting the unknown, you can achieve riches. He’s made that abundantly clear in every lecture.What is becoming ever clearer (and again is something Peterson points out) — the death spiral of the print media is speeding up polarisation — in even the most reputable organisations such as the New York Times start to produce clickbait such as the Jordan Peterson article.Perhaps the New York Times have decided to take a leaf out of the book of the 4chan culture, and provocateurs like Milo Yiannopolous who made whole careers out of provoking the left into overreaction. In this case — the NYT have placed this article behind a paywall (I’m told) — so to read it, outraged Peterson fans will have to subscribe to the paper.Then to unsubscribe — I know because I just checked — you cannot unsubscribe online, you have to call them. This seems at least unethical.The most dangerous part of this whole enterprise is that Peterson has now become pretty much the singular focus of the ramping up of the culture wars — the lightning rod, if you will. Articles like this add hugely to the polarisation he warns about.On one side you have literally tens of thousands of people (mainly, but not all men) who have had their lives changed, and many claiming actually saved, by listening to Jordan Peterson’s words. On the other side you have a mix of hard core ideological opponents to him, and a vast middle ground who don’t know him well — but are almost certainly thinking that there is no smoke without fire.He has argued frequently that we are in an increasingly polarised world and that individual actions can have serious consequences, if we don’t act with integrity, or we sacrifice our morality and conscience in any way.This journalist spent two days with Peterson in his house, she seemingly has some familiarity with his work, and yet chooses to characterise him in this way.The treatment of Jordan Peterson is speeding up the irrelevance of the mainstream media at an increasing rate. Too many people are aware of his work and who he is and what he believes for the hit pieces to stick.In the language of the internet subculture — the treatment of Jordan Peterson by the mainstream media is showing up their ideology, and Red Pilling an entire generation. <figure id="41f6"> <div> <div> <img class="ratio" src="http://placehold.it/16x9"> <iframe class="" src="https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2FYDxl1stMTCU%3Fstart%3D193%26feature%3Doembed%26start%3D193&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DYDxl1stMTCU&image=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FYDxl1stMTCU%2Fhqdefault.jpg&key=a19fcc184b9711e1b4764040d3dc5c07&type=text%2Fhtml&schema=youtube" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="480" width="854"> </div> </div> </figure></iframe></div></div></figure>For more documentaries and interviews, check out the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFQ6Gptuq-sLflbJ4YY3Umw?view_as=subscriber">Rebel Wisdom Youtube channel</a>.My personal website: <a href="http://davidfuller.tv/">http://davidfuller.tv/</a>And please consider <a href="https://www.patreon.com/rebelwisdom">supporting us on Patreon</a>.</article></body>

How I Manage Depression to Stop The Hurt

Happiness is better than living with depression

Depression hurts. You feel it in your mind, but you react to it in your body. It makes you believe things are hopeless, and the response is your stomach aches. Feeling helpless makes you cry and causes anxiety. There are reasons for some people feeling despair. And negative emotions can be unexplainable. With or without an answer or reason, depression is real, and it hurts.

I have bouts of depression. I am not comfortable talking about it. But I’m going to discuss it here because I’ve learned things from it that might help you.

Disclaimer: I am not a psychologist, and I don’t have a diagnosis of any form of depression. But I have experienced feeling depressed in all the ways I’m going to discuss. Before I get started, if you feel depressed and it continues for more than a few days or if you feel suicidal, contact a medical professional or dial 800–273–8255. What I’ve written about is my experience with depression, at times deep depression, and it is for informational use based upon my experience. I hope it helps you.

Let’s dive in.

Depression and fear of failure

Some fear of failure is normal and good. I’ve never bungee jumped because I have a fear that I’ll die. Not that I can’t do it. I’m capable. But I’m afraid something will go wrong or something will fail. For me, the risk outweighs any befit. It doesn’t depress me that I’ve never bungee jumped because it’s something I choose not to do.

But what about when fear of failing keeps you from doing something that you want to do?

How to Succeed in Attracting Success

Overcome failure and Live triumphantly

medium.com

When I was 11 or 12, I went to the local public swimming pool at least a couple of days a week all summer. The deep end of the pool had a low, medium, and high dive. Day after day, I would watch bigger kids dive or jump off the highest platform. It looked fun and other kids were impressed. I recall feeling depressed because, even though I wanted to jump off it, I was afraid. One day, I climbed the ladder and walked to the end of the deck. It seemed I was standing on the edge of a cliff. Trembling, I backed off and climbed down. Making the attempt didn’t help me. It depressed me even more.

I sat on the edge of the pool with my feet in the water. I must have looked upset because an adult came and talked to me. He said I should start on the low dive, then when I was comfortable, use the medium platform. And when I was ready, I could use the high dive. It was excellent advice, and I took it to heart. But I have never forgotten three things he told me that that day.

Diving off the high dive will always be scary. But it gets easier the more you do it.
Don’t let the fear of what people think of you make you afraid to do something great.
Never do something just to impress other people. Know your limits and respect them.

At the end of that summer, I convinced myself I could jump off the high dive. So I crawled up that ladder to the top deck. I was shaking as bad as the day I stood on it and failed. I was afraid. Standing on the edge, it felt I was as high as a tall building. But I’d learned from the low dive. I’d conquered the medium dive. And on that day, I jumped off the high dive.

What works for me:

When I feel depressed because of a fear of failure, it is because I don’t have enough information. Or it’s because I’m afraid of what people will think of me if I fail. If that’s how you feel, try breaking what you want to accomplish into smaller, more achievable pieces. Smaller parts of a big task are easier to understand and more doable than trying to take on one big job. In my life, I’ve learned that I get depressed when I attempt something I’m not ready for because it’s too big or too bold. By succeeding at small tasks, I don’t feel depressed. Because of small successes, I feel more confident. And I worry less about what people will think of me.

Depressed by wanting friends but not wanting to socialize

I’ve always been a loner. In reality, I feel anxious about gathering with people in a party or group. But once I’m there, I relax and enjoy myself. I’ll never be a social butterfly, but I have a small group of friends I enjoy being around and socializing with.

I’m a firm believer that if you want friends, you must be friendly. And that can be a challenge for some people, including me.

What works for me:

At the next opportunity to attend a social meeting, go to it. Force yourself to attend. It may not be easy, but do it, anyway. And to make it easier, take someone with you as support. If you have someone with you, there will always be an opportunity to talk to someone new.

This exercise takes mental effort. You’ll be outside your comfort zone. So remind yourself that you aren’t socializing the entire room. Your goal is to meet one person and build rapport.

Why Hope Is So Important

I believe in a place called hope

medium.com

Tired and scared at the same time is depressing

I had gotten out of the service, started a carpet cleaning company, which is something I’d never done. I was moving to a new town, starting my freshman year of college, and I had no money.

It was too much at once. I felt overwhelmed and tired most of the time. I feared I would fail at school, my new marriage, my new business, or maybe all three.

What works for me:

If you feel depressed because you’re tired and scared, first get a good night of sleep. Break the cycle of tiredness, and it will help alleviate fear. It’s amazing how much clearer we think after sleeping soundly.

The second thing to do is to define what is making you scared. State your fear then give it a why. Don’t say, “I’m going to lose my house.” Instead, state your fear. “I’m going to lose my house because I’ve missed two payments.” If you know the way, you can try and fix it. I often find myself unable to give my fear a definite why. When it happens, I know my fear is based on emotion. I need to replace my negative self-talk with a positive narrative: “My mortgage is paid so I’m not going to lose my house.”

Lonely but not wanting to be alone is depressing

I’m fortunate to have a loving wife. We’ve worked with each other for most of our married life. And being with her is enough for me, but she will say she’s lonely.

For many years I was on my own. I went into the service at 19, and after basic training and tech school, I was shipped to the middle east for a couple of years. Even though people were around me, they weren’t family, so I often felt alone.

I figured out that I didn’t need a group of people to help me with my loneliness. What I needed was a person. I developed a friendship with a guy from my barracks. We were the same age, on the same team (he was an interpreter and I was a radio operator), and we worked the same hours so we had the same schedule. We became close friends, so when I felt lonely, I would talk to him.

What works for me:

If you feel lonely and depressed, develop a friendship with someone. The friend must be trustworthy so you can share your thoughts without fearing condemnation. And your friend must trust you. Having one good friend is enough to help me feel companionship.

6 Ways To Become Irresistibly Likable

#5 — Be a good listener

medium.com

Wanting to take action but feeling paralyzed is depressing

Some have called it analysis paralysis. It's the feeling that after all the research, and conversations that you don’t have the answer. If you overthink something to the point you get stuck and feel confused, you have analysis paralysis.

My wife and I wanted to start an online motorcycle gear and accessories store. We started small by selling out of our home, but we knew we would need a brick-and-mortar store if we wanted to expand and have major dealerships give us accounts. And that’s when analysis paralysis started.

Selling from home is easy and low risk. But having a physical store is difficult. There are leases, dealerships, collecting taxes, buying equipment, employees, and more. As we talked about it, the scarier it became until we felt we couldn’t move or think. What broke the gridlock for us? We found a storefront in a prime location and knew it wouldn’t last long. We had to decide fast. So we leased it, which forced us to make the rest of the decisions.

What works for me:

If you feel depressed because you want to take an action but feel paralyzed, you need to stop what you are doing. Take a couple of days off. Give yourself some time away.

Accept a few things. 1. You will never know everything about everything. 2. You will never have a guarantee of success, no matter how much you plan. 3. You will get surprises, but you can handle them.

My way of handling feeling paralyzed is to jump in. I don’t overthink it because I never have all the answers ahead of time. Don’t plan it to the nth degree. Just go for it. There are no guarantees of success for anything you do, and there are no guarantees of failure. Do what you can to hedge your bet, then go all in.

Fear causes anxiety

Underlying what I’ve written about depression is fear. Being afraid is depressing, demotivating, and crushing. And it creates anxiety. The Bible says that “Perfect love casts out fear” and “God has not given us a spirit of fear”. I remind myself of both these scriptures when I feel afraid. And many religions talk about fear as well. Buddhism says, “Fear does not prevent death. It prevents life” and “Never let your fear decide your future”.

What works for me:

If your fear is causing you anxiety, find some powerful quotes (those I’ve given here are a good start), and memorize them. Whenever you feel insecure, doubtful, or fearful, repeat your favorite quote like it’s a mantra. You want your positive narrative to drown out the negative voices in your head.

Listening to yourself rather than talking to yourself

We are wired toward negativity. Psychologists call it The Negative Bias. What that means is we are drawn to negative reports, news, activity, and actions. It’s our nature to be ambulance chasers.

When talking to ourselves, the negative bias does a wonderful job of telling us everything bad. It reminds us of things in our life that didn’t work out. And it reinforces our doubts and fears. It teams up with “analysis paralysis” to create doubt and anxiety to cause debilitating depression.

I’ve read a lot about Negative Bias and how to stop it. I’ve been able to make it less of an automatic reaction, but I haven’t permanently stopped it. What I have found are ways you can change how you feel by how you talk to yourself.

What works for me:

Challenge your negative thoughts: When you get a negative thought, replace it with a positive thought.

Meditate: Use regular guided meditation to observe how you feel and think. You can add breathing exercises to enhance relaxation. Anxiety causes our body to tense, so if we can relax tension, we will think more objectively. Deep breathing with meditation will relax the tension in your body and help relieve anxiety.

Enjoy positive events: When you experience a positive event, take a moment to let the experience sink in. There are studies that show a certain smell can bring back a positive memory. Locations and events do the same thing.

Look for the silver lining: Bad things happen. None of us can escape them. My dad died in an accident 20 years ago. It was sudden and unexpected. And it’s a painful memory. But it brought my brother, sister, and me together. And that closeness continues to today. It is our silver lining.

Whether it’s fear of failure, loneliness, feeling paralyzed, anxiety, or negative thinking, depression is painful. It hurts relationships and keeps people from fulfilling their destiny. Some people require medications and counseling, and others need to adjust their thinking. If you feel depressed and aren’t able to overcome it on your own, get an evaluation. If you need medications, use them to live a happier, more fulfilled life.

Happiness is better than living with the pain of depression.