we are set up for failure

[MusicLovingAtheist]

I self identify as a nihilist. I believe that life is inherently meaningless and that there is no god. We live in a society where our beliefs (as ironic as it is to call it a belief) is subjected to scrutiny and ridicule by the mass majority of people while they expect us to respect their beliefs, no questions asked. I see a pattern in society that works not only with society's ability to manipulate people, but the fact that they are all unaware that they are actually causing a problem in the first place. I am not talking about their religious dogma, I am talking about something much broader. We, as people, are set up in a world with restrictions and boundaries that do not allow us to act according to how we naturally would behave as people. That is one of the reasons I believe that religion was founded. To keep people in check. Same goes for psychology. Same goes for the government. Maybe even the marriage of a couple is an institution that has been set up to keep people in control.

I see a cycle of control here. A cycle where people set us up to believe that we are somehow inherently wrong and we need the guidance of others to lead successful lives. I see it all the time in psychology. Doctors tell patients that they need medication because there is something wrong with the way their brain functions. They see it as a "chemical imbalance". What I see it as is these doctors in essence setting up sort of a eugenics practice where they deem anything as a mental illness. Being sad is a mental illness. Being late for work is a mental illness. Being ill behaved is a mental illness. They all have you set up to believe that they are working in your best interest. I could never believe that they were trying to help me from a young age. The field of psychology and psychiatry isn't even advanced enough to understand what causes the problems in the first place. Same goes with the laws of our country. They claim that it is "god's law", therefor it needs to be obey'd. "God's law" is set up to tell people that they are inherently sinful and need to turn to a higher source of power for guidance. Yet there are still some people who don't see the flaw in religion. There are still some people who turn a blind eye to the fact that the world is essentially run by misguidance and persecution of people who it deems to be "wrong".

What is right or wrong? Right or wrong is entirely based on the decision of the observer. Someone could choose to rape their whole family. Does that make them a disgusting person? Yes. To me anyways. In the eyes of the rapist he is not wrong. Is he inherently wrong? In my eyes, yes, but in the universe's eyes, the universe doesn't have eyes, and the universe doesn't think. So we have a lot of people, such as myself who are set up under this system which doesn't value our personalities and expects us to accommodate it's will. I am at a point psychologically where when I see people laughing at me and ridiculing me I get angry. I feel hatred and disgust towards those people. I feel that people are inherently meant to be thuggish and cruel, insensitive, unenlightened, less empathetic than dogs, animals who are ruining our planet by enforcing these archaic practices of living on our society. The worst part is that no one even cares. Everyone wants to turn a blind eye and tell me that my philosophy should be "who cares, you can't change it". Some people say I can change it, and some people say I can't change it. Maybe the wisdom of my own mother, to say that the truth is in the the center of two opposite points of view is correct. So I leave you with no question at the end of this rail, and I want you to make up your mind for yourself about all of the things I have said. Please reserve your judgement of me as a person until after you have come to your conclusions. I have faith in atheists, as an atheist myself, that you can show fair judgement. I have been disappointed numerous times in the past, none the less.

[Recusant]

I self identify as a nihilist. I believe that life is inherently meaningless and that there is no god. We live in a society where our beliefs (as ironic as it is to call it a belief) is subjected to scrutiny and ridicule by the mass majority of people while they expect us to respect their beliefs, no questions asked. I see a pattern in society that works not only with society's ability to manipulate people, but the fact that they are all unaware that they are actually causing a problem in the first place. I am not talking about their religious dogma, I am talking about something much broader. We, as people, are set up in a world with restrictions and boundaries that do not allow us to act according to how we naturally would behave as people. That is one of the reasons I believe that religion was founded. To keep people in check. Same goes for psychology. Same goes for the government. Maybe even the marriage of a couple is an institution that has been set up to keep people in control.

I see a cycle of control here. A cycle where people set us up to believe that we are somehow inherently wrong and we need the guidance of others to lead successful lives. I see it all the time in psychology. Doctors tell patients that they need medication because there is something wrong with the way their brain functions. They see it as a "chemical imbalance". What I see it as is these doctors in essence setting up sort of a eugenics practice where they deem anything as a mental illness. Being sad is a mental illness. Being late for work is a mental illness. Being ill behaved is a mental illness. They all have you set up to believe that they are working in your best interest. I could never believe that they were trying to help me from a young age. The field of psychology and psychiatry isn't even advanced enough to understand what causes the problems in the first place. Same goes with the laws of our country. They claim that it is "god's law", therefor it needs to be obey'd. "God's law" is set up to tell people that they are inherently sinful and need to turn to a higher source of power for guidance. Yet there are still some people who don't see the flaw in religion. There are still some people who turn a blind eye to the fact that the world is essentially run by misguidance and persecution of people who it deems to be "wrong".

What is right or wrong? Right or wrong is entirely based on the decision of the observer. Someone could choose to rape their whole family. Does that make them a disgusting person? Yes. To me anyways. In the eyes of the rapist he is not wrong. Is he inherently wrong? In my eyes, yes, but in the universe's eyes, the universe doesn't have eyes, and the universe doesn't think. So we have a lot of people, such as myself who are set up under this system which doesn't value our personalities and expects us to accommodate it's will. I am at a point psychologically where when I see people laughing at me and ridiculing me I get angry. I feel hatred and disgust towards those people. I feel that people are inherently meant to be thuggish and cruel, insensitive, unenlightened, less empathetic than dogs, animals who are ruining our planet by enforcing these archaic practices of living on our society. The worst part is that no one even cares. Everyone wants to turn a blind eye and tell me that my philosophy should be "who cares, you can't change it". Some people say I can change it, and some people say I can't change it. Maybe the wisdom of my own mother, to say that the truth is in the the center of two opposite points of view is correct. So I leave you with no question at the end of this rail, and I want you to make up your mind for yourself about all of the things I have said. Please reserve your judgement of me as a person until after you have come to your conclusions. I have faith in atheists, as an atheist myself, that you can show fair judgement. I have been disappointed numerous times in the past, none the less.

Yeah, there's a lot that's fucked up about the world. There are good people and good things in the world as well. Not all people are thuggish and cruel, and some are trying to make the world a better place. They care. People have a choice whether to try to make things better, or to make their own life better, and to hell with the rest of the world, or to live simply and try not to make things worse.

Try not to shit on this site too much, MusicLovingAtheist. There aren't a lot of places like it, and if you fuck up and get yourself booted out, it will be hard to find another.

[MusicLovingAtheist]

I self identify as a nihilist. I believe that life is inherently meaningless and that there is no god. We live in a society where our beliefs (as ironic as it is to call it a belief) is subjected to scrutiny and ridicule by the mass majority of people while they expect us to respect their beliefs, no questions asked. I see a pattern in society that works not only with society's ability to manipulate people, but the fact that they are all unaware that they are actually causing a problem in the first place. I am not talking about their religious dogma, I am talking about something much broader. We, as people, are set up in a world with restrictions and boundaries that do not allow us to act according to how we naturally would behave as people. That is one of the reasons I believe that religion was founded. To keep people in check. Same goes for psychology. Same goes for the government. Maybe even the marriage of a couple is an institution that has been set up to keep people in control.

I see a cycle of control here. A cycle where people set us up to believe that we are somehow inherently wrong and we need the guidance of others to lead successful lives. I see it all the time in psychology. Doctors tell patients that they need medication because there is something wrong with the way their brain functions. They see it as a "chemical imbalance". What I see it as is these doctors in essence setting up sort of a eugenics practice where they deem anything as a mental illness. Being sad is a mental illness. Being late for work is a mental illness. Being ill behaved is a mental illness. They all have you set up to believe that they are working in your best interest. I could never believe that they were trying to help me from a young age. The field of psychology and psychiatry isn't even advanced enough to understand what causes the problems in the first place. Same goes with the laws of our country. They claim that it is "god's law", therefor it needs to be obey'd. "God's law" is set up to tell people that they are inherently sinful and need to turn to a higher source of power for guidance. Yet there are still some people who don't see the flaw in religion. There are still some people who turn a blind eye to the fact that the world is essentially run by misguidance and persecution of people who it deems to be "wrong".

What is right or wrong? Right or wrong is entirely based on the decision of the observer. Someone could choose to rape their whole family. Does that make them a disgusting person? Yes. To me anyways. In the eyes of the rapist he is not wrong. Is he inherently wrong? In my eyes, yes, but in the universe's eyes, the universe doesn't have eyes, and the universe doesn't think. So we have a lot of people, such as myself who are set up under this system which doesn't value our personalities and expects us to accommodate it's will. I am at a point psychologically where when I see people laughing at me and ridiculing me I get angry. I feel hatred and disgust towards those people. I feel that people are inherently meant to be thuggish and cruel, insensitive, unenlightened, less empathetic than dogs, animals who are ruining our planet by enforcing these archaic practices of living on our society. The worst part is that no one even cares. Everyone wants to turn a blind eye and tell me that my philosophy should be "who cares, you can't change it". Some people say I can change it, and some people say I can't change it. Maybe the wisdom of my own mother, to say that the truth is in the the center of two opposite points of view is correct. So I leave you with no question at the end of this rail, and I want you to make up your mind for yourself about all of the things I have said. Please reserve your judgement of me as a person until after you have come to your conclusions. I have faith in atheists, as an atheist myself, that you can show fair judgement. I have been disappointed numerous times in the past, none the less.

Yeah, there's a lot that's fucked up about the world. There are good people and good things in the world as well. Not all people are thuggish and cruel, and some are trying to make the world a better place. They care. People have a choice whether to try to make things better, or to make their own life better, and to hell with the rest of the world, or to live simply and try not to make things worse.

Try not to shit on this site too much, MusicLovingAtheist. There aren't a lot of places like it, and if you fuck up and get yourself booted out, it will be hard to find another.

everyone has already started treating me like I'm less than a human being though so I don't come around here very often.

[Pasta Chick]

You get what you give.

[MusicLovingAtheist]

You get what you give.

alright well if I start being nice I don't want a bunch of people giving me  a hard time. I do this out of reaction more than intention.

[Asmodean]

You don't have to be nice all the time.

What I advise you to do is actually to think before you post a little more often, especially when you want to express an opinion people may find radical. You can have a constructive debate on pretty much any topic between "Were the nazis right to try exterminating the jews after all..?" and "How to set up a charity for abandoned kittens". What it boils down to is how you present it. Some people will always disagree with you. Some of those will disagree loudly. However, if you present your case as an actual case, rather than just ranting to anyone who cares to listen, people here will generally respond in a constructive manner.

[Tank]

You get what you give.

alright well if I start being nice I don't want a bunch of people giving me  a hard time. I do this out of reaction more than intention.

If you're nice, or at least not deliberately nasty/trollish, what reason would people have to be nasty to you?

[Tom62]

I agree with the Asmo. Most of the time the problem is not so much about what you say, but how you say it. I had some problems recently on Facebook, when I posted something that was not politically correct in a Muslim thread. The feedback that I got was extremely hostile, even though my post was non-insulting and factually correct.

[Davin]

This seems similar to a glass with some water in it.

Saying we are set up for failure is like seeing the glass as half empty.

Saying we are set up for success is like seeing the glass as half full.

I don't particularly care about either view. I am here, and I will do what I can. But I don't think we were set up for anything, I don't think there was anyone who went about putting the dominoes place.

[MusicLovingAtheist]

I agree with the Asmo. Most of the time the problem is not so much about what you say, but how you say it. I had some problems recently on Facebook, when I posted something that was not politically correct in a Muslim thread. The feedback that I got was extremely hostile, even though my post was non-insulting and factually correct.

oh god, facebook. my facebook is a dumping ground for all the thoughts I never post on here. I had all my relatives on facebook until the beginning of this year and then I started deleting all of them so i could just say whatever I want without having to have them look at it. I am down to two friends now, because I honestly don't see a point in having any friends on facebook anyways. I just remove all of them eventually because a lot of people serve no purpose to me.

[Siz]

Social acceptance for an openly angry nihilist is a tough nut to crack (no, I haven't managed to make that work either). You gotta recognise that the people you are preaching to here are products of the same machine against which you rage. They are understandably defensive when you question the very thing that gives their lives meaning - the assignation of inherrent value to every human life and pursuance of happiness optimisation for the beings around them and beyond. You or I may never empathise with that but unless we toe the consensus line in terms of the boundaries for open expression of opinion we shall be shunned, as is the human way. It's your choice. Play the social game or not.

[MusicLovingAtheist]

Social acceptance for an openly angry nihilist is a tough nut to crack (no, I haven't managed to make that work either). You gotta recognise that the people you are preaching to here are products of the same machine against which you rage. They are understandably defensive when you question the very thing that gives their lives meaning - the assignation of inherrent value to every human life and pursuance of happiness optimisation for the beings around them and beyond. You or I may never empathise with that but unless we toe the consensus line in terms of the boundaries for open expression of opinion we shall be shunned, as is the human way. It's your choice. Play the social game or not.

Yeah, well said. I don't like putting on a facade, and showing a two faced version of myself. I kind of have to suppress my personalities a lot. Online I feel very isolated and lonely and my angry side comes out. In a one on one setting when i feel a warm acceptance my caring side comes out. In public I just shut off all of functions and try to avoid people, and put on no face. Just try to be a blank piece of paper blowing in the wind. Because in public there are two kinds of people. People who are cool, and people who are stupid. The stupid people are everywhere so there is no way to not by cynical in anticipation for another stupid person to walk around the corner and interrupt your day. I hate those people so much.

The world we live in there are ignorant people, and the ignorant people are controlled by more ignorant people. The former doesn't know that the latter doesn't even know what they're doing. I don't even know what the latter are doing most of the time. I just have to sit back and watch this gigantic festering cyst on the face of the world keep on festering. I have to sit back and watch in disgust as the world decays before my eyes.

[Icarus]

You must be mindful of your vocabulary MLA. Ignorant is a word that means that there are specific areas of knowledge that a person does not understand......Most people are ignorant of the CERN methods that gave a glimpse of the Higgs Boson.  Most people are ignorant of the Rushton method for building elegant canoes at the end of the 19th century, or the exact procedure for successfully completing a double 
bypass.

Stupid is not a word that should be used in a cavalier manner. Stupid is a word that means; severely lacking in mental acuity. The next 36 people you meet on the street can not be characterized as stupid.  They are not stupid. They may be uneducated and unsophisticated but they are not stupid. Those people may have an opinion that does coincide with yours but that is not grounds for pronouncing them stupid.

Almost all these forum members are very intelligent. Many of them have legitimate rights to use letters after their names, letters like PHD, LLD, MS, RN, and more. You simply can not post on the forum with judgmental pronouncements such as your last post. You are not talking to dummies here. Most of us are older than you are, thus far more experienced. At least one of your respondents is younger than you are but definitely more in touch with reality. (she knows who she is) You have crossed swords with a few forum individuals who are intellectually superior to the general population. I do not presume to be one of them.  You are waaaay too far out in left field to have the audacity to suppose that you can educate them about the conditions of society. Your best chance at learning, and becoming more comfortable in your own skin, is to ask questions and avoid making pronouncements.

Please find a quiet place to contemplate what I have tried to convey to you.  As little as you might believe it, some of us actually care that you are having some difficulties.   

[Tank]

You must be mindful of your vocabulary MLA. Ignorant is a word that means that there are specific areas of knowledge that a person does not understand......Most people are ignorant of the CERN methods that gave a glimpse of the Higgs Boson.  Most people are ignorant of the Rushton method for building elegant canoes at the end of the 19th century, or the exact procedure for successfully completing a double 
bypass.

Stupid is not a word that should be used in a cavalier manner. Stupid is a word that means; severely lacking in mental acuity. The next 36 people you meet on the street can not be characterized as stupid.  They are not stupid. They may be uneducated and unsophisticated but they are not stupid. Those people may have an opinion that does coincide with yours but that is not grounds for pronouncing them stupid.

Almost all these forum members are very intelligent. Many of them have legitimate rights to use letters after their names, letters like PHD, LLD, MS, RN, and more. You simply can not post on the forum with judgmental pronouncements such as your last post. You are not talking to dummies here. Most of us are older than you are, thus far more experienced. At least one of your respondents is younger than you are but definitely more in touch with reality. (she knows who she is) You have crossed swords with a few forum individuals who are intellectually superior to the general population. I do not presume to be one of them.  You are waaaay too far out in left field to have the audacity to suppose that you can educate them about the conditions of society. Your best chance at learning, and becoming more comfortable in your own skin, is to ask questions and avoid making pronouncements.

Please find a quiet place to contemplate what I have tried to convey to you.  As little as you might believe it, some of us actually care that you are having some difficulties.   

Let's hope MLA takes your advice Icarus.

[xSilverPhinx]

Well said, Icarus. Couldn't have said it better myself.