I love this, thousands protest the 'steal' in DC and Trump passes them by on his way to go golfing.

He will be obnoxious to the end, but at least he no longer has anything to gloat about and at last can be completely ignored. To which end, that is my last mention of his name on this forum. — Wayfarer

Good plan, I too will waste no more attention on the lame duck here.

Trump was always going to claim election fraud, no matter what the outcome was. He claimed fraud in 2016 when he won.

Now that he lost by a small margin the ‘stolen election’ propaganda will be potent with Trumpians.

Get busy building. Movement activists who supported Biden emphasized that his presidency would give the movement breathing room. Okay. We have maybe two years, tops, to prepare for an even more vicious, popular wave of reaction. The next backlash is going to make the Tea Party look like a teddy bear’s picnic. — StreetlightX

I imagine that some will capitalize on the momentum of a ‘stolen election’ and therefore never concede that it was fair.

I’ve always liked the word schadenfreude. It can be deeply satisfying.

Wall Street, CIA, Big Tech, military industrial complex, and Davos appreciate your vote. — NOS4A2

And Russia appreciates your efforts in the last few years. Still a lot of work ahead though, stoking resentment over a stolen election and whatever else that will help to destabilize the nation.

I hope Trump does something drastic during his remaining days, just so I can see an anti-Trumper’s head explode one last time. — NOS4A2

He’ll probably just continue to be an embarrassing sore...

The New York Times also. I guess Breitbart will call it next. :razz:

You gals run along now, I’m just getting warmed up. :lol:

He’s probably busy looking for a new income stream.

Yes, appeal to authority, not appeal to ultimate authority, whatever that means to you. :razz: — TLCD1996

Oh? So Buddha ain’t the top dog? :worry:

Yeah, that's a huge (not to mention unfortunately pessimistic) generalization. — TLCD1996

It’s not a huge generalization at all, religious folks are just as messed up, if indeed not more messed up, than non. And it’s not pessimistic because they’re getting what they’re supposed to be getting from their religion, which is being part of something greater than themselves and the sense of meaning derived from shared values and purpose. Also, as you’ve pointed out yourself, religion can offer an inner “ease.”

And even so the Buddha acknowledged that it was rare to find people who were well-restrained. — TLCD1996

For someone who claims to not depend on authority, you sure appeal to it A LOT.

I have other people to look up to in my life. And even if it's hard to find somebody admirable, — TLCD1996

A spiritual life does not require an authority figure!

Nearly half of the voters have seen Trump in all of his splendor—his infantile tirades, his disastrous and lethal policies, his contempt for democracy in all its forms—and they decided that they wanted more of it. His voters can no longer hide behind excuses about the corruption of Hillary Clinton or their willingness to take a chance on an unproven political novice. They cannot feign ignorance about how Trump would rule. They know, and they have embraced him.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/11/large-portion-electorate-chose-sociopath/616994/ — Wayfarer

Right, even if Biden wins, this is the hard pill to swallow. No excuses this time, everyone knows who he is and they want more. He's a true reflection of American cultural values.

I appreciate that criticism but it isn't up to you to tell Buddhists how they should act, especially if you don't understand their practice or even the context of their life. Their actions are not your responsibility. — TLCD1996

You're missing the point entirely.

The point is that if religious people actually believed what they profess to believe they would act accordingly, but they pretty much act like everyone else. Despite the possibility of the cessation of suffering or 'being one with God' or whatever else, they pursue material well-bing. And despite the possibility of being reborn in a hell realm or other hellish fate, they act normally and do normal shitty stuff.

Just to be clear, you agree that Buddhism might not be true?
–praxis

Yes and that I am confident it is true. — TLCD1996

Exactly, this is how religious people are. If the religious truly believed they would act accordingly. If they believed that there were Gods, ghosts, demons, hell realms, and that if they did bad stuff they would be reborn as a dung worm, they would certainly act accordingly. But religious folk work at Walmart and serve up toxic highly processed foods and intoxicants to their fellow human beings, and also sell medicines to treat the results of the toxic food and drink they sell. Talk about a samsaric exercise. And they go to college and study things concerned with worldly affairs and material gain.

They all believe that their religion is special. That it's the truth and can't be limited to any definition. Other traditions can, of course, like Buddhist Romanticism, but not their precious tradition.

Just to be clear, you agree that Buddhism might not be true?

I beginning to wonder if you know the meaning of honesty.

What I mean is that it’s not philosophical to accept that something is true based on mere authority, and authority that has access to supernatural knowledge or experience.
— praxis

Yet Buddhism doesn't really fall neatly into this either. — TLCD1996

You wrote:

the story goes that the Buddha's question revolved around suffering and its cessation, and what he found was the truth — TLCD1996

You are saying that what he found was the truth. Are you saying now that what he found may be false?

which can be called supernatural — TLCD1996

You agree that it can be called supernatural.

So in all honesty, Buddhism does meet these criteria.

Philosophically, you would need to show how it's true, but that's not possible.
— praxis

In what way would one show that something is true philosophically? — TLCD1996

What I mean is that it’s not philosophical to accept that something is true based on mere authority, and authority that has access to supernatural knowledge or experience. Apropos...

You don't need to be a rocket scientist to realize that religion when put under the well-trained philosopher's micrcoscope reveals its true form, its essence as it were, and that, as the chosen etymology proves, is that religions are about gods - beings as such, usually with the responsibility of both generating, enforcing, and judging moral codes, their observance and their violation. — TheMadFool

You don't need to be a rocket scientist to realize that “generating, enforcing, and judging moral codes, their observance and their violation” don’t need to be... Godified. What matters is that it comes from an authority with supernatural access to this knowledge/experience.

You know that karma/postmortem rebirth are integral to Buddhism, right?

The incongruity of treating Buddhism as a religion becomes starkly apparent once we take it to its logical conclusion - treating those who subscribe to a worldview of a certain philosopher as constituting the creation of a religion: We would have, on our hands, "religions" such as Aristotelianism, Humianism, Schopenhauerism, if you know what I mean. — TheMadFool

Not at all, Aristotelianism, Humanism, and Schopenhauerism do not rely on an authority with access to supernatural knowledge/experience.

Well, the story goes that the Buddha's question revolved around suffering and its cessation, and what he found was the truth; if you teach about that, you're teaching the truth (until you start saying things that undermine the path to that cessation of suffering). — TLCD1996

Philosophically, you would need to show how it's true, but that's not possible.

You misunderstand, no philosophy teaches truth, it studies fundamental questions, etc, so to say that Buddhism is philosophy is to say that it does not teach the truth but merely theorizes.

Or a philosophy, albeit with a certain twist:
Philosophy (from Greek: φιλοσοφία, philosophia, 'love of wisdom') is the study of general and fundamental questions about existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. The term was probably coined by Pythagoras (c. 570 – 495 BCE). Philosophical methods include questioning, critical discussion, rational argument, and systematic presentation.
— Wikipedia

Buddhism incorporates all of the above elements — TLCD1996

Then Buddhism studies, is concerned with worldly affairs, and doesn't contain truths but only theory.

No one has claimed that it’s only faith. Not sure what that even means.
— praxis

Even so, some people may feel uncomfortable having faith in something they don't know. Sometimes the issue of faith weighs over their minds; maybe they forget about the teachings of insight, or maybe they have something against faith. People who tend to equate religion to something like "all faith and no reason" may be inclined to think that Buddhism is a matter of faith, perhaps faith in the Buddha as a savior or even rituals as a savior. Maybe they have the wrong idea that their practice entails absolute faith right from the get-go with no questions asked regarding basic principles, their teachers, or the Buddha. — TLCD1996

As I've pointed out, considering the extremely dubious success rate of the cessation of suffering everyone should seriously question their faith in Buddhism, from the get-go to wherever they are. As I've said, inner ease that doesn't rely on externalities can be had via secularity.

Buddhism is not merely a matter of faith, yet nonetheless practice is motivated by faith. — TLCD1996

No one has claimed that it’s only faith. Not sure what that even means.

They want a return to power, tyranny and control. Trump is getting in the way. The same happened with Stalin; he wrenched power from the real communists and created Stalinism. Bad as Stalinism was, the alternative might have been much worse. — EnPassant

They say that Stalinism resulted in 6-9 million deaths. Perhaps Trump can beat that if reelected.

Can you explain how he's not a real politician? or how his methods are unorthodox?

Yes, it doesn't matter. The people whose names you know are not the ones who run America. Politicians are only window dressing, pawns. — EnPassant

Everyone knows Trump...

Biden goons claim the Trump supporting vehicle was trying to murder Biden. — NOS4A2

The Biden goons didn't know that Biden wasn't on the bus? If so, they probably were dumb enough to slam a car on the freeway.

I'm not saying it is false. I'm saying America has been beaten down for decades and sold out. Trump is preventing these people from doing further damage. — EnPassant

Did you watch and understand the video?

The white SUV was a Biden supporter. The cognitive dissonance must be profoundly painful. — NOS4A2

“The at-fault vehicle may be the white SUV and the victim appears to be the black truck”

You’re the one choosing to see “may be” as fact, apparently.

No. Nor do most people. — EnPassant

Then how do you know the vid I posted is false?

So you have no idea of who they are?

The main issue here is Trump is keeping very dangerous warmongers and evil people out of the White House. — EnPassant

By evil I assume that you mean liberal?

They see good v evil, they see a saviour when all else fails, they are educated in the rights and wrongs of life, they understand the existentialism of the scenes played out to them and they are excited at the drama and wonder of it all. — david plumb

Superhero with a thousand faces.

we don't need to look that far for solutions, we just need to let go of the problems inside. If we do that, outside problems don't really matter that much, because we have our inner refuges; it doesn't matter if people around us aren't enlightened, because at least we have a good means of finding ease for ourselves. — TLCD1996

Buddhism is about the cessation of suffering and not merely finding inner ease. There are secular ways of finding ease for ourselves that doesn’t rely on externalities.

Yup, the unfortunate result of returning to earth after the wondrous transcendent is often an inflated ego the size of a small galaxy.