What is on your mind

[charley]

In 2016, Oxford Dictionaries made the adjective "post-truth" the word of the year:
"Relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief."
‘in this era of post-truth politics, it's easy to cherry-pick data and come to whatever conclusion you desire’
‘some commentators have observed that we are living in a post-truth age’

The following excerpt from a Forbes article by Dr. Moore (and co-written by Timmons) explains quite a bit of what is going on out there: click here
How Do We Navigate A 'Post-Truth' World? Follow The Millennials

As a boomer, navigating in the post-truth world surrounded by zombies, I cannot find a good reason to write a thread on meditation (discerning what is true and what is false).

[Kobi]

Originally Posted by charley

In 2016, Oxford Dictionaries made the adjective "post-truth" the word of the year:
"Relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief."
‘in this era of post-truth politics, it's easy to cherry-pick data and come to whatever conclusion you desire’
‘some commentators have observed that we are living in a post-truth age’

The following excerpt from a Forbes article by Dr. Moore (and co-written by Timmons) explains quite a bit of what is going on out there: click here
How Do We Navigate A 'Post-Truth' World? Follow The Millennials

As a boomer, navigating in the post-truth world surrounded by zombies, I cannot find a good reason to write a thread on meditation (discerning what is true and what is false).

Interesting post.

What the dictionary is saying is something new called "post-truth", I refer to as the reality of reality. Jane Wagner summed it up perfectly in Signs of Intelligent Life...."reality is nothing more than a collective hunch".

It is not really new. It has been going on since the beginning of time as humans have tried to make sense of what they see, hear, and experience. Perceptions change over time for many different reasons.

One can rarely be certain about "facts" because "facts" are designed to create a certain reality for a certain purpose or to create conflicting realities for the same reasons.

It is not unusual for one to also seek out "facts" which support what one believes or thinks is true while just presuming what does not coincide with what one believes is automatically false or outdated. "Truth" might (and that's a big might) lie somewhere in between.

It is also not unusual for perceptions to change, over time, due to differing circumstances, experiences and marketing telling us what we should believe and why.

Add to that, that one can often find many different sets of conflicting "facts" which all contribute to the sense of what is reality. They all have validity in their own way. Human judgement on these "facts" influences what we are drawn to, what we discard, and what we save for a rainy day.

Being human, we are easily swayed and governed by our emotions. All marketing (even political marketing) is geared to manipulating our perceptions of reality. It is easier to manipulate perceptions if one focuses on evoking an emotional response and to keep fine tuning it until you achieve the desired result.

Personally, I find it easier to remain mindful of how easy it is to manipulate people, their opinion, and their emotions. I try to take everything with a grain of salt cuz the one thing I am becoming acquainted with is nothing is as it appears and everything I think I might know has an opposite and equally valid side to it.

Life was a heck of a lot easier when I believed things were either right or wrong, black or white. In reality, they are a collective hunch of shades of gray.

Thank you. This gives me something to ponder on my walk today.

[Kobi]

Originally Posted by Kobi

Interesting post.

What the dictionary is saying is something new called "post-truth", I refer to as the reality of reality. Jane Wagner summed it up perfectly in Signs of Intelligent Life...."reality is nothing more than a collective hunch".

It is not really new. It has been going on since the beginning of time as humans have tried to make sense of what they see, hear, and experience. Perceptions change over time for many different reasons.

One can rarely be certain about "facts" because "facts" are designed to create a certain reality for a certain purpose or to create conflicting realities for the same reasons.

It is not unusual for one to also seek out "facts" which support what one believes or thinks is true while just presuming what does not coincide with what one believes is automatically false or outdated. "Truth" might (and that's a big might) lie somewhere in between.

It is also not unusual for perceptions to change, over time, due to differing circumstances, experiences and marketing telling us what we should believe and why.

Add to that, that one can often find many different sets of conflicting "facts" which all contribute to the sense of what is reality. They all have validity in their own way. Human judgement on these "facts" influences what we are drawn to, what we discard, and what we save for a rainy day.

Being human, we are easily swayed and governed by our emotions. All marketing (even political marketing) is geared to manipulating our perceptions of reality. It is easier to manipulate perceptions if one focuses on evoking an emotional response and to keep fine tuning it until you achieve the desired result.

Personally, I find it easier to remain mindful of how easy it is to manipulate people, their opinion, and their emotions. I try to take everything with a grain of salt cuz the one thing I am becoming acquainted with is nothing is as it appears and everything I think I might know has an opposite and equally valid side to it.

Life was a heck of a lot easier when I believed things were either right or wrong, black or white. In reality, they are a collective hunch of shades of gray.

Thank you. This gives me something to ponder on my walk today.

Forgot to add, the 2 emotions that are easiest to evoke and most dangerous are anger and fear - both are manifested in many different ways. Once evoked, manipulating them to a preferred perception is a piece of cake....except, people who are angry and/or afraid can be very unpredictable and hard to control. Scary shit.

[charley]

Originally Posted by Kobi

Interesting post.

What the dictionary is saying is something new called "post-truth", I refer to as the reality of reality. Jane Wagner summed it up perfectly in Signs of Intelligent Life...."reality is nothing more than a collective hunch".

It is not really new. It has been going on since the beginning of time as humans have tried to make sense of what they see, hear, and experience. Perceptions change over time for many different reasons.

One can rarely be certain about "facts" because "facts" are designed to create a certain reality for a certain purpose or to create conflicting realities for the same reasons.

It is not unusual for one to also seek out "facts" which support what one believes or thinks is true while just presuming what does not coincide with what one believes is automatically false or outdated. "Truth" might (and that's a big might) lie somewhere in between.

It is also not unusual for perceptions to change, over time, due to differing circumstances, experiences and marketing telling us what we should believe and why.

Add to that, that one can often find many different sets of conflicting "facts" which all contribute to the sense of what is reality. They all have validity in their own way. Human judgement on these "facts" influences what we are drawn to, what we discard, and what we save for a rainy day.

Being human, we are easily swayed and governed by our emotions. All marketing (even political marketing) is geared to manipulating our perceptions of reality. It is easier to manipulate perceptions if one focuses on evoking an emotional response and to keep fine tuning it until you achieve the desired result.

Personally, I find it easier to remain mindful of how easy it is to manipulate people, their opinion, and their emotions. I try to take everything with a grain of salt cuz the one thing I am becoming acquainted with is nothing is as it appears and everything I think I might know has an opposite and equally valid side to it.

Life was a heck of a lot easier when I believed things were either right or wrong, black or white. In reality, they are a collective hunch of shades of gray.

Thank you. This gives me something to ponder on my walk today.

Now, it is crucial here to distinguish between a "fact" and a "belief".
The fact that the sun rises is a an observable fact, as all facts are. Anyone can verify the truth of a fact. Seeing the truth of something is always freeing, as well as seeing the falseness of something.
A belief is something which is held to be true only by the person who believes it.
And that is the difference between a "fact" and a "belief". People who start off with strong beliefs usually end up in confusion and uncertainty; and, being disillusioned with their beliefs, end up thinking that everything lies on some grey scale - that there is no such thing as "right" or "wrong".
Insofar as I am concerned, it is also a belief that everything is "a collective hunch of shades of gray". Making such an affirmation is in fact just a reaction against all the beliefs that one has been inundated with. And that was not the point I was making in my original post.
I would also add that the entire West has been conditioned to accept without questioning many things as fact. In fact, skepticism has been put on the back burners in the Western culture. But like anything, skepticism without any degree of self-restraint only leads to cynicism.

[Kobi]

Originally Posted by charley

Now, it is crucial here to distinguish between a "fact" and a "belief".
The fact that the sun rises is a an observable fact, as all facts are. Anyone can verify the truth of a fact. Seeing the truth of something is always freeing, as well as seeing the falseness of something.
A belief is something which is held to be true only by the person who believes it.
And that is the difference between a "fact" and a "belief". People who start off with strong beliefs usually end up in confusion and uncertainty; and, being disillusioned with their beliefs, end up thinking that everything lies on some grey scale - that there is no such thing as "right" or "wrong".
Insofar as I am concerned, it is also a belief that everything is "a collective hunch of shades of gray". Making such an affirmation is in fact just a reaction against all the beliefs that one has been inundated with. And that was not the point I was making in my original post.
I would also add that the entire West has been conditioned to accept without questioning many things as fact. In fact, skepticism has been put on the back burners in the Western culture. But like anything, skepticism without any degree of self-restraint only leads to cynicism.

Are you sure you dont want to make a thread for this? Might be very interesting and expansive.

You say - "Now, it is crucial here to distinguish between a "fact" and a "belief".

The fact that the sun rises is a an observable fact, as all facts are. Anyone can verify the truth of a fact. Seeing the truth of something is always freeing, as well as seeing the falseness of something."

A sun rise is an observable event in places where the sun does indeed rise. There are places in the arctic where the sun doesnt rise for months on end. Yet, we believe the sun rises somewhere else....even if we cannot observe it. So is it a fact or a belief?

It is along the same line as....if a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to observe it, does it still make a noise? Is a glass half full or half empty or both?

Fact? Belief? Perspective? Assumption? Presumption? Interpretation?

Fascinating stuff eh?

It sounds to me like you are saying you believe there are absolute truths and absolute falsehoods or absolute rights and absolute wrongs. If that is the case, how do you explain the concept of diversity or the various shades of navy blue or how different experiences changes what people see as true or false or immaterial?

I respectfully disagree with you on "the entire West has been conditioned to accept without questioning many things as fact." Much of what I see happening in the West for the last decade is the result of people questioning many things that are believed to be fact. Skepticism appears to be front and center not on the back burner. Challenging the status quo in many different ways is skepticism in action.

Overall, I am feeling you are trying to say something but I am missing the point. Can you clarify your point?

[~ocean]

What I see is people who look threw very confused eyes ~ the only truth anyone should be concerned with is the truth within themselves ~ assuming the majority or what is being insinuated as ALL r not truthful. ~ the obvious that the sun will rise and the sun will set is mother nature ~ it's not your truth or mine ~ makes me wonder how much truth do you have ~ I would be skeptic to trust someone who can't see their own self truth.

[Bèsame*]

My Dad. His birthday was this past week. I remember the homemade gifts I would give, to spend time with him. Once, there was, dessert of the month. It gave me chance to explore new recipes and share! There was also an appetizer of the month!

I reflect on his advise when I need it the most. I can hear him say...that it's ok, life lesson learned, you can pull yourself up and move on. ...that's only after he let me whine and cry.

I called my Mom this week, and we both had a boo-hoo moment. Sometimes that is all you need to remember that we carry him in our hearts, forever.

Love you Dad, miss you

[JDeere]

A plethora of subjects from voting to finding a new job.

[akiza]

figure thoughts no? too much right now and yeah an headache

[girl_dee]

Setting up housekeeping!!

[JDeere]

The pain I'm in, I really need pain meds but the doctor wont give me any. Due to the fact that so many people are abusing them and make it so where people like me can't get any.

[Medusa]

That whole thing where you lay in bed with your best girlfriend of over a quarter century and make plans to take over the world <3

[Kobi]

A culture of fear makes for some odd reactions when erring on the side of caution.

Student reactions to square root symbol prompts police investigation

[girl_dee]

my mom at this moment

[girl_dee]

the future.....

[Bèsame*]

when was the last time I did something for the first time.....it's been way to long.

Let yourself go, follow that feeling

[VintageFemme]

Preparing to work from home both in my personal space and head space. Everyone who knows me thinks this may not be the best idea in that they fear I will become even more reclusive and never leave my home, but I think it will be good for me for the same but opposite reason. I think it will force me out into the world to be more social. I really don't have much of a choice as this is the direction the company I work for is moving. The goal being in a year, that our entire staff is working from home full time. It's really the way of most progressive and forward moving companies I think. The value of it is too great to be ignored. We shall see. Very soon. Now, onto moving this desk and chair to the 'office' bedroom! Where is a strong butch when I need one damnit?

[Kobi]

Nesting season for eagles always seems to be a mixture of good and not so good.

The Florida eaglets are thriving. They are now 70+ days old. The older one fledged yesterday and made it back to the nest without a problem. The younger one looked bewildered watching its sibling fly by. They too should be taking to flight in a day or so. How long they hang around after that is up to them. Last years lil ones hung around for over a month. And then one day they never came back.

The Berry College eaglets hatched about 10 days ago. Unfortunately, a couple of nights ago, one of them wandered too close to the edge of the nest and fell out. It didnt survive the fall. Watching it getting too close to the edge before eventually falling was horrid. Watching and listening to the grieving parents the next morning was heartbreaking. Dad has been building up those rails for 2 days now.

Rest in peace lil buddy.

[akiza]

i hate it to cry but someone has said that it's not fine to hold everything inside and yup i'm talking too much since last year

[JDeere]

My birth mother and whether to call and try to talk to her. Why my half sisters are too ignorant when it comes to asking tons of questions when it comes to our mothers health and current situation.

I really want back with my ex, but I want to start dating again, I'm stuck!