confusedpuppy

From the few indigenous cultures I'm aware of, I found the Australian indigenous culture to be the most interesting. It's a combination of it being isolated and the way they had help cultivate and maintained an entire continent worth of land.

From what I understand, Australia used to be a green and lush land. The people there had been maintaining that land with long held practices which in turn helped create soft fertile soil. Using controlled burns to encourage wild live to migrate to safer areas. Being flexible with where they settle so they can allow certain areas to regenerate. It shows how people can have a deep and meaningful connection to the land that gave them life. It shows how people can thrive in hostile lands by giving back to the lands. And in return, the land gave back in abundance.

From what little I learned, it really seemed like they found many ways to grow and preserve food while not extracting every bit of life out of the land until it dries up and dies.

To me, it seems like pre-colonized Australia was a wonderful example of what an anarchistic life would look like. Each group within Australia worked to maintain their own part of the land but were able to coexist with each other group and at times come together.

I often get mocked for romanticizing the past but my feelings now remain the same as they did before. I'd give up all the science, technology, medical advancements up for a simple and intentional life. It would be harder and my life would be shorter but my daily actions would be meaningful to my own survival, the survival of my community and to the life of the land I stand on.

We are born with nothing and we will die with nothing. I see no point in extending an already extremely short and meaningless existence. I'd rather die young and surrounded by nature than to grow old and wither away before my loved ones eyes in an overstimulating and overwhelming technologically advanced world.

I strongly feel that it is important to not give manipulators the attention they demand. Giving attention to them only gives them more power.

A living person only has so much time on this planet. Why spend our limited energy on a hate filled individual who we will never likely make eye contact with.

Personally, the less time I spend thinking about manipulators, the easier it is to push myself to engage with my community. Even if it's painfully what my mind and body don't want to do.

Manipulators hate people with the ability to be independent and that's just enough motivation for me to keep going.

My stomach and lower back are so sensitive that I instantly suck my stomach in or arch my back.

I try telling people that if they are going to touch me there that they should use more pressure. It's a lot easier for me to handle.

I think I'd die happy if I was being crushes alive by puppies and racoons.

I personally don't see any reason to spend time defining labels. The people causing harm don't even care about the definitions of the labels they use. It's their actions which are causing harm and and our time is better spent addressing their actions.

If we aren't spending our time addressing their actions then we are being distracted from the harm they are causing. That benefits and enables their harmful actions while doing nothing positive for us who want a liveable future.

I like calling people by their actions instead of any label. In this situation I would call them Wealth Hoarders. I think that covers the many labels of the rich on varying scales of wealth ownership without singling out any specific group.

I find the over use of labels to be a tool for distraction. It's easy to argue the definition of a label and ignore the actions that are actually happening. Describing a person's action leaves less room for debate and returns the focus back on shitty, unacceptable and unwanted behaviour.

As a nice bonus, describing shitty peoples actions and behaviours to them makes them visibly uncomfortable. At least from my experiences.

I'm not a fan of labels because I can never keep up with the constant changing of meaning or the new labels that keep appearing.

Instead I focus on peoples actions to figure out how I am to handle them. The most common behaviour I see in people who act more in their own self interest is manipulation. They want to control as much as possible. That includes the situation and the people around them.

The simplest thing to do is observe. Watch what they do. Watch how they interact with people around them. I often ask myself a bunch of questions about that behaviour. Do the words they say match what they do? Where is the attention coming from and where is it going? What tools do they use to bring attention to themselves? Is there a power imbalance between them and someone else? What tools do they use to control that power imbalance? Who is gaining something and who is losing something in those interactions? Why do they care so much about something that seems insignificant?

That's not a complete list or anything. People are creative in good and bad ways so it's more of a developed skill which takes time to grow. You may find other observations or questions to help you filter out manipulative people.

As a quiet person who has spent more time observing than talking, I've always been a target for manipulators. They seem to think my quietness is submission. I've dealt with far too many manipulators so much of what I said comes from those experiences.

I often deal with manipulative people by either acting dumb or figuring out the tools they are using or willing to use on me and deny them the chance to use those tools on me any further.

I find it's often better to help yourself before you help others. You shouldn't ignore others but instead spend more of your energy and focus on yourself first.

I've seen and experienced people who focused all their energy on helping others while ignoring their own issues. Their help was often too much in an overwhelming way and would cause others to react in a way where they would be worse off than before. Now two people feel worse. The helper for not being able to help and the helpee who has been overwhelmed.

A person only has so much energy. It may feel selfish to help yourself first. Others may try to guilt you for putting yourself first but they aren't you and they don't know your needs and limits.

You do you first. Then when you are ready to help others, you can actually help them because you have a clearer head to focus on them.

I saw three garter snakes on my last hike a few days ago. They look so soft but they are content watching me watching them. They are so cute.

It was enough to see that he had nothing worthwhile to listen to because it was all attacks with no support for his position on anything. The same story for American politicians. The same story for workplace politics. The same for everyday conversations. At least from my experiences.

It's hard to take these people seriously because there's only attacks. They hold no conversations, only debates fueled by attacks.

Even today as I hear others talk about him or glimpes headlines and skim articles, it's been the same words coming his mouth. The only difference from a few years ago and now is that there is more American influence in his campaign slogans and buzz words.

Even the brief moments I watched from the debate has been nothing but the same words and attacks as the years before.

He's a manipulator, he does not deserve the attention he demands. It's personally hard for me to watch history repeat itself, over and over again. My safety will greatly affected by people like him in power.

That video was a warning sign of a manipulator. And his actions to this date have been consistent of a manipulator. So yes, that video did greatly influence my view on him.

The first time I saw and heard about this guy, it was from a YouTube video of him cosplaying a lunch date with Justin Trudeau. This was somewhere in 2020 or 2021 after the initial covid lockdowns.

This was a adult. Recording himself on a lunch date with person who wasn't even there. I can draw some pretty crude assumptions from that action alone. But I won't. He's not worth the time or attention.

People like him are all words with no action. They are losers. Losers do not deserve the attention they demand from everyone else. Take away their speaker and microphone and let them die in obscurity.

Baby bush turkeys are so fuzzy and cute. I miss living among the bush turkeys and bearded dragons when I was in Byron Bay.

I once saw someone in the irc channel jokingly refer to Alpine as Alpine linux pine. Now when I goto the website, all my mind reads is Alpine Linux Pine Linux...