May I suggest simple crafting, like whittling, ancient/native pottery, wood carving, paper basket weaving, origami, crochet (or the slightly more addictive and expensive knitting), braiding, weaving, macrame, yarn spinning, decorative knotworking, flower pressing, dyemaking, hand dying, flower arrangement, make walking canes, etc?

Or maybe an instrument? Someone mentioned guitar, but why not harmonica, ukulele, bongos, simple percussives, or why not take up singing, there’s typically a choir almost everywhere, or you could try solo, or whistling, or yodeling.

Or maybe take up gardening/growing? In pots, hydroponically, maybe on a growing lot, or someone’s yard?

Or take up community projects, like either sanctioned or guerilla gardening, greening, forestry, litter picking, maintaining communal spaces, volunteer, start a community project (pollination diversity, bee keeping, growing lots, food drive, food forestry)

Or take up a cause? Build community, take affirmative action, demonstrate, protest, coordinate, communicate, with an established org, or on your own?

Maybe the outdoors could entice? Take up walking, ornithology, watch bats, discover new insects, take up chabana/ikebana, learn to forage, learn survival skills, go hiking, stack rocks, track animals, learn trapping, get into scouting, make bark boats, learn to skip rocks, climb trees, jump in puddles, pretend (or practice) animistic rituals, feel rain on naked skin, sleep under a bare sky, pick skulls, horns and bones to craft with.

Perhaps create stories, tell stories, write poetry, learn magic, juggle, poi, take up clowning, go swing/country/folk/traditional/ballroom/social dancing, try Butoh, write sketches, join a theatre, start a business, take up decorating, or just embrace whimsy?

I can also warmly recommend trying a new thing every week/month/period and see what sticks and not.

Remember that Trump is just a data point on a trend of GOP presidents since about Nixon. The next president is set to be to Trump as Trump is to George. W. Bush.

To be fair, the actual campaign involved more players

This is regularly answered by statisticians

deleted by creator

deleted by creator

deleted by creator

deleted by creator

deleted by creator

deleted by creator

deleted by creator

Seems a pattern tbh, expensive toys lead to expensive mistakes?

Belonging, contributing, being appreciated, learning, creating, growing, occasional novelty, human touch, emotional validation, companionship, shared pleasures. Physical, emotional, social, and mental capacity to appreciate this.

It’s sad that that seems difficult to achieve.

deleted by creator

Most men look at other males to assess threat level, and females to assess breeding potential, it is an unconcious drive (we also unconsciously assess if things are edible, but less so for humans :p). I use the pronouns of men, male and female carefully in that sentence, other interactions are less studied.

For socialised men, the urge stops there, and with a healthy body and relation to it you also don’t spend more attention on it. Sometimes, like when affected by hormones, loneliness, psychosexual/physical/mental imbalance, etc. the responses are more intense, and could be viewed as a signal of unmet needs (analogous to hunger, sleepiness, pain, etc) that you can react to in an appropriate manner.

When the thoughts, impulses or actions become hard to control or risk creating negative consequences, that’s where intervention helps, like therapy, medication, lifestyle adjustment, etc.

So basically, it happens, it will vary by season, age, diet, health, etc. Please consider if you might be horny, lonely, or have other unhealth to take care of. If you find it takes up too much of your attention (to function normally) and/or threatens your impulse control, seek help.

A decent bar for normal functioning is that it shouldn’t interfere with social relationships: don’t make people uncomfortable, don’t hurt anyone (including yourself), as well as day-to-day life: don’t ruminate/obsess, don’t spiral.

It is less often spoken about but fairly common to fantasise about encounters and even masturbate to them. Just be mindful that it’s your fantasy you’re entertaining, it has nothing to do with the actual person which you will need to respect and treat as they wish to be treated.

As this is a point of common misunderstanding, let me repeat: You seeing something that sparks attraction or even excitement might lead to fantasies of it in a sexual setting, maybe even gestalted with their body. All of this is your imagination, none of it is real.

The actual person is not your object of infatuation, has not shared your fantasy or even desires, and they will rightfully react negatively if you project your fantasy on to them.

So I repeat: it’s normal to notice, it’s impolite to make a thing of it or make people uncomfortable, it’s expected that you can regulate your impulses and make sure you have the strategies and resources to do it, and seek help if you cannot.

The reaction probably comes because rejection, being ignored, and/or ostracised are perceived as real injury by your brain.

Anger typically comes from fear, and the threat of ostracisation is an existential threat for the typical human brain.

We evolved as social beings, social injury and threat works the same as other types.

The thing that shook me out of the existential crisis of understanding nihilism is that life had as much meaning before I was born as it will after my death.

Or in other words: we are the universe exploring itself - in playful exploration and/or aesthetic creation.

To me that gives license to do something interesting with the short time, resources and attention that I have available. I find experiencing new things or in new combinations fulfilling, as do I to help others make a positive contribution to the human experience (be it through positive societal change or practicing kindness).

Not very trust inspiring. There’s a lot of flowery words encircling enshittification.

It does claim to want to always offer a free tier, but all the new values and buzzwords are funneled towards the paid versions.

With regards to deaths per Wh, including disasters, nuclear is safer than all fossil fuels, hydro and wind, only pv is safer.

deleted by creator