Posts by Donna Campbell6

Rachel Bishop said:Even if you wanted to, you shouldn't question something you don't understand...
just as you don't realize that faith doesn't lessen the suffering...it just provides what suffering lacks without it...meaning, and the strength required to push through to the very end...to look terror in the eye...to cry until you're spent...to shake and scream toward the heavens...
essentially, enduring it is only truly possible through faith...
facing (senseless) pain and misery without (any) faith cuts off the flow of strength needed to actually process it all...
which is why those "various means" are used...to numb the experience...😢

Does suffering even mean anything if you don't have faith? How can anyone actually know for sure... I mean, since you (I'm assuming) are a believer, you aren't exactly in a position to experience suffering without faith anyway, right?
Just because I don't believe, and yeah, it hurts, doesn't mean my suffering is pointless... It might just mean I'm not obsessed with proving I've found some grand purpose behind it all. And honestly? It definitely means I'm not about to let some half-baked priest with a fancy degree lecture me on the deepest, most fundamental questions of what it even means to be alive...
Basically, yeah... Believe......not really... thoughts....
If you're the type who lives by faith, then everything needs to be crystal clear...🙄 If you actually give a damn about thinking for yourself... you’re the only one who can really afford to admit when you don't know something...

Anthony Rivera17 said:But look, that really is the reality of it... how many times haven't you heard the phrase, "He was such a quiet young man,
full of life and always smiling..." followed by some description of a
mass shooting... everything is just relative to a perspective, which is constantly shifting...
We are all potential Hitlers and Jack Trbosjeks; it is merely a question of whether "fate"
drives us to realize that dark side of ourselves... NEVER SAY NEVER !!!

We all have that aggressive, destructive streak in us... and honestly, those aren't always bad things. Like, try picking up a girl without being a little bit assertive at some point, you know? If you're too careful about not stepping on her toes, you'll never make a move. Impossible.☕ You’re always, even just at first, pushing your way into someone's personal space... even if it's just a tiny bit. Plus, self-defense is basically built on aggressive instincts.
Still, I can't really get behind the second half of your post. I don't think we can just write everything off as "relative," otherwise any conversation about human nature just becomes totally pointless after a while...

restlessridge36 said:😲
I made it clear that I am not religious precisely because of the rigid attitudes, superficiality, and prejudices held by people like you.
-I don't usually mention it, nor is such information necessary for anyone else.

It was wise of Arna to notice. Nualin's post went unnoticed and misunderstood by many.
Especially the part where she suggests we should all reflect on how we exercise violence in our daily lives toward others.

"Hatred too often clouds our intelligence."

Being as Rigid, superficial, and biased as I am, I can't help but feel like I'm right along with you and Arnin regarding Nualin's post. It's a struggle... First off, whenever someone tries to define or put death into neat little categories like she did, my internal alarm bells start ringing. Death is basically "unthinkable," according to Freud. Look, I'm not saying the old guy was always right, but he had some solid points there. We can talk about death all day, try to "deodorize" it or sugarcoat it, try to soothe ourselves however we want, or even pretend it isn't happening... but we'll never truly escape that nagging feeling that we're just putting on an act. None of us actually know anything about death—not me, being this shallow and Rigid, not you, who probably aren't, and certainly not Nuala when she's out here grandly announcing that death isn't even a tragedy.
And man, I've got thoughts on that whole violence thing too. It's pretty gutsy to take the concept of violence and stretch it to cover every single situation where someone just happens to yield to another person's will. Sure, it's worth reflecting on the ways we might be aggressive. But if you start linking cold-blooded psychopathic murder to the tiny daily annoyances—the little flaws we all have—you eventually end up with a version of science that uses relativism to label every single one of us as potential Jack Trbosjeks, Hitlers, or at the very least, rapists. The only difference would be whether the impulse actually turned into action or somehow miraculously didn't. I don't see how much good we'd get from that kind of "wisdom"...

restlessridge36 said:Furthermore, the girl's father stated in an interview that he finds solace in knowing she wasn't raped.
He was comforted by the fact that her killer didn't break her spirit, nor did he violate or humiliate her in that manner.
From that perspective, the priest's words serve merely as a balm for the grieving.
Priests understand their parishioners through confession, which functions much like psychotherapy; he knew exactly what needed to be said and what they needed to hear.

Many eulogies glorify the deceased, exaggerating life achievements and portraying everyone in the best possible light.
(Everyone was supposedly a selfless soul, a devoted parent, etc.)
But this girl hadn't even begun to make her mark on the world.
She was "simply" a fighter for herself and her principles. She refused to let her killer crush her soul.
I cannot, and will not, believe that anyone still thinks honor and dignity are living concepts today.

A slight departure from the subject:
A friend from elementary school lost her son (age 4) during a routine surgery
(appendectomy). She lives in Germany. I saw her this summer, three months after the tragedy. When I went to offer my condolences, I struggled to find the right words, so I just asked: "I heard from your mother... how are you holding up?" (I didn't even dare name the tragedy itself).
She replied with a smile: "I'm doing okay. God must have wanted him more, so He took him home."😲
I am not religious.
I haven't quite recovered from her statement, but if that belief helps her survive, then it is wonderful.

The same applies to this girl's family. Someone has to support the conviction that her struggle wasn't in vain and that she departed with dignity.

I really hope your friend doesn't end up going through what I suspect might happen later on.
But like you, I'm not religious, so I won't sit here and analyze her reaction or debate whether religion acts as some kind of sedative.
Still, just one thought: I think, in the long run, it’s probably better to just walk straight through the fire... look the horror right in the face, cry your eyes out, shake, and scream if you have to. But man, that's almost impossible. We just can't handle it. So we find ways to cope... and sometimes, that includes religion.

restlessridge36 said:unknown,
Your message to women is fundamentally flawed and serves only to embolden attackers and rapists.
According to your logic, an attacked woman should simply submit and allow herself to be violated by anyone using force,
just because
she might otherwise face a bullet or a blow that could kill her?

How can anyone—including yourself—possibly argue that she was merely defending her hymen?

In the heat of an attack, a person reacts unknown, just as they react when fighting for their life. One does not selectively choose to protect an ear, an eye, or a kidney over a hymen.

We cannot predict how we would react in such a situation, nor can we teach anyone else to do so, because instinct operates independently of reason.

Instinctive actions stem from the amygdala, the brain's "shortcut" center,
rather than through the conscious, deliberative pathways we use when we aren't in immediate danger.

Even if an attacked individual managed to compose themselves and choose submission over resistance,
who is to guarantee they would be left alive?
An attacker knows that afterward comes trial, social condemnation, prison, or perhaps a bullet—a swift and entirely just 😉 act of retribution from the victim, her brothers, or her father.

No one here is suggesting that survivors do not deserve respect; rather, we are stating that being violated destroys one's self-respect.
That is a massive distinction.
The victim loses her sense of self-worth. She is blamed. Despised. Judged mentally;
told things like she should have fought harder, run sooner, been more cautious, trained in martial arts, built more muscle, stayed indoors, or avoided being out at noon.

She is left feeling pathetic and weak.

Look, I honestly didn't get any of that from what Alex wrote.
This whole thread drifted into trying to analyze something we have zero clue about—how some poor girl would actually react when facing a killer in her final moments. Now we've got people here trying to build theories on how someone *should* behave in a crisis, which is just... pointless, really...
On top of that, the more I sit here thinking about that priest's "take," the more it makes my blood boil. He's acting all high and mighty, coming at this from some "morally enlightened" angle, trying to frame this girl's horrific death as something almost noble... like she was sacrificing herself for some ideal or moral code (his version, obviously). Because apparently... being raped is somehow worse? By saying stuff like that, this total fraud is basically throwing shade on every survivor who actually made it out alive...

Chloe Smith11 said:1. Writing epics isn't something exclusive to the North America.
2. Depicting a woman resisting assault as a heroine isn't necessarily meant to highlight the fact that she was murdered; rather, I guess the intention might be to encourage or empower women facing abuse in general—to show them they can fight back.
3. If we feel our firefighters shouldn't have been labeled heroes, then by that same logic, we shouldn't have honored those who perished on 9/11 either. Both groups died in the line of duty for the greater good—though perhaps our local crews were just trying to put out brush fires, we shouldn't forget they were also responding to house fires—and the sheer scale of those events only amplified the intensity of the commentary that followed.
4. Sometimes people who pass away tragically are called heroes because of their actions, though I suspect it's mostly just a way to offer some small measure of comfort to their loved ones. It's a shame that some people, who don't quite grasp the full context, continue to debate why certain individuals are deemed heroes while others aren't. In the end, the priest's attempt to provide solace to the father seemed perfectly appropriate, and I suppose that’s what matters most.

1. I'm not claiming that. But when it comes to this stuff, Americans are definitely the champions at it.
2. Generally speaking, you should fight for yourself, obviously. But if you ask any cop what a clerk should do during a robbery, they'll say "don't play the hero." But honestly, I think this case from Trilla can't really be analyzed with those "what if" scenarios. It's just a horrific crime. Period.
3. Those New York City firefighters knew they were in over their heads and that the towers could come down at any second. Our guys didn't know, because there wasn't supposed to be any danger. It's true they died serving the public good, but it's the same situation as a construction worker dying on a job site, for example.
I'm not downplaying the tragedy or any of that horror at all. I'm just wondering why we need these epic terms like "hero" or "martyr." I highly doubt it actually makes things easier for the families, but hey, it sure makes for more bombastic media headlines.🙄
4. Okay, if it helps the father, then fine. We're all different. I guess some other fathers might tell the reporters and the priest to go to hell. I hope the minister hit the right note this time. Either way, his statement taken out of context sounds... well, I won't say how...

Chloe Smith11 said:So, the priest put it this way:
"She proved she was willing to face death rather than betray her youthful ideals; she chose to lose her physical life instead of trampling upon her human dignity and her unfulfilled dreams."
I suppose the wording was a bit clumsy, though I suspect its primary purpose was to offer comfort to the family and send a message to other women to hold their ground. It feels a little awkward because it’s hard to imagine a young girl preoccupied with such heavy ideological reflections at a time like that—truthfully, it's impossible to know what crosses a person's mind in those moments, as it likely varies from one individual to the next.
As for how we interpret that statement and this ongoing debate—women who have been victims of sexual assault certainly suffer humiliation and have their dignity violated, but their honor remains intact; it seems that is something John Doe still fails to grasp.

That priest's statement is just plain bullshit... because it implies the girl somehow "chose" death. I mean... the poor thing was murdered in cold blood, and that's the only truth here.
Everything else is just a product of that half-crazy American obsession with turning every single tragedy and horror into some grand epic poem.🙄
It also feels like they're trying to force a comparison to those firefighters who are constantly being labeled "heroes" or "martyrs" in endless press releases for whatever reason. Is that just a way to soothe the collective conscience or what? Should we be calling everyone who dies in car accidents "heroes" too? And how exactly is that supposed to help anyone...

Kyle Nelson2 said:If someone just mumbled this nonsense on some street corner in Chicago, I probably wouldn't even bother responding...
But we’re talking about a priest here—someone who’s supposedly highly educated. And since they’re considered "spiritual" leaders, there’s this whole default assumption that they shouldn't just represent the people, but actually "guide" them in some higher sense...
So, I guess, in their eyes, they have to be superior and smarter than the rest of us masses...

Honestly, the fact that he’s reduced his entire sense of dignity to some pathetic object of worship tells you everything you need to know about how miserable that man's life really is...

I mean, maybe—and this is a big maybe—we could just assume he said it all just to try and comfort his relatives.

I don't know, man. That feels super sketchy to me.☕

silentridge543 said:Really? I've heard it actually does matter—that you should eat fruit before something heavy like meat to avoid some kind of unpleasant reaction. 😕The idea is that if you wait, the fruit might ferment or something, and you won't get the full nutritional value. 😕Right?

Yeah, I've heard that too. Honestly, I totally forgot the actual science behind it... I'm definitely not an expert or anything, but I'll be hanging around to see what you guys post...🙂

nimblepilot29 said:Hehe, no worries at all! Why should I feel like some stuffy academic just because you address me in the plural or act like some old lady 🙂?
Honestly, even I don't view this forum as seriously as it might seem from what I'm attempting to write about Habermas right now. This is a whole new experience for me in terms of taking a serious approach 😁
. And you really hit the nail on the head regarding how wonderful it would be to introduce one of the most significant and influential thinkers of our era
. The fact that you haven't read him in years isn't a barrier at all... personally, I haven't dealt with his work at all until now (except for reading one tiny little pamphlet about Habermas and mobile phones—I think it was something like that). So, in a way, this is a learning process that I want to invite the rest of the serious—or even the less serious—candidates to join
.

😲 😲 😲
That little book you’re talking about was actually by some guy named Myerson. I picked it up mostly because the title caught my eye (Heidegger, Habermas, and cell phones? Come on!) and because it was dirt cheap. But once I actually started... man, I don't know how you handled it, but for me, it was just such unbearable pretentiousness that I gave up halfway through... honestly, I felt ripped off. Like, what was even the point? Total disaster.👎
Maybe the secret to the book was buried in the second half 😬

nimblepilot29 said:

I simply cannot help but feel that we are standing on the precipice of something truly profound regarding our collective trajectory... When one considers the implications of current technological shifts on the future of human nature, it becomes clear that we aren't just changing how we live, but perhaps who we actually are at our core. It is quite a heavy realization to sit with, isn't it? One wonders if we are prepared for the weight of such a transformation... kaže:
Please, let me just jump in here and formally express my interest! It has been roughly a decade since I last sat for an exam on this subject—something specifically focused on the public sphere and public opinion—so I am quite eager to see what new developments have emerged since then...😁

It really is wonderful to see someone finally speaking up about this... 👍

Alright, I will go ahead and outline the core concepts he focused on, and once that's settled, we can dive into a discussion regarding his book, "The Future of Human Nature"...

It would be such a pleasure if you could contribute to our collective understanding of Habermas by sharing some insights into his philosophy, or perhaps highlighting those specific ideas that have truly resonated with you here...
For instance, this could pertain to matters regarding the public sphere and the formation of public opinion—much like what you were discussing during that exam about a decade ago... 😁

And of course, we might just spend a little time reflecting on that book together—provided some brave soul doesn't step up to join the conversation first...

Uff... honestly, I'm scared I might disappoint you, but I gotta be real. I haven't touched anything by Habermas in like 8 or 9 years... and I barely even remember that exam of mine. As for the book you mentioned, haven't read it. And full disclosure... you treat this forum a bit more academic than I do, so it’d be pretty tough for me to promise some deep, collaborative brainstorming session (that's why I never really joined those group readings on the subforum). I'm just the type who writes stuff down when the mood hits or if an idea pops into my head... But hey, I'll definitely read whatever you end up posting about Habermas... I wouldn't call myself a huge fan or anything, but who knows, maybe I'll grow into one 😉

nimblepilot29 said:A little background on the author...

Jurgen Habermas (born 1929)

He is a contemporary American philosopher and arguably one of the most prominent and influential thinkers of our era, according to Boris Kalin (the legendary author of that classic Philosophy textbook).

The core pillars of his philosophy are laid out clearly through various subsections in that same textbook, specifically focusing on:

- connecting theoretical insights with the social context
- critical mediation
- critiques of postmodernism
- the theory of communicative action
- emancipatory interests

I would be more than happy to dive deeper into any of these specific topics if anyone happens to show an interest in one of the most distinguished and impactful thinkers of our modern age 🙂

Oh, please... count me in! Consider my interest officially piqued. I actually had to write a paper on him for a midterm about ten years ago—something regarding the public and mass media—so I'd love to see what's new...😁

Gary Hernandez6 said:Please keep in mind that playing a three-card monte game—in this day and age—is completely out of touch. 😁

Yeah, sure, but then you've got Heidegger coming back around—trying to find his "authenticity" or whatever😕—and helping the defense. And honestly, Kant isn't making much headway either... he never really even left Cambridge...

Yeah, honestly? Nietzsche would probably get a red card within the first ten minutes... you’d have to toss him out immediately just so we aren't playing shorthanded by the end of the first half... instead, maybe pull Aristotle off the bench to bring some much-needed balance to the middle ground... 😍

Emily Thomas3 said:Too many headaches... I definitely need a solid coach to keep everything in check.

Maybe Habermas could take the reins... he's a bit too fond of finding middle ground, so he’d probably just calm everyone down and build some team spirit (even if it's just through political correctness)... though Sloterdijk would probably end up stuck in the bleachers in that scenario.😬

I feel like it’s some kind of anxiety thing... and then all you're left with is this crushing loneliness, which just ends up in tears. Have you ever tried, I don't know, just sitting in the quiet for a bit? Just being alone with your thoughts and really trying to dig into what those fears actually are? Like, what's the real deal behind what you're afraid of?

Hrelich....😁

Honestly, making the call isn't even the hard part. Getting the ball rolling? That's easy too. It’s the staying power that gets you...😬

Jerry Green59 said:Compared to other people—from whose perspective exactly?

Honestly, briskgull27 has a point. The main perspective—the one that actually matters most—is how everyone else sees things, you know? The "unlabeled" crowd. If some guy falls for a girl dealing with schizophrenia (or vice versa, obviously), his whole circle is gonna jump down his throat with those "helpful" little suggestions... like, "Hey, she's great, but maybe think twice about this?" Most people would seriously hesitate before even grabbing a quick bite at McDonald's with someone struggling with that kind of diagnosis. It’s just the way it is... damn.

Walter Myers4 said:Look, I’ve got social intelligence baked right into my DNA. It's just how I was built.
Look, when I’m actually ready to deal with some kids, then maybe I'll let them into my line of sight and just surrender myself to whatever social dynamics happen. Until then? Leave me out of it.
Meanwhile, I’ve got much bigger fires to put out.

Must be nice! 🙏 Good luck with those "bigger problems" of yours!👍