Imagine if you will

ToSlow

ToSlow

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Imagine if you will, One man has the ability to control a persons every waking moment and every other thought to the point that your day never goes by without it being interrupted with these thoughts and speech.

I would think that would be a sad world these people live in if this is the motivation for the persons existence.

Thoughts are welcome
 
ToSlow said:
Imagine if you will, One man has the ability to control a persons every waking moment and every other thought to the point that your day never goes by without it being interrupted with these thoughts and speech.

I would think that would be a sad world these people live in if this is the motivation for the persons existence.

Thoughts are welcome
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not sure what the thought experiment is here. We are automatons or we have free will. I do not like the idea of being an automaton. Are you referencing a certain group of people who you believe are simply parroting what someone is telling them?
 
wonderings said:
not sure what the thought experiment is here. We are automatons or we have free will. I do not like the idea of being an automaton. Are you referencing a certain group of people who you believe are simply parroting what someone is telling them?
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I'm trying to prove that it seems the last few yrs the thoughts of most people stay the same. Why are some not able to get past certain thoughts and or speech,

So yeah in short they parrot the same day after day after day.

I would like to think we have free will. or is something happening beyond or comprehension that we are not a where of?
 
To be controlled, a person has to allow another person's thoughts into their life. Personally, i spend very little time thinking or listening about politics. (except elections). Time spent here on GTAM is light.I have pastimes that won't let anyone control my thoughts.
 
Wingboy said:
To be controlled, a person has to allow another person's thoughts into their life. Personally, i spend very little time thinking or listening about politics. (except elections). Time spent here on GTAM is light.I have pastimes that won't let anyone control my thoughts.
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You're a smart man.
 
In my youth, I was hyper anxious to prove how intelligent or capable I could be. My ego was super strong. Being naive during this time, I clung to material things as symbols of success and recognition of my abilities.

Having children changed me.

Gaining experience from elders in all aspects of life, I learned to prioritize what is really important to me and strip away everything that wasn’t. It has been truly liberating and humbling.

When the cliches begin to resonate, I understand what that means now. I chuckle to myself. Yup!

Less is more, is a good one.

You have two ears and one mouth, use them in proportion.

While not a religious person, the serenity pray seems to resonate with me almost daily.

Limiting exposure to media and screens and focusing on activities that require my hands and dexterity is very simple and rewarding.

Politics is just noise. If you don’t like what you hear, ask yourself what do you plan to do about it? Vote? Ok. Join the rat race? Not likely. Post an opinion that will get likes or dislikes but really doesn’t change how others will look at it? Time to pour a drink and head into the garage. 😉
 
nakkers said:
In my youth, I was hyper anxious to prove how intelligent or capable I could be. My ego was super strong. Being naive during this time, I clung to material things as symbols of success and recognition of my abilities.

Having children changed me.

Gaining experience from elders in all aspects of life, I learned to prioritize what is really important to me and strip away everything that wasn’t. It has been truly liberating and humbling.

When the cliches begin to resonate, I understand what that means now. I chuckle to myself. Yup!

Less is more, is a good one.

You have two ears and one mouth, use them in proportion.

While not a religious person, the serenity pray seems to resonate with me almost daily.

Limiting exposure to media and screens and focusing on activities that require my hands and dexterity is very simple and rewarding.

Politics is just noise. If you don’t like what you hear, ask yourself what do you plan to do about it? Vote? Ok. Join the rat race? Not likely. Post an opinion that will get likes or dislikes but really doesn’t change how others will look at it? Time to pour a drink and head into the garage. 😉
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You have a great positive outlook to life
 
while the thoughts are my own, I utilized AI to help organize and clearly articulate them.

More and more, it feels like the choices we make aren’t entirely our own. Modern society is drifting toward a kind of “soft determinism,” where our behaviors are nudged, shaped, and sometimes outright engineered without us noticing. Free will isn’t vanishing all at once—it’s being chipped away.

3 Root Causes Behind the Decline of Free Will

1. Algorithmic Influence
Personalized feeds and recommendation systems quietly steer what we see, think, and buy. The more data these systems gather, the better they become at predicting—and influencing—our behavior.


2. Social Pressure at Scale
Online communities magnify social norms and expectations. Instead of thinking independently, many people adjust their opinions to avoid backlash, judgment, or exclusion.


3. Cognitive Overload
With constant information streams, notifications, and decisions to make, mental bandwidth shrinks. Exhausted minds fall back on shortcuts, defaults, and whatever option is easiest—not necessarily what’s freely chosen.
 
Wingboy said:
To be controlled, a person has to allow another person's thoughts into their life.
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I respectfully disagree. Propaganda finds a way in, you don't have to let it.
Without getting political, think of it this way: You see a commercial for a Mastercraft screw driver. You aren't in the market for a screw driver and pay little attention to it. Next commercial break (or after a minute of scrolling social media, pick your poison) you see the same commercial again, but again pay little attention just waiting for your program to resume. A month passes and you've seen this same ad countless times. Your sick of seeing it. Then one day the wife wants you to fix the lose bathroom door, but you don't have the right screw driver for the job. You don't consciously think about that commercial, but since you do now need a screwdriver, you head over to Canadian Tire and buy the screw driver you need.
Here is where a lot of people don't recognize the mind control. That commercial, repeated over and over, made you buy the Mastercraft screw driver. If not for that commercial, you likely would have went to Princess Auto and got a cheaper one, or to Home Depot and got a better one. But your mind went right to Canadian Tire and you didn't consider the options. And the way propaganda works, if someone suggested going to Princess Auto, you would dismiss it offhandedly and gone to Canadian Tire anyway because it just seems like the right place to go for a decent screw driver. You won't really know why, though.
You can easily argue that this wouldn't work on you (you being whoever is reading this, I'm not picking on Wingboy), and you may be right, but this exercise is just to demonstrate how it works.
I read once–I don't remember where, so take this with a grain of salt–That something like 10% of people are extremely difficult to brainwash (that's what propaganda is), 25% are difficult, 25% are pretty susceptible, 25% are easy, and about 15% basically believe whatever you tell them.
Something that makes propaganda especially successful is that most people will learn something, or believe something, and will refuse to ever change their minds. It's human nature to learn, but never re-learn. So if someone is taught 2+2=5, it's difficult to get them to see the truth without demonstrating it clearly before there eyes that when there's two apple, then you add two more, look! There's now 4 apples. And many will still dispute it because they'll refuse to even look at the demonstration. They "don't need to look because they already know the truth."
 

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ToSlow said:
Imagine if you will, One man has the ability to control a persons every waking moment and every other thought to the point that your day never goes by without it being interrupted with these thoughts and speech.

I would think that would be a sad world these people live in if this is the motivation for the persons existence.

Thoughts are welcome
Click to expand...
Are we talking christians? They're supposed to let one man control their every waking moment. Just another reason why religion is silly.
 
Come on it's true. Religious types are generally soft of mind and thus willing to let a fictitious character oversee their every waking moment while hoping they are correctly following their bronze age sex manual.
 
timtune said:
Come on it's true. Religious types are generally soft of mind and thus willing to let a fictitious character oversee their every waking moment while hoping they are correctly following their bronze age sex manual.
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Not my intention posting this thread👍
 
Great thread and good read. The type of conversation I would have with friends over a beer.

If I had to be the guy that throws cold water on something...critically thinking of course...I would not have put the thread in the Politics Paddock as it would seem to lead that it is politically motivated when over all it seems to be a very open discussion that would cover a much larger spectrum.
 
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