Who am I? I ask that question a lot.

Lloyd Lofthouse

I’m not a liberal. I’ve never eaten avocado toast, although I like avocados.

I’m also not a MAGA fascist or a trickle-down Reagan conservative, which really means the rich are better than everyone else, have god on their side, and have a right to piss from their pedestals on the rest of us.

The political issues I support are somewhere in between, while MAGA fascists only see the world as black and white with no shades of gray. It’s not always easy to “Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself,” but that’s what Jesus Christ taught. Muhammad “enjoined [synonyms: enforced, required] people to mercy, justice, patience and faith and abhorred oppression toward people, animals and the environment.”

And trickle down Reagan conservatives, are just greedy and power hungry, while despising the poor, abusing the working class, and thinking their god has to be a billionaire, the only winners on the planet, who pollute more than anyone else.

“The Quran states that Muhammad is the ‘Seal of the Prophets’ and Last and Final of the Prophets, which is understood by mainstream Sunni and Shīʿa Muslims to mean that anyone who claims to be a new prophet after him is a false prophet.” If you don’t have a MAGA mind, you may want to read what the Jewish and Christian Bibles say about false prophets. The warnings!

The most dangerous false prophets walking amongst us today are Traitor Trump, Putin, Netanyahu, Ali Khamenei, and Ismail Haniyeh.

Think back to what Christ taught and Muhammad required. I’ve known and know a few liberals since there are fewer liberals than real conservatives, and none of them ever said or wrote to me “eating avocado toast will solve the world’s problems?”

But becoming a vegetarian would go a long way to doing just that—solving the world’s problems. Not all of the problems but many of the environmental ones. Gandhi was a peaceful man and he was a committed vegetarian for most of his life. Thank God we had people like Jesus Christ, Muhammad and Gandhi. Where are they now when we need them the most?

What in the hell went wrong? When did so many start ignoring what’s best for all of us?

Responses to “Who am I? I ask that question a lot.”

  1. Nan Mykel Avatar
    Nan Mykel

    You could have fooled me…

    Reply
    1. Lloyd Lofthouse Avatar
      Lloyd Lofthouse

      😊

      Reply
  2. Lloyd Lofthouse Avatar
    Lloyd Lofthouse

    I forgot this information.

    “To maintain its status as a charitable foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation must donate funds equal to at least five percent of its assets each year.”

    Also I found this at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation:

    “The Strategic Investment Fund — These investments can take the form of equity investments, loans, and volume guarantees to both for-profit and not-for-profit partners.”

    This site shows where the foundation invests the other 95% of its money that it doesn’t have to donate each year.

    $11.5 Billion with Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
    $2.65 Billion with Waste Management (WM)
    $2.65 billion with Caterpillar
    …

    https://www.visualcapitalist.com/how-does-the-bill-and-melinda-gates-foundation-invest-its-money/

    Then there is how Bill Gates meddles in public education, causing a lot of damage over the decades.

    https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/10/the-plot-against-public-education-111630/

    https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-melinda-gates-foundation-education-initiative-failure-2018-6

    https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/just-visiting/bill-gates-please-stay-away-higher-education

    https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/bill-and-melinda-gates-foundation/

    Reply
  3. acflory Avatar
    acflory

    I think the truth is that an awful lot of humans don’t /want/ to be compassionate, don’t /want/ to share, don’t want to love anyone, let alone a neighbour, ‘as themselves’. And never have.

    When the culture holding society together is strong on social responsibility, these people talk the talk, but they only walk the walk so they don’t get in trouble with the law, or become pariahs in their own communities.

    When the cultural bonds weaken, and Prophets of Me come along, these people throw off the shackles of morality and become their true selves. I think this process probably led to the Sack of Rome and the fall of most civilizations of the past.

    We dodged bullet after bullet in the 20th century, but each one weakened the sense of social responsibility /to/ society. Would be kind of ironic if human civilizations ended with a whimper not a bang.

    Reply
    1. Lloyd Lofthouse Avatar
      Lloyd Lofthouse

      I don’t agree with “an awful lot of humans don’t/want/ to be compassionate…

      The key word I disagree with are3 “an awful lot”.

      I agree with “some” humans don’t care…

      “How common is narcissistic personality disorder? Experts aren’t sure how common NPD is. According to research data, between 0.5% and 5% of people in the U.S. may have it. Between 50% and 75% of cases affect men and people assigned male at birth (AMAB)”

      “What is psychopathy? About 1.2% of U.S. adult men and 0.3% to 0.7% of U.S. adult women are considered to have clinically significant levels of psychopathic traits. Those numbers rise exponentially in prison, where 15% to 25% of inmates show these characteristics (Burton, B., & Saleh, F. M., Psychiatric Times, Vol”

      Then there are people that don’t fit in the two previous paragraphs but may appear t not care. Instead, they are coping with living with PTSD and are anger and often isolate more, staying away from others avoid their PTSD being triggered.

      “About 6 out of every 100 people (or 6% of the U.S. population) will have PTSD at some point in their lives”

      Once we add up those three categories, it’s still less than 10% of the total, and those that belong in the other 90% may have other reasons for not seeming to care. Maybe they are too busy working to pay the support their lifestyles and don’t have the luxury to be compassionate.

      Still, one crappy person who is angry at the world for whatever reason has a massive impact on those they come in contact with. Traitor Trump is only on person and look at all the damage he’s done and is still doing.

      Reply
      1. acflory Avatar
        acflory

        I agree with all those stats, but they basically refer to cases that fit a certain benchmark. What about sub-clinical cases? No one does psych evaluations of ordinary people who aren’t doing ‘anything wrong’. No one does psych evaluations of powerful, /successful/ people either, again, unless they commit some heinous crime. Or unless they’re caught cooking the books etc.
        I see the ability to care as a continuum with the Ted Bundys of the world at one end and Mother Theresa [for want of a better example] at the other.
        The ‘little bit nasty’ people hide under rocks until someone like Trump comes along and tells them they can come out and play.
        -sigh- I fear I’m more pessimistic about the human race than you. 😦

      2. Lloyd Lofthouse Avatar
        Lloyd Lofthouse

        Some studies indicate that most powerful and succesful people were psychopaths before they made it that far. They didn’t become psychos when they reached the top. They started out that way.

        Their number one desired job: CEO

        #2 – lawyer

        Priests landed on both lists.

        https://www.businessinsider.com/professions-with-the-most-psychopaths-2018-5#1-ceo-10

        https://overcomingtoxicpeople.com/Narcissists/The_11_Jobs_Preferred_by_Narcissists_Be_Careful_of_These_Professions.html

        As for Trump, even the MAGA mob that worships and supports him only makes up about 24% of the total. Still, that’s a lot of people in a country with more than a 330 million population.

      3. acflory Avatar
        acflory

        Yes, I remember reading something a while ago about CEOs. The other professions were a surprise though. Scary to think that most of humanity’s power rests in the hands of such cold, calculating ‘machines’. If AI ever were to become sentient, that’s how I imagine it would be.

      4. Lloyd Lofthouse Avatar
        Lloyd Lofthouse

        Who will influence the AI’s the most: average, working class people, or narcissists, psychopaths and sociopaths? The answer may depend on who is in charge of the huge corporations creating the AIs. Individuals like Musk.

      5. acflory Avatar
        acflory

        It seems like a foregone conclusion, doesn’t it? 😦

      6. Lloyd Lofthouse Avatar
        Lloyd Lofthouse

        Not totally a foregone conclusion. From what I’ve been reading, China’s government — the mainland’s CCP — has already passed what may be the toughest laws so far to monitor and manage how AIs are created/programmed. Even the EU is way ahead of the United States passing laws that are designed to make sure someone like Musk doesn’t do the unthinkable when it comes to giving birth to a real AI, recreating a mental image of himself.

      7. acflory Avatar
        acflory

        I know the US has always had a love affair with capitalism, but these days it just seems to be spawning little despots/robber barons. Or perhaps they were always there but now they’re more visible? -sigh-

      8. Lloyd Lofthouse Avatar
        Lloyd Lofthouse

        Have you read this story that appeared in ProPublica today, about the “nice guy” responsible for turning the AR-15 into America’s best selling weapon of mass destruction. He was a “good” capitalist. The kind that made millions, the perfect “ruthless” capitalist roll model.

        https://www.propublica.org/?utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailynewsletter&utm_content=masthead&utm_term=The%20Daily%20Digest

      9. acflory Avatar
        acflory

        Interesting. Definitely some empathy but god help you if you disagreed with him. And he didn’t seem to care that the Bushmaster would be put to hideous use.
        Curiously, Bill Gates was not a nice guy while he was making his billions. Only afterward did he start to become ‘philanthropic’.

      10. Lloyd Lofthouse Avatar
        Lloyd Lofthouse

        I’d argue that Bill Gates still isn’t a nice guy, because when he launched his alleged “philanthropy,” he hired some really good PR people to make him look good. For someone who allegedly lied when his goal was to give all of his wealth away to good causes, how does he explain that he’s wealthier today than when he launched his “philanthropy”?

        Bill Gates still owns more than 1% of Microsoft’s shares, worth around twenty billion dollars. Gates has a lot of his financial investments held by a family office known as Cascade Investments. He also has substantial real estate holdings and an extensive collection of collectibles.

        https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/111214/where-does-bill-gates-keep-his-money.asp#:~:text=Key%20Takeaways,an%20extensive%20collection%20of%20collectibles.

        “The BMGF had an endowment of approximately $67.3 billion as of December 31, 2022. The scale of the foundation and the way it seeks to apply business techniques to giving makes it one of the leaders in venture philanthropy, though the foundation itself notes that the philanthropic role has limitations.”

        Gates launched his foundation in 2000.

        At one point in 1999, Gates’ net worth briefly topped $100 billion. By 2000, it’s down to $63 billion as Gates suffers the first significant decline in his wealth.

        Allegedly Bates has given away $50 billion through his foundation.

        Yet, today he’s is still worth more than $116 billion.

        I think something smells rotten fishy.

      11. acflory Avatar
        acflory

        Yeah. I’m old enough to remember life when Windows was still in its infancy, and the shenanigans that went on back then. I can’t remember the details, but I do remember it was seriously underhanded. Nothing surprises me about these cowboys any more.

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