A few hours ago I put out a public call on my Telegram channel for people to join "Franssen Conversation", the conversation group that is available to anyone who wants to make a comment on any Telegram post of mine. So far 85 people have joined, which is about 19% of the people who saw the post. This is awesome engagement.
This response has me feeling motivated to treat the group more like a chat group in itself, as opposed to a simply byproduct of Telegram's comment function. I have updated the profile picture to suit the environment. I appreciate anyone here in the Locals who joined up. It is, of course, not the premium chat group available only to Locals subs, but it's a good leg up for engagement AND should the member count hit 200 people, we'll be able to turn on the aggressive spam filter via the Telegram app. This will make a huge difference in dealing with those pesky MAGA spam bots that keep showing up. Cheers!
Having a look at one of Miles Mathis' "favorite films" and the social commentary relevant at the time.
A longer look at the evils of Section 8, the undue advantage it has granted, and the destruction it has wrought on Middle America. Enjoy!
Per AI - “What is Philosophy and wisdom meant to protect us from?”
Philosophy and wisdom are meant to protect us from different kinds of self-destruction. At a practical level, they protect us from:
Deception — being fooled by others, trends, propaganda, or our own biases.
Impulsiveness — sacrificing long-term goals for short-term pleasure.
Meaninglessness — drifting through life without purpose or direction.
Fear — especially fear of death, failure, rejection, and uncertainty.
Pride and ego — overestimating ourselves and making avoidable mistakes.
Emotional chaos — being controlled by anger, envy, lust, greed, or resentment.
Poor judgment — repeatedly making decisions that harm our future.
Many philosophers believed wisdom is less about becoming smarter and more about seeing reality clearly.
For example:
Socrates believed wisdom protects us from ignorance.
Epictetus believed it protects us from suffering caused by trying to control what we cannot.
Aristotle believed it protects us from ...
