You are right. My apologies. Back to topic.
We and other readers opinions are irrelevant. “we and other readers”, if we lived in Arab states or in Utah would find the question absurd. And birth rates in the US anyway, need to go up both to fulfill jobs and to support the aging population of baby boomers. Unless you think we should be like China and have forced abortion to control the population. Again, none of my concern who has babies, how many people want to live together in marriage, nor is it yours. My final post on the topic. As has been pointed out, it is off topic
I’m more than happy to carry this on via PM or if you create another topic to discuss it further, but as it stands we should leave it there.
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Yes they are.
Why would you use the term “centre right”?
There are constant efforts to legitimize and give extremism an air of respectability by using such terms.
Call a right wing loon a “classical liberal” and hope no one will notice.
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Why would you use the term “centre right”?
There are constant efforts to legitimize and give extremism an air of respectability by using such terms.
Call a right wing loon a “classical liberal” and hope no one will notice.
Because based on my interaction with them, that is what they are. As I said David said he used to vote libertarian but doesn’t anymore, not that libertarianism is extremism. When we do discuss politics, which isn’t often, he talks like a normal centre right conservative. The same for that other admin apart from the conspiracy theories. But I could be wrong. They could both be libertarians. That still doesn’t make David or the other admins extremists. SDC is also an admin there. He is a liberal. Venerable Dhammanando is also one, although he doesn’t post much these days. He is a Burkean Conservative. You seem to be confusing posters who post nonsense with the admin team itself. That isn’t fair. You also don’t get to see how many users are banned and how many posts are taken down. As I say, recently a well known nazi sympathiser was banned. I suspect he is back here on this site, posting again, but I can’t outright prove it.
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I don’t see how intentionally spreading disinformation that erodes democracy and gets people killed is adding value to society. I would like to thank you for the interesting conversation.
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Not everyone on the Right believes and spreads conspiracy theories. Margaret Thatcher was one of the first British politicians to warn about climate change. Today it was the Conservative Party who handled COVID, encouraged people to get vaccinated and brought in laws against anti-vaxx nonsense. I would caution you not to fall into group think, into thinking that because some on the Right do or believe X all Right Wing people must do or believe X. A few years ago the Labour Party had a problem with anti-Semitism. It was the 2nd party to ever be investigated by the Equality and Human Rights Commission. The only other one was the British National Party, a fascist party. Does that then mean all left wing people are guilty of spreading or supporting anti-Semitic conspiracy theories? No.
“The problem of global climate change is one that affects us all and action will only be effective if it is taken at the international level . It is no good squabbling over who is responsible or who should pay." - Margaret Thatcher
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I would have ignored this thread if it wasn’t for @sujato but since there has not yet been a single time I have disagreed with him, instead of shrugging it off, I started inspecting myself if I have indeed become a buddhist nazi for being somewhat of a fan of JP.
Again, I do not follow his Twitter or US politics and I do think he developed a savior syndrome as a coping mechanism to survive all the things he went through in the last few years. I can totally accept if people think he went over the line, I will only talk about things I have heard him say and the things that helped me. I want to make a case of what made me like him, and if anyone thinks I am misguided feel free to point out. I do not want to be not welcome here.
I found his lectures on personality, philosophy and psychology on YouTube, totally free. They were recorded lectures from his classes, where he also talked about how stories shape human societies and often explained how he helped people getting over their psychosis. I respect every university teacher who shares their lectures for free, so less furtunate, poor but bright students who could not afford to get higher education can still benefit from them. Just as I respect sharing dhamma talks on YouTube for free, or entire MIT classes. At this point he was not selling anything, later on you could get his Big 5 personality test for a few dollars which is something companies were also using for screening candidates. Back then he was unknown, and doing this out of goodwill.
In his lectures he really pressed the importance of moral virtue and how important it is to tell the truth (or at least not lie). His reasoning was not related to karma, but to psychoanalysis where telling the truth is a prerequirement to be able to face hardships and to “sort one’s self out”. Another important point was taking responsibility for everything you do and bettering yourself to benefit others, and to be able to live a better life. Again, not because of better future rebirths, but because that’s what keeps “chaos at bay”. I have no issue with these statements.
He had classes about totalitarian regimes, where he explaines the brutalities of both the far-right as well as the far-left, including both the gulags and the concentration camps. His point is that societies become nightmarish step by step, by slowly allowing more and more pathologies to creep in, until hell breaks loose (you don’t have to agree with this, but I think the reason he feels the need to talk about every single minor thing, is due to his belief that post modernism is making tiny steps towards chaos, and if no one ever speaks up, we will end up with something similarly horrible soon).
The biggest help for me was that his lectures and examples from his clinical practice made me realize that I was harboring a lot of resentment that I was not seeing. As a buddhist, I did not allow myself to see if I am angry at someone especially at my parents. I did not allow myself to feel bad when people exploited me, lied to me, gaslighted me, cheated me continously. Deep inside I was still angry at them, but a good buddhist would never do that! A good buddhist would simply forgive and smile, they are also suffering, they are suffering more than I do, even though I can tell they are actually enjoying being cruel to me, knowing that I will never retaliate as a goooood buddhist. But the reality is, that I was still angry and resentful inside, and it manifested as depression, anxiety, panic attacks and guilt.
After I got to terms with my actual feelings and was able to “incorporate my shadow” if you wish, I did become a happier and overall nicer person. I could soon forgive people again, but now I had boundaries. I always wanted to help my parents, I even initiated the translation of Ajahn Brahm’s book to my native language so they could read it. But deep inside I had a lot of unresolved hate for them. After I allowed myself to feel like this (which is one of the worst no-nos in Buddhism), I could forgive them, and help them work on their unskillful behavior, instead of just smiling and talking the issues away like I always did. Now I am able to spend quality time with them, and they are also much happier.
This would not have happened without something similar to JPs lectures. And there are countless people who share this story of mine, who actually never had a father figure and still managed to recover from that. JP gets a lot of fan mail about how he helped people, and even if you disagree with everything he does, you can not ignore the fact that he has helped thousands out of depression and suicide. If you argue that those people would have been better dead, then it might be you who is actually harboring nazi thoughts.
This is it.
I am a leftist, who studied social sciences and took part in most of the riots in Hungary when Orban was still building up his totalitarian regime. I spend a large sum of my money donating to NGOs, whistleblowers and the buddhist society, including bikkhuni ordinations.
But I am ashamed of what the left has become and its lack of answers to the modern day’s issues. Cancel culture, book burning, collective guilt, calling white people slurs and disregarding science and thinking of poor people as stupid is just as part of the radical left as it was part of nazi propaganda. So yeah, if you think young white man are all horrible, don’t work and are just agressive in general, maybe that’s something to reflect on as a totally not-nazi. Again, this is something JP has called a few years ago, when he was still just a teacher. The “radicalization” on my part is due to getting fed up with these unchecked extremes on the left. This is not the left I was fighting for back at my university.
I think one can read papers and come to the conclusion that there are indeed biological differences between sexes, and support the bhikhuni ordination and the trans community at the same time.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
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Her term ended in 1990. In the year 2022 conservatives are far more extreme, being driven by anti-democratic motivations and hatred for many types of people.
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The very idea that Buddhist practice can coexist with ideas of antidemocracy, bigotry, racism, and religious phobia (particularly toward Jews and Muslims) is deeply discouraging and shocking for those practitioners who are working toward inclusion and who embody the values of harmlessness and right speech.
I just read the article again. I think there is a mistake here. Whilst we might not like it, Buddhism can and has co-existed with anti-democracy. For example. King Ashoka. Ahoka’s Empire, being an Empire, was not democratic. It might be hard to accept, but it’s not against the Dhamma to have a non-democratic system such as Monarchy (the non-constitutional kind). When the early texts talk of the ideal political system, it is monarchy they refer to not democracy.
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Her term ended in 1990. In the year 2022 conservatives are far more extreme, being driven by anti-democratic motivations and hatred for many types of people.
Sorry but for the vast majority of conservatives, at least in the UK and Europe, this isn’t true. This is just group-think again.
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No. there is no confusion. I know who the admin team are and I have seen what they have posted and what they have allowed to stand. That a “well known nazi sympathiser” was a member for such a long time says it all.
Right wing extremism indulged in by Buddhists , anti Islam, anti-Semitism, misogyny, anti “woke” conspiracy etc. was definitely given a lot of space in that forum. Very little push back.
There was some discussion of my politics? 
I’d hardly call myself right wing. I’ve always considered myself a centrist. Yes, I have referred to myself as a libertarian of sorts in the past, but rarely vote for Libertarian candidates. Ceisiwr’s assessment is correct. I imagine most Libertarians and Republicans would call me a liberal or progressive or even leftist.
I support universal education (free through university)
I support civil rights for all (LGBT, religion, nationality, race, ethnicity, etc)
I support universal health care (there goes any claim to be right wing)
I support nationalized utilities (to avoid price gouging, trusts, cartels)
Conservatives in the U.S. are opposed to all of the above, except civil rights.
I don’t think you will find a single misogynistic post by me at any of the forums I post in. I supported bhikkhuni ordinations before I was even on the internet for the first time over 22 years ago. I have been a vocal advocate of bhikkhuni full ordinations at e-sangha in the past and DW forums currently. I hosted Ajahn Brahm at my place. I have had retreats at my place led by bhikkhunis.
In previous election cycles, I always supported Tulsi Gabbard, a Democrat from Hawaii.
https://www.dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.php?p=403380#p403380
https://www.dharmawheel.net/viewtopic.php?p=479187#p479187
As far as anti-semitism goes, I don’t think you’ll find a single anti-semitic post from me either. I’m a Jew and can speak, read, write Hebrew.
DNS
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Dear All,
Thanks for your contributions and for keeping the conversation respectful.
Please remember the forum rules in your interactions. A useful FAQ is available here.
With Metta,
Ric
On behalf of the moderators
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Luckily David has posted himself above, to clear up the confusion. Regarding the troubling member I mentioned, what you do not know is that said person has been the bane of DW and many other Buddhist websites, including this one, for years and years. When banned, they simply make up another account. After so many it was felt the best thing to do was let them post, but to monitor their posts. Just before they were banned again, each of his posts had to be mod approved. Now, I’m not saying that some of his posts didn’t get through (before the mod approval came in). They likely did, as the team there isn’t free to monitor everything all of the time. What I do know is the vast majority of the offending material was removed within a day or so. Also, as I already mentioned, what you do not know either is the number of posts and members which are removed on a day to day, week by week, month to month basis.
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I agree with you on that point, not just Ashoka, there were historically absolute monarchies in traditional Buddhist countries as well. But it has to be said there were no democracies or parliamentary systems around at the time to make a valid comparison here. So I don’t think this was what the article meant.
What I think the authors were meaning by “ideas of anti democracy” pertain to the current 21st century climate where there are movements aiming to dismantle the democratic process in favour of ‘soft authoritarian’ rule by a single individual/select political class/agenda.
This article covers three models by which this is achieved, and I quote, one of them is…
…. the polarization model where you appeal to your populist base by stirring up racism, smearing opponents, and attacking norms of democratic governance and making sure there are means of no cross-party or non-partisan or bi-partisan efforts to save them and make something out of democracy.
Those who feel the system hasn’t or doesn’t work for them may feel they need to instigate a change. But if these individuals think stirring up hatred, phobias, and discrimination against minorities in order to gain power, it goes against the foundations of the Buddha’s N8FP, no?
I’m not sure that is a good example. Tulsi has a long record anti-gay, transphobic rhetoric and behavior although she did try and back away from it when running for president: " Since ending her presidential campaign, Gabbard has taken conservative positions on culture war issues, including abortion and transgender rights.[15][16][17][18] Gabbard endorsed Florida’s controversial Parental Rights in Education Act[a] and in 2022 was a featured speaker at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).[20]"
Correct, she supported LGBT+ rights when she was running for POTUS and that’s when I supported her. She has apparently moved more to the right, since then. It doesn’t appear that she will be running again, anyway. But when I supported her she was a Democrat Congresswoman and did support LGBT+ (2016 and 2020 election cycles). I’m not dogmatic to any party and typically will sometimes vote for a moderate Republican and sometimes for a moderate Democrat. Their ideology and if they are anti-war is more important to me, than their party affiliation.
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I just wanted to point out that the even though the Buddha would not have voted for the right, he would not have voted for the left either.
He would have pointed out that this is all a mirage dreamt up by analyst teams, who are constantly looking for polarizing topics and testing them out (take Trump’s “build a wall” for example, that became a slogan after it did really well on Twitter).
Back then he had to deal with all kind of sociopathic rulers, addressing them by “great king” and making sure they don’t get crazy during the teachings, for instance while asking about if their dead wife was in heaven or hell. Imagine having to meet someone like Trump, except with a sword. Or trying to teach Biden meditation while he’s falling asleep.
I wonder if he would be cancelled though, because I’m pretty sure he was against most abortions, drug use and sexual liberation.
May all beings be happy and well, even if their political views are different.
There was no confusion. As I said I know who the admin team are and I have seen what they have posted and what they have allowed to stand.
The extremism at Dhammawheel was not just one person . There was a whole culture. It was legitimized.
I think the thing is you don’t want to acknowledge far right politics, as extreme.