If you want to insure yourself against capital flight go for a Land Value Tax. Let 'em shove a hectare of land in their luggage.

OK so it’s time to say the quiet part out loud: the reason that governments have so far held off on taxing billionaires at 1% or 2% is the fear that they might spend 2% or 3% against those governments in revenge.

Well, I agree that everybody is different in certain ways but one of the main lessons of being in group was the revelation that broadly speaking we all want the same things and a lot of the mis-aimed strategies we’d adopted was stopping us from getting that stuff. A lot of people came through that community throughout the course of a year and while some of the stories were absolutely horrific, the problems were much the same, person to person.

Yes, the therapy was less effective for some than others and drugs absolutely should be available as a first-aid but I think that people should be moved on to other therapy as soon as they can use it.

I’m particularly hopeful about the results we are now seeing from psychedelic research into treatment resistant depression as I think that there are people for whom talk therapy won’t work but if you look at recent research into SSRIs it seems that some are barely improving on the placebo effect.

So yes I’m in favour of multiple approaches but it seems that SSRIs are outcompeting other treatments because the decisions are being made on the basis of cost and that means that those other treatments simply will not exist in the future.

Worked for me.

The last decade has seen a particularly significant increase in depression in the United States, with prevalence rates increasing by 33% between 2013 and 2016, with the largest increase among youth and young adults

Back in the day we used to try to address depression with various talk therapies and group therapies. This wasn’t perfect and was also relatively expensive but at least it offered a sense of connection and tried to tie people back into society.

Now it’s all about pills, which are a huge money-spinner and are cheaper than talk therapy. When things make money you tend to see an increase in them.

Oh boy…

I’m beginning to think that Homo sapiens sapiens are not the good guys.

Is there a supercut of Lucifer which is just Tricia Helfer and Lesley-Ann Brandt about to commit mayhem?

Surely his sidekick would be Guacamole Mole.

Oh sweet summer child, your dad knows parts of the internet you have barely seen in your dreams.

Phone rings

Longinus: Longinus speaking
Pause God: I hear you crucified my son.
Longinus: Yes, Sir, I did.
God: And may I ask why?
Longinus: clears throat Well… he stole John Wick’s car… and he killed his dog.
God: Oh.

I love what spellcheck did to ‘obligate carnivores’ here. 🤣

Might just as well show a dog a card trick.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_DeMeo#Gemini_Method

In roleplaying situations, authoritarians tend to seek dominance over others by being competitive and destructive instead of cooperative. In a study by Altemeyer, 68 authoritarians played a three-hour simulation of the Earth’s future entitled the Global Change Game. Unlike a comparison game played by individuals with low RWA scores which resulted in world peace and widespread international cooperation, the simulation by authoritarians became highly militarized and eventually entered the stage of nuclear war. By the end of the high RWA game, the entire population of the earth was declared dead.

Source

Could be because the other kid was transphobic and she doesn’t imagine that a dialogue with his parents would be particularly helpful.

Nope. Tory Party membership had a choice and elected Truss.

You could make an argument that he was tacitly elected by the Parliamentary Conservative Party but even this relies on an opt-out vote rather than an actual positive vote.

I have a feeling it was nowhere near that unanimous.

Who elected Rishi Sunak?

Parsimonious is just a better word to use at that point in a rant.