Resisting Temptation and Self-Serving Psychology

The first video: • Resisting Temptation...
If you want people to act like mindless animals or slave robots, the best way is to tell them that they are mindless animals and slave robots. Modern "self-help" and "psychiatry" serve primarily to justify impulsive actions while excusing people from their moral responsibilities.
My website: lukesmith.xyz
Classical books reprinted by me: lindypress.net
Get all my videos off KZbin: videos.lukesmith.xyz
or Odysee: odysee.com/$/invite/@Luke:7
Please donate: donate.lukesmith.xyz
BTC: bc1qw5w6pxsk3aj324tmqrhhpmpfprxcfxe6qhetuv
XMR: 48jewbtxe4jU3MnzJFjTs3gVFWh2nRrAMWdUuUd7Ubo375LL4SjLTnMRKBrXburvEh38QSNLrJy3EateykVCypnm6gcT9bh
OR affiliate links to things l use:
www.vultr.com/?ref=8384069-6G Get a VPS and host a website or server for anything else.
www.epik.com/?affid=we2ro7sa6 Get a cheap and reliable domain name with Epik.

[@romanticbrain18]

He's just standing in the middle of the woods at this point, he's not even going anywhere!!!

[@helloworld9018]

He's in the process of resisting the temptation.

[@CRebel2024]

Thank you for a fascinating observation. 🙄

[@MatrixSanAndreasOfficial]

He's becoming galaxy brain in the next video.

[@thetechfromheaven]

He's full on Botnet. I bet he has Tik Tok installed on his iPhone.

[@whirled_peas]

Walking is bloat

[@samuelsamuel6380]

Tech boomer in the middle of the woods absolutely refuses to sin. Impossible in this day and age, says expert

[@cjwhite2631]

Thank you for calling sin, sin. The demons use jargon and intellectualism to divert us from the word SIN

[@dittery]

@@cjwhite2631 sin

[@flflflflflfl]

@@dittery refuses to sin, while also refusing to tan. Next level!

[@corstenmartin2986]

I keep waiting for Luke and Father Spyridon to accidentally bump into each other in the woods.

[@seronymus]

Absolutely based and breadpilled reference ☦️ good job SUSE enjoyer

[@JohnSmith-ry7wh]

God bless you brother. Two brothers that I pray will have uncorruptible Crowns

[@Andres186000]

A good strategy to implement is that when you feel yourself beginning to do part of a bad habit, do something you can easily do and think is productive. If for example, you feel yourself tempted, instead of following along with the temptation, do five pushups. You will be happy with yourself for what you managed to do and are replacing the habit which might be easier than uprooting it entirely.

[@nicolasa.bermellferrer8025]

I'll try that ty

[@hineko_]

I usually did that to punish myself but your approach seems more fun(a picture of a gentleman with a big nose rubbing hands). I'll try that.

[@Khalikhalzit]

Good idea. Another one is to procrastinate productively. If you feel yourself not doing what you're being paid or what you ought to do, at least don't waste time playing video games for four hours. Do the dishes, read a book, exercise, vacuum.

[@miguelpoeis1925]

that's called "musterbating".

[@offensivearch]

Most bad habits and compulsions happen because your dopamine is low. You reach for that pleasurable thing, but like gridlock traffic that short burst of movement (pleasure) just leads to more gridlock. The root cause must be fixed for you to be free. When you have high dopamine levels, the temptations tend to recede from awareness because you are satisfied and on a productive path in your life.

[@AlexGolovastenko]

Wow, that has seriously motivated me to quit smoking now. Guess nothing is more motivating for me than being called weak-willed by a stranger on the internet and me actually agreeing with that statement.

[@bsatyam]

You should read "Allen Carr's Easy Way to Stop Smoking"

[@AlexGolovastenko]

@@bsatyam Thanks for the suggestion I will definitely try it.

[@maleldil9539]

Sometimes you need to really look at yourself in and bitch-slap yourself into shape. But don't fall into a cycle of self-blame. My advice is to try to find a better habit to replace smoking with. You can do it bro, easy!

[@victorkreig6089]

OR start rolling your own fags, smoking is far less of an addiction when it isn't filled to the brim with drugs

[@ade5324]

i dont get smoking addiction. why waste about 5eu to buy pack of cigs, when you can buy something like big, delicious pizza, kebab or cake for similar price price and be fed and happy.

[@nolanalexander8696]

I imagine myself being camper in that wood, and suddenly I hear someone voice, I look up and that's Luke Smith making his video. What a sight! I got fresh air, and I got psychoanalysis lecture!

[@snippletrap]

I think he owns that wood

[@Brian70516]

I feel like I listen to this in the right time. Thanks Luke!

[@numberlessconglomerate]

Resisting Temptation 2: Electric Boogaloo

[@sergeikalashnikov556]

Why yes, I use peertube and see his videos earlier, how could you tell?

[@TheCatVtuber]

I cannot resist not watching Luke Smith videos... send help.

[@NuradinPridon]

Luke, as a psychology graduate and psychoanalysis enthusiast I can confidently say that you are basically preaching what psychoanalysis has been trying to deliver to people: take responsibility of your unconscious. The entire science around psychology, psychiatry and neuropsychology has just given us excuses and cultivated unhealthy habits. I like Freud's original terminology for the "id", a structure in the psyche that is most primal, operating on pleasure principle. It strives for gratification and doesn't care for a place, time, morals and so on. In fact, referred to it as "das es", or the "it". Which captures its alienating nature - human's tendency to attribute anything undesirable to something external. Secondary gain is also an interesting phenomenon. A patient takes comfort in his pathological state, as it gives him certain benefits. Other people might not treat his so harshly because of his misbehavior because he is known to have a problem. So instead of trying to improve himself, the patient remains comfortably in his ill state. Many psychoanalysts attribute this downfall to the western (more specifically American) culture. Ego psychology has been precisely formed as an amalgamation of psychoanalysis to better suit the desires of western culture, for bolstering its ego (roughly speaking). It is precisely in America that Ego psychology, humanistic psychology, positive psychology and other fields emerged that seem to have their hearts in the right place, but lead to harm people more, than to help them, exactly because "they deny their unconscious". They rather encourage rationalization (the ego defence mechanism), coming up with excused to forgive themselves. Lacainan psychoanalysis is the strongest field opposing all things related to the "science" that leads to subjects downfall as these "sciences" label human phenomena with terms that reduce them into useless, non-beneficial words that people started to use as excuses for their downfall as a habit. You don't even need to learn psychoanalytic theory to notice all that but somehow this valuable insight is lost for so many people. I really appreciate you doing this.

[@JLeppert]

"Orthodox Psychotherapy: The Science of the Fathers" by Metropolitan of Nafpaktos Hierotheos. The desert father's (also called the neptic fathers) of the True Historic Church were talking about this 1600 years ago. It's also a manual for CBT and DBT.

[@NuradinPridon]

@Kiryu Kazuma If you think bachelor's degree is an authority of any kind, I don't know what to say. I only mention it to show where I'm coming from - psychology is generally a field that I adore and it pains me to see that the most valuable achievements it has are not utilized well enough to improve people's lives. In any case, thanks for kind words, I appreciate it. I hope I didn't come off vulgar.

[@monsieurbojangles2336]

Good post. I think it’s hard for us to accept that although we are not engineers of what we are, we must assume full responsibility for what we are. Particularly if we are low status or perverted in various ways. In a lot of ways effective therapies are more like confession than modern feel good style therapies and as a result offer real hope.

[@alternateperson6600]

In today's Western culture people are coddled against shaming and other naturally emergent, normative reactions to maladaptive behaviour. People never grow out of their vices due to the West's visceral aversion to conflict, and they are lavishly praised for affirming fake identities.

[@Tarik360]

"Take responsibility of your unconscious." THIS! Words cannot describe how much this needs to be stressed. I had a bad habit up until September last year where I kept internally in my thoughts refer to myself as "you" rather than "I", completely letting go of responsibility over myself too much and it pisses me off that it took me reaching my 27'th year to figure it out.

[@soldierbirb]

This video really got out in the right time. Thank you Luke. I'm trying to overcome more than 13 years of porn, and your video helped a lot. God bless you and your family!

[@redrustyhill2]

Don't fight it, embrace it. It's not as bad as everyone claims.

[@soldierbirb]

@@redrustyhill2 no bro, it destroy your relationship, your mind, your physic (I don't know if I spelled right) it makes you more dumb, more likely to bow to other drugs (and I'm not talking only about the ones you smoke etc...). It's not good, sometimes you lose half of the day on this shit. Get away as soon as you realize

[@redrustyhill2]

@@soldierbirb you don't realize how pathetic you sound. "I'm trying to overcome 13 years......" IF ITS THAT BAD JUST STOP. PERIOD! NO IFS ANDS OR BUTS ABOUT IT. WTF your probably also one who claims we have "free will" yet you keep compulsively beating off while claiming "I'm trying to stop". what lunacy. what self deprecating stupidity NO! It does not destroy relationships. That's an outright lie. judgemental bigoted self righteous sanctimonious hypocritical PEOPLE who don't understand BIOLOGY use it as an excuse to destroy a relationship.

[@deadliestvice5356]

Yeah, dude, just become a hedonistic shell of yourself. No one's going to judge you anymore. Hit me up for more tips.

[@TheHeraldu]

@@redrustyhill2 Nice try rabbi

[@aRaskyl]

Thank you Luke, the original video was quite helpful as I gradually kicked my grave habits this last autumn and winter. It's pretty common sense, but sometimes people just need to hear that to break the cope

[@user-rr2bg8zm5p]

I have admitted both to myself and others that I have very poor self control. Everything you're saying is right, we are very good at tricking ourselves into things that we really want. Hope I can keep this video in mind in the future.

[@daha4060]

Thank you Luke I needed this.

[@carterharris5297]

“I’m not even going to look at women…” best advice I’ve ever heard

[@happyjuice4251]

thank you for this I really needed to hear it

[@TheContrariann]

Thank you so much for this video 🥺

[@t1mos]

Great video, Kenny!

[@vladislavkaras491]

That is nicely said! Thanks for the video!

[@rothbardfreedom]

"Triggered" is an euphemism to "I don't want to take responsibility on how I react to the things that happens in the world"

[@sothakhal9841]

Luke claiming addict cope process is new lol. People have been making excuses for themselves since the dawn of time.

[@MpSniperM1911]

the only new thing is the vocabulary and dehumanization, but the excuse is there since the dawn of time, since the first humans actually

[@mechagodzyzzathotobliterat8094]

A wise teaching venerable Luke, Sadhu 🙏

[@jmt2192]

Excellent observations!

[@olsokoltokeb6173]

Another very good video. Excellent!

[@CGoody564]

To assume I wouldn't fap in front of people is a bold assumption indeed

[@gabrieloak8]

Yes Luke, you are right. People really wanna enjoy doing bad things but they don't wanna take responsibility for their actions. Sad but true. Even they know that these things can easily be overcome.

[@Boomproof]

Thank you Luke.

[@milkvolume1711]

People with serious behavioral problems use the "I'm not addicted because its not a physical addiction" excuse all the time. In order to downplay the seriousness of their problem. Sometimes its useful to frame harmful repetitive behavior as an addiction. After all, addiction is just a definition we assign to specific symptoms.

[@leteethgirl8778]

Not introspectively

[@NukeCloudstalker]

Calling it pathological, sure. Addiction it is not.

[@komali2]

@@NukeCloudstalker are you a doctor? What research do you have to counter the opinion of the American psychological association that people can be addicted to porn?

[@NukeCloudstalker]

​@@komali2 "ArE yOu A -insert title that I place undue value in-?" Get real. I don't even mind your taking issue with what I said - porn is a good example of an activity that most certainly is addiction. Seriously though - get that credentialism out of your head ASAP for your own wellbeing. A simple "what makes you say that?" would be much more conducive to proper conversation and arguments on the topic (and most all other topics, frankly). If you need papers created by people beholden to institutions, by people bestowed certain titles which you honor far too highly above their worth, in order to believe in something, you're unable to reach proper conclusions not only where it matters - but you're also unable to reach the right conclusions where they outright lie. And they do. A lot.

[@joemahma3017]

@@komali2what authority does psychology have to define us and our behavior? Look up the replication crisis. Psychology is bunkum.

[@tempname8263]

Thing is, sometimes people are just a chemical reaction. You get stuck in some condition of a mind, like a parallel state of consciousness with it's own skewed set of emotions and logic, that is dictated by your body and not by you. No matter what you do, no matter what sort of great images you think up in your mind, you can still feel uninspired and awful, hopeless about everything around you. Meanwhile someone else, while doing exactly the same thing, would be enjoying the best times of their lives. When you're outside of that state and feel like you are the master of your own mind, it gets real easy to judge people who don't get such good arrangement of controls over themselves. But yes, I understand where you're coming from. Feeling of self-control is insanely important for your mental health. That we can agree on.

[@overclucker]

For about three days I was wallowing in a cloud of negative emotions that I had no way of pulling myself out of. I was even thinking of suicide. Then I started to feel dizzy and had a cough. It was a cold. I realized that my body was lying to me about reality. I've learned to be more introspective about emotions from that. The trick is to catch it early and do something about it. I usually don't want to leave or go for a walk, so I make a sandwich, that's how I switch gears. There's a pretty successful cognitive behavioral therapy program called dialectic behavioral therapy (DBT) that deals with this kind of thing.

[@11010010110]

Excellent post.

[@stevenlaczko8688]

Exactly. This video is so judgy. He has a point but isn't seeing it from the other side.

[@overclucker]

@@stevenlaczko8688 It is judgy and lacking insight but it isn't unfair, nor is it untrue. We should all be trying to gain more control of ourselves, unless you think we are only a chemical reaction, nothing more. What sucks is that people are too trapped to see this.

[@roundedosu]

try meditation

[@logiconlyzone]

When it comes to chemical addictions if you stop there are often temporary but very difficult to overcome side effects. It’s not a small thing at all. However, I agree with you when it comes to non-chemical addictions.

[@osirisgolad]

It's like this with hazardous situations and injustice as well. Deep down you know something is wrong, but you ignore it and bullshit your way out of listening to your intuition. If you're an attentive person and listen to your instincts, you already know what to do before you have a logical reason to even suspect something is off, even though you can't quite put your finger on it at the time. Another good example of this is how the slippery slope argument is now being called a de facto logical fallacy. It's another attempt to undermine your early detection systems and make you into a robot who always goes along with everything until it's too late.

[@eatdapoopoo67]

thanks for the incredible content (As always) :)

[@francescopremsolidoro3858]

while I like these videos, this is not "modern" behaviour. It's really well depicted in many classic works, like Svevo's "Zeno's conscience", a lot of Kafka's books, and to an extent even Dostojevsky talks about it. Pretty sure it's also discussed by some latin authors (most likely by Sallustio or Seneca, since they did like this kind of topic). Still fun to hear your takes tho

[@michaelmccoubrey4211]

Even if you believe in determinism you still can't know your 'fate'. It might be that free will is an illusion but it certainly feels real, so you should always make 'choices' in your best interest.

[@victorkreig6089]

It's not an illusion, but your belief that your head isn't deeply lodged in your own ass is

[@orthocoinbitzantium1002]

Ive heard the phrase “freewill is a potential not an actual” -theoria apophsis

[@SoaringSuccubus]

Kant has the same concept as "living under the idea of reedom". Regardless whether there actually exists freedom of will, every single time we consider what to say or what to do, we necessarily presuppose a freedom of choice. It is impossible otherwise. Every single time someone says "I act as if I have no free will", they are lying. A freedom of will is always assumed in everything we do.

[@kalixzee7505]

Hey Luke, just wanted to thank you for making this video. I keep seeing it in my feed and I keep putting off watching it because I knew you would call out people like me. The one who knows how bad porn is, but justifies it sometimes. I finally forced myself to watch it, knowing how good your content is. I really enjoyed it and got a lot out of it. Will probably send the video to some friends also.

[@TheTastyPancake]

Do you think there is a middle way of looking at this? Me and my friends often speak of our brains in terms of dopamine and such, mostly to realize why certain things make us feel different things. We also acknowledge that the cards to make our lives better are at the end in our hands. There are different layers of reality. Imo the psychologists who also talk in terms of neuroscience also take into account the key to mastering the self, which is taking responsibility of your own actions (such as Jordan Peterson). Was the point of this video that we shouldn't forget the key to success, that we shouldn't forget the power of our own actions and decisions? Sometimes I think you're a bit too keen when making arguments, and I feel a bit of nuance is lost. But that's really why I love these videos: I don't agree on everything, but you always make me think from a new perspective. This is what free speech can accomplish, keep it up Luke!

[@gercai962]

This is true. people tend to blame their stupid actions or decisions to some stupid reasons instead of owning up to their actions and working on improving themselves

[@danequeed4129]

That first video helped me quit porn over a year ago, thanks alot man. I'm working on alcohol now. Not an alcoholic but definitely drinking too much

[@lewdie]

Good Topic, Luke. I would lay out the reasons why a person needs to control behavior as well (eg., stable future, productive children, etc.). People aren't going to hear these things elsewhere.

[@EdeYOlorDSZs]

OMG I was waiting for a resisting temptation 2.0 for a while!!!

[@apostleofazathoth7696]

Tell me about it! I've spent most of my adult life in and out of institutions and the degree to which we are encouraged to pathologize and dehumanize ourselves in those settings is quite striking. Personal responsibility is somehow antiquated. Twelve step groups in particular are the worst about this.

[@Nelson-sr2bi]

Good point about these N step groups. Imagine if on the first meeting, the clients all sat down, expecting to be treated tenderly like babies, and the leader, without any introduction, just shamed the shit out of them and told them to just stop, that it was unacceptable. How effective that'd be. It's historically proven because in tight communities social rules were strictly enforced, now that everybody's atomized, and independent of each other, it feels awkward and out of your personal jurisdiction to correct someone's behavior, even for their own good. You don't depend on them, so what right have you to hold them to any standard. Atomization is a major goal of the System. Therefore if it became more of a goal-accomplishing group than a mere gathering, social rules could easily be enforced with both carrot and stick, and not a single one of these 12 steps would have to cross one's mind. There wouldn't be any spare/alone time to jack off or eat too much or smoke secretly, you'd be busy ploughing the field and sitting down for 5 minutes would be heaven. They're so arbitrary anyways. It could just as easily be 9, 11, 13, or 14 steps, but 12 is a round number so some steps are invented for marketing purposes.

[@victorkreig6089]

Antiquated? Prior to the late aughts it was still extremely common. Stop using antiquated wrong makes you look silly

[@lovely-shrubbery8578]

@@victorkreig6089 nah you look silly

[@victorkreig6089]

@@lovely-shrubbery8578 using words improperly makes you look ignorant, but if you want to be thought of as stupid go right ahead

[@apostleofazathoth7696]

@@victorkreig6089 The key word is somehow.

[@leteethgirl8778]

good point about materialism and layers of abstraction. this is one of the problems I have with deleuze, so eager to bridge mind and body and that old platonic discontinuity, however sometimes we simply haven't done that, we need to operate with a discontinuity that approaches continuity through its progress. you can't invert that

[@floorfungus4209]

can you translate what you said to english

[@leteethgirl8778]

@@floorfungus4209 uhhh I could but it would take a lot more words and I'm just too lazy frankly

[@rootbsd1368]

Luke Smith dropping truth bombs out in those woods.

[@DigitalMetal]

Luke, Even though you are 100% correct, people will believe that they want. If saying their actions are out of their control makes them feel better about the things they do, they are going to continue to believe that. And if can be big things or small things. My Father for example will curse in front of my kids. Without me saying anything he will curse and then say, "I'm sorry I curse in front of your kids. It's just how I talk." Clearly he knows what he is doing is wrong, but refuses to change. He's an adult and should be able to control the words that come out of his mouth. He's not a puppet with someone's hand controlling what he says.

[@victorkreig6089]

This is the most defeatist post I have ever seen on a Luke vid, congratulations! I'd give you a medal but as you pointed out already that would be pointless wouldn't it?

[@pythoniste3289]

Luke you are my favorite spirit animal.

[@nix3l_]

what always helped me was imagining someone walking in on me doing whatever im “addicted” to and just imagining how awkward and degrading that would be. especially if it was someone i respect/admire

[@KingKong-mp6gj]

That's a good one! Always act in a way where you can look at yourself without shame.

[@victorkreig6089]

That's just exhibitionism and you know it

[@tuul6952]

It is widely accepted that behavioral addictions (like gambling, alcoholism, pornography etc) exist, not just by modern psychologists seeking to find excuses for vice, but also therapists and activists helping people escape these sorts of addictions. Materially the chemical brain processes of someone addicted to cocaine are the same compared to someone addicted to say, gambling. It's not so much chemical dependence, but rather the effect on rational decision making that defines an addiction. While I agree that people do bear the responsibility for their actions even if addicted, and that it often becomes a cope and an excuse, it's not helpful to merely call out these people as weak willed. It is helpful to recognize the mechanisms of addiction, of dopamine, of DeltaFosB etc and learn ways to manipulate these mechanisms to gain control over their behavior.

[@sergioBlancoGonzales]

I agree completely with you, but that last part of manipulate people's brain chemistry it's just for people with extremely deteriorated mental health by these addictions.

[@leteethgirl8778]

It's useful for other people to try that for you, if you use this introspectively you have already given up.

[@alternateperson6600]

Some addictions are physiological, but most (certainly not pr0n or junk food) aren't.

[@internetguy8075]

I was going to write this in the comments, but I'm glad someone else already had the same issue with that part of the video as well. Correctly identifying something as a behavioural addiction is not the same as making excuses for the behaviour. No matter how strong an addiction is, the addict still bears full responsibility for his own actions and is responsible for addressing the addiction. I used to have a drinking problem, now over 4 years sober. Yes, the physical addiction made it harder to quit, but no, it was not the thing stopping me from quitting. The thing stopping me from quitting was the psychology behind why I drank. It's the same deal with heroin, cocaine and behavioural addictions like porn and gambling addictions. I fully agree with the overarching point Luke makes though, taking responsibility is the only way out.

[@dasenase]

Luke's views on behavioral addictions are extremely one dimensional. His line of thinking is a trad-chad larp.

[@LawrenceHe]

need more videos like this

[@EstifanosTZewde]

Spot on!!

[@transberg]

Please sir do a video on Emacs. You are so good in software I would love to see you talk about elisp and other emacs tools. Thank you sir.

[@fonus137c]

advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn't

[@porky1118]

I don't even try to stop my (bad) habits most of the time. When I want to stop some habit, I just stop it. And sometimes I realize afterwards, I don't really want to stop my habit. I just feel worse than before without doing anything productive instead. I just have less fun, and replaced one bad habit by some worse one. I think what's most important to stop bad habits is something to do instead. For example doing sports every day. Or working on some projects.

[@JohnSmith-ry7wh]

I'm guessing you never been a heroin addict

[@lindboknifeandtool]

That’s how I quit drinking and even xanax.

[@cruzmacias3257]

Hilarious that an ad came on mid video advising exactly what Luke is advising against, "you must do these 5 things to stop fapping and start having the best sex of your life with a real loving partner". No, there is one thing that must be done, submit to the Lord. And then the video comes back on and Luke starts talking about the sermon on the mount: the irony.

[@XdgamehackerXd]

I always love your perspectives. One thing I found out personally is if you truly want to be self serving then you’ll avoid temptation to do bad things bc you love yourself 😊

[@cjwhite2631]

As a sinner, and a fentanyl and coke addict. I do have an addiction, which is also a sin(sorcery and pharmekia) What he’s referring to is the “jargon” demons use

[@josephmueller3752]

Dopamine = sin; the pseudopsychologists and neuroscientists are simply horrified at the thought of associating something to religion

[@fakename3208]

Took me about a year to stop touching myself. This is the key. Protect your mind, guard it against lust, and you get to the root of the problem.

[@daha4060]

I kind of hate the science of psychology I took AP psychology in school but I hated it and I did pass it . And it was because like you said it gives us self-serving excuses for our actions and dehumanizes humans by making them seem like they can't control themselves. I get how it can be useful in many things but still I don't like it and regret studying it.

[@redrustyhill2]

Is it Excuses or is it reasons which your cognitive dissonance won't allow you to accept?

[@AncientMarinerNY]

Man, that green screen looks amazing. Good sound editing too.

[@StevenOBrien]

You can tell though that they made him bald because hair is too difficult to render realistically. Kind of a cop-out imo.

[@myegane49]

the world needs to see this video

[@dallasupton]

Being a physics student I try to use determinism as a positive thing. The universe comes to you and through you and you have no idea what your real limits are or what is in store. But it means getting into a flow and forgetting determinism doesn't exist and you have agency so you can effectively participate in the dance of life

[@dugglebay3483]

Who said that free will cannot exist in a deterministic universe? It sounds paradoxical, but if you think about it, it isn’t really. You are still free to choose whatever you want, it’s just the case that you will choose the same thing every time. And how could you possibly know, until you actually make the decision?

[@NukeCloudstalker]

Determinism implies fate and destiny. If that is such, then why not pursue the most glorious one? It was meant to be anyway. I'm not a firm believer of determinism. It's an exercise in futility to dwell on, not that I haven't. But really, it's more productive to believe, truly, in the most meaningful interpretation of the facts, and any room for doubt should be filled with meaning and purpose. The facts of the matter is we don't know whether determinism, free will (whatever that nebulous term means), and so on, is reality or not. Granted our ignorance, assume the best and work from that. If you turn out wrong, you're no worse from it. If you turn out right, you've won your world.

[@dallasupton]

I think you can live a glorious life in the context of determinism. I mean if it wasn't it would mean physics is inconsistent and impossible to fully understand. The universe is chaotic but deterministic. We just have to forget about that to function though and pretend like everyone does. You can't separate action and reaction like how this video triggered me to write this and this post triggered yall to make these comments

[@NukeCloudstalker]

@@dallasupton I think the delusion is the other way around - there are higher principles at play. Action and reaction does not imply that there is not a one to many or many to one relationship between the two at times - and that being the case, we truly have no way of knowing which is which, nor what the process of selection of reactions to actions (so on and so forth) is really like. To think we know that action->reaction is the ultimate truth is just as foolhardy as people think the ancient Greeks were when they thought things fell because they yearned to be with the ground which was where their primary element (earth) had their origins. Frankly, we don't even know if the laws of physics change under certain circumstances (within or without the world as we know it). Hell, we don't even know much about metaphysics safe for what resonates enough with our most inner being for us to take for granted - some call one thing irrational, others call the same thing perfectly reasonable. In truth, it's a matter of finding coherent axioms. The choice of which is... well, how do you choose axioms? Anyone with experience with formal math, will know that that is more or less a question of philosophy and metaphysics in particular. In short, what I want to say is that anyone subscribing to determinism, are nihilistic losers that need to get their heads out of their ass and decide to live in a better world - rather than pretend they are simply a continuous unpredictable chain-reaction. Stop mind-cucking yourself with that nihilistic g*y shit.

[@thnxm8]

"a soyentist" lmaoo

[@albero4393]

People who put too much emphasis on personal responsibility (like unaboomer here, who lately has been leaning a bit too much into the anti-social sciences, anti-sjw, rabbit hole) are just being played to direct their anger towards mentally ill people. This creates a scapegoat effect which is good to build a sense of community. Truth seems to be that some people have mental illnesses that activate under particular circumstances and are extremely hard to escape. Maybe these simplistic methods of "call to personal responsibility" might have worked for some viewers, but that doesn't mean that their situation is the same as that of everyone (the scapegoats). I say follow the science and go talk to a therapist if you're experiencing mental problems, don't fall for the anti-science paranoia. My non-expert advice would be that of Luke but without the scapegoat thing. Develop positive thought patterns (yes, what you THINK matters a lot) and healthy habits incrementally. Little by little, every day. Clean your mind, clean your habits, be grateful for your progress and record the newly developed habits. When you're done with one habit, work towards another; even going out every morning to talk with a neighbor on a topic that interests you and gives you happy feelings is a good start. Nothing interests you? Pick a topic! Chess is nice, bash is good, bible studies even, anything goes as long as you interact with good people. There, I did it, I managed to give general life advice on the internet without being an asshole. Guess I won't generate as much upvotes, though, as my "don't beat yourself up" basic-granny-advice is much less exiting than "western civilization is failing, but you can be part of my special chad creed by denigrating the right group". The fucked up thing is that humanity sucks ass and we kind of fall for these things genetically speaking. Anger relieves stress (kind of) and feeling part of a group also does (no matter its values). Still you can choose your own interests, just please choose a group which doesn't make anger and resentment the center of its life philosophy. I recommend that you watch this boomer for the rants on tech and the bash advice without taking him too seriously (I'm sure he himself doesn't lmao) also python is actually good and you don't have to do everything in bash all the time (yes, I said it). Haskell is way better than both though you submissive procedural programming sheeple smh.

[@oodoodo344]

Without considering the toxic Christian brainwashing where Christ is the cure for everything, from cancer to depression. They're so blind that they find fault in others taking the obvious, bad, over exaggerated examples without considering how many damages christianity has made trying to heal serious mental illness. Why do they do that? To the benefit of their collective ego? For the sake of being always right even when they aren't? They're like smokers who says that smoking doesn't make any damage if you do this or that thing. It's pathetic and alarming at the same time. Again don't trust KZbin videos if you struggle with a serious problem, go to a therapist / doctor and follow him. And instead of spending a lot of time on this platform without getting anything out of it, read some books, do something useful. I think that people watching pornography will lose even less time jerking off than watching all this (christian, but even atheist, "scientist", left wing, right wing, etcetera) youtubers. I came here after months because I was bored and I find this smart comment. And this is important: we're talking about serious topics for which the solution is not "get a cold shower" or "order your room". If we talk about software then he can says whatever he wants (fedora is the best distro, gnome 40 the best DE, Python scripts sometimes are gold), even though this guy clearly doesn't know anything about software development, algorithms and data structures, computational complexity, functional programming etcetera. Albero, dal tuo nome deduco tu sia italiano, hai lasciato davvero un bel commento, complimenti.

[@michael-er9is]

I hope the /s was referring to your entire post and not just the last sentence.

[@greatmouse9420]

Excellent satire

[@albero4393]

@@michael-er9is no

[@albero4393]

@@greatmouse9420 Everything I said is totally honest and factual (based on modern science)

[@hyunjinpark5086]

"Desire must have unbounded space for its excursions, if it transgresses nature's mean. For this has its bounds, but waywardness and the acts that spring from wilful lust are without boundaries ... It is for this reason that men sink themselves in pleasures, and they cannot do without them when once they have become accustomed to them, and for this reason they are most wretched, because they have reached such a pass that what was once superfluous to them has become indispensable." - Seneca, Epistulae morales ad Lucilium, Letter 39.

[@KaiserTheAdversary]

This man speaks the truth.

[@BenMordecai]

It is always cringe to not take responsibility for your actions, but it's still possible to be fully willing to accept responsibility for your actions and yet just run into a pattern of succumbing to temptation for no rational reason. Not saying it is excusable but it can still be difficult to understand why you choose to do something that you know is bad in exchange for short term gratification. I keep in mind the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness... SELF CONTROL. Although the biochemical reaction, soyence cope is a modern phenomenon, there has always been a war between the carnal man and the spiritual man (the Spirit-filled man). It strikes me that the fundamental gateway to exercising real self control is to cultivate the fruit of the Spirit, which involves prayer, meditation, study of the Word, church attendance, the Lord's Supper, etc. The practices of avoidance you describe (not looking at bikini pictures) can be seen as a component of meditation. What you choose to put before your eyes is what you choose to meditate upon.

[@teacon7]

Solid points. Makes me wonder how reliable the 'willpower is a finite quantity' line really is. Whether it is or isn't, the Christian idea of fasting to discipline desires is a really useful one. Don't idolize your belly (or any organ that desires)!

[@recursion.]

Luke you're actually just describing me but I dont know if I should keep continue to pretend as dopamine addict or just sit up and do my chores.

[@victorkreig6089]

treat them as a challenge and then as a skill to hone, you'd be surprised how much easier chores are when you are trying to beat a record you have previously set

[@unidorsalicosahedron7416]

I'm tempted to think that humans are just the same they've always been, and so this is just one of those perennial woes. Sure, you can always do something about it, but not completely eliminate issues like these. You're making a lot of valid points though. Especially with psychology being what it is; it's one of those things that i believe is in sore need of a reality check and sanity check. One thing that comes to mind is CBT, which seems to be a nexus to a lot of this artificial helplessness, and IME as a patient, just seeks to repress and invalidate. Personally, I'd say I felt _worse_ after, not better.

[@bohuslavpavlyshynets]

Make a video about your watch. I am very interested.

[@sirtalkalot3211]

People have been talking about sins like this for at least the last 1000 years. "Oh no, I was overcome with temptation, I couldn't help myself"

[@victorkreig6089]

Sin is a pathetic word to slather over basic human emotion and desires Stop being so one dimensional

I actually prefer the term spontaneous self coombustion

[@MpSniperM1911]

lol

[@gyattrizzV]

"I have a dopamine addiction" "I am retarded"

[@satyajitchandankar418]

impressive very nice

[@mattcall90]

I used to be like this with eating lol, how wrong I was.

[@Usertrappedindatabase]

watched this 2 weeks ago, still like/comment for the algo how's hugo going? Not lots of good documentation for specifically nginx with hugo

[@John-nf7ce]

Another banger

[@LittleMushroomGuy]

I believe that Aristotle worked out the concept of pathos as "owning" your own emotions and taking responsibility to how you act in your everyday life. Even back then people were finding excuses in things that they describe as being above them, while actually being they themselves (for the greeks its emotions, today its emotions but chemicals!) Recently I also read some of Heideggers writings on this idea and I like his idea how now owning up to yourself is a downwards spiral, and there is no way out of this unless you yourself decide to own up, to look at your life as a whole, to take responsibility. And they both are right, I had an *bannedword* addict friend and regardless the amount of support you gave them he would return to his habits.

[@lindboknifeandtool]

First thing I remember knowin, it’s a lonesome whistle blowin, and a youngins dream of growin up to riiide

[@bahshas]

bannedword addict? what does that mean, he just could not stop saying the nword?

[@alkeryn1700]

i wish i had a plugin or software that'd just black out all pictures of women. although that's quite not it, i do use custom css to remove "recomended" and thumbnails and whatnot on various websites including youtube.

[@benj6964]

What would Jaynes say of that ?

[@orthocoinbitzantium1002]

Your vid from a year ago did help along with prayer; you were right about the 2 month thing. It was not easy cause I literally had demonic dreams followed by wet dreams; like some freaky vampire demon was throwing me in the air, whole body was petrified, freaky stuff.

[@victorkreig6089]

yeah I don't think that is in any way shape or form normal

[@lecrovidae6987]

@@victorkreig6089 Maybe not, but I've had similar experiences. Though on an unrelated note I hate how gay the word "experience" sounds now. "It's all about the /experience/ man." My gaming experience. My satisfactory experience. bleh

[@sockpastarock7082]

@@lecrovidae6987 imagine using "gay" to express discontent in 2022

[@lecrovidae6987]

@@sockpastarock7082 cry

[@sockpastarock7082]

@@lecrovidae6987 😂😂😂

[@freedomofspeech2867]

Could you do one of these videos through a local campings sight/ beach? Completely ignoring the people as if they weren't there? Their facial expressions and being forced into a sudden reality check would be priceless.

[@desktorp]

halfway thru his rant, it abruptly cuts to him running from a pack of seething, pitchfork & torch-wielding coomers.

[@SoaringSuccubus]

The thing with all this "neural science" and "brain chemistry" is that it seems to change everything about free will, while in reality it changes absolutely nothing. That we can explain the "chemical processes" under the hut does not change what happens on the drivers seat. If you turn the wheel right, car turns right, regardless whether you understand the mechanics or not. Saying someone has an "addiction" is functionally equivalent to saying "someone with shitty habbits is more likely to keep having shitty habbits". The ability to give exact mechanical description of thoughts as chemical processes does not alter the fact that they remain thoughts regardless. An understanding of the car motor does not change how the wheel works. A chemical understanding of thoughts has just as little effect on free will as understanding them as habbits. A brain scan depicting an addicted brain is functionally equivalent to a video depicting addictive behavior, as far as free will is concerned. I believe the only reason why most people treat the two differently is the novelty of the former - people haven't really had time to fully digest the scientific discoveries and are thus confused. Immanuel Kant knew it centuries ago.

[@ArmandoCalderon]

There's 2 motivation: Pleasure and pain. Be careful went pain become pleasure.

[@austinjames5516]

Thank you father Luke, twas an excellent confession

[@mainchannel1566]

I've always found it odd that drug rehab centers allow patients to smoke. You're just swapping bad habits, rather than getting rid of a bad habit.

[@JohnSmith-ry7wh]

They're trying to break you of the habit that is putting you in jail, making you do insane things and is probably nearly killing you daily. They're not trying to make you into a perfect person, just attempting to get you out of the dance of death. And make money. Lots of money.

[@AK-hf3pf]

Youth Pastor Luke smith dropping truth bombs.

[@ButthurtNinja]

When's that TempleOS2 dropping Luke

[@SimGunther]

8:09 And this "going 90% of the way instead of preventing" is also the excuse (some lemmings and most powerful) people use for creating problems instead of solving them so they seem "economically conscious" or "continuously grow the economy" for the voter base. This line of thinking removes all responsibility from the people who are supposed to SOLVE PROBLEMS at the highest level of "authority" and pushes that responsibility to people "consooming" the very stuff that is pushing them to buy stuff they don't need and blame everyone else for their needless spending. This also explains why you see policies that are contrarian to the belief that you need to "save money" because they're "supposed" to stimulate the economy when in reality it's a balance between saving and stocking up on essential goods rather than frivolously spending and expecting a bailout because this spending must be someone else's problem and those who save monies is a "leech" on soyciety.

[@Rattifant]

This video is pure gold. I'm so fed up with the soyence clowns telling people they're basically robots with no personal responsibility except for fitting into the system. Basically every mainstream soyence clown talks about living creatures being "machines". It's all by design of course. They want you to be that "I trust the soyence. Please enlighten me Daddy Dawkins..." type of NPC. Wake the fuck up. You're (almost) always in control and responsible for your actions. Stop playing the victim. Do some actual inner work.

[@victorkreig6089]

Luke did you ever think that you'd be doing this earlier in your life? Making videos extolling the most basic of concepts because the world had shifted so radically in one direction that most people had outright rejected them out of fear? Either way props for doing it when you could just ignore society and everyone in it

[@Nicolas-qc3jf]

2:58 How do you explain girls twerking in public then? or "people" who are into exposition?

[@porky1118]

I'm currently doing a 20% tactics instead of 90%. I don't watch videos of real people doing the extreme stuff I'm currently interested in, but I look at drawings, which are recommended to me in some social network. I wouldn't say, I try to resist. It's not hard. I don't really see a reason, why I should resist in general. I see a reason why I should resist the most extreme stuff: It's a waste of time and I often don't get enough sleep partially because of that. Besides that it's often not as much fun as I hope, so maybe it's more fun to transfer most of the responsibility to my fantasy again ;)

[@PROtoss987]

0% more like, the drawings are the same thing and just as degenerate

[@hartmannsson]

Amen!

[@snipzmattio5887]

Based video

[@coscorrodrift]

What's your take on stuff like actual ADHD, OCD, autism spectrum (not "i'm autistic bc i browse the chans", actual autistic people)? I have friends like that: one ADHD, diagnosed. a dude that was annoying as hell and hella troublesome as a kid and got on pills etc, now he is still hella annoying, and sometimes posts stuff about ADHD awareness and shit like that on socials; and one OCD+aspie, just someone who had tics and weird OCD habits, weird person socially (but not stereotypically shy actually, mostly seems "unaware of social norms" but he's outspoken, and also has a loud tone of voice), also on meds. he's also very catholic and pious. IMO he is too focused on culture war type shit but he is a faithful person and follows the rites and traditions by the book (i assume literally). For one of them, the ADHD one, IMO even though he has a "diagnosis", I feel like the contents of this video still apply. For example in terms of friendship, this dude just acts in some random ass ways that maybe someone would say "omg but he's ADHD please understand" when he's just plainly being a bad friend. But for example, with my other friend, if the dude speaks loudly at a restaurant and everyone looks at us and we're embarassed, I mean, that's just "not his fault", we always tell him to stfu lol but if we hang out with him it's something we gotta deal with, that's just intrinsic to him, it's not something he can really control, no matter how much you tell him he's weak willed or how much he reads the word of Christ or whatever lol. It's not a problem but if he was like my other friend and just coped and was like "omg im so trapped by my OCD" or whatever, he'd be right I have some thoughts about how this "resisting temptation" thinking is taken too far for my taste using my friend as an example but I don't think anyone's reading this far, and it's not a theory set in stone either, it's more of a speculative thing so I'll just share those thoughts upon request

[@victorkreig6089]

It can be real, sometimes people just have crossed synapse; other times it's a behavioral tick I was born prematurely therefore until I hit about 8 I was underdeveloped for my age, coincidentally up until about the age of 9 I was thought to have OCD and showed every symptom of such without having any knowledge of the concept to begin with. Saying I "grew out of it" while apt assuages over the fact that I just had a mental quip that I hadn't developed far enough to break free of. They do exist rest assured, but many people are talked into it or just never are given the room to grow out of it, especially when there are drugs for it, something I never took which kept me from developing a complex I am sure

[@eccoakadicco]

I relate with both of your friends. I will say OCD is definitely real, and it is just awful. I get stuck in those trances and I literally cannot stop myself from performing the action, be it hair pulling, nail biting... the list goes on- embarrassingly so. Literally cannot stop, no matter how hard I try, eventually my anxiety will break and I will seek catharsis through the self harm of my compulsive acts. It's not as simple as "don't do it". For me there is a total disconnect between my body and mind when I get into one of these sessions. Head's in hell and my hands bound to pulling or picking. Sometimes I wonder if I'm just an aspie of some sort with a "stimming issue" or genuinely ADHD/OCD like my doc tells me. Either explaination would make sense to me. I've always been socially awkward. Regardless, I've come to find that the two most effective ways to deal with my issues (all of which, as I understand it overlap between ASD, ADHD and OCD, go figure) are pharmaceutical drugs (SSRIs, amphetamines), and mindfulness/meditation. The former of the former makes me feel like an emotionless zombie, the other genuinely does work but stimulants are such a slippery slope. I'd be lying if I told you I never got high on my meds. That's definitely not a good thing so I cut that shit out but still bounce back and forth between whether I should, or shouldn't take them. Meditation requires extreme focus, something which I lack (and something that amphetamine brings) due to these obsessive thoughts and distractions. I've only ever been able to truly "meditate" after eating some mushrooms and "taking a step out of my room into the hall", so to say. Recalling back to those experiences helps me transcend the bullshit I've put myself and others through, be it willingly or not, and get a firm grasp on myself. Despite this awareness it is still difficult to put my mind to rest and overcome the compulsive nonsense. I think it boils down to pure willpower. It's either you want to do something, or you don't. There's no in-between. If you have autonomy and awareness enough to know that something is wrong with yourself, you have no excuse not to at least work and better yourself, even if it's little by little. And if you can change a little, you can change a lot. This is where the mindfulness thing comes into play. The human mind is the best tool we have access to, and it just boils down to whether you want to use it or not. For some, they lack the self awareness. Others are too self centered to care. Narcissism runs rampant in this day and age. Those who chalk up everything to just "uh it's just my ADD" or "sorry I have OCD" it's just pure and plain bullshit. I dunno about autism, but aspies seem aware enough to understand the consequences of their actions. At least the ones I've interacted with did. You have to take into account a person's upbringing before you can determine if they're truly ASD/ADHD/OCD or not. For some this behavior is a reaction to their environment. Others, it's purely genetic. And of course, there are people for which it's a mix of both. This topic, at least to me is extremely complex, a lot of stuff needs to be considered. There are many factors that play into why a person would behave the way they do. But believe me man, conditions like this are real and people do suffer from them, but you will encounter those who use them, or hell even falsify them as an excuse to justify their shitty behavior. Apologies if this comment is long winded or trails off into nonsense. I'm a tired stream of consciousness right now. Hope you got something out of my anecdote!

[@davidr2421]

Strategic timing, uploading this on 4/20

[@cellardoor9882]

Addiction doesn't neccesarily mean physical addiction. You for sure can be addicted to a certain behavuour, like thoughts or gaming as well. If addict stops gaming, he won't be foraming out of his mouth. But labeling stuff as an addiction does have tendency to refuse responsibility

[@sumkindacheeto]

0:20 "I'm actually a giant chemical reaction" AKA "I'm the bomb and I'm about to blow up"

[@creonte38]

I see your vídeos and think if you like to make orienteering maps it will be nice to represent your local. Did you know something about orienteering maps? I think it is good way to relax.

[@ComputingTheSoul]

My dude, you say that Pornography addiction doesn't have that sort of effect, but before the Rosary and the Pslams helped me break it, as I was finally properly quitting, I unironically got sweats. It was weird and it was a very heavy addiction. It can have a physiological effect.

[@braysgmail8200]

Watch John Doyle’s video essay on pornography addiction. He pulled over 100 studies, is very well read, and compounds the information into about an hour and a half.

[@zaarongaming8174]

​@@braysgmail8200 Ditto, Doyle's anti-pornography dissertation is sublime. Luke's video here is very good, but his point that porn isn't on the same level as a chemical addiction is quite misinformed; it literally hijacks the strongest hardware in your brain, making it extremely hard to quit. But he's certainly right when he says you always possess the power to overcome the compulsion; you always have the power to stop yourself.

[@wiskdee]

it’s just a decision, you are not your thoughts or feelings, you are you actions. only actions count.