Comments by "Susan Mercurio" (@susanmercurio1060) on "Academy of Ideas" channel.

  1. This is why the freedom of Julian Assange isn't a win: he was forced to admit to a crime instead of being freed for freedom of the press.
    557
  2. 2:00 I have always believed that killing the body isn't the worst moral crime. Killing the spirit is much worse.
    549
  3. My primary care doctor found a lump in my breast and I just told it to go away. I was on the brink of getting custody of my grandchildren and I just didn't have time to have cancer. The next time I went to the doctor, it was gone. She was completely baffled, but I didn't tell her what I had said because I was afraid that she would think I was crazy.
    168
  4. 0:32 ...or child
    13
  5. 1:05 Every time someone wants to oppress others, they tell their victims that it will be "for their own good."
    10
  6.  @maartjunior23  I didn't say that anyone has the right to take away another person's life. But I also strongly believe that they don't have the right to destroy a person's spirit and then leave them to suffer for the rest of their life.
    10
  7. I don't think that propaganda is value neutral: 1) you need to present both sides fairly; and 2) you need to allow people to hear other points of view and weigh the evidence. Hitler clearly stated that propaganda isn't value neutral.
    8
  8. I'm not up on the latest slang. What is "cope"?
    8
  9. @LilyFlowers-hh3sc  Thank you for explaining it. I can see that it could be used as a way to put someone else down.
    8
  10. Congratulations on your 7 years of sobriety! 🎉
    5
  11. I saw a study of pessimism vs optimism which discovered that pessimists have a clearer idea of reality than optimists, because they saw reality more clearly.
    5
  12. Actually, Dr Peter Salerno said that narcissism is hard-wired in the central nervous system and they aren't insecure at all. He's on YouTube.
    5
  13. I was cursed by having one for a daughter.
    5
  14. But, instead of feeling sorry that you didn't have a role model, you could look at it as being freed from the old, toxic model to an open space where you get to create the next model. Flip it around. You may be lucky that you didn't have a dad in your life to teach you bad ways. Maybe you didn't plan to be an entrepreneur. Life thought otherwise.
    5
  15. Why do you attribute the drive to create something to the "selfish" gene? Why not the "altruistic" gene? You're trapped in your own mindset.
    4
  16. 4:34 Americans, beware! This is happening in the US now.
    4
  17. There's a difference between self-confidence and narcissism.
    4
  18.  @Madasin_Paine  You're accusing ME of insensitivity? I know that Julian was tortured into confessing to a crime. That's my point: he shouldn't have had to confess to anything, since the press is supposedly protected in the United States of America. The people who tortured him should be the ones confessing to a crime.
    3
  19. In the 19th century, Thorstein Veblen explained that mastery is possible if you don't have to work a grueling job; it's a benefit of being a member of the Leisure Class.
    3
  20. Finally, an explanation of my mother. She wasn't a narcissist; she was neurotic.
    3
  21.  @sonnydayz1745  : I don't care if he was a two-headed Martian. He had great ideas. Stop being afraid of Freemasonry.
    3
  22. ​ @JustinMetanoia Thank you for sharing your struggles with us. You may not know it, but your honesty may help someone else who faces the same difficulty.
    3
  23. That's a good suggestion. Maybe Academy of Ideas doesn't want to offend powerful forces?
    3
  24. 1:05 Not 17 or 18, more like 12 3:00 What about the father who abandons the family? In many cases, the mother is left as the only parent. You need to lay the blame at the lack of the father figure. 5:48 What about the son who has no father? 6:50 In the 1980s, in Minneapolis there were billboards that said, "Most men spend more time shaving than they do with their kids."
    3
  25.  @YeetTheMeat  : In anthropology class, I learned that the more separate the male and female roles, the more violent the society.
    3
  26. 5:20 Hitler said that you only need to boil your idea down to what we would call now a "soundbite" and repeat it over and over to get the people to believe it.
    3
  27. I had a childhood like yours as you described it. I too took LSD in 1968. Now, after a difficult adult life, I prefer being alone with my animals, as well.
    3
  28. You might just be an introvert.
    3
  29. 1:35 This picture looks like Democrat v Republican.
    2
  30.  @delcapslock100  : He said "most."
    2
  31. I have more courage than good sense.
    2
  32. The late Dr Gene Sharp said that fear breeds submission.
    2
  33. Could you try relaxing and accepting yourself? Have some compassion for what you go through.
    2
  34. I personally disliked Rollo May. He examined his own experiences and then extrapolated from this to claim that this applied to everyone. He quoted poets. He had a statistical N of 1 (one), at best.
    2
  35. Please look up Modern Monetary Theory (MMT), because it explains why your taxes don't fund spending programs at the Federal level. Those of us who understand it want to get the rest of us to learn it also, because it is a tool that helps you to see through the lies that our politicians are telling us. You can find it on The Rogue Scholar, MMT Mondays, Macro'n'Cheese, or Real Progressives on YouTube. Stephanie Kelton also has several great videos on YouTube about it.
    2
  36. Ann Lembke must be talking about the comfortable suburban bourgeoisie, because any child in a traumatic childhood that feels pain followed by pain. No pleasure followed by pain.
    2
  37.  @bonnie7898  : My father died before my third birthday. I grew up without a father too.
    2
  38. I am a hippy, and hippies don't fear death; we considered it to be another stage of life. But we did believe in something beyond ourselves.
    2
  39. Sadly, my mother, for reasons of family dynamics, didn't want to be pregnant with me but I came along anyway. She was very young (married; my father had just come back from WWII) and she blamed me. My earliest memories were of her gaslighting me. The very earliest memory was of her saying such things about me that, as a tiny girl, I said to myself, "I'm not that little girl. I'm this little girl. I'm...ME." I knew that there was nothing wrong with me. I knew that she was wrong. Psychologists say that the child will always blame themselves because they can't admit that their parents are wrong. That's not true. It didn't happen to me. I am so glad that I was able to see through the bullshit that early in my life. I have kept that belief since then: I am ME.
    2
  40.  @YeeWhoEnterHere  I also have C-PTSD. I'm glad I didn't blame myself, but I didn't escape harm-free. I don't think I will ever "recover" but I can live without the pain.
    2
  41. 2:25 Conformity also wastes valuable human resources which could be used to improve society. Look at Thoreau.
    2
  42. Why would you want to change core features of your psyche, unless you hate yourself? I can understand wanting to change bad habits, even psychological habits such as neuroses. But core ?
    2
  43. Good for you! I refuse also.
    2
  44.  @AE-xb9uw  : And making or using a fake ID is illegal, too, but people still do it. Every time They make something illegal, like Prohibition or The War on Drugs, people will do it anyway and find ways to get around it.
    2
  45. The CIA?? Like the US doesn't brainwash its citizens! 10:10 This is how they do it: create fear and then offer a solution. It's used to divert people's attention from their domestic policy of fleecing the populace.
    2
  46. Dr Gene Sharp said, "Fear breeds submission."
    2
  47. Read Alexandr Solzenhitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago. He says a lot of the same things about the Russian people. It crept up on them slowly, then they were too afraid to speak up.
    1
  48. This was great and very thought-provoking.
    1
  49. Watch How to Start a Revolution DVD documentary and read From Dictatorship to Democracy the book.
    1
  50.  @sensi247  : Great! The more people we get on board with this, the easier we can get it going.
    1
  51. 0:09 This is what Jesus meant when he said, "The path to Heaven is narrow."
    1
  52. You are only aware of being on this ride, one ride at a time.
    1
  53. The traditional male role was so toxic that it really shouldn't be repeated, anyway. A new psychology of manhood must be created. This is a wonderful time to be a man, since you have the opportunity to create the next style that will be carried forward.
    1
  54. They say that if you are normal in abnormal times, there is something wrong with you.
    1
  55. I'm guilty of some of that. But I've had a very adventurous life, so a lot is validation.
    1
  56. Becker's Conformist sounds exactly like Eric Hoffer's True Believer. And I disagree with Becker that the fear of death is the driving force of humans.
    1
  57. "We have to be okay with that for now" is exactly what the Germans said! Did you learn nothing from the video?
    1
  58.  @elwoodblues9613  : And we will never "get back to normal," because they're now admitting that Covid is here to stay.
    1
  59. 1:42 This is what I think Jesus meant: Not "be like me" (be me) but "be like me" (become yourself and follow your path the way I'm following mine."
    1
  60. "Skip" ha ha ha
    1
  61. I think that this is what Jesus meant when he said, "The way [to heaven] is narrow": that each of us has our own path to tread.
    1
  62. So Peskov was like the White Rose in Nazi Germany.
    1
  63. 6:30 What Russell calls "underground," I call "behind the curtain," like there's a computer hidden backstage and I send the problem to it for the answer.
    1
  64.  @swingingelephant3415  Oh, yeah, that's right. That's why the CIA was planning to assassinate him during the Trump administration. Brilliant!
    1
  65.  @shuffman8094  Well, I certainly agree with you
    1
  66. 11:20 Or the travels to the depths...
    1
  67. The US CDC paid to create the gain-of-function Covid virus and then unleashed it on the world. What do you think should be done to them?
    1
  68.  @donnellboykin3779  : In the case of voting for Biden to get Trump out of office, there was almost total fear that was manipulated by the Democratic Party. That was Trump's value to the liberals, starting with Hillary Clinton.
    1
  69.  @sibanought  : And now those same healthcare workers would rather lose their jobs than be forced to take the jab. How do you figure that?
    1
  70.  @benlotus2703  : It has now been proved that the US CDC paid for the creation of the Covid-19 virus in the lab in Wuhan, partly because the science couldn't be done here in the United States. It was a win-win: send the work to China and then blame China, our new worst enemy, for it. How do you feel, knowing that you fell for the propaganda?
    1
  71.  @annmarieknapp  : I'm glad you survived. We are never going to get past Covid; it's going to be here permanently. At least you now have natural immunity and won't have to take a booster every month. I'd rather get it and get over it, like you did, than enrich the pharmaceutical industry even more than it already is.
    1
  72.  @BestIsntEasy : Oh, whatever. Whatever you believe, keep on believing it.
    1
  73. Mainstream psychologists and psychiatrists make the mistake of considering that the psyche is only internal and inside the person's head. Lower should have used the word "assertiveness" rather than "aggressive."
    1
  74. It helps if you accept that you are going to die soon.
    1
  75. Hey, we hippies constructed "parallel structures," except that the media cooperated with the corporate government to minimize and demonize us.
    1
  76.  @BlackRain_  : Yes, we did! That was what the lifestyle was all about. We tried to break away from the conventional, American way of life, which unthinkingly supported the military (and especially) industrial complex; was based, we felt, on false values; and was based on consumption which was going to destroy the Earth, which we loved ("hippy tree-huggers"). We learned from Eastern religions and the Native American belief systems. We lived communally, partly because we realized that every household doesn't need one washing machine and dryer (more consumption). We moved "back to the land." We tried to find alternative jobs, or created them (light shows, craft stores and organic grocery stores). Possibly more people would have respected us if we had done all of that in three-piece business suits. The mainstream media helped the government marginalize and demonize us. (The government has now admitted that they made marijuana illegal so as to have an excuse to arrest the members of the counter-culture.)
    1
  77. Read The True Believer
    1
  78. Dr Peter Salerno says that it is mostly nature, and he has proof. He's on YouTube.
    1
  79. 9:23 What La Boetie said is exactly what we hippies were practicing in the 1960s: just drop out.
    1
  80. Well, according to Gabor Mate, it's a miracle that I'm not an addict! I had a physically present but emotionally distant and hostile mother. How is it possible that I didn't end up an addict?
    1
  81. Dr Gene Sharp said, "Fear breeds submission" in From Dictatorship to Democracy.
    1
  82. If you don't already, read Caitlin Johnstone on her website. She writes frequently about keeping your head clear of propaganda.
    1
  83. Ronald Reagan never could admit to this truth.
    1
  84.  @mercedesdunn2314  Yes, cysts can occur in your cycle, but it wasn't a cyst. I've had those. This was different.
    1
  85. Read The Theory of the Leisure Class by Thorstein Veblen which explains how we got here.
    1
  86. 0:30 Children don't lose the creative traits, they are crushed out of them.
    1
  87. The West isn't free-er than the dystopia described in Orwell's books: they just learned how to persuade the people that they have freedom without allowing them much freedom, thanks to Edward Bernays.
    1
  88. I don't agree that accepting or running towards death means anxiety. That is what we are told that we should feel towards death. It's a cultural concept.
    1
  89. You should read Mein Kampf too.
    1
  90. You have to learn before you can create.
    1
  91. I think that so many American people were conned during the Covid pandemic because they have been groomed to fear germs for decades.
    1
  92. 7:25 Edward Bernays
    1
  93. We hippies said, "Love is the Law. Love under Will." Which meant, you had to use your common sense.
    1
  94. Watch How to Start a Revolution DVD documentary and read From Dictatorship to Democracy the book.
    1
  95. Please read From Dictatorship to Democracy, the book by Dr Gene Sharp
    1
  96. "My life has been the poem I would have writ But I could not both live and utter it." Henry David Thoreau
    1
  97. 3:35 Freud denied that his patients' reports of incest were true. He claimed that they were invented. Boo, Freud!
    1
  98. 2:43 What if the disenfranchised realize that the system is set up to favor one small group at their own expense?
    1
  99. 3:10 I am speaking out, finally, against the idea that all of the worst behavior of people is "human nature," while the best behavior - compassion, altruism, and courage - are dismissed as flukes.
    1
  100. 2:00
    1
  101. I would love to support Academy of Ideas but I live on a limited income and I'm already giving more than I can afford to independent journalists and some animal rescue organizations.
    1
  102. 2:10 We hippies in the 1960s believed in collectivism in our communes and we didn't become authoritarian. It doesn't have to happen.
    1
  103. Watch How to Start a Revolution DVD documentary and read From Dictatorship to Democracy the book by Dr Gene Sharp. Then read The Politics of Nonviolent Action, which teaches us how to do it.
    1
  104. 3:50 It wasn't "these people"; it was Bernays himself who taught them!
    1
  105. I think that the comments in this thread do a very good job of bringing it up to the present.
    1
  106.  @jeffg7478  "We could (future tense) find ourselves..."? We arrived a while back.
    1
  107. @s0ulbr0777 : So you fear Rothschild! Now we know what can be used to lead you around by the nose! Marx was a professor of economics at the University of Berlin. He left Germany after the revolt of 1848, when Germans tried and failed to make Germany a more progressive country. Many other liberals left Germany then, too. Rothschild had nothing to do with it. But you believe what you want to believe.
    1
  108.  @SamM-gl9zc  : Watch How to Start a Revolution DVD documentary and read From Dictatorship to Democracy the book. If you haven't been frightened into despondency, we can do it!
    1
  109. It came up on my feed so I watched it
    1
  110. 6:00 Thorstein Veblen said the same thing in The Theory of the Leisure Class.
    1
  111. Read Thorstein Veblen: The Theory of the Leisure Class for an explanation for how we got here.
    1
  112. Dr Peter Salerno says that narcissism is hard-wired in the central nervous system, and he has proof.
    1
  113. So Brave New World was a rebuttal of Sir Francis Bacon...
    1
  114. Freud has been debunked for years
    1
  115. I've been practicing therapy on myself since my middle childhood. 1:55 I disagree that children think that whatever went wrong in their childhood is their fault (sorry, Alice Miller). They can understand that their parents were wrong or troubled.
    1
  116. ​ @celiacresswell6909 They don't take the cash from your wallet. They create new money every time Congress passes an appropriations bill. Since the US Constitution gives Congress the only right to create the currency, they also have the right to say where the money will be spent. You can learn all about this at The Rogue Scholar, MMT Mondays, Macro'n'Cheese, or Real Progressives on YouTube. Stephanie Kelton also has several great videos on YouTube about it.
    1
  117. My sister did say that St Augustine was the asshole of history. I always thought it was St Paul.
    1
  118. I would like to support The Academy of Ideas by watching the ads, but I'll be damned if I'll watch an advertisement for the apartheid country of Israel.
    1
  119.  @NerdyHoodReviews  : You get to be one of the heros of the later generations who developed a new model of manhood which left behind the old, toxic model.
    1
  120. Yep
    1
  121. "If you can't lick them, join them"?
    1
  122. I am trying this for my C-PTSD.
    1
  123. 2:00 The economists who teach Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) says that inflation is created when there is more money than the resources it can buy, in a monetary system with a fiat currency. Were those other economists, like Ludwig von Mises, talk about a currency that was based on something else, like gold? Many price rises today are created, not by inflation, but by price gouging by the corporations.
    1
  124. 4:45 And of course all of us who are watching this are going to flatter ourselves that we are some of the few and not the mass.
    1
  125. 9:15. 11:40
    1
  126. 1:35 Not true: I keep trying to find solutions. They get swept away.
    1
  127. TAXES DON'T FUND SPENDING AT THE FEDERAL LEVEL! #LearnMMT!
    1
  128. The beginning sounds like the Buddha.
    1
  129.  @eladbari  Yes, you do. And if you can't figure it out, the Buddha taught us.
    1
  130.  @nerychristian  : That's going to be next: a black market in vaccine cards, just like the one for fake IDs!
    1
  131.  @trkstatrksta8410  I'd rather die outright than live to suffer with a crushed spirit. There are worse things than the body dying. And if you are a Christian, as I suspect you are, that was exactly what Christ said on the cross.
    1
  132.  @gabyr7439  I am thankful that you have never had to go through any kind of trauma that damaged you for life. I congratulate your parents for giving you a happy childhood. You are one lucky dog
    1
  133. You don't need an organized religion to find meaning in life. They have set themselves up as the only place where you can shop for it, but you can find it on your own. I disagree with the topic of this video.
    1
  134. The opposite of love isn't hate, it's indifference.
    1
  135. All organized religions are about control.
    1