The authors idea of liberal ideals is quite different from my understandings. Liberals these days are concerned about people having health care an fair pay.

What I think they're trying to say here is to not be prejudice over somebody for their religious beliefs.

I don't know if this is necessarily true. Sometimes people will try to help others for selfish reasons.

I hear a lot of "manosphere" toxic masculinity advocates say this today. That women are too emotional to do certain tasks like fly planes and fight in the military and things. It's ridiculous.

TRIGGER WARNING: There's a popular instagram reel that's been going around about a mother who went on vacation and left her infant child in a pack n' play for ten days and of course the baby didn't make it. She was sentenced to life in prison without parole. And I feel like most people can't fathom how somebody can neglect a child like that. That woman must be seriously insane.

So I think he's trying to say here that we should bear in mind the end results of our actions.

For example, if you're in a situation where you're in an environment where there is limited oxygen and you're surrounded by children. I think it would be ethical to eliminate yourself so the children can survive long enough for rescue to arrive.

This is kind of a hot take or an unpopular opinion I hold personally, but I think people should have the right to end their own life if they want. There's a lot of legal issues that arise from this, like life insurance fraud and things, but I personally just think that people should have the right to end their lives if they want.

This guy's writing form is hard to understand, but what I think he's trying to say here is that you can do a good thing but with selfish or negative intentions. Like a politician or a celebrity visiting sick children in a hospital just to get a good-looking photo for themselves.

I wish the real world worked like this. So many people demand you to make promises on so many things, but the world is complicated and bad things happen. When somebody forces you to promise something that doesn't wind up happening, it makes you look like a bad person. I hate that.

So I think this verdict is a little too harsh. My dad criticizes my sisters family because he thinks they spend frivolously on things when they don't have much money. They'll buy new pets or take their kids to get fancy hair colorings instead of trying to find a nicer place to live. But people who are destitute still deserve to have nice things. Is a poor person who buys something like a nice picture to hang on their wall guilty of committing murder for not donating that extra money they had? No I don't think so.

I made this point in an earlier annotation but I feel like it's relevant again. If we never created a monetary system, then there would be no hunger or poverty.

Wealthy people often can't satiate themselves by just being wealthy though. Some celebrities will act out or commit crimes to just thrill themselves. Like how Jodie Foster got in trouble with shoplifting. She may have just been thrill seeking.

There's reason to believe that poor mental health conditions lead to a shorter life expectancy too. If you spend a lot of time angry or upset, it can affect your blood pressure and heart rate.

This is heartbreaking. I hate thinking about children suffering from neglect or hunger.

I see a bit of myself in this quote. I'm probably a temperate person. I'll mind my own business unless somebody needs help. Like the other day my neighbor's dog got out and I helped catch it and bring it home. I don't actively go around looking for dogs to catch and bring home. It's just not necessary and I have things to do.

Yes, this is one of the reasons why we've seen a steady rise in gun violence and school shootings since 2016. Far right extremists and their obsession with guns have radicalized people and encouraged misuse and carelessness with guns.

This compels me to wonder what religious people think existence in heaven is like. If being a good person is just the actions you are taking to get to heaven. Then what's stopping people from practicing hedonism in heaven? Can you be kicked out of heaven for doing bad things?

There's a debate to be had about the way Dr. Kevorkian handled his patients. He was known as Dr. Death because he put people who were slowly and painfully dying of certain diseases to death. He would do it with sedatives and make it as painless as possible for people who just wanted to be put out of their misery. Many would argue that what he was doing was murder, but I personally think he was doing good and helping people.

This sounds counterintuitive to the thing he said earlier about the mass of mankind preferring a life suitable to beasts and the compares people in high places to Sarandapallus.

This seems like Aristotle doesn't think highly of most people. Calling the everyday people "Beasts." Doesn't sound very ethical to me.

Lawmakers have tried outlawing and regulating gambling for thousands of years, and people have always found ways around it. Like playing games for food or for tools and such.

I'm not sure I understand this. Is the author saying that a gambler can't quit "cold turkey?" I think in most cases of addiction, the best way to stop is to just stop altogether.

Gambling institutions are required by law to say "please play responsibly." Because gambling addiction is so dangerous. In my mind, a responsible player will just walk into a casino with a set amount of money in hand and tell themselves they are not to spend any more than that. It would be immoral if the gambler kept playing until all the money he spent for their family's food and bills are all gone.

This is an interesting point, because especially in the English language there are so many gray areas. For example, it's now considered proper grammar to say "irregardless."

You can't properly compare law to morality. Most people today think Jim Crow laws were immoral, but they were the law at one point.

Regulating gambling is only going to get harder these days. Now with online gambling and so many people obsessing over fantasy sports.

I've never thought of it this way. Gambling addiction can be very serious. Instead of cheating on your spouse, you're kind of cheating on your entire family by misusing your family's funds.

This kind of scares me. This is the kind of argument I hear people make who are supporters of things like child marriage. "What you think is moral or good is an illusion!"

I guess this can be equated to why children can be cruel. They simply don't understand the difference between mean and nice.

I would say most often people are inclined to use and abuse others to get ahead in the world. Like how most of the worlds billionaires are slumlords or use slaves in diamond mines

This goes back to my previous comments. Why do gods need anything from humans? They already have and control everything.

If the gods are the creators and takers of all things both living and dead. Then what is the purpose of sacrifice? If a god wants a dead goat, then why doesn't that god just kill and take the goat itself? Why does the god need humans to stab it to death on an altar?

I don't understand this. Reverence means you have deep respect and admiration for someone. Where does fear come into play?

Interesting that Socarates would say this. Most people consider time to make somebody wiser. I think it's silly when people say they are "wise beyond their years" because you can't really cheat time.

This is why I argue that life imprisonment is worse than the death penalty. You're simply giving the murderer a moment of discomfort instead of a lifetime behind bars to reflect on their actions.

Yikes, that's a nasty way to go

I had to read this paragraph a few times to understand it. They have a pretty progressive mindset. They're essentially saying nobody is perfect and we all have the ability to rehabilitate ourselves. Given how old this text is; and how we still have capital punishment in the United States today, it's pretty crazy to me that somebody had this mindset so long ago.

In other words, they're saying that crime does pay. If mankind never created a monetary system, we would have so few problems. Think about it. There would be no poverty, or any reason to steal. We could all have lived like native communities did, where everybody just works towards the same simple goal. Which is to live happy and healthy lives.

Again, why would the ability to turn invisible get you laid? If I were groped by an invisible force, I would be horrified. I wouldn't say "well I may as well have sex with whatever this ghostly presence is."

This part is a little strange. I wonder why the ability to turn invisible would seduce a woman.

Not sure what they mean by this. Could be because this was written in an ancient language; but from my understanding, people study law and the justice system voluntarily.

This is true. This is why so many books have been written about the mental benefits of Buddhism and why it's healthy to meditate and bring your mind into "the now." This helps people who struggle with mental trauma from terrible things that have happened to them in the past to focus on the present and improving their current life.

Penn Jillette is a famous atheist that has been preaching his distaste for religion and the bible in particular for decades. I'm a fan of his, personally. He made an interesting point that you can't deny the fact that there could be a god, but god might be Zeus and he might not like that you worship false idols like Jesus or Moses. That's why it's best to live your life believing in things you can physically see and feel and learn.

I see a little bit of myself in this. Especially when I'm driving. I'm mostly concerned about my own safety and my own time and destination. I will mentally insult other people. I will think of things like "god this dumbfk is moving slower than st" When in reality, they may just not be as skilled of a driver or have some sort of disability that causes them to drive slower, and it's no fault of their own.

I remember when Matthew Mcconaughey was on Stephen Colbert's show a few years ago promoting his autobiography called "Green Lights." He was explaining the meaning behind the title, saying that everybody loves green lights. The green lights signify the allowance to go forward, and proceed. But Stephen had an interesting point saying that red lights are important too. Red lights allow you to slow down and stop and reflect on things. Sometimes we get so caught up in the hustle and bustle of life that we forget to allow ourselves some breathing time and time for reflection.

This line is funny. I always feel sorry for people in retail or service jobs where they have to put on a phony smile and ask you how your day was. This is especially bad when I'm getting a haircut and the barber is trying to make meaningless small talk to try to be friendly in hopes to get a bigger tip, when deep down you know that they could not care less about what you do for work, or what you're studying in school. Even though I honestly consider myself a people-person, in my own idea of a perfect world there would be no meaningless small talk.

I remember learning years ago that most people who commit suicide do not leave notes. This may be because they see existence as being futile in such a way that there is no need for them to express themselves in a note before they take their own life. It's a sad thing to think about

Sometimes I have to re-read things. Including in this article. Because eyes will skim and go over the words but my mind will drift into something else. Like the music that's playing in this Starbucks I'm sitting in or other peoples conversations.

It drives my friends crazy that in my attention-deficit mind I will start thinking of some trivial things like "man it's cold in here. Do they have the air conditioning on? I wonder how much their energy bill is. Mine was pretty cheap last month, but that was because the weather was nicer." Then my mind will wake up and I'll think "Uh oh, this person is talking to me, I have no idea what they just said for the past minute or so" and I'll say something like "Yeah he also played in that movie Forgetting Sarah Marshall" and my friends will say "Dammit Mike B, we literally just said that a minute ago." But I had no idea because I was zoning out and getting lost in my own unimportant thoughts.

We did an exercise in my "Models of Effective Helping" class yesterday where we were given a list of about 12 people and the list had their ages and a brief description of who they are. We had to choose as a group eight people from the list to go on a life raft and the rest of them would die. You could also choose to save yourself as one of the eight. There was a heated debate over whether its ethical or proper to choose to save yourself over somebody else. I couldn't fathom the thought of me choosing for somebody to die over myself, but the majority of the class agreed to save themselves and kill somebody else. What I thought was even more shocking was that a few of the people on the list were teenagers and people were trying to justify killing them over themselves. What I learned is that there are many people who truly believe that they are the center of the universe, and it may just be human nature to think so.