Totally Human Emdash User

I was thinking more along the lines of situations where the forcing took the form of emotional pressure.

Sure, there are not zero trees, but that is not the same as there being plenty of trees.

There are definitely worse places to live in, but the lack of trees is depressing.

Yeah, my wife and I moved in with my parents ~ 8 years ago while I was between jobs, and because we all get along it has been such a lovely experience (especially during the pandemic!) that we have never felt a need to move back out. A couple of years ago my uncle moved in because his house was unlivable, and being able to spend time with him has been nice too.

On the other hand, I did also like living by myself, and later just with my wife, for a while, so that I could have my own personal space and privacy. I think I would have felt resentful if I were forced into a particular living situation rather than being able to choose it.

It is not clear to me why you think that is the only other option.

It always makes me sad to see developers come in, raze all of the trees, and replace them with depressing housing in their place…

I think that you missed the point the post is making, which is that it is ironic to claim that capitalism saves us from having to live in drab cookie-cutter housing given what suburbia looks like.

FOR GLORY!!!

Some people are just nice by nature.

Ah, I was not paying much attention to the distinction; my bad, then.

Building on what you said, I think that the sum is actually pretty significant if you think of it as being roughly $100 million per person, and then multiply by the number of people hurt by the supposed “Autopilot” who now have incentive to sue.

It is not clear to me why archive.today is so important given the continuing existence of archive.org.

This article, and thus the discussion was not intended to belittle anyone who finds exercise does not help them.

However, people making the claim that they are too depressed to exercise are being belittled. For example, to quote another comment:

I’m not sure that “too depressed to exercise” is a medically recognized state short of being bedridden and comatose, so unless one is unable to get out of the bed to go to the bathroom saying “i’m too depressed to exercise” is just words being used to justify not going for a walk

You are denying the existence of clinical depression?

Yes, but I think that my point still stands that if one is too depressed to exercise, then exercise is not the solution to the depression. You yourself have just said that you had to use other techniques first to get to the point where you were able to exercise.

Also, very importantly, I really think you need to reject the thinking of “the only one stopping you is you”, both in yourself and in the advise you give to others, because makes it seem like the problem is a lack of willpower, and I think that telling people that they just need to try harder to fight their brain will just cause them to dig in. Furthermore, since you have been practicing mindfulness, you know that there is no “self” at the core but just a collection of mental processes, and that thinking of there being a “self” at the core actually causes harm by creating a false narrative about the way that the mind works which makes it harder to guide it in a better direction. Telling people that there is a “you” that is the one stopping things from happening reinforces this misconception. The better thing to do is just to speak from your own personal experience of watching your mind and seeing how many of the things that were holding you back were just appearances, and once you came to appreciate that, their hold on you was loosened.

Finally, a lot of people have (very roughly speaking) brain chemistry issues, and all the therapy and mindfulness in the world can only help so much with that.

My general advice would be to be very wary of projecting your personal experiences onto others, even when you are sincerely trying to help (which I believe that you are!)

Or… maybe not everyone’s brain works the same way?

Not just casual walking, I was speed walking. My hear rate was pretty high while walking.

So it sounds like, by definition, you were not too depressed to try exercising because you did it. Go you?

Also, a lot of people simply do not get anything out of exercising, unfortunately; it never stops being uncomfortable tedium that brings no improvement in their mood.

It’s funny how people can be so different.

I personally love the feeling of exercising, so unless I am experiencing severe anhedonia—which has happened in the past when I was on a lower dosage of antidepressant—then it always bursts my mood while I am doing it, which provides significant motivation. However, exercise does nothing for my wife except to make her feel sweaty and unpleasant, so she feels no motivation to do it, and even though I understand this intellectually I still have trouble “getting” it.

Right, they are too depressed to try exercising, so they have not tried exercising.  That is practically a tautology, so I am not sure what your point is.