1. The world sure isn't black and white. I'd paint it as more black and grey, honestly, in one of my pessimistic moods.
we all think the world is worse in our pessimistic moods, but the fact that you felt the need to qualify it in that way indicates that you don't necessarily think like this all the time. I often think of ideas that don't reflect who I consider to be myself. I've imagined wearing a dress, considered the prospect of going over to tell my roommates to shut the fuck up and fuck each other already, thought about how I would undertake a terrorist attack against my country. and any number of ideas that pass in and out of my consciousness. Do I wear dresses? Do I yell at roommates about their sexual activities or lack thereof? Do I commit heinous acts of senseless violence against my countrymen? No. misko27 does not do any of these things, nor does he wish to. Those are mere thoughts; taken, considered, and discarded.
So that leaves me with a question: What does the real Dozebôm think?
2. I think that the world would be a hell of a lot better if it were anarcho-socialist. That implies that the people who hold power over others are... if not evil or immoral, at least bad for society. But that's okay - saying that bad things exist isn't necessarily a demonstration of self-delusion.
I suppose that the second sentence logically follows from the first, so if you take the first for granted it makes sense (note: I do not at any point accept your first premise as true. I think it's wrong a million ways over, but as you said "you think the world would be better" and as an idea it's logically consistent, and your other views flow naturally from it, which is all I care about here). I genuinely cannot understand your third sentence though. When, if ever, has saying bad things exist been considered self-delusion? I've always heard the opposite. "Predict doom and you will be hailed as a Prophet." This is part of why I'm doing this in the first place. I'd argue that the pessimist-realist-optimist scale is thoroughly inaccurate. Pessimists are qualitatively different from being merely "anti-optimistis". And yet I would say that they are are, in their own way, deluded. Optimism is the lie of the man whose seen little, pessimism is the lie of the man whose seen much.
3. I try to avoid being "the regressive left," even though it's difficult. It's easy to overlook flaws in your arguments. I detest free-speech violations in the name of SOCIAL JUSTICE or KEEPING THOSE DAMN FASCISTS QUIET, because seriously guys can't you see the similarities to the Red Scare?
ok.
4. I don't think that the world is out to get me, but I do lean toward "WAKE UP SHEEPLE" occasionally. I don't think that most people are evil.
I'm curious about the sheeple part. One thing I've found is that anything is obvious once you know it. Hindsight is 20-20, retrospect is the clearest spect, etc. This is true everywhere, from the highest philosophical issues to videogames. I just had to give this piece of advice in a game: "If your plan relies on other people figuring out what you are doing, it's a bad plan." Sure if you know the person it's one thing to assume they will figure out certain things; but do you know most people? of course not. The greater Man's collective knowledge grows, the more it's possible to not know things. I mean everyone was born you know; everyone has to learn something for the first time eventually, even assuming that you are right (the other half of this is saying "WAKE UP SHEEPLE" is incredibly presumptious in that you, as I said earlier, treat yourself as part of the elite "haves" of knowledge and most others as the common "have nots", and dismisses that they have any chance to be right or reason for doing what they do. What if you are wrong, and those free-speech violations
are necessary, and that you - and people like yourself - really are holding back social progress in the name of empty moral relativism? Have you considered that? If you don't have an answer handy I suggest you develop one).
I'd say that there is, depending on your definition, either very very many or very very few evil people on this earth. If you hold the latter position, I regret to inform you that "uncommon" is still entirely too common for my tastes. If one man out of a hundred wolf-whistles he can harass a lot of women in a day; if one man out of 10 thousand is a rapist that still puts you in contact with them moderately often. And even if "evil" is one of million, if he lives for 70 years he can leave a lot of broken lives in his wake.
5. I think that I'm right, obviously, or I wouldn't agree with myself. 
But I'm willing to admit that I'm wrong, and then I change my mind.
Let me tell you the wisest thing Plato ever taught me:
Everyone thinks they are right.
Every single person on this earth thinks that what they do and say is the right thing to do or say at that particular moment. Every single person. Don't believe me? If they didn't think it was right, they wouldn't do it. They wouldn't say it. Now obviously you might do something in the moment and think a second later "oh my god that was terrible/wrong/stupid/etc", but some part of you thought
this is a good idea, and the part of your brain responsible for deciding things agreed. And this applies to every single person on earth. Show me someone who does something they genuinely don't think is good/right/necessary and I will show you a massive case of cognitive dissonance. Of course someone can decide quite quickly that it was a bad idea. Sure. This ties into what I said at the beginning. You don't control your thoughts, but you do control how you choose to act on them.
What you seemed to want to say was about willingness to change your mind. That's not the same thing. You can be either willing to change your mind or not. Some people are very stubborn, others are flighty, and others are inbetween. But regardless everyone believes what they believe. I mean it's sounds like a tautology, but it's easily forgotten.
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Topic: Doc Helgoland's Asylum for the Politically American: T+0 (Read 1395355 times)