If

[yankees60]

I found it right away. Ctrl + F

I also found it right away by doing a search in this topic (upper left).

Attempted to read it but found it to be an extremely wordy, tedious to read long, long, long quote that I really could not follow. Seemed like it could have made its point, whatever that was, in far less words. Actually I'm now going to give it to Perplexity Pro and have it tell me in different words what it is (poorly) trying to communicate.

I've never been in the position of seeing the choice of voting for two evils.

When Biden's been on the ballot I did a write-in for the actual 2020 election and then voted for Phillips in the 2024 primary. Forget who I voted for in the 2020 primary.

That then leaves me in the position of being fully capable of being highly critical of Trump which then oftentimes engenders the conservative / Republican response of "What about Biden" .. I can respond that that's irrelevant since Trump is now president and, oh, by the way, I have never voted for Biden.

[dualstow]

@Perplexity, Vinny’s post above appears to be a very long complaint about searching and/or Tolstoy’s writing style.
Could you summarize it for me and let me know if there’s any other takeaway therein?

[yankees60]

It's response to me:

https://www.perplexity.ai/search/i-find ... RiSkF8_w#0

Excellent question — that passage is from Leo Tolstoy, and your instincts are right. It’s characteristically dense and overextended. He uses a long allegory (the swarm of bees) to make a fairly simple moral and social point, one that can indeed be expressed far more directly.

Tolstoy’s core idea is this:
Society is stuck in an unhealthy, dependent state — like a swarm of bees clinging together and unable to fly. Each person (each bee) has the power to change, but most wait for others to move first. True transformation, whether spiritual or social, begins when individual people act independently according to higher principles (in his case, the Christian ideal). Once a few individuals “take flight,” others follow, and society gradually transforms. Collective liberation cannot be forced all at once — it begins one soul at a time.

Here’s a concise restatement in modern language:

Humanity clings to old ways like a swarm of bees hanging from a branch. Each person wants change but waits for others to begin. Yet freedom starts when one individual acts on conscience and truth; others will follow, and only then can society rise to a better state. Collective change is never instant—it happens one life at a time.

His original passage, while vivid, suffers from over-extended metaphor and repetition of the same point. It’s clear he’s thinking in the mode of 19th-century moral philosophy, where redundancy was used for rhetorical weight.

[yankees60]

@Perplexity, Vinny’s post above appears to be a very long complaint about searching and/or Tolstoy’s writing style.
Could you summarize it for me and let me know if there’s any other takeaway therein?

To help you understand what I wrote:

1) First paragraph telling how easily I did find it using the topic search feature Don't know how you got a complaint out of that.

2) Second paragraph was detailing how the quote was fairly valueless to me.

3) Last three paragraphs were detailing how I did not find it difficult to feel compelled to vote for whichever of the two parties was put in front of me. Biden was the FIRST time ever I did not vote for the Democrat candidate. Don't understand why all the Trump voters who don't like him still voted for him.

[dualstow]

Could you have Perplexity do it?

[yankees60]

Could you have Perplexity do it?

You are now officially being silly!

[Jack Jones]

It's response to me:

https://www.perplexity.ai/search/i-find ... RiSkF8_w#0

Excellent question — that passage is from Leo Tolstoy, and your instincts are right. It’s characteristically dense and overextended. He uses a long allegory (the swarm of bees) to make a fairly simple moral and social point, one that can indeed be expressed far more directly.

Tolstoy’s core idea is this:
Society is stuck in an unhealthy, dependent state — like a swarm of bees clinging together and unable to fly. Each person (each bee) has the power to change, but most wait for others to move first. True transformation, whether spiritual or social, begins when individual people act independently according to higher principles (in his case, the Christian ideal). Once a few individuals “take flight,” others follow, and society gradually transforms. Collective liberation cannot be forced all at once — it begins one soul at a time.

Here’s a concise restatement in modern language:

Humanity clings to old ways like a swarm of bees hanging from a branch. Each person wants change but waits for others to begin. Yet freedom starts when one individual acts on conscience and truth; others will follow, and only then can society rise to a better state. Collective change is never instant—it happens one life at a time.

His original passage, while vivid, suffers from over-extended metaphor and repetition of the same point. It’s clear he’s thinking in the mode of 19th-century moral philosophy, where redundancy was used for rhetorical weight.

I agree it is a bit repetitive. Brought to you by the Department of Redundancy Department.