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"It's WAR I tells ya!" A rant by Wednes
Lately, I've been thinking about the so-called "war on drugs." It's most infuriating stuff, but I have some new theories. Let me preface this by reminding you all that I am something of a soft-core conspiracy buff.
I beleive that the Republicans made a deal with Iran to hold hostages until after the presidential election (so that Jimmy Carter would not be reelected). I beleive that the US Government conspired with the Bin Ladens to orchestrate 911 as the beginning of a gradual erosion of American rights. And before people go apeshit on me again, I also think that the towers actually falling was an accident. Maximum outrage and minimum death is what they were going for. Frankly, the fact that focus shifted from the Bin Ladens to Saddam Hussein (whom the US used to love and fund, BTW) is reasonable proof that they never wanted to catch them in the first place.
And so, we have this so-called War on Drugs. In this country, we have what is called free enterprise. This means that if you have a product and people want to buy it, you will be successful in selling it. People want drugs, so they are easy (and lucrative) to sell. People do not want a drug war; yet the government spends billions of dollars funding public service announcements that teenagers are laughing at. If the public was asked to fund this directly, I beleive that these ridiculous commericals would come to an abrupt stop. Drug use has gone up, not down, among children and continues to go up every year. And in fact, telling kids that weed and drinking are as "bad" as meth or cocaine makes it nearly impossible for a teen to make an intelligent choice about what to try and what to avoid. Of course, I do not beleive any children should be doing drugs or drinking. Most high school age kids are probably okay trying weed or light drinking under supervision. But making kids drive out of town and lie to their parents to get loaded helps no one. And don't even get me started about huffing. Overall, the program does not work. And yet, they keep doing the same things. In therapy, they say that the definition of insanity is repeating the same behaviors while expecting different results. Ergo, our government in insane.
When I was a kid I was reprimanded for drinking in junior high. In fact, I went to Catholic school and showed up visibly drunk once. No one ever bothered to look into why a 12 year old girl would be plugging whiskey before school. No one ever bothered to ask why my drinking always seemed to coincide with a new mysterious injury. But I digress...my point being that miserable kids are more likely to do drugs and drink. So why isn't anyone taking steps to see that these kids aren't being bullied, beaten, worked excessively, or totally ignored? If DHS had one third the funding of anti-drug programs, they would have the staff and programs to help these kids before they ever start doing drugs.
The government makes only token efforts to control drug use and trafficking. Honestly, I think I've had trouble (by trouble I mean being unable to find weed despite being able to afford it) MAYBE three times in my life. I once had a sack delivered to my house in a tiny podunk town at 11:30 at night on Christmas eve. It's just not that hard to get. In some places, Meth is more availible than weed. *shudder*
I believe that the government tacitly supports drug use because it placates the poor masses and keeps them from rising up against this piss poor excuse for a government. Truthfully, does anyone really beleive their governement represents what they truly want--or even what is best for most people? I don't. The so-called "drug war" is also a very easy way to persecute the poor and minorities. Myself, I have never known a minority who got away with (read: caught by cops and not arrested) having weed; but I know many cute, white chicks who have had cops conficaste (read: smoke) their weed and let them go. Of course, it is also a great way to persecute liberal radical types who openly speak out against this foolishness in public places (not LJ, but places people actually go). And a great way from keeping poor farmers from being very, very wealthy, which they could if they grew marijuana instead of say, corn.
Come to think of it, I think that whole "placating the masses" business is the reason our governement pretends to be founded in "Christian" principles even though it does not remotely practice them. They want the poor people they are screwing over to continue to vote for them. My Bible doesn't actually say that gays can't get married, and I have a few different ones. It does say though, that we should help the poor and less fortunate and treat others as we want to be treated. The Bible also doens't say anything about being "either for us or against us." Maybe all of mine are abridged ;-}
This is turning into a long, unfocused rant--sorry about that. I just wanted to work out why I think the government loves to frighten people into hating things. I mean, maybe you were raised poorly and are uncomfortable around gays or minorities or something. That's bad enough. But once the government starts talking about a "gay agenda" people turn into frightened sheep running around cowering against some invisible evil Bush and his gestapo think is out there. Of course, they don't really beleive there is a gay agenda, but saying there is will make a whole bunch of people who love Jack Chick and Fred Phelps loyal voters. So now we're afraid of drugs and drug users, gays, atheists and anyone with brown skin or in a turban. Yay for the War on Drugs.
I beleive that the Republicans made a deal with Iran to hold hostages until after the presidential election (so that Jimmy Carter would not be reelected). I beleive that the US Government conspired with the Bin Ladens to orchestrate 911 as the beginning of a gradual erosion of American rights. And before people go apeshit on me again, I also think that the towers actually falling was an accident. Maximum outrage and minimum death is what they were going for. Frankly, the fact that focus shifted from the Bin Ladens to Saddam Hussein (whom the US used to love and fund, BTW) is reasonable proof that they never wanted to catch them in the first place.
And so, we have this so-called War on Drugs. In this country, we have what is called free enterprise. This means that if you have a product and people want to buy it, you will be successful in selling it. People want drugs, so they are easy (and lucrative) to sell. People do not want a drug war; yet the government spends billions of dollars funding public service announcements that teenagers are laughing at. If the public was asked to fund this directly, I beleive that these ridiculous commericals would come to an abrupt stop. Drug use has gone up, not down, among children and continues to go up every year. And in fact, telling kids that weed and drinking are as "bad" as meth or cocaine makes it nearly impossible for a teen to make an intelligent choice about what to try and what to avoid. Of course, I do not beleive any children should be doing drugs or drinking. Most high school age kids are probably okay trying weed or light drinking under supervision. But making kids drive out of town and lie to their parents to get loaded helps no one. And don't even get me started about huffing. Overall, the program does not work. And yet, they keep doing the same things. In therapy, they say that the definition of insanity is repeating the same behaviors while expecting different results. Ergo, our government in insane.
When I was a kid I was reprimanded for drinking in junior high. In fact, I went to Catholic school and showed up visibly drunk once. No one ever bothered to look into why a 12 year old girl would be plugging whiskey before school. No one ever bothered to ask why my drinking always seemed to coincide with a new mysterious injury. But I digress...my point being that miserable kids are more likely to do drugs and drink. So why isn't anyone taking steps to see that these kids aren't being bullied, beaten, worked excessively, or totally ignored? If DHS had one third the funding of anti-drug programs, they would have the staff and programs to help these kids before they ever start doing drugs.
The government makes only token efforts to control drug use and trafficking. Honestly, I think I've had trouble (by trouble I mean being unable to find weed despite being able to afford it) MAYBE three times in my life. I once had a sack delivered to my house in a tiny podunk town at 11:30 at night on Christmas eve. It's just not that hard to get. In some places, Meth is more availible than weed. *shudder*
I believe that the government tacitly supports drug use because it placates the poor masses and keeps them from rising up against this piss poor excuse for a government. Truthfully, does anyone really beleive their governement represents what they truly want--or even what is best for most people? I don't. The so-called "drug war" is also a very easy way to persecute the poor and minorities. Myself, I have never known a minority who got away with (read: caught by cops and not arrested) having weed; but I know many cute, white chicks who have had cops conficaste (read: smoke) their weed and let them go. Of course, it is also a great way to persecute liberal radical types who openly speak out against this foolishness in public places (not LJ, but places people actually go). And a great way from keeping poor farmers from being very, very wealthy, which they could if they grew marijuana instead of say, corn.
Come to think of it, I think that whole "placating the masses" business is the reason our governement pretends to be founded in "Christian" principles even though it does not remotely practice them. They want the poor people they are screwing over to continue to vote for them. My Bible doesn't actually say that gays can't get married, and I have a few different ones. It does say though, that we should help the poor and less fortunate and treat others as we want to be treated. The Bible also doens't say anything about being "either for us or against us." Maybe all of mine are abridged ;-}
This is turning into a long, unfocused rant--sorry about that. I just wanted to work out why I think the government loves to frighten people into hating things. I mean, maybe you were raised poorly and are uncomfortable around gays or minorities or something. That's bad enough. But once the government starts talking about a "gay agenda" people turn into frightened sheep running around cowering against some invisible evil Bush and his gestapo think is out there. Of course, they don't really beleive there is a gay agenda, but saying there is will make a whole bunch of people who love Jack Chick and Fred Phelps loyal voters. So now we're afraid of drugs and drug users, gays, atheists and anyone with brown skin or in a turban. Yay for the War on Drugs.
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See. Now you got me ranting, too.
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;-}
That fascism link is terrifying. I hadn't realized how obvious it all was until it was spelled out that way. A few more years of public schoolkids being indoctrinated and we'll be fucked.
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Yeah, the first time I saw that list (on another site, actually), I freaked out. It just amazes me how we got to this point so quickly (since Reagan was elected, in my opinion), and I have no idea how we'll get back out of the cesspool we've fallen into.
Unfortunately, the link I used for that list seems to go to a website that has some Holocaust denial crap on it. Ugh. Apologies to anyone digging further on that site. I had no idea.
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Also, Diary of Anne Frank is not in the "fiction" section of the bookstore.
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Ahhh...the joys of relaxing and trusting the free press.
I love America.
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Scary times.
Hey, I'm not nuts--somebody agrees with me
I have said this (or something along these lines) ever since about the week of 9/11. For the first year or so, Brian said that I was just nuts. As our more of our freedoms began to be taken away, he started to think that maybe I wasn't totally nuts. You know--eventually the truth will out, as they say. I just hope it's not too late for this country and for the people who actually care about it to salvage something of the civil liberties that many had work so hard to attain in the first place.
Re: Hey, I'm not nuts--somebody agrees with me
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