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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   33736 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 9, 2024

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I'm committing a major faux-pas by posting a second consecutive top-level comment, but it's been 12 hours and people need to post more. (Seriously, post a top level comment. Do it now.)

What's something that you were wrong about?

I'll start. I was wrong about marijuana legalization. It was a bad idea and we never should have done it. Marijuana is, contra urban legend, actually pretty addictive. And it makes productive people into unproductive people. The benefits, such as they are, are best enjoyed in moderation. But legalization has resulted in a whole new class of junkies that wouldn't have existed otherwise. Also, weed culture is gross.

Scott, as always, says it best:

My views evolved in something like the way Steve implicitly points at here: decriminalizing marijuana seemed to go okay, it seemed hypocritical and dumb for the law to be “marijuana is illegal but we won’t punish you for it in any way wink wink”, so (I thought) why not go all the way and legalize it? And the answer turns out to be: if it’s illegal but tolerated, then it’s supplied by random criminals; if it’s legal, it’s supplied by big corporations. And big corporations are good at advertising and tend to get what they want.

In any case, what were you wrong about?

Weed is bad for young people. Is it really worse than alcohol? I think a lot of people have limited experience with true alcoholics, they’ve always seemed worse afflicted to me, and I say that as someone who prefers booze to weed.

The thing about stoners is that while weed saps motivation and leads to many a wasted life, they’re not really dangerous in and of themselves, and in an age of mass automation and bullshit jobs, I don’t think maximizing labor force participation is critical enough that forcing them off the couch is necessary.

I would lay down the law if my teenage child started smoking weed, but as a vaguely responsible adult I enjoy it before bed and have a relatively respectable and moderately successful career.

It’s kinda hard to tell. One advantage that mitigated the damage alcohol does is the notion of alcoholics and drinking too much being bad. Everyone is pretty much aware that drinking 3+ days a week and more than 2 in a sitting is probably a sign of problems. With cannabis, you can tome up every single day and not think you’re addicted. There is no point where even your pot smoking buddy will tell you to get help.

Tbf, the same is true of gaming and screens (which can absolutely be addictive). We simply haven’t yet put up guard rails around th3 behavior to prevent people from gett Seriously addicted.

More than two in a sitting is seen as a problem? I can’t tell if I’m in a bubble or if you are. I’m not even slightly buzzed after two drinks, and I only drink a few times per year.

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