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Culture War Roundup for the week of September 5, 2022

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I've fought some amateur Mixed martial arts and I was on Testosterone, human growth hormone, Stanozolol, and Erythropoietin. My doctor was extremely tight with regulating my use of these substances and it was probably quite dangerous.

However when on them I felt superhuman, I could run for days without feeling any effect, I could lift weight I've never dreamed of lifting and I recovered from things at an inhuman rate. EPO made me able to run for hours on end, and the Stanozolol made my strength insane, the HGH apparently significantly improved my recovery, and I don't remember what the doctor said the test actually did. I was focused on maintaining discipline with taking some PED's rather than making sure I understood what it all did, my doctor had to make sure I wasn't gonna get hurt from that.

I straight up don't understand why anyone would expect any army division to consist of natty's. Isn't the whole idea of fighting a war the idea that you are going sacrifice young able bodied men for your country? I'm shocked at the idea that members of the US army are not cycling on Stanozolol/EPO at least, What kind of self-respecting army doesn't use wonder chemicals to turn its soldiers into super soldiers. I would have expected the army to have its own research division that researches new powerful PED's to feed soldiers. If athletes in the underground can make wonderdrugs that are this strong, imagine what a government research team can do to an Army. Unrestricted by things like "pissing hot" you could build Stanozolol that lets soldiers carry 200 pounds of armor/weapons to the battlefield, while running 8 miles on their new super EPO. Staying awake and alert for 45 hours thanks to their new modafanil.

Yeah these drugs probably will kill the health of soldiers long term, but by the time that happens they aren't in the army anymore. Having a bad time when you're 70 is much better than not living to see 35 due to dying to a Klashnikov.

Having a bad time when you're 70 is much better than not living to see 35 due to dying to a Klashnikov.

A drug that will make you invulnerable to bullets certainly would be a wonder drug. I don't care how superhuman you felt when mucking around with your body chemistry for an amateur sport, being blown sky-high by an IED won't be softened by any combination of steroids you can name.

Stanozolol can let you wear heavier armor which can protect your body from bullets.

Yeah, obviously certain things (missles mostly) can't really be defended by body armor, but the AK-47 can (even though scouring youtube for body armor hasn't found anything that worked).

Maybe in the future with super Stanozolol you become Master Chief from halo and wear insanely heavy body armor with heavy weapons. Infantry currently carry 120 pounds onto the battlefield, if they were carrying an extra 50 pounds who knows what they could do.

The steroids might prevent you from being near the IED when it goes off.

Our wars are discretionary, our military is a jobs program (see the endless obsession with diversity), and the implementation matches general federal bureaucracy. It has been a long, long time since the United States military has prioritized war readiness above its other goals.

If Google required every employee to take adderall, would it actually improve their productivity? Or would it just lead to the best candidates leaving google for an employer that wouldn’t force them to take adderall?

Google is an employer and has to stick to rules like "you can quit" which the US army is unconstrained by. Google also can't control the other medications its employees take .

The Google version would be closer to having a company doctor that prescribes most Software engineers with Adderall, telling them the exact dosage to take and how to use it.

In the military meanwhile they can do things like put the meds directly on your breakfast platter, and give intense physical training that basically mandates you take this stuff to survive them. Social conformity is a powerful thing, if people were encouraged to take such drugs to remain in the special forces I suspect most people who are dedicated enough to enlist in the first place would take them. If the Army doctor regulates your PED use then it is a heck of a lot less dangerous than the normal PED regimen that everyone in American Kickboxing Academy uses.

I think that's a great point, but the difference is that steroids are much more effective than adderall at their respective jobs. Steroids can essentially take people in the bottom quintile of muscle building potential and take them to the level of the top 0.1% natural athletes, and they take people in the top quintile and make them completely superhuman, they are freakishly effective. If something of this magnitude existed in the realm of productivity, it wouldn't matter that the best people left google, because the drug is doing so much of the work that those who take it become the best because of it.

Since loss of muscle mass is a major problem for the elderly, should people in their 50s take steroids to build up muscle mass?

Stanozolol can cause liver problems, also there is some evidence that it can cause heart problems, I would in general not reccomend PED's unless you have a doctor regulating your dosage, there's way too many variables that can fuck you over.

I'm not sure if that is supposed to be an argument against my position, but yes, elderly men in particular should definitely be taking TRT (I'm not a doctor, just my opinion), I think the overall quality of life calculation is completely unambiguous in favor of taking low to moderate doses of steroids.

I was asking to see if I should be taking steroids.

As a guy that did steroids, I gotta say you're overselling them. They will make you a better athlete, but they will not make a bad athlete into a good athlete. Not really.

I think adderall is more effective based on my own experiences with both.

I went from benching 260 to 230 after going off of stanozolol, and my 5k time went from 18 minutes to 20 after I was weaned off EPO. That's a pretty dramatic difference in strength/speed.