Rottcodd
@Rottcodd@kbin.social
- Comment on Why is alcohol legal if it's much more harmful than marijuana? 8 months ago:
The other answers mostly sum it up - it was initially made illegal primarily as a way to establish an "other" with which to frighten conservatives.
There's another thing that hasn't been mentioned yet though that I've long thought is relevant - is part of the reason that marijuana specifically was for so long (and still is in some quarters) so condemned.
Imagine you're a corrupt politician, and you want to sell your constituents on the idea of going to war in the Middle East (so you can collect some bribes from defense contractors and oil companies) or instituting mandatory sentencing (so you can collect some bribes from prison contractors) or cutting taxes on the wealthy (so you can collect bribes from rich people and corporations) or any of the other, similar things that corrupt politicians want to do
Who would you rather try selling that idea to? A bunch of pot smokers or a bunch of drinkers?
I think part of the issue is that marijuana appeals to a part of the population that really is, to corrupt politicians and their cronies and patrons, "undesirable." When they want to get the people all fired up in support of their latest bullshit, they want somebody with a beer in their hand, drunkenly shouting, "Yeah! Kick their asses!" Not somebody with a joint in their hand, muzzily saying, "Hold on a minute - you want to do what?"
- Comment on Are We Watching The Internet Die? 9 months ago:
I expect a wave of internet users to get upset and call paying for used services “enshittification”, because people don’t realise how much running these AI models actually costs.
I am so tired of this bullshit. Every time I've turned around, for the past thirty years now, I've seen some variation on this same basic song and dance.
Yet somehow, in spite of supposedly being burdened with so much expense and not given their due by a selfish, ignorant public, these companies still manage to build plush offices on some of the most expensive real estate on the planet and pay eight- or even nine-figure salaries to a raft of executive parasites.
When they start selling assets and cutting executive salaries, or better yet laying them off, then I'll entertain the possibility that they need more revenue. Until then, fuck 'em.
- Comment on What were some movies you had to look up explanations of after watching? 1 year ago:
I was going to say this, but I figured I could just scroll until I found where someone else inevitably said it.
By the end, I was just letting the drama wash over me and not even trying to sort out which version of who was doing what in which timeline.
And honestly, I suspect that that's the best way to appreciate it anyway.
- Comment on Lemmy moderation is frustrating as hell 1 year ago:
Or you could just not care so much.
If you post memes that are likely to offend someone somewhere, then there's a risk that one of those someones is going to be a mod, and they're going to delete it. And really, that's just the way it goes.
Certainly you might prefer that they have explicit, precise and closely followed rules so you can accurately predict what they'll do, but there's really no requirement that they do so - if they want vague rules arbitrarily enforced, that's their prerogative.
And really, what are you out if they do delete a post? It's not like you paid for it or you have some sort of quota you have to meet. You just toss things out into the internet, and some of them float and others sink.
- Comment on Never start vaping, says 12-year-old girl with lung damage 1 year ago:
I'm always curious - what is it that leads you to believe that you should be able to decide what other people may or may not do with their own bodies?
I've never been able to wrap my head around that whole idea. There's just no angle on it that makes sense to me.
If I presume that people do have the right to decide what other people can do with their own bodies, then we end up with self-defeating chaos, since different people have entirely different, conflicting and even contradictory, views on that.
But if I decide that they don't have that right, then... they don't have that right.
I don't see a chain of logic that can possibly lead to the conclusion that anyone does have that right, but it seems I can't turn around without running into yet another person, like you here, who blithely presumes that they do.
So really - how does that work? Inside your own mind, what's the reasoning that leads to the conclusion that you, rather than the actual people who actually inhabit the other bodies around you, should be empowered to decide what they may or may not do with their own bodies?
I just can't make sense of it.
- Comment on Never start vaping, says 12-year-old girl with lung damage 1 year ago:
So seriously - who's peddling this anti-vaping propaganda and what's their goal?
Vaping is easily the most effective way to stop smoking that's ever existed. Certainly we don't want kids to start doing it, and kids are the basis for much of the propaganda, but it's never just restricted to trying to make it so kids don't start. All of the propaganda efforts are directed toward stamping out vaping entirely, and that means that millions of people whose lives could literally be saved by switching from smoking to vaping will be denied that opportunity.
Why? Whose interests are served by denying adult smokers access to the most effective smoking cessation product ever?
- Comment on The Minecraft wiki has been moved from Fandom to Minecraft.wiki 1 year ago:
Good.
It's reached the point (or had a couple of years ago, which was the last time I went to a wiki hosted there) that it's virtually impossible to even read an entry, since there are so many ads that the actual text of the article spends more time off the screen than on it.
- Comment on I'm so glad I waited nearly 3 years to play Cyberpunk 2077, but I dread the fact that this is our new normal 1 year ago:
That's not a new thing though.
I first learned the wisdom of waiting until after the bulk of the bug-squashing was done before expecting to play a reasonably stable game with Oblivion, 17 years ago.
Granted that Cyberpunk 2077 was a particularly egregious example of the problem, but still...
- Comment on Bill Maher Bashes ‘Barbie’ as a “Preachy, Man-Hating Zombie Lie” 1 year ago:
...while insisting "I'm not the one who's out of step."
That's the funniest thing I've read all day.
- Comment on What can we do to get review threads similar to the ones on /r/Games? 1 year ago:
You can make one and post it