[From offlist] Re: FBI Says It Can't Find Hackers to Hire Because They All Smoke Pot

John Newman jnn at synfin.org
Sat Mar 25 07:46:04 PDT 2017


On Tue, Mar 21, 2017 at 10:49:32AM -0400, \0xDynamite wrote:
> >> Saying pot is harmless is like saying taking Prozac is harmless.  The
> >> problem is the NET social consequences.  And we can see the
> >> consequences:  shit doesn't get done and things deteriorate.
> >>
> >> 'Nuff said?
> >
> > No, nuff not said ;).  Life is not about working 24 hours
> > a day,
> 
> Never said otherwise.
> 
> >  and comparing pot to prozac is silly.
> 
> It's not silly, both "take the edge off" (mild sedatives) and
> practitioners believe it's harmless.

Prozac is not a "mild sedative". It's an SSRI (Selective serotonin
reuptake inhibitor), very similar to a whole bunch of other
anti-depressants, but not at all similar, in any way, to pot.

The comparison _is_ silly. It's apples and oranges - they're both
fruit, but the similarity ends there.

> 
> > It's great that you're
> > straight-edge, how fashionable,
> 
> It's not fashionable, it's healthy.  I shouldn't of used the
> fashionable term.  I was answering your claim that I'm a pill-popper
> or an alcohol drinker, and the answer is: no.

My claim of what? Umm.. check your email man. I take you at your word
that you are "straight-edge" (although I'm sure you have no problem
taking an aspirin if you have a headache or taking whatever meds a
doctor might prescribe if you are ill). The fact that you seem to think
I called you a pill-popper just goes to show: it doesn't take weed (or
pills) to fuck with your memory :P 

For that matter, marijuana has finally and fairly quickly begun to
be acknowledged as having legit medical benefits in the US, by the
"authorities" (who I clearly give a big 'fuck you' to, but anyway).
There are some cases where it is the only medication without
significant side effects that controls seizures... and other cases
where patients find it vastly preferable for treatment of painful
conditions as opposed to long term prescribed opiates, which are
of course extremely addictive, potentially dangerous, and can have
a powerful "high" that some people simply do not like. Too sedating,
too "strong", in comparison with marijuana. I presume you wouldn't
be so quick to judge people who partake of the plant if they simply
have a piece of paper from a higher authority that says they need
it?

`
> 
> >but don't pass judgement on
> > other people, about things of which you admittedly have no
> > interest or experience.
> 
> So, you don't pass judgement?  How about yoru leaders, capitialists,
> hmm?  You're logically inconsistent, I suspect.

I don't pass judgment on someone's personal choices, no. Passing
judgment on the actions of someone that has a direct negative
consequence for others, like judging a murderer or a thief to be a
piece of shit, or a politician who leads a nation into a war to
be just a bigger piece of the same type of shit, is completely
different than passing judgment on someone's personal choices.
Judging someone for smoking pot is like judging someone for being
gay - it's absurd. What you suspect about me is wrong.

> 
> > Making the broad claim that "shit doesn't get done" because
> > of... marijuana... well, it's enough to crack me up, and my
> > thc blood levels are just about zero right now.
> 
> All I know is that there are a lot of pot-smoking couch-activists.
> But, hey, maybe, you're in a holding pattern like me, and simply have
> to wait it out.  In your case, becuase you don't know what the fuck to
> do, in mine, because everyone else thought THEY did.

Anecdotes are nice, but they're just anecdotes, and in this case
from someone who obviously considers themselves superior because
they are "straight-edge". There are plenty of people that get all
sorts of shit done who smoke marijuana, just as there are plenty
of people that get nothing done who are "straight-edge". It is not
the defining characteristic you seem to think, and to judge someone
based solely on that trait is being judgmental, and having a closed
mind. A condition that the occasional indulgence in pot (or other
entheogens) could actually help you with, actually ;)

John
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