[extropy-chat] roids

[Jeff Davis]

--- spike <spike66 at comcast.net> wrote:

> Perhaps this is the wrong forum to ask, since I am
> likely to be preaching to the choir.  But I ask you,
> what is so bad about pro athletes taking steroids? 
> I
> can think of several good things about it: they will
> map out the territory, by demonstrating what happens
> with intense long-term use, point out the health
> problems associated with them.  So why not?  

The election of RR in 1980 marked the launch of the
right wing culture-war anti-drug jihad whose motto was
Nancy R's famous "Just say no." (As in "Don't think
about it, that'll only confuse you.  In fact don't
think at all, no need.  We already know everything you
need to know, so just do/think what we tell you.")  
As the right rose, the left faded.  They faded, in my
view, because they--the 60's/70's
sex-drugs-rock'n'roll, hippie, personal freedom
culture warriors--realized, upon graduating from
college, that a successful career in the larger
America meant "putting on a suit" and buttoning their
lips.  

So the "drug war" was launched **AND THE MEME-SPACE
UTTERLY DOMINATED BY ANTI-DRUG RHETORIC**.  When the
meme-space is all one way, the promoted view rises
beyond "conscious" truth--the sort of truth that is
accessible to critical examination--to become a
foundational "reality"--a fundamental assumption,
'preconscious' and inaccessible to critical review. 
Religion.

Drugs are evil.  Therefore performance enhancing drugs
are evil.  God's way, the natural way, is the only
way.  All else is the work of evildoers, the minions
of Satan.

Wave bye bye to science, rationality, and the
reality-based community.

Best, Jeff Davis

"No drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental
ills of society. If we're looking for the sources of
our troubles, we shouldn't test people for drugs, we
should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and
love of power." - P. J. O'Rourke




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