Currently in Rotation: "Revenge of a Nerd" - Metaform (2010)

A straight slapper from 2010's "The Electric Mist."  I'm a sucker for any song that samples heavily from "Moments in Love" by The Art of Noise & this one does it well.  (Though my all-time fave is "Murda Mo" by Krayzie Bone).



Sample lyrics:

Most times they'll steal from you
Those things that come from you, yeah
Some need to hate on you
Because they hate the truth

I played my card in the corner
I kept this wall for you, yeah

Sometimes they'll smile for you
Inside they'll run on you
Some friends may stand by you
Some friends may walk on you, yeah...

Oh so true, robot-voice man.  🤖

Oh, To Be A Man in the Bible Belt

He would have no problem finding a willing mate in Middle America.

Just broke down sobbing at a pic of my little cousin at some event or other.  She's surrounded by people who look ecstatic to be there--her mom, friends, teachers, etc--but has the saddest blank stare on her face.  That's because my POS cousin just abandoned his family for a new girlfriend who I'm sure has no reservations about the kind of man who dumps his high school sweetheart & little girls for some random side piece while in the throes of a midlife crisis.   ❤‍🩹

Then we have the "other" situation in my family involving a controlling, abusive steroid addict who is now forever tied to one of my closest loved ones.  A loser by all accounts who's been given a hundred chances to get his shit together but has failed every time & continues to control & abuse my loved one(s).  And what does said loved one do?  Give him total control over the biggest decision of her life, wiping the slate clean as if none of it ever happened while tossing me under the bus after I supported her through it all.  💔

Of course all this is in the context of 2 of my closest friends going cock-crazy, one moving across the country without warning for a laughably pathetic dude & the other moving a drug dealer into her house & buying a gun to protect herself from his BS lifestyle as if this was all normal.  When my bestie, also a long time friend of both these classy ladies, needed a temporary place to stay when she moved back here, dealer girlfriend randomly blew up on her, taking the rage caused by her druggie bf & various other shitty male friends out on her.  So those two are effectively dead to me/us now.  🤬

THEN there's the... you know what?  Forget it.  TL;DR - Another otherwise intelligent woman takes anger out on innocent female bystander while proudly giving POS man infinite chances.  He's god, I'm Satan for reasons only she knows, but I'll bet it has something to do with money and/or dick.  😞

I've had just about enough of braindead Bible Belt bitches & their double standards.  This is just 1 of many reasons I fled from here the 1st time.  The internalized (and externalized/projected) misogyny is suffocating.  The next miserable repressed frigid skank to blow up on me or one of my female friends is gonna feel the wrath.  I don't wanna hear another mumbling word about women's empowerment, feminism, "patriarchy" or any of it as long as you're enabling these lazy, unwashed, cheating, abusive, low-IQ, knuckledragging troglodytes in your personal life.  Anybody can post a meme or write an opinionated screed.  What some of you are doing is equivalent to patting yourself on the back for being "anti-racist" while letting Klan members use your basement to prepare for their cross-burning rallies.

How nice must it be to be born male in one of these shithole flyover states?  Mommy's Golden Child, the apple of Daddy's eye, starter on coach's Friday night football team, free to rape & pillage while the community looks the other way, brushing it aside as "boys being boys?"  Who WOULDN'T behave like a psychopath under those circumstances?  They don't even have to try with women--just being a man who shows interest is enough.  As long as women enable awful men by offering a stable relationship & all the things that come with hetero marriage: maid service, shitty one-sided sex, free therapy, event planning, childcare (that includes serving as his mother figure), serving as arm candy at events & Kodak moments that make him look like an involved husband/father to the community, the fuckery will continue at our expense.  If your fear of being single or going down a notch financially is greater than your fear of enabling a terrible person/abuser, your priorities are fucked.  Grow up and stop looking for a surrogate father.  

From a Vogue article about the "Boymom phenomenon".   🤮

And it doesn't end with husbands/boyfriends/fuck buddies.  So many women favor their sons over their daughters it makes me wanna vomit.  It often borders on gross/creepy if you catch my drift.  I'm not the only one to have noticed either, which is why groups like "The Boymoms Are Getting Incesty Again" (Facebook) exist.  Reddit has its share of these groups too.  Aside from its nauseating nature, this favoritism is where the entitlement, lack of empathy & other "toxic masculinity" traits that society often bemoans come from.  It starts early & in the home, not with vulgar rap music, violent video games or other cultural shit they so love to scapegoat.

Teaching sons when they're toddlers & young school kids that their gender makes them exempt from doing chores, apologizing when they hurt someone, following the same rules regarding disrespect/cursing/fighting & other forms of rambunctious behavior as their sisters sets them up for a lifetime of bad behavior... behavior that's a lot less cute & harder to control when they're 15, 21 or 30 than 2, 6 or 11.  It's all fun and games until somebody gets gang raped, bullied to death or killed. 

Maybe you make your son do chores but chances are, if he has sisters (especially older sisters) he does approximately half as many as they do, if that.  If an argument breaks out & the parents aren't around to see who started it, who gets blamed?  Sister > brother most times.  Girls are expected to be more mature, demure & well-behaved than boys & when they're not, the punishment is often twice as harsh.  I know because I've seen this in every household of every friend I spent time with growing up as well as my own.  And it doesn't serve sons OR daughters whatsoever.  I can think of 4 examples of "pampered only sons" in families of girls who grew up to die untimely deaths of overdose, obesity or other preventable causes or who ended up doing multiple prison stints while their sisters went on to do totally normal things.  If this describes your parenting, stop treating your son as a surrogate husband & get a grip.  You're not doing it for them but for your own bizarre, unhealthy reasons.

Get help, weirdo.  

Sexism is the most pervasive, widely accepted & widely perpetuated form of inequality/discrimination on the planet, and that's because both sexes engage in it.  Some countries or regions are less barbaric than others but none are free of it.  From the staunch conservative to the bleeding heart liberal, inequality between the sexes & archaic views on women's issues are utterly pervasive.  We're an afterthought when we're considered at all, yet these spineless women continue putting males at the front & center of their pathetic co-dependent lives.  So be it. 

Just don't come crying to me when your overtly aggressive, woman-hatin mayun does "the unthinkable" and hits or kills you/your child or infects you with an incurable STD, and save the raised-fist radfem nonsense for somebody else because I don't buy it. "The personal is political" is more than just an empty slogan.  As long as you pray to a vengeful male god while lying next to an adulterous, drunken bum of a husband, treating your sons like gold & your daughters like dirt, it's nothing more than the guilty projections of a coward who knows she's selling her soul but lacks the guts to stop.  

(If I sound angry, I am.  I'm also utterly exhausted, beaten down, sick, sad & hopeless.  It's hard to believe so many women I love, respect and/or look up to are this mentally colonized.  As a 'why' person it leaves me baffled because the men they trash their lives for are often so beneath them.  Never in my life have I seen so many lowered standards & mismatches when it comes to looks, personality, intellect... you name it.  Learn how to be thirsty without drinking poison, ffs).  😓

Oh and don't shoot the (female) messenger.  If the shoe doesn't fit, nothing here will offend you because I'm not talking to you.  But if it does, perhaps it's time to look inward instead of projectile vomiting your rage all over others because how's that been working for you?  Why so angry & bitter?  Might your own actions have something to do with the state of your personal life?  Remember:  It's only disrespect if it's untrue or uncalled for.  Yes-men don't really care about you or your betterment & if you expect me to be one, you got me fucked up.

My Self-Care Looks Like...

Frugal ≠ cheap!  Never feel bad for valuing your time or your dime.

...budgeting.  Not living beyond my means.  Not stealing from my future self's needs to afford things my present self wants. 

While I don't bring in much money each month, I'm not in any debt whatsoever & have never had a spending problem like many of the (bipolar) people in my family or many Americans in general.  That's a good feeling for someone with an addictive/obsessive personality, I tell you wuht. 

When you're working to "pay something off," whether it's a loan or a piece of financed furniture, the maker of that thing actually owns you as every hour of work you contribute toward paying it off is time & effort you can never get back.  Working to pay for something you already bought puts you behind the eightball.  You're working FOR the maker of that thing in a sense, not for money to put in the bank as savings or use for some other want/need.  And as any owner of a car, home, pet or human body knows, there's always an emergency arising with one of those things that must be paid for immediately.  Hence the need for savings.

Some debts are unavoidable (medical, student loan) but others are just poor investment choices--that shiny new iPhone or [current year] car depreciates the minute you drive off the lot with it.  You could definitely stand to get a slightly older and much cheaper model car or, in the case of the Apple spy device, a different brand altogether.  (My rule of thumb:  If you can't pay it off in one lump sum/down payment, you probably don't need it unless it's a house, car or lifesaving medical device/treatment).  Also:  Newer doesn't necessarily = better.  It's all about the model, the make and brand.  Do your research and shop around before making a big purchase.  Small everyday purchases like dining out and having your hair or nails professionally done also add up big time so considering whether it's a 'want' or a true 'need' before splurging is something all smart spenders do.  (I've included some links to durable, "Buy it once for life" items at the end of this article).   👍

Worse, there are people who write hot checks, skip out on child support, cheat on their taxes, don't pay them at all or commit other forms of poorly thought-out financial fraud in order to have more money "now".  It's only a matter of time before they get caught & end up getting their wages garnished or thrown in the clink.  What good is having extra money in the moment if you end up totally bankrupt, in the hole & humiliated down the line?  It's this lack of forethought & short-sighted "live for the moment" behavior that gets people in big financial trouble.  The same applies to running up massive credit card debt, putting your bank account in the hole/getting overdraft fees or other kinds of debt that comes with interest.  Eventually you'll be forced to turn to credit unions & check cashing institutions that take a huge cut of your checks just to cash them, which is a racket unto itself.  As they say, it's expensive being poor.

Non-Financial Budgeting

Of course money isn't the only thing we must budget in this life.  Our time, specialized skills & energy are other precious resources we must give out judiciously & they're directly linked to money because we exchange them for it every day at work, occasionally giving them away for free as gifts.  But this can eat up too much of our lives if we're not careful.  Workaholism is an addiction like any other--not a virtue.  (Read that again, Type A's).  At best it's a poor coping skill; a form of escapism or a justification for a materialistic lifestyle.  But make no mistake:  The pursuit of money & things can easily turn a well-meaning, high-achieving person into a hamster on a wheel to nowhere.  In its most unrestricted form it can turn you into a monster like Diddy, Jeff Bezos, Jeffrey Epstein or George Soros--wealthy in the extreme yet never satisfied; willing to commit violent, exploitative acts to continue increasing your net worth & power.

You can either have extra time & extra space or extra stuff.  I've always preferred the former but I seem to be the odd man out in that regard.  Americans love their poorly-made trinkets and that's their prerogative.  But if you choose extra "stuff," be warned that it comes at a high price:  your solitude, creativity, rest & recreation as well as time with loved ones...  time you can't get back once it's gone.  The stress of always working & often losing sleep catches up eventually, taking a toll on your health, looks & sanity.  You drink (or binge eat, or whatever unhealthy habit is your vice) far more than you should to deal with the stress which further worsens your health.  Marriages & family relationships suffer & before you know it, you look up and you're 70 & don't even recognize the sunken eyes staring blankly back at you in the mirror.  You have a strained relationship with your (adult) kids, you've long since divorced your spouse & barely know your grandchildren.  And for what?  To make some slave-driving boss or CEO rich?  To keep up with the Joneses?  To live up to the capitalist propaganda of what a "good worker" looks like?

But at least you have the biggest house on the block!  It might even be paid off before you die.  Doubtful, but miracles do happen.  I think Publisher's Clearinghouse still exists, right?  🤷🏻‍♀ 



All That Glitters...

Quit glorifying literal villains.

Maybe it's because I've seen the super-wealthy up close all my life that I'm not impressed by money and "stuff"...  people so well-off they've never worked a day in their lives, live off the interest generated by the $$$ in their savings accounts and at one point drove a party bus that gets 6 miles per gallon from Bible Belt USA to Vegas.  THEIR party bus.  That they own.  🤦🏻‍♀  Those are just a few examples of the absurdity of their lives, which, by the way are not one iota happier or more fulfilling than mine.  In fact, one of said rich peeps has been so empty at times that they self-destructed, nearly dying from alcohol-induced psychosis & depressant addiction, losing their spouse and half their fortune in an ugly divorce and becoming estranged from all their kids, having their name smeared in the community (rightfully so) & even getting locked up for drunken disorderly conduct.  I love these people dammit, but they don't live in the same reality as the rest of us.  (I also know how they came by their obscene fortunes because they can't help bragging about it at every family function which makes it hard to see them as anything other than cold capitalist crooks but, again, they're family & I l o v e them ugh).  

I mean look at Diddy: a billionaire award-winning musician & CEO who had the world, including a smorgasbord of drugs and underage sex workers, at his disposal.  Yet he STILL wasn't happy as evidenced by the physical brutalization of his girlfriends & frequent adult tantrums he threw at work & various other places.  Like that time he attacked his son's UCLA coach with a frickin' kettlebell.  As long as I have enough moolah to pay my bills & not go hungry, I'm thrilled.  This is in line with what studies have shown, which is that having more money beyond a certain point doesn't increase happiness.  And that point is $75,000 per year.*  Yet the desire to be filthy rich consumes so many lives & turns so many hearts to stone that you'd think money is the key to solving all of life's problems including our own mortality. 

No, money solves MONEY problems (which are nothing to sneeze at, but follow me here).  It does fuckall for emotional, spiritual, interpersonal or mental/cognitive deficiencies.  And it tends to worsen traits like greed, boredom, selfishness, superficiality, addiction, laziness, entitlement, impatience & the inability to appreciate the "small" things in life.  What does one do for fun when you've been partying since childhood, traveled the world already & can buy your way out of accountability for any crime?  Answer:  Any-damn-thing you want.  No drug, no sex act, expensive item, sadistic behavior, luxurious vacation/trip or exotic-but-immoral experience is off limits.  As with any addiction, increasingly intense stimuli are needed to produce the same response so this tends to be a one-way trip to Hell. 

Thankfully, most of us never experience this obscene level of wealth but only a handful need to for the world to go to shit because money is power.  

It all goes back to that "balance" thing in the first post:  If you fail to balance the work & money part of life with all the other equally important parts, those aspects will wither & die.  Nice things are nice to have but that's all they are... nice.  Not necessary.  And certainly not more important than your health, solitude/rest, relationships, hobbies, spiritual practices and so on.  Budgeting & being frugal (or at least reasonable) with your spending is one way to work less so you can spend more of your time & energy on those precious parts of life.   👪 ⚕ 🧳 📚 🧘🏻‍♀


*That $75,000 figure was from a 2010 study and cost of living has gone WAY up since then, so take that number with a grain of salt.  But the point remains.  

U.S. consumer debt is at an all-time high in 2024, w/ 77% of households having some type of debt & the average amount totaling $66,772 per adult.  😲

* Note:  This isn't a "quit eating avocado toast" article. I understand there are situations in which you must take out loans & where overdrawing your bank account or the like is unavoidable.  Been there, done that.  I'm not talking to legitimately poor people in this article but the overspenders & workaholics whose basic needs are met (and then some) yet they continue to spend themselves into debt and work themselves into a state of zombified exhaustion by choice.

Links:  

Reddit:  Buy It For Life

Wired's 63 Favorite Durable Products:  Cast Iron Skillets, Speakers, Tools, Chairs & More

Buy Me Once USA

Drug Biases Reflect a Society's Values

Cirrhosis, liver cancer, delirium tremens, Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.  Drunk driving, domestic violence, heart disease, fatal withdrawals, suicide, pancreatitis, breast & colon cancer.  These are just SOME of the real-world complications of excessive alcohol consumption.  Yet due to its widespread legality & social acceptance, alcohol is hardly considered a drug at all as evidenced by the maddening phrase "drugs and alcohol".  It's marketed on television, online, splashed across giant highway billboards, flashing all over sprawling signs in Vegas and Times Square... you can't escape it.  Most people consider it just another drink option like juice or soda as opposed to a mind-altering drug.  The phrase "adult beverage" implies that you need alcohol to be a REAL adult, or that drinking makes you more mature and cool.  

Excellent film about alcohol marketing "Calling the Shots" (1982)

In fact our culture creates countless flowery terms to dance around the ugly realities of alcohol addiction.  "Social drinker, day drinker, problem drinker, lush, alcoholic."  All of these are meant to describe different degrees of alcohol use/abuse, yet ethanol--the active substance in booze--is interpreted by the brain & body as toxic in any dose, and there's no safe type or amount at any time during pregnancy.  (It's now believed that a man's alcohol consumption near the time of conception can cause Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder in the offspring due to epigenetic DNA mutations).  There are no such words to describe people who use other so-called "hard" drugs... only "addict" (even if they're not addicted).  Maybe "junkie" or "tweaker" which aren't exactly complimentary.  You never hear these people referred to as "cocaine connoisseurs" who "dabble in diamonds" or "take a toke of Tina on the (t)weekends".  💎💨

Man with oral cancer due to smokeless tobacco, aka "snuff".

Except that's how a majority of people who ingest these illegal drugs use them--once or twice in their lives or only in moderation on social occasions, never going on to become addicted.  Even heroin, a drug society overwhelmingly associates with hopeless and instant addiction, only causes addiction in 10-20% of users.  Meanwhile tobacco, another legal and widely available drug, has been known since 1988 to be harder to quit than some of the most maligned drugs including cocaine & heroin according to Surgeon General Everett C. Coop.  Its long-term health effects are far more detrimental to the body than those of opioids when said opioids are of pharmaceutical-grade quality & taken orally in safe doses or with clean equipment (cotton, syringes, etc), which is how most developed nations offer them to addicts in their treatment programs.  Amphetamines can also be used safely by healthy people for years or even decades in medicinal doses*, but tobacco begins destroying the body upon the first dose.  I can't think of a single other recreational substance that will leave you talking through a hole in your neck or missing the lower half of your face due to cancer. 

Well, unless it would be alcohol which is also a Group I carcinogen. 

Partnership for a Drug-ee America

Don't do drugs, kids!  Well, not those other untaxed ones.

One of the most insidious aspects of the drug war is that these two industries (alcohol & tobacco) in conjunction with Big Pharma have teamed up to push anti-"drug" propaganda in the form of Partnership for a Drug-Free America ads.  You know the ones:  the melodramatic life-and-death ads featuring beautiful young people ruining their lives forever with one toke of pot or a razor thin line of coke.  Here are a few examples to refresh your memory:

Rolled up

Did their estates approve this disrespectful mess?

Cooler than booze.

...and their most (in)famous offering.

While there's a grain of truth here, the ads are not only misleading but do nothing to educate people on safer use of said drugs.  Wonder why?  Could it be because their true purpose is to prevent use of these drugs, not to keep people safe but to keep the profits flowing into THEIR pockets by eliminating the competition?  It's not a "War on Drugs," it's a War on SOME Drugs--a competition between the black drug market & these legal drug industries.  Which "drugs" become targets has nothing to do with safety/medical benefits and everything to do with whether a given substance has lobbyists protecting it in D.C. (see: kratom vs. all the other substances that have been placed in Schedule I in the time regulators have been trying to ban kratom).  The question of whether a drug is patent-able or whether it grows out of the ground so that any idiot could cultivate it is a key factor in deciding its legal fate.  If the latter, into the CI or CII bin it goes while pharma companies rush to patent its active ingredient(s) or make a reasonable synthetic facsimile.  (See:  cannabis/Marinol, opium poppies/opioid pills, coca/cocaine, khat/cathinones, peyote/mescaline, psilocybin mushrooms/psilocybin & Mimosa Hostilis root bark/DMT).  

And just where are the scare ads warning kids about the numerous horrific ways alcohol can kill you?  Alcohol deaths alone dwarf illicit opioid deaths each year in the U.S. but the media is silent except when it's glorifying/normalizing drinking.  We're talking only about the deaths caused directly by alcohol, not the car crashes, suicides, homicides & other deaths indirectly triggered by its abuse.  Rates of alcohol abuse were on the rise even before the pandemic, with roughly 29.5 million Americans suffering from Alcohol Use Disorder according to the APA. 

Likewise, I see no such ads warning that egregious, unnecessary drugs like the legal fentanyl lollipops known as Actiq, or Hysingla--which contains a mind-blowing 120 mg of hydrocodone compared to the 5, 7.5 or 10 mg in Vicodin & Lortabs--or Mydayis, a redundant long-acting stimulant containing 2 types of dextroamphetamine and 2 forms of amphetamine; and Desoxyn, which is just straight up meth--could maybe, possibly, potentially result in hopeless addiction or overdose in some users. 

Also, these substances are never referred to by the media as "designer drugs" or "Frankenstein chemicals" the way new psychoactive drugs are when they come from the grey or black market, which is pure hypocrisy.  They're every bit as experimental as the so-called "research chemicals" that pour in from China, it's just that pharma manufacturers are exempt from legal consequences when people die from their products.  They're literally "too big to fail" when you or I would be locked up for the same thing on a much smaller scale.  (See: all the street dealers getting 25-to-life when some schmuck OD's on illicit fentanyl).

 

Fentanyl lollipop (Actiq).  Fucking WHY?

The Real Causes of Addiction & the Drug War

For most of this nation's history we were #1 in education & healthcare.  By 1990 we were #6.  Now we're #27 & rapidly falling.  Names like "Steel City, Rubber City, Motor City, Flour City & Brew City" were proudly used to describe Northern cities like Pittsburgh, Akron, Detroit, Rochester & Milwaukee--all U.S. locales known for their manufacturing prowess.  Now Detroit resembles a bombed-out 3rd world country & Pittsburgh is home to Kensington Ave, an open-air drug market where people come from miles around to record the "fentanyl zombies" for online content in what's being called "tranq tourism".

These things taken together & combined with a person's everyday surroundings are referred to as 'environment', and they play the single largest role in our addiction epidemic.  Bigger than "mental health" or "childhood trauma," both of which get a disproportionate amount of attention in the media.   Could that be because it's more convenient to place the onus for this scourge on individuals rather than policymakers?  On psychology rather than sociology?   Why address festering societal problems like wealth inequality when you can charge it to private insurance, amirite?  

Alas, burden- and blame-shifting are the one thing our government truly excels at:  pushing "therapy" and "meds" on victims of trauma after the fact rather than investing in prevention by doing things like incentivizing family planning & locking up violent predators before they can harm more people.  An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and while the U.S. sucks at cures they're criminally bad at prevention.  It would be painfully easy to offer addicts, teenagers, the severely mentally ill, people living in severe poverty & those with violent criminal records a small cash incentive to use a reversible form of contraception that lasts 3-5 years like an IUD or Depo-Provera type shot.  Making birth control of all kinds as well as abortion available everywhere on demand along with evidence-based Sex Education for students whose parents want them to have it would also go a LONG way toward preventing unwanted pregnancy, suffering & future crime.  The benefits would pay for themselves many times over.

Instead we reward irresponsible breeding with tax breaks, special welfare incentives (TANF, Family Support Assistance payments, daycare assistance, preferential treatment in housing programs, WIC, SNAP & more) plus free breakfast/lunch AND multiple snacks at public schools that now serve as little more than free daycare centers for kids who often are too behaviorally disturbed to learn or contribute.  Meanwhile violent crime is treated as petty crime, IF that.  But God help you if you try to earn tax-free income by selling drugs or your own body.  

If you disagree, it's because of emotional bias--not rational fact.

Never mind that billionaires skirt federal income taxes by squirreling their hoards in offshore Swiss bank accounts & the like.  Now the IRS is also watching your "side hustle" under the guise of the "American Rescue Plan".  Just which "Americans" are being "Rescued" by this "Plan," exactly?  The same ones who have been bailed out ad nauseam for tanking their businesses and gambling OUR investments away on Wall street while coked out of their skulls & living the high life.  Here's a list of JUST THE BANKS bailed out in ONLY 2008/2009.  It got much worse during COVID, which prompted the biggest bailout in the nation's history (most of which was used to lay workers off & fatten CEOs' bank accounts.  Imagine!) 

What kind of society sentences domestic abusers, rapists & child molesters to "anger management," community service and probation while incarcerating non-violent drug dealers/sex workers/under-the-table workers for years or sometimes decades?  The same society that lets the Sacklers, Jeff Epstein & large-scale environmental polluters like the CEO of BP Oil off with menial fines or a "sweetheart" deal.  Somehow the monsters who literally initiate the drug epidemics the black market goes on to support & poison generations with their toxic sludge & radioactive weapons never see the inside of a prison cell while the rest of us live in fear of cop sirens.  Prisons aren't for the rich, they're for poor people aspiring to get out of poverty.  As per the 13th Amendment, they will get their pound of flesh from you one way or the other, either by "voluntary" labor or by slavery inside a cell.  Take your pick. 


Purpose of the Drug War

Like racism, the drug war in its current iteration is an outgrowth of capitalism... of a for-profit medical and prison system.  If we were truly fighting the drug scourge to save lives & improve society, profit wouldn't factor into it at all--drugs would be scheduled according to their actual safety/risk & potential medicinal applications, nothing else.  Drug education would employ evidence-based models like harm reduction rather than abstinence-only fear mongering.  

But that's not the purpose of the drug war.  

Like most of America's other wars, the drug war exists to make certain entities filthy rich:  bail bonds companies, drug test manufacturers, private prisons, companies that use inmates for free labor, small police forces that fund their departments with civil asset forfeiture/drug raids, the DEA & the multi-billion dollar per year drug treatment industry to name a FEW.  And as already mentioned, it allows others to maintain their total monopoly on the market (the tobacco, alcohol & pharma industries).  These entities have a vested financial interest in keeping certain drugs illegal that has nothing to do with their relative risks or benefits.  Need proof?  Simply look at which drugs are in Schedule I (most restrictive) vs. Schedules II-IV.  You'll quickly see that it's not based on medical or safety consideration like we've been told.  

Capitalism: An Inherently Amoral System

We live in upside down world where money is God, banks are church, poorly-made junk is a sacrament, the rich are saints, the poor are sinners, wealth is Heaven & poverty is Hell.   We're told by hypocritical religious leaders that "money is the root of all evil" as they pass around the collection plate & hop aboard their private jet from their megachurch to their mega-mansion, never being taxed a dime for the privilege.  Our counterproductive laws & the bogus sentences handed down by our pedophile enabler judges are the strongest reflection of our country's morals--or lack thereof.  The amount of effort people exert fighting to uphold this system is astounding, even those with no money who should know better.  Apparently they've never heard the saying "Not my father's farm".  

The work ethic = your value as a human being propaganda has infected the country's collective psyche like a virus--perhaps the most effective form of brainwashing ever employed (and the most deadly "virus" ever contracted).  And we're all paying the price.  We'll continue reaping the harvest long after we're gone, or at least our children and grandchildren will.  Sorry, kids.  Not all of us are like this.  We tried to speak out and were repeatedly told we were "idealistic," "unrealistic," "lazy" or "America-hating commies" by people who can't even read or spell at an 8th grade level for the most part.  It's in this conformist wealth-driven society that drug users/dealers are viewed as lower than violent criminals because drug use is associated with laziness, uncleanliness, hedonism & anti-establishment views, untrue as those views may be.

Drug Peace: A Requirement for A Prosperous Society

This.

I believe a society's drugs of choice are a reflection of its values, and ours is no exception.  Our entire childhood is wasted sitting in a classroom & doing homework as they indoctrinate us for what's to come.  If they have to pump us full of Ritalin to get us to sit still & shut up, so be it.  As adults we're allowed to consume sugar-laden caffeinated drinks--a shitty adrenergic stimulant--to push through the work day with periodic tobacco smoke/vape breaks in the hopes that we die before retirement age so they don't have to fund the back-end of our shitty lives after they've used us up.  We guzzle booze in a desperate attempt to pack a bunch of loud, ignorant "living" into our increasingly few days off, praying we black out long enough to forget the Hell our lives have become.  Rinse, repeat.  

It doesn't have to be this way.  Imagine how beautiful life could be if consenting adults could purchase any drug they wanted in its pure form with no worry about adulteration, no artificially inflated price due to prohibition & no concern about the violence that can happen when dealing with black market drug dealers.  Would this cure our national debt crisis?  No.  Would it magically transform our shitty neighborhoods into clean utopias?  Ehh, no.  But one thing is certain:  a helluva lot less people would be abusing shit like fentanyl, alcohol, meth, crack, tranq dope & Benadryl, and those who did abuse drugs would do so out of public view.  Property crimes & shoplifting would decline, as addicts would no longer need to steal or commit other low-level crimes to finance their habits.  Legalizing drugs would open the door to a lot of other good things--as many good things as states & cities were willing to try:  affordable housing programs, universal basic income, jobs in the addiction & harm reduction education industry for recovering addicts.  The possibilities are limitless.  

Plant drugs = a good starting point for legalization.

We could start by legalizing all plant-based drugs like opium poppies, coca leaves, cannabis, psilocybin mushrooms, khat & DMT-producing plants, moving into popular staples like amphetamine, LSD, cocaine, MDMA & codeine at pre-determined schedules--say over a 5-to-7-year period.  These options alone would cut down so dramatically on the abuse of deadlier drugs we could probably stop there.  But why would we?  Showing favoritism to certain chemicals is how we got in this mess.  "Harder" drugs like morphine, methamphetamine, crack, heroin & Dilaudid would be sold only at designated safe sites with trained medical professionals on site along with educational materials, clean gear like syringes and information about rehabilitation services.  Addicts would come at designated times, say 3 times per day, to get their doses.  This is how it's done in countries where drugs like heroin are legal & it completely eliminates deaths due to accidental overdose & adulteration of the drug supply.  Which is the whole point.  Addicts are able to work & carry on normal lives in many cases.  

Practical and honest harm reduction education would immediately commence in schools & elsewhere & would be readily available at drug consumption sites.  Abstinence would still be taught to children because that's the only 100% effective way to avoid all risk associated with drugs, but as with driving a car or doing other things that come with risk, most people are going to use at least one substance at some point either medicinally or recreationally, so everyone needs to know how to do so more safely.  Profits from sales of certain substances would be put toward funding evidence-based addiction treatment centers in all 50 states for those ready to get clean.  These centers will be free to the public but if an addict wants to attend a 12-step or faith-based center, they can pay out of pocket since these are not science-backed.  States could decide how they wanted to use the tax revenue from the profits of drug sales, but I could definitely see many of them using it to rebuild roads, bridges & other structures in desperate need of repair.  

Mexican cartel violence would drop dramatically--dealers, manufacturers, smugglers & others in these organizations would be forced to find another product to traffic, and fast.  They've already been pushed out of the cannabis business as more states have moved to legalize.  As cartel violence drops, so will illegal immigration to the U.S., something conservatives are constantly complaining about.  Prison cells will open up so more violent and large-scale white collar criminals can be incarcerated, making our towns & cities safer.  Tax revenue from the sale of these substances could be put to much-needed use by states instead of 100% of it funding violent gangs & cartels.  New jobs would be created within the legal drug education, treatment, manufacturing & sales industries--literally everyone wins.  Instead of putting our resources toward tackling people to the ground & locking them in cells for minor drug possession, we could funnel those resources to extend compassion, educate & uplift those same people, helping keep them alive until they're ready to get clean.

As for the laws surrounding irresponsible drug use (driving intoxicated, selling to kids, etc), nothing would change.  These things are still crimes because they put innocent lives at risk.  Just because a drug is legal doesn't mean society condones its abuse.  In fact more energy and police resources could be dedicated toward these ends once drugs are legal because there will be more time & prison space available for these offenders.  Legalization isn't a free-for-all, it's about taking the profits and control away from violent forces in the black market & investing them in our communities.  These substances can only legally be used in PRIVATE by consenting ADULTS.  They're already being used 24 hours a day, 7 days a week by Americans of all races, ages & backgrounds out in the open.  Can't get any worse than that.  

Will cartels and other criminals cease to exist?  No.  And addiction/overdose won't either.  But that's not the deal.  Nobody's promising a perfectly safe utopia in which nobody ever does anything dangerous or stupid again.  It's about significantly reducing harm, crime, violence, addiction & death.  Giving people hope & a reason to live so they don't feel that drugs are the only thing standing between them and suicide.  And for those who still feel hopeless, at least they won't have to resort to using adulterated drugs controlled by violent criminals.  In a perfect world our governments would help people meet their basic survival needs too--food, shelter, clothing--so nobody ever had to worry about homelessness or starvation again.  But that's another topic for another day.

Less crime, addiction, overdose, disease & death is a much more realistic goal than a 100% "drug-free society," something that's never existed as long as humans have roamed the earth.  And our lawmakers know that.  The fact that it's unobtainable is a blank check to keep stealing from future generations to fight this "war" into perpetuity, which is criminal.  All that's required to turn this ship around is for Americans to grow the Hell up and stop viewing this as a moral issue...  To admit that what we've been doing isn't working and is in fact killing people, most of whom are in their creative and productive prime & many of whom aren't even opioid addicts but got poisoned by fentanyl-adulterated drugs just the same.  You can't have a War on an inanimate object like "drugs" or "terror"--you're wasting money & resources drafting legislation that removes rights from PEOPLE:  consenting, taxpaying adult citizens like you and me.   Alcohol prohibition was an utter failure for all the same reasons, but lawmakers saw it and said "Hey, that was an embarrassing dangerous nightmare, let's expand it to include hundreds of other substances!"  

And if we go to war against another nation for real, like a real WWI/WWII-type war that's NOT about oil & geopolitical BS, we won't be fit to fight because all our best and brightest will be dead or addicted.  We already lack affordable higher education & universal healthcare--things other developed nations take for granted.  That puts us far behind the pack in terms of strength, fitness, strategy, mental agility & stamina on the battlefield.  Combined with America's obesity epidemic, this could be the final nail in our coffin.

While there will never be a 100% drug-free society, we can do a helluva lot better than this.  Striving to create a world in which people don't feel like they have to escape by doing hard drugs would be a good start.  A nation that competes with other countries rather than a divided nation in which the citizens fight amongst themselves about every little issue.  A place that's clean, safe, laid-back & inviting--somewhere you'd want to visit if you were traveling the world.  Not a giant strip mall full of frantic Chicken Littles on the way to their next shift, armed to the teeth with homeless people under every poorly-maintained bridge.

*Ayn Rand, mathematician Paul Erdos, Judy Garland & poet W.H. Auden were all long-term amphetamine users who died of causes unrelated to their amphetamine use.  (Garland was started on the drugs when she was too young to consent and remained addicted throughout her life, though her drug overdose was caused by barbiturates).  Amphetamines are prescribed long-term for narcoleptics and people with ADHD, including children.  

To Democrat Leaders on the Eve of the Democrats' Loss:

Imagine letting your country get to a point where you honestly believe 50% of the population is in grave danger from ONE man & his cabinet.  One lying stimulant-addled narcissist at that.  The truth is Trump should've been prevented from even running, but Americans are so fucking passive they do nothing more than stay tuned in from their La-Z-Boys like it's a football game and treat voting day like some sick version of overtime where everybody scrambles to the polls to right all wrongs.  That's magical thinking if I ever saw it.

We get the politicians and leaders we deserve...  The ones we're willing to get in the streets and fight for/against.  Anything short of that when there are only 2 parties might as well be a coin toss--you've got a 50/50 chance of "winning," whatever the fuck that means.  You can blame Russia, Jill Stein, Muslims, the Electoral College or whoever you want, but the truth is that people are sick to death of this upside down Oligarchy masquerading as a democracy.  And then you wanna whittle down the options we have at the ballot too?  Fuck that and fuck you!  Not only are Democrats pro-genocide, they're anti-democracy--attempting to sue the Green Party off the ballot in every state.  THAT'S fascism.  OWN YOUR LOSS LIKE ADULTS. 

Our loss, actually.  We all lost, even the mindless idiots who think they won.  Trump is on a warpath of retribution and his Project 2025 BS is probably raring to go on the day he's sworn in.  But we would've lost if Harris won too.  She promised a spot to Republicans in her cabinet for no fucking reason whatsoever, totally unprompted, offered nothing but "Bringin' the Joy" as a campaign platform & has already proven who she is when she served as Vice President and, before that, AG in California. 

Sorry ma'am but there's nothing joyful about the last 4 years.

And by the way, those votes wouldn't have gone to her if she were the only candidate on the ballot, which looks like what the Dem party is going for.  It's a logical fallacy that 3rd parties are "spoilers" coming in to steal votes that would otherwise belong to Democrats.  It relies on the absolutely laughably retarded idea that people like me and other Stein/West voters would've just thrown our hands up and said "Okay, you got us!  Harris/Walz it is".  When Bernie was screwed over in 2016 I actually saw infinitely more Democrats voting for TRUMP out of spite.  So go ahead and dig the hole deeper by pointing the finger of blame everywhere but back at yourselves.  Brush over a whole-ass genocide in Gaza, ridiculous inflation/cost of living at home, record drug shortages, an ever-worsening weather system due to climate change & all the rest of the things that used to be on your platform when you stood for something other than corporate-sponsored war.  We lost our reproductive rights under an all-democrat house, senate AND president.  We couldn't have "voted blue!" any harder, to quote the once sane Jimmy Dore.

Enjoy your Red Elephant cult for the next 4 years, America.  I'm sure the mean tweets will be forthcoming & ratings for CNN, FOX News and other partisan brainwash channels will skyrocket again.  Trump is highly profitable for the elite on both sides, you see.  Whatever.  Nothing changes if nothing changes and it seems we'll never learn from living out the literal defintion of insanity by doing the same idiotic thing over and over and over and over and over and over and...

Meet the New Age, Same as the Old Age

All these lame-ass male centered New Age religions are just as bad as the old organized ones, they're just subtler in their sexism and oppression of women.  One of the overarching objectives is to remind women every 2 seconds where the fuck our place is (beneath them or equal-to-but-hopelessly-enmeshed-with-or-dependent-on them), what our role in society is (helping/nurturing men & children; being passive & overly needy so they can swoop in & save us with their rational, action-oriented brains) & where our value lies (between our legs & with our willingness to quietly tolerate their shit i.e. "balancing the masculine").

First things first: women make up roughly 50% of the human population.  Racial stereotypes are bad enough, but nobody questions sex/gender stereotypes, and they're everywhere in New Age BS.  And they're even LESS accurate because how could this (or any) handful of traits describe half the people on Earth?  That'd be approximately 4 BILLION people, all from far-flung and diverse cultures, geographic locations, socioeconomic backgrounds, education levels & more.  We are as diverse as the seashells on all the beaches of Earth, all the wildflowers dotting all the meadows, every star in every galaxy in the entire expanse of universe.  Just like men are.  Yet these religions claim that women are "naturally" more emotional, nurturing, intuitive, giving, passive, creative & communicative (in pink) while men are logical, analytical, adventurous, action-oriented, strong, protective & courageous.  (In blue).

The REAL "Divine Masculine/Feminine"

Say what now?  You lost me at "women are more emotional".  That's only true if you don't count anger, jealousy/possessiveness, rage & entitlement as emotions.  Studies have shown that men react more strongly to perceived threats & are more likely to get violent than women which doesn't sound very "logical" to me.  While the male brain is larger overall, the female brain has more grey matter, which is packed with neurons & controls things like information processing, language & multitasking among other important 'rational' problem-solving functions.  Furthermore, the left & right hemispheres of the female brain are better connected, which allows for better overall analytical thinking, intuition & conclusion-drawing.  Some of the other qualities I often see listed on these woo religion lists, like "external/giving" (male) and "passive/receptive" (female) sound like VERY thinly-veiled code words for describing hetero sex.  Gag me with a spoon.  

Did it ever occur to you that, A of all, not all people engage in or relate to hetero sex and, #2, defining a person's whole-ass god-given personality/role on Earth around a single sex act is kinda pervy and excessive?  If not, it's probably because you're A STRAIGHT MAN or aren't in the habit of questioning things in general.  

It's clear to anyone with rudimentary critical thinking skills that men created these "spiritual disciplines" just like they created Islam & Christianity and all the others that feature NO female prophets, Gods, messiahs or authors for the same purpose:  to create social hierarchies & rituals that make life predictable & easy to "manage" (read: control).  In those texts, women are relegated to roles that revolve entirely around their fertility, sexuality & proximity to men:  virgin, whore, concubine, temptress, mother, etc.  Not a word about their intellect, hopes/dreams, talents or potential for spiritual growth beyond how they serve a holy man.  Slaves were considered 3/5ths human during colonial times... what percentage are modern women if our worth & admittance into Heaven is dependent on how, when & for whom we spread our legs? 

Funny how all of us, every single one of the 8+ billion people on Earth today & for all of history, came from a man AND a woman, yet the universe was supposedly created solely by one angry male god who sent his significantly less angry male son here to save us from ourselves.  Father, Son, Holy Spirit.  No Mother, Daughter, Holy Essence.  Said savior had Earthly parents but all we know about his mom was that she was (allegedly) a virgin--that's literally all the Bible's authors felt was noteworthy about the mother of the Messiah.  What about Joseph, Jesus' father?  Was he a virgin too?  What'd he get up to for fun in his bachelor days?  Did he save himself for marriage or was he used up like a piece of old chewing gum by the time he got to the Virgin Mary?

The Bible tells us Eve came from Adam's rib when we all know that's not how that works; never in history has a man birthed a woman, but in fairytale religion land where men make the rules, down is up, black is white & slavery is freedom.  It's not enough they leave us completely out of the creation myth, they also relegate us to being mere pieces of men--generic offshoots sent to serve as muses & to be blamed for every mistake every grown man makes, starting on Day 1 with getting booted from the Garden of Eden. They claim we have penis envy but what is the "women came from the rib" story if not the ultimate womb envy?  And how can men be superior intellectually if we are able to so easily lead them astray at every turn?  These teachings have very serious real-world consequences today, such as the entitlement of forced-birther men who believe they have a say in what goes on in our wombs.   

Sadly not much has changed 2,000+ years later.  We're almost never in positions of real power (billionaire CEO, president, military general, banker).  Religion--whether Orthodox, liberal, reform, old school, New Age or niche/cult, serves the same purpose:  to create structure, purpose & discipline (i.e. societal control) through a series of carefully-crafted doctrines & rituals, promising enlightenment, relief from suffering, forgiveness of sin, self-improvement, rewards in the afterlife or other highly sought-after rewards.  However what it ends up delivering is more of the same groupthink, narrow restrictive worldviews & anti-individualist, anti-science escapism with which to decorate one's ego.  An alternative "tribe" or group to belong to outside the popular/mainstream religions.  A temporary salve for one's problems that does little to bring about the promises of self-actualization, closeness to God or a clear/calm mind.   

If such a thing as "God" exists, it cannot be described with our pathetically inadequate attempts at language and is an entirely individual experience.  Trying to talk about such a magnificent & indescribable thing comes off cheap & cliche at best.  The idea that 2 people, let alone hundreds or millions, could attain union with the divine through a series of the same low-effort, uninspired rituals is patently ridiculous.  It also gives the appearance of not being very secure in one's faith.  The need to evangelize, expand, save souls, go on "missions" or otherwise focus outward instead of going inward is a sure sign that you're looking for validation, strength in numbers... reassurance.  Like, "If this many people believe the same thing, it MUST be true, right?"  I'll never forget when my mom said the quiet part out loud: "God has to be real or else there wouldn't be all these churches."   🥴

Indeed, the existence of so many churches in the Bible Belt serves as a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy/logic loop with no off-ramp.  "The churches exist because God is real and God is real because the churches exist.  It's true because the Bible says it and the Bible says it because it's true."  The problem is that people turn to these churches instead of evidence-based treatment centers for serious drug addiction, mental illness, marital problems including domestic & child abuse... the list goes on.  They send their kids off to Vacation Bible School, church camp & youth group without supervision & assume it's safe because it's "godly," when that's actually where predators are statistically most likely to lurk.  People with a history of addictions of all kinds including commiting sex crimes on impulse turn to churches/Christ to "get their lives back on track" and share their testimony, but often without getting the actual help they need or facing real legal repercussions for past crimes.  This is a time bomb waiting to explode on whichever defenseless person is left alone with them at the wrong time.  I personally have seen so many horror stories of pastors, youth pastors, youth church camp leaders & others in direct supervisory roles who have committed brutal sex offenses AT religious functions & most got away with it completely or got very light sentences.   


Avoiding the Pitfalls of Organized Religion/Cults 

If you think the New Age community is free of these kinds of predators, you'd be sadly mistaken.  From Keith Raniere (NXIVM) to Amy "Mother God" Carlson (Love Has Won) to Ma Anand Sheela & Osho of Rajneeshpuram, the "spiritual-not-religious" world is full to the brim with power-hungry control freaks who sell followers a dream & deliver a nightmare.  So what's a person to do for spiritual nourishment & soul renewal? 

Rule #1:  Avoid groups.  That goes for religion, politics, & pretty much anything else in life.  With spirituality, groups of any size or type are at risk of becoming cults or MLM-type pyramid schemes with imbalances of power & money (or sexual exploitation) as the primary focus.   

To avoid the seedy hierarchies associated with organized religion, simply stay away from the "organized" part.  Do the things that make YOU feel refreshed and renewed physically, mentally & emotionally.  Whether spending time in nature doing a repetitive/relaxing activity like fishing, camping or gardening; dancing naked in your apartment to your fave uplifting music, meditating on the porch on a rainy day or doing something creative like drawing, journaling or making a vision board, the path to paradise is through YOU, not other people.  Between work, school & the soul-crushing obligations of everyday life, we spend so much time around other people that the last thing most of us need is to be surrounded with more people while listening to some self-appointed guru ramble.  Get comfortable sitting in solitude with your feelings & thoughts; it's where you'll have the most insights & revelations anyway. 

Rule #2:  Define your goals.  What is it you WANT out of your spiritual journey/practice?  Be specific.  It can be anything from being more in tune with your intuition, getting through a rough patch in life with as much grace as possible, finding meaning in the mundane, surrenduring to something greater than yourself, becoming the best version of yourself you can be.... pretty much anything!  However, keep it realistic:  Spirituality will not deliver your dream lover to your doorsep or make you a billionaire, but it can help you learn to be more aware in the present moment which in turn increases the chances you'll make the most of any opportunities that come your way.  If it's a big long-term goal you may find that breaking it down into smaller parts is helpful.  Review & update your goals as often as needed, logging your progress whenever you feel you've completed/achieved one successfully.  Give yourself credit for how far you've come, as this will encourage further progress.

Rule #3:  Gratitude.  While being grateful for good things isn't the same as happiness or joy, it never hurts to count your blessings.  No need to compare traumas or hardships as that's not how the nervous system works--others may have been through tough times that were technically "worse" than yours, but that takes nothing away from your struggles.  Simply look around and take note of the good things you presently have, whether it's your health, family or what have you.  Do this in good times as well as bad so you don't begin to associate it only with hardship.

Rule #4:  To paraphrase from the Bible, faith without works is dead.  So do the work on yourself.  Get in shape, go to therapy, break the addictions, put yourself in the shop & WORK ON YOURSELF.  Then share the abundance with others by giving back to those around you who are less fortunate.  This doesn't have to mean materially: maybe it's just a smile, compliment or kind word.  Whatever you do, do it the way Jesus did:  for no personal gain or recognition.  This is not easy but it's where true change happens.   

Rule #5:  Strive for Godly equality in all things.  Hold yourself to the same standards as others & vice versa.  Seek to rid yourself of any double standards in your life, whether they're based on sex/gender, wealth/power, race, age or other differences that may cause subconscious favoritism.  And if you hold any racist, sexist, homophobic or xenophobic beliefs, now is the time to get rid of them for good. 

If there's a God or divine creator, he/she/it didn't create humans to waste our lives dividing ourselves into meaningless categories based on superficial traits like race/sex/religion that determine our place in the world.  We're supposed to be able to see PAST these things to the content of the character, aka the soul or spirit of the person.  Their behavior, conduct & what's in their heart.  Practice doing this in your everyday life at work, with your children & any time you're tasked with meting out justice.  If the concept of "judgment day" is real, you'll certainly hope the ultimate Judge is fair & just rather than punishing you simply for being "short" "American" or "from a middle class family".  (And if reincarnation is real, some of you should be shaking in your Prada boots about the things you've said about poor people in wartorn countries, lest you come back as one of them).

Rule #6:  The Golden One.  What Goes Around Comes Around.  Karma.  Whatever you call it, this is an easy way to attract good people & things into your life.  Be conscious of your words & actions and treat others how you'd like to be treated.  

Rule #7:  When you fail in these or other things, apologize sincerely & make amends.  Nobody's perfect.  Even Christ himself lost it and flipped a table once, so rid yourself of the notion that you are or can ever be perfect.  Humility is a virtue we should all seek to be as humble as possible.  We're living in an age of narcissism with the rise of social media, instant gratification, influencers, reality TV stars & selfies.  "Keep it real" is more than a hip hop mantra--being your true genuine self rather than creating a fake life to impress others is worth its weight in gold.  Real people make mistakes and GOOD people make amends.  

*Male brain/female brain are simplifications & not set-in-stone scientific terms.  These statements are general terms & do not always apply.

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