Idk I’m starting to think dystopia began when we figured out agriculture

🌈.°`E N S H I T I F I C A T I O N’°. 🌈

You mean New York?

It does make you dumber, and so does alcohol. As we all know, the only drug that makes you smarter is huffing glue pantsless on a unicycle.

Saw a dude like that in Portland once. He had it all figured out.

Weed is addictive and has physical withdrawal symptoms.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7146100/

We need to treat weed like we do alcohol. It’s not the devil but it isn’t a saint either.

It’s sad to see a lot of the misinformation here that says there are no downsides to weed. In fact, weed has a ton of downsides that need to be considered in how marijuana is handled in a society.

If you are a visual/ audio learner, here’s a well researched video on the downsides of weed, from a source that acknowledges their staffs personal biases lean towards legalization.

Kurzgesagt, "We Have to Talk About Weed

Basically, we need to recognize that due to having criminalized weed for so long, we are only now getting the research into the negative effects of weed, but as it’s coming out we are seeing how weed is not all sunshine and rainbows.

THC potency has increased dramatically since the 60s, and that has led to increased risks of paranoia, psychosis, and panic attacks. It also increases the risk of Cannabinoid Hypermesis Syndrome, where ingesting weed will make you vomit, nauseous, and have horrible abdominal pain.

My roommate just got this and she is not having fun. Her doctor told her this may be a 6 month T-break, but it’s also possible this is permanent, and best to avoid weed altogether.

I also am sad to see “weed is not addictive” being thrown around. Cannabis Use Disorder (weed addiction) is very real and a quick look up says 10% of users become addicted. Personally I consider myself stuck on a habit since I can control my use to keeping it after 8pm, but I still have trouble not getting high daily. I have a friend who is now 100 days sober, but when he had a relapse last year, it ruined his life.

That’s not to say it’s bad, I have another friend who needs weed to help him get through the day with his PTSD. We just need to recognize one person’s medicine is another person’s poison.

Most all of the major issues with weed tend to show up with people who began smoking in adolescence. I think a reason I’m somewhat I’m control and my other friend is not is that I started smoking at 22 in college, and he started at 16. I imagine if I waited until I was 25 I’d have no problem making it a weekend thing.

That said

My experience and the pain many have dealing with the health issues associated to weed are no where near comparable to the damage that criminalized weed has had on marginalized communities as weed has historically been used to target and oppress minorities by our US government. I also agree to the points that having a black market is FAR worse than having legal weed that needs regulation.

Personally I’m pro-legalization, but I think we need to be careful at how we are messaging weed to the youths and handling the negative consequences, as the myths of weed just being an innocent plant are super harmful.

Jesse Wells has a line that gets me every time:

“Time is not a mirror/ it’s some distorted view/ of the way you thought you was/ and what you thought they thought of you”

A) mental health would absolutely improve so I’d have more energy for

B) producing more shows and putting on more events. Personally I don’t want to retire because I want to create a career where if I did retire I’d just do what I was doing anyway. I’m kinda doing that now but I have more BS and stress to deal with.

[NSFW]

What states did you visit?

I’m currently in an apartment so I don’t have one, but when I did I let it all hang out. Let the bush breathe!

Honestly I wanna do an expedition to the North Pole and see the sun do weird shit. Then treck to the South Pole so I can see the sun do weird shit but backwards. Like I know that sun is a weird freak when it doesn’t think you’re looking, that’s why it does it at the poles. Then along the way from North to south I’ll tell people how weird the sun is, and they’ll have to believe me because I’ve been there, and they’ll have to say “damn the sun is weird”. Sun’s going to be so embarrassed when everyone finds out how weird it is.

That or like go to Cancun or something. Anywhere that I can keep track of the sun that twisted freak you aren’t fooling me.

There should be a beer equivalent to the movie “Bottle Shock”

75% in fact!

Full disclosure, I’m a Seattle born beer enjoyed so I mainly drink microbrews, or what some folks have told me is “fancy beer”.

My parents moved to the PNW from California in the 80s, and they were amazed at the sheer amount of options. Back then it really was just Bud, Coors, and PBR, but even back then the microbrew scene was budding in Portland and Seattle. My dad would tell me how when they would go back to visit old friends in California, it was either amazing wine of shit beer. People’s minds were blown when they would bring some stuff down from up north to the party.

I think this brings up another good point- some states do MUCH better than others. From what I’ve seen, the best beers come from the West Coast (especially the Northwest), the Mountain West, Midwest, and Northeast.

Someone here said they hated the beers in Texas and yea, like don’t expect a great authentic taco scene in North Dakota. The worst beer I’ve ever had was from Florida.

In multi-fediverse theory, there are infinite fediverses where any and every possibility of fediverse exists.

Don’t normalize stigma, normalize sigma

If everyone’s political beliefs were something you could see, I actually think it would create more peace. How many people go along with a more extreme take only because they are afraid to be ostracized from their community? Odds are folks would look around and see that the world is more shades of gray than what social media tries to mold us into.

I had someone tell me I was brainwashed because I have a degree in political science. I was taken aback, but then decided to ask myself if I was. I mean, what’s the difference between being educated and being brainwashed? Is it the conclusion that you come to? Is it some physically measurable thing?

Some good questions to ask is “is the information I’m getting geared to make me feel a certain way or to inform me about something?” “Am I learning in a setting where I am afraid that to have a dissenting opinion would get me kicked out of my community?” “Are certain ideas immediately ruled out as false without further discussion?”

At least in my degree, I felt that there were a plethora of opinions in my classroom discussions, and when we approached different lenses, we made sure to have a thorough understanding of them, as best we could. I can think of only one philosophy that an international relations teacher ruled off outright, and that was “ancient hatreds theory”. Even then we spent several classes taking it apart and why it is a poor tool to view conflicts.

That said, I would say I was brainwashed after college when I spent more time on Facebook, reddit, and Instagram. With the perpetual rage machine at my fingertips, I was afraid that if I disagreed I would be flamed and cancelled from groups that I loved. I am very wary of getting information from the socials since things are so over simplified and there is little to no welcomed critical discussion. It’s just a yelling pit with people further entrenched in their beliefs.

I like to think this person was high as balls, got super paranoid, and had to get the biggest weight off their chest.

I wish them the best BBQ burgers.

As a PNW beer snob, I used to make shandies out of the Ranier 30 racks that would be left at our house after a party. I didn’t like the beer at the time and mixing it with lemon San Pellegrino made it delightful.

I now drink Ranier proudly when I can since I moved to Chicago. I love this city but I still bleed green, white, and blue.