Off Topic Politics Thread

I'm sure you have plenty of examples that aren't just people disagreeing with you.

 

I look forward to the day when Greta Thunberg protests against the opening of coal mines or coal-fired power stations in China.

 

The reason I hate that phrase is that it is so often used by people who watch Fox News - the most popular cable news channel in the most populous western country

 

Shouldn't be called the mainstream media. It should be called what it is: source-checked correction-publishing media.

So-called MSM checks sources and rarely publishes information based on one source only (though political briefing weirdly seems to get a pass). It also corrects mistakes when they are highlighted.

It something hated by internet warriors because, by its nature, it rarely supports the tripe spouted by conspiracy theorists and extremists (of any bent).

Vin

 

And here’s a very good (and fair) interview that Hugo Rifkind did with Tate a couple of months ago.

At home with Andrew Tate, the face of toxic masculinity https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/d9c2279a-380c-11ed-af07-2ce1575cb71f?shareToken=313285c3ee0641170c01c21436e73ffc

 

She's spoken on the subject:

When BBC's Andrew Marr asked Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg why the UK should be making changes when China is still building more coal-fired power stations, what answer was he expecting? It's obvious that the host was pushing Thunberg to criticize China in his program on Sunday, day one of the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26). The radical campaigner lived up to Marr's expectations. She described China's coal policy as "out of touch with reality."

Interesting Chinese take on the subject in the very article I've quoted: https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202111/1237851.shtml

 

Did they give you back your bit of puff when you left the nick?

 

Didn't get nicked mate it's 2023

And did they **** the ****s. Want me to attend a drug diversion course at cost to myself. Laughed in their face and told them to get ****ed and I'll take my chances.

 

They wanted you to go to rehab, but you said “No, No, No”?

 

Was just thinking the same thing

 

Imagine not being able to go down to the store and buy your weed off the government, in a strip mall, the way God intended.

(Seeing a bunch of 50/60-somethings smoking joints downtown in the middle of the afternoon during the summer festival season here is still jarring to me, a few years later)

 

Same here in the Netherlands and other countries. The authorities lost the drugs war they were always going to.

 

Interesting read good one to quote when the Thunberg China query is raised by the misinformed or fossil fuel supporters

 

Yeah it's pathetic how far behind we are in that respect. I'd actually go as far as decriminalising all drugs for possession but cannabis would be a good start. The so called 'war on drugs' is unwinnable and a huge waste of public funds.

Hopefully in another decade or so then we'll be ready to make the change.

 

The war on drugs. What a terrible phrase.

Did the world learn nothing from prohibition? A huge proportion of crime is driven by the drugs trade, from smuggling gangs with their shocking violence over the massive spoils down to the guy mugging people in an alley for the cash for his next hit.

Legalise the lot. Allow people to buy or be prescribed legally-produced, known purity drugs in government-licensed shops and offer users help to stop. Fund the licensing and the rehabilitation efforts by ring-fencing the millions currently spent fighting this 'war'.

Organised crime's main source of funding would vanish overnight; there wouldn't be a penny of profit for bringing drugs into the country. The effect on small time criminality would be equally spectacular and much more visible to Joe Public.

There are issues around the edge that might need discussion but if you give it a little thought the case is clear.

Why don't governments do it? In short, the Mail, Express, Telegraph and Times. Their line certainly wouldn't be that there would be benefits. I could write their headlines for them, they're so predictable.

Vin

PS If at the same time the government also accepted that selling sexual services shouldn't be a crime you'd cut another huge chunk of trouble out of the system.

 

Our posts crossed!

Don't hold your breath. My dad (a real hang 'em and flog 'em Tory, oddly) was advocating drug legalisation in the 1970s and fifty years later we're still waiting.

 

Absolutely nothing bad has come to pass here in the years since legalization. I live in a town that is about 50% university students, and 50% old hippies...suffice to say you never had any difficulty acquiring the stuff here. Increased enthusiasm for daytime jazz music -- especially when expressed by stoned grandmothers who want to talk to you in line at the coffee shop -- is probably genuinely the most vexing part of it.

 

I'm fairly confident things are slowly changing. With every generation which passes you get more and more over 60s who realise that drugs are no different to alcohol and that criminalising them is pointless.

As you allude to the vast majority of problems from drug use come from the impurities and not knowing what you're buying.

For example when I smoke weed (which isn't every day) I don't want the complete head ****ery, dribbling mess, ****e but a lighter high which just takes the edge off my normal day.

As it stands I've no way of choosing what I want to use and what is best for my health. Whereas if there's a shop which splits strains by indica/sativa and has a strength rating then I can get exactly what I want.

Don't even get me started on ecstasy being a class A substance while alcohol is free to purchase. Always thought there should be a trial where nightclubs are only allowed to serve ecstasy and not alcohol and see how many fights/criminal damage is caused.

Re your point on prostitution then that is actually already legal here but only in private premises and if the person in question is acting independently. You're absolutely correct though that this lack of regulation makes it easier for criminal gangs to exploit these people.

 

I hope you're right re changing attitudes.

I'd forgotten about home sex work, thanks for reminding me.

One other thing that occurs re prostitution. The dangerous end of prostitution is also deeply tangled up with the illegal drug trade with drugs used as a way to move young women and men unwillingly into the sex trade. Illicit drugs mess up far more of people's lives than legal ones ever could.

Maybe in my lifetime, eh?

Vin

 

Drugs aren't legal in the Netherlands. We have something called het gedoogbeleid – a term that refers to not enforcing certain laws. The maximum amount allowed in your possession is 5 grams. Coffeeshops can only sell 5 grams per client. They can only have 500 grams in their shop. The government specifically states that when users and shops stay within these boundaries, they will not be prosecuted. This the official view. https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/onderwerpen/drugs/gedoogbeleid-softdrugs-en-coffeeshops (may need translation).

The supply of weed and hash to the shops is illegal as is the growing which is a big industry in country as is the import of product. There's an ongoing experiment which will examine whether and how it is possible for growers to legally supply quality-controlled cannabis or hashish to coffee shops. I would assume tax will come into the equation. This the government explanation. https://www.government.nl/topics/dr...e-controlled-cannabis-supply-chain-experiment

There's also drugs testing services. https://www.drugs-test.nl/en/

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