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There's an insane quote from John Ehrlichman about the origin of the war on drugs in the Nixon Whitehouse: https://harpers.org/archive/2016/04/legalize-it-all/

There's an insane quote from John Ehrlichman about the origin of the war on drugs in the Nixon Whitehouse: https://harpers.org/archive/2016/04/legalize-it-all/ https://harpers.org/archive/2016/04/legalize-it-all/ "The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did." I wonder, is that credible? If so, it's kind of amazing how little has actually changed since those laws were put in place. (Edit: okay, there are some reasons to doubt that quote) https://www.quora.com/Is-John-Ehrlichman-a-credible-source-when-he-claimed-that-the-war-on-drugs-was-intentionally-aimed-at-the-left-and-racial-minorities https://www.quora.com/Is-John-Ehrlichman-a-credible-source-w...

wallace_f 9y ago
>it's kind of amazing how little has actually changed since those laws were put in place. Given there's a lot of bureaucratic inertia and jobs at stake here, and: "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!" ...is it really so surprising? This aspect of human nature is not isolated to the Drug War. Jaime Escalante was possibly the best teacher in America, and demoted because his success threatened the jobs of others-1 What about the never ending wars for profit? Wolf Blitzer at CNN tells us it's a moral problem for the US to stop funding war because a lot of jobs will be lost-2 The problem is that if we are to truly care about human dignity and equality, we need to fundamentally change the way in which we approve of jobs without critically looking at what they actually produce. This isn't just isolated within the economy of the War on Drugs. 1-reason.com/reasontv/2017/08/22/stossel-government-run-schools-crush-in 2-https://theintercept.com/2016/09/09/wolf-blitzer-is-worried-defense-contractors-will-lose-jobs-if-u-s-stops-arming-saudi-arabia/ https://theintercept.com/2016/09/09/wolf-blitzer-is-worried-...
- phkahler 9y ago
  "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!" We live in a society that puts people on an economic treadmill for their entire life. The government gives incentives for getting into debt - guarantees on student loans, mortgage interest tax break. We have property taxes in most states, so you always have a bill to pay even if you never borrow. Then people come along an propose things like basic income which can't work (I'll do the math for you one of these days since nobody else has). What they really want is to offset the costs of basic existence. I believe those costs could be lowered if the government would focus on that instead of profits and GDP.
  - balfirevic 9y ago
    > I'll do the math for you one of these days since nobody else has Please do.
dmichulke 9y ago
Regarding credibility: "Ehrlichman" literally means "honest man" in German, so there you have it :P
dsfyu404ed 9y ago
That gives Nixon too much credit. That sort of policy is exactly what would be in an FBI manual of the era.

wallace_f 9y ago

>it's kind of amazing how little has actually changed since those laws were put in place. Given there's a lot of bureaucratic inertia and jobs at stake here, and: "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!" ...is it really so surprising? This aspect of human nature is not isolated to the Drug War. Jaime Escalante was possibly the best teacher in America, and demoted because his success threatened the jobs of others-1 What about the never ending wars for profit? Wolf Blitzer at CNN tells us it's a moral problem for the US to stop funding war because a lot of jobs will be lost-2 The problem is that if we are to truly care about human dignity and equality, we need to fundamentally change the way in which we approve of jobs without critically looking at what they actually produce. This isn't just isolated within the economy of the War on Drugs. 1-reason.com/reasontv/2017/08/22/stossel-government-run-schools-crush-in 2-https://theintercept.com/2016/09/09/wolf-blitzer-is-worried-defense-contractors-will-lose-jobs-if-u-s-stops-arming-saudi-arabia/ https://theintercept.com/2016/09/09/wolf-blitzer-is-worried-...

phkahler 9y ago
"It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!" We live in a society that puts people on an economic treadmill for their entire life. The government gives incentives for getting into debt - guarantees on student loans, mortgage interest tax break. We have property taxes in most states, so you always have a bill to pay even if you never borrow. Then people come along an propose things like basic income which can't work (I'll do the math for you one of these days since nobody else has). What they really want is to offset the costs of basic existence. I believe those costs could be lowered if the government would focus on that instead of profits and GDP.
- balfirevic 9y ago
  > I'll do the math for you one of these days since nobody else has Please do.

dmichulke 9y ago

Regarding credibility: "Ehrlichman" literally means "honest man" in German, so there you have it :P

dsfyu404ed 9y ago

That gives Nixon too much credit. That sort of policy is exactly what would be in an FBI manual of the era.