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Hey there! Hand raised, and happy to disagree =) Giving people the autonomy to live their life, means there are many dangerous things you can say about things

Hey there! Hand raised, and happy to disagree =) Giving people the autonomy to live their life, means there are many dangerous things you can say about things that are legal, and should be legal. I believe people should be responsible enough to drive a car, drink alcohol, and with or without prescription take a drug without risking a prison sentence. Now my advice is: It's not okay to drive while extremely tired, it's not healthy to drink yourself uncounscious (even if you're not an alcoholic), and you should probably continue to not treat heroin lightly. I'm okay with all those things being legal. I'm not okay with people equating legal with safe. Of course words can be dangerous. That's why we call them out, but that's not a reason to send people to federal 'technically your life is not over' prison.

sillysaurusx 6y ago
Happy to hear your disagreement! (Also, please have a wonderful day this fine Thursday.) The thing is, wouldn't you agree that if something isn't criminal, then it should be fine to talk about the act of doing that thing? Because that's all this interview seems to be.
- loves_mangoes 6y ago
  Thank you, a wonderful day to you too! I think it's completely okay to talk about drugs, creating taboos around dangerous things has rarely been helpful in the past. However, I think people's reaction to this piece shows what's missing: more warnings around it than seem entirely necessary to the average person. You just don't want today's lucky 10,000 [0] to come away with the impression that heroin is a pretty casual thing, and while the fact of talking about it is great, the words themselves can be dangerous if they promote unsafe behavior without adequate warnings. All that being said, I have to admit that people might be over-reacting a smidge to the interview, but I can't really fault them. I haven't personally lost anyone to heroin addiction, but I imagine I might read the article less generously if I had. Cheers! [0]: https://xkcd.com/1053/ https://xkcd.com/1053/
- umvi 6y ago
  Ok, cigarettes are legal. Say I am a prominent professor at a university and I write an article about how I use cigarettes responsibly and how I'm not addicted and that tons of people use cigarettes without getting addicted. I also note that it's a great way for me (and implicitly others) to find happiness. I then publish my article to influence millions. So then what's wrong when critics say my article is dangerous and caution readers to take it with a grain of salt?
  - sillysaurusx 6y ago
    Mm, perhaps I should change my mind on this one. I suppose my root objection is that such warnings are incredibly boring, because everyone in the world knows that both heroin and cigarettes are dangerous. We're not living in the era of cigarette advertising; surgeon general's warnings are required by law. But that's a different sort of objection than the one I started with.

sillysaurusx 6y ago

Happy to hear your disagreement! (Also, please have a wonderful day this fine Thursday.) The thing is, wouldn't you agree that if something isn't criminal, then it should be fine to talk about the act of doing that thing? Because that's all this interview seems to be.

loves_mangoes 6y ago
Thank you, a wonderful day to you too! I think it's completely okay to talk about drugs, creating taboos around dangerous things has rarely been helpful in the past. However, I think people's reaction to this piece shows what's missing: more warnings around it than seem entirely necessary to the average person. You just don't want today's lucky 10,000 [0] to come away with the impression that heroin is a pretty casual thing, and while the fact of talking about it is great, the words themselves can be dangerous if they promote unsafe behavior without adequate warnings. All that being said, I have to admit that people might be over-reacting a smidge to the interview, but I can't really fault them. I haven't personally lost anyone to heroin addiction, but I imagine I might read the article less generously if I had. Cheers! [0]: https://xkcd.com/1053/ https://xkcd.com/1053/
umvi 6y ago
Ok, cigarettes are legal. Say I am a prominent professor at a university and I write an article about how I use cigarettes responsibly and how I'm not addicted and that tons of people use cigarettes without getting addicted. I also note that it's a great way for me (and implicitly others) to find happiness. I then publish my article to influence millions. So then what's wrong when critics say my article is dangerous and caution readers to take it with a grain of salt?
- sillysaurusx 6y ago
  Mm, perhaps I should change my mind on this one. I suppose my root objection is that such warnings are incredibly boring, because everyone in the world knows that both heroin and cigarettes are dangerous. We're not living in the era of cigarette advertising; surgeon general's warnings are required by law. But that's a different sort of objection than the one I started with.