Can America be fixed?

Squidfayce

Eats Squid
I do find it interesting in things like why Lettuce is so expensive and why there's currently a power shortage. News headlines never really explain why and more interested in views than really delving into the issue, so a bit if digging around is needed to get the information you want. You just don't jump to conclusions that the powers that be are trying to starve us or that cutting off the power is a way controlling the population that some nutters conclude.
speaking of power shortage - the regulator has taken over the market. presser in 5 mins
 

johnny

I'll tells ya!
Staff member
I have a mate who is sooo far down the conspiracy theory rabbit hole I don't even think he knows what's real anymore...
That's the end goal of some groups who actively push conspiracy theories. I can't recall if the Russians called it flooding the zone, of if that's what others termed Russia's tactic to detach people from the truth: https://www.realclearpolitics.com/a...a_still_a_pernicious_tool_of_war_147328.html#!

Steve Bannon famously termed it "flooding the zone with shit": https://www.mediamatters.org/steve-...e-shit-approach-destroying-american-democracy

IT effectively crowds out the truth, but also confuses people so much - because "who really knows, there's so much going on that you're never really going to know the truth" - that they end up becoming detached as they feel that they will have no power to influence reality when they don't even know what it is.
 

pink poodle

気が狂っている男
That's the end goal of some groups who actively push conspiracy theories. I can't recall if the Russians called it flooding the zone, of if that's what others termed Russia's tactic to detach people from the truth: https://www.realclearpolitics.com/a...a_still_a_pernicious_tool_of_war_147328.html#!

Steve Bannon famously termed it "flooding the zone with shit": https://www.mediamatters.org/steve-...e-shit-approach-destroying-american-democracy

IT effectively crowds out the truth, but also confuses people so much - because "who really knows, there's so much going on that you're never really going to know the truth" - that they end up becoming detached as they feel that they will have no power to influence reality when they don't even know what it is.
Isn't this Rupert Murdoch's approach as well?
 

Litenbror

Eats Squid
Mexico is a real outlier on that graph. I wonder why?
Mexico has a relatively normal gun ownership rate yet a very high deaths per 100,000 people. My takeaway is that a small number of people are doing all of the killing, must be Ukrainian Nazis. Also a huge amount of the weapons used in the Mexican drug war were imported illegally from the States and other countries so may not show up very well in the data (would have to see the survey methodology to know if the illegal weapons were captured).

It's also possible that I just fell for a sarcastic post, in my defence it's early and I need more coffee.
 

johnny

I'll tells ya!
Staff member
Parts of Mexico exist in a state of perpetual low level civil war due to the drug trade. The murder rate is huge. I’d also expect gun ownership to be higher than registered here (same in US - 3D printing will also increase the number of unregistered/untraceable guns)
 

Litenbror

Eats Squid
Parts of Mexico exist in a state of perpetual low level civil war due to the drug trade. The murder rate is huge. I’d also expect gun ownership to be higher than registered here (same in US - 3D printing will also increase the number of unregistered/untraceable guns)
Was also thinking that many of the murders that happen in Mexico are committed by the police, military and federal agencies so they may mess with the numbers. Reading a really interesting bio on El Chapo at the moment where the author goes into a lot of detail on the complex relationship and history of the drug cartels and Government.
 

Squidfayce

Eats Squid
Was also thinking that many of the murders that happen in Mexico are committed by the police, military and federal agencies so they may mess with the numbers. Reading a really interesting bio on El Chapo at the moment where the author goes into a lot of detail on the complex relationship and history of the drug cartels and Government.
south american and mexican narco shit is so fascinating.

Its amazing that the simplest solution to solve the failed war on drugs iof decriminalising and regulating the industry never gets any steam. I get the hesitance to do so, but surely it wouldn't create a detriment to society worse than ciggies and alcohol already does.
 
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pink poodle

気が狂っている男
Parts of Mexico exist in a state of perpetual low level civil war due to the drug trade. The murder rate is huge.
This was my thinking. I wonder if there are some other similar Latin American nations that are able to provide similar statistics for comparison? I now that Chile and Argentina both appear in the original graph. Chile seems to be fairly stable at present but Argentina much less so. Anecdotally - when I was there about 10 years ago I was surprised at how heavily armed their security guards were while driving cash trucks around.
 

stoff

Likes Dirt
south american and mexican narco shit is so fascinating.

Its amazing that the simplest solution to solve the failed war on drugs iof decriminalising and regulating the industry never gets any steam. I get the hesitance to do so, but surely it wouldn't create a detriment to society worse than ciggies and alcohol already does.
Taxation to fund drug diversion and education, safer drugs, take the cash out of gangland, less policing, etc, etc. But guess who lead, and largely forced, the world down the drug prohibition rabbit hole - America.
 

Stredda

Runs naked through virgin scrub
Taxation to fund drug diversion and education, safer drugs, take the cash out of gangland, less policing, etc, etc. But guess who lead, and largely forced, the world down the drug prohibition rabbit hole - America.
It would be interesting to see what would happen if you just made all the drugs legal, but you could also say the same about guns. o_O
 

Flow-Rider

Burner
Taxation to fund drug diversion and education, safer drugs, take the cash out of gangland, less policing, etc, etc. But guess who lead, and largely forced, the world down the drug prohibition rabbit hole - America.
It would be interesting to see what would happen if you just made all the drugs legal, but you could also say the same about guns. o_O

Besides the corruption, the gangs in Mexico more or less control the government with fear, if you want to have a look where the US turns a blind eye to drugs, just look up "Kensington ave" on youtube.
 

Squidfayce

Eats Squid
It would be interesting to see what would happen if you just made all the drugs legal, but you could also say the same about guns. o_O

Portugal’s policy rests on three pillars: one, that there’s no such thing as a soft or hard drug, only healthy and unhealthy relationships with drugs; two, that an individual’s unhealthy relationship with drugs often conceals frayed relationships with loved ones, with the world around them, and with themselves; and three, that the eradication of all drugs is an impossible goal.


Coming from a conservative society, that's pretty deep.
 
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