[Rainbow Crow]

You're not using the quote function correctly... just break up the tags. Is that really too much to ask?

[Progressive Patriot]

[quote="Rainbow Crow"]
To wit, I saw an episode of the Colbert Report recently where Steven Colbert suggested that the American Dream is being able to get high on marijuana. Liberals do not merely want to legalize marijuana however; they also want to give unlimited assistance to people who ruin their lives through drug abuse. [quote="Rainbow Crow"]

I will add that this whole marijuana thing is about as stupid as stupid gets. It’s nothing more than a throwback to the 60’s when it represented rebellion and anti government sentiment. Wait! Anti government? How come the tea-publicans aren’t getting stoned? (Or are they?)

[quote="Rainbow Crow"]To me this seems to be a conundrum: first they provide people with access to something that can potentially ruin their lives, simply because those people will get pleasure from that thing; then they want to provide limitless aid to people who ruin their own lives with the thing that they gave them access to.[quote="Rainbow Crow"]

What are you talking about…are you saying that medical marijuana is used for treating drug addiction or diseases cased by addiction? How about cancer?, how about glaucoma? Maybe epilepsy? There are countless diseases that, in many cases respond better to pot than conventional drugs. Yet, here in NJ where medical pot has been legal for a couple of years, most people who need it can’t get it because of our stupid ass Republican governor. Nobody dies from Marijuana, but kids are dying all over this place from prescription pain meds that are doled out like candy and left around the house for kids to get into. If the pills don’t kill them the heroin, which is also plentiful and cheep, they are sure to go on to. These pills are the gateway drugs. And , people who are prone to addiction will go down that road whether or not pot is available, there is no cause and effect. Meanwhile jails are clogged and lives are ruined over marijuana!

[Progressive Patriot]

The heart of this conundrum seems to be naivete; liberals seem to think that resources are unlimited and therefore aid given to people who harm themselves can also be unlimited. How else could it be anything but tyranny to not give help to a person in need? The conundrum arises not only when resource issues come into play but also with the fact that they have caused their own limitless problem. Here, liberals also reject that pleasure-seeking can have negative effects that can't be repaired (otherwise, they would put a cap on the amount of aid that such a person can receive). As such, liberals not only define tyranny as failure; they also define tyranny as a prevention of pleasure seeking (such as marijuana being illegal).

Conservatives do not have this problem. While many of us want drugs like marijuana to remain illegal, we also don't want to give limitless aid to people who still find access to these drugs.

Any thoughts?

We think that resources are unlimited? I don’t .What about you other liberals out there? However, I don’t think that we’re in the dire straits that some say we are in either. The main problem is an uneven and inequitable distribution of wealth. Again that is tyranny. So, you seem to think that all or most of those who are in need ,or sick caused their own problems ? Really come on. Please provide some documentation for this most outlandish statement. And Yes pleasure seeking can have a negative effect when there is excess. So can being an uptight, repressed, prune faced neurotic that fears all of those hedonistic pleasure seekers who will destroy America by living on the dole and spending their lives stones and naked. I think that's most of what's wrong with congressional Republicans. Let me ask you this. Do you come up with this stuff on your own or do you read it some where? Are these original thoughts or can you provide sources. ? Much of it sounds "made up"to me

[Progressive Patriot]

You're not using the quote function correctly... just break up the tags. Is that really too much to ask?

It may or may not be too much to ask. The instructions are not that clear. I'll see what I can do. You were able to read it, right? Anything else to say after I pretty much destroyed your thesis on tyranny...surly you have a come back?

[Ummon]

The conservative conundrum is much more difficult to overcome. Namely, that everyone should control themselves and limit their resource intake when not everyone has the executive function to do so whether because of genetic factors, abuse that inhibits prefrontal cortex development, increased stressors leading to higher cognitive load overwhelming the pfc's ability to regulate etc. The real problem that both liberals and conservatives have is that poor stupid people breed like rabbits and eventually make any equitable distribution of resources unfeasible.