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<blockquote data-quote="Chaosmancer" data-source="post: 9406784" data-attributes="member: 6801228">Yeah, those things give me hope... but then I wonder how much they are going to get lost as we seem to be increasingly hurtling towards a variety of cliffs. It isn't that I'm trying to downplay good environmental news, just that in terms of socio-economics, things seem to be getting bleaker, and we seem to be refusing to enact programs we KNOW work and would do good, because of ill-conceived opinions of retribution or morality. Just as a simple example, we KNOW that clinics that provide safe spaces for drug users to inject drugs reduce drug related deaths and help get those individuals within reach of programs to assist them in combating their illness and getting them to a better place. But instead of doing that, we insist on having cops break down doors, throw people to ground, then throw them into a cell where every problem they have contributing to their addiction is magnified and their chances of getting a better life plummet. Why? Because drug users &quot;are bad people who deserve to be punished&quot; and therefore helping them out of bad situations isn't popular. Even though it works, even though it is more humane, even though it reduces drug problems, and we KNOW these things are true because we have seen these programs working. No one cares about the facts, they care that the morally bad people got punished for being bad.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Chaosmancer, post: 9406784, member: 6801228"] Yeah, those things give me hope... but then I wonder how much they are going to get lost as we seem to be increasingly hurtling towards a variety of cliffs. It isn't that I'm trying to downplay good environmental news, just that in terms of socio-economics, things seem to be getting bleaker, and we seem to be refusing to enact programs we KNOW work and would do good, because of ill-conceived opinions of retribution or morality. Just as a simple example, we KNOW that clinics that provide safe spaces for drug users to inject drugs reduce drug related deaths and help get those individuals within reach of programs to assist them in combating their illness and getting them to a better place. But instead of doing that, we insist on having cops break down doors, throw people to ground, then throw them into a cell where every problem they have contributing to their addiction is magnified and their chances of getting a better life plummet. Why? Because drug users "are bad people who deserve to be punished" and therefore helping them out of bad situations isn't popular. Even though it works, even though it is more humane, even though it reduces drug problems, and we KNOW these things are true because we have seen these programs working. No one cares about the facts, they care that the morally bad people got punished for being bad. [/QUOTE]

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