Tuesday, January 11, 2005
Lies, Damned Lies, Statistics and the Administration
Yesterday I learned about the administration doing a couple of rather execrable things: buying a commentator to push their agenda, which commentator did not choose to reveal his status as bought to his audience, and lying about the dangers of marijuana. The first execrable item should explain itself, but as to the second, the big lie in the crappy anti-drug ad is the flat-out statement that "marijuana is addictive." Huh? Oh, yeah, psychologically addictive. Sure, and so are pants, situation comedies, chocolate sundaes, yeah, sure.
The plain fact is that marijuana is not addictive at all. Does using pot make you more worthless than you might have been if you didn't use pot? Heck yeah. But, as the ad also claims, does marijuana induce violent behavior? Sure, if you count eating a cupboard full of Pop Tarts as violence. But, that's not all.
The administration, in an effort to promote abstinence, also flat-out lies about that. The claim is put forth that condoms only prevent AIDS less than half of the time they're used. That's grade A bullshit, my friends. Condoms prevent the spread of AIDS and other STDs about 99.9 percent of the time. Yes, they fail, but not nearly so often as these jokers claim. They make other outrageous lying claims, but I'll work with the list I've just put down here.
Now, is smoking pot a good thing? Hard to say. Personally, I've found recreational drugs to be a waste of time on the good end, and they go downhill fast. It would be better for almost all of us if we didn't use pot, and that's the truth. So, why resort to stupid lies to convince people to stop? Same with abstinence. Heck yes, if you don't have sex you won't get an STD, and you won't get anyone pregnant or get pregnant yourself. That's the plain truth. Again, why resort to stupid lies to get your point across? I'm serious: why do that? Is there something about the plain truth that scares these people?
The real problem is that these lies are pretty obvious to their supposed intended audience, which is the youth of America. Young people are not so easily fooled as their elders who dearly wish the world were different. You know, if these arguments were put forth in a criminal trial they would provide any impartial jury with reasonable doubt. If they lied about these things, what else are they lying about? You know it worked for OJ, right? That's all there was to that verdict: Furman lied about the nigger thing, so the jury didn't think they could trust him on anything else. And the youth of America see these damned lies and wonder what else the ads are lying about. Is unprotected sex really okay after all? Should I just buy a pound of Hawaiian and stay stoned all summer? Why not, they're lying about marijuana being addictive, they're lying about condoms, and they're buying off commentators. Hey, hell with everything they say.
I say if you can't make a good argument with the truth, then your argument isn't worth listening to. I tried to get these idiots out of office, but they're pretty good at making lies believable, and the opposition wasn't even seriously opposing them. Too bad. Four more years of this and there might not be all that much left of what's been a pretty good country so far. Unless, that is, we see them for the lying assholes that they are and ignore what we know to be lies. I don't love Democrats, quite the contrary, but I hate above all things being lied to. Sad for the administration, if they care at all, that makes me hate what they do whether it's justified or not.
Hey, they called the game, I'm just playing along.
The plain fact is that marijuana is not addictive at all. Does using pot make you more worthless than you might have been if you didn't use pot? Heck yeah. But, as the ad also claims, does marijuana induce violent behavior? Sure, if you count eating a cupboard full of Pop Tarts as violence. But, that's not all.
The administration, in an effort to promote abstinence, also flat-out lies about that. The claim is put forth that condoms only prevent AIDS less than half of the time they're used. That's grade A bullshit, my friends. Condoms prevent the spread of AIDS and other STDs about 99.9 percent of the time. Yes, they fail, but not nearly so often as these jokers claim. They make other outrageous lying claims, but I'll work with the list I've just put down here.
Now, is smoking pot a good thing? Hard to say. Personally, I've found recreational drugs to be a waste of time on the good end, and they go downhill fast. It would be better for almost all of us if we didn't use pot, and that's the truth. So, why resort to stupid lies to convince people to stop? Same with abstinence. Heck yes, if you don't have sex you won't get an STD, and you won't get anyone pregnant or get pregnant yourself. That's the plain truth. Again, why resort to stupid lies to get your point across? I'm serious: why do that? Is there something about the plain truth that scares these people?
The real problem is that these lies are pretty obvious to their supposed intended audience, which is the youth of America. Young people are not so easily fooled as their elders who dearly wish the world were different. You know, if these arguments were put forth in a criminal trial they would provide any impartial jury with reasonable doubt. If they lied about these things, what else are they lying about? You know it worked for OJ, right? That's all there was to that verdict: Furman lied about the nigger thing, so the jury didn't think they could trust him on anything else. And the youth of America see these damned lies and wonder what else the ads are lying about. Is unprotected sex really okay after all? Should I just buy a pound of Hawaiian and stay stoned all summer? Why not, they're lying about marijuana being addictive, they're lying about condoms, and they're buying off commentators. Hey, hell with everything they say.
I say if you can't make a good argument with the truth, then your argument isn't worth listening to. I tried to get these idiots out of office, but they're pretty good at making lies believable, and the opposition wasn't even seriously opposing them. Too bad. Four more years of this and there might not be all that much left of what's been a pretty good country so far. Unless, that is, we see them for the lying assholes that they are and ignore what we know to be lies. I don't love Democrats, quite the contrary, but I hate above all things being lied to. Sad for the administration, if they care at all, that makes me hate what they do whether it's justified or not.
Hey, they called the game, I'm just playing along.
