Toking Toward Gomorrha
By Mona
According to one Mary Grabar — a Ph.D in English posting at PajamasMedia — Western civilization literally depends on pot prohibition. Hence, Libertarians Need to Rethink Support for Drug Legalization:
Marijuana . . .has always been counter-cultural in the West. Every toke symbolizes a thumb in the eye of Western values. So it follows that in order to maintain our culture, we need to criminalize this drug.
The prohibition against marijuana is one brick in the foundation of our society. On a practical level the use of marijuana also works to knock out other bricks, like the work ethic, emotional engagement, sexual inhibition, and the ability to reason.
Also, weed is a tool of the left’s conspiracy to brainwash our patriotic warrior youth:
But that’s exactly what the left wants: a nation of young zombies — indifferent, unengaged, and uncaring. They provide amenable subjects to indoctrination. Alcohol may fuel fights, but marijuana, as its advocates like to point out, makes the user mellow. The toker wants to make love, not war.
More insidious yet, it seems — per Dr. Grabar — that booze is no impediment to believing in the Baby Jesus, unlike cannabis which must reroute neural pathways such that (after the Cheetos are gone and the f*cking over), one is overtaken by an overwhelming desire to read Das Kaptital and scream “God is Dead!”
Comment by Thoreau —
December 23, 2009 @ 1:29 am
If Western civilization would crumble with the end of a policy that enriches violent cartels while giving cops carte blanche to lock up black men, then Western civilization would deserve to crumble.
But I don’t think legalization will destroy our society. Far from it.
Comment by Tesla Lives Again —
December 23, 2009 @ 3:04 am
Because we all know that if God wanted to give us the option to change our perception, behavior, mood and consciousness, he would have made plants that become psychoactive when smoked or consumed.
I’m frightened by the stupid in these people.
Comment by Kevin Carson —
December 23, 2009 @ 3:34 am
So libertarians need to return to “the traditional libertarianism of Barry Goldwater,” without all this crap about drug legalization and non-interventionism. In other words, the pot-smoking Republicans just need to get rid of the pot.
Comment by Aunt Deb —
December 23, 2009 @ 10:13 am
Well, I say let’s outlaw Cheetos!
Comment by dhex —
December 23, 2009 @ 10:36 am
we should send her some rastafarians. is there a rastafar-i-gram service?
Comment by Picador —
December 23, 2009 @ 11:13 am
Wait, so the biggest fears of “libertarians” (according to this guy) are: peace, religious freedom, sexual freedom, and freedom to put chemicals into your body?
I’m of half a mind to give my usual “the term ‘libertarian’ is meaningless” rant, but in this case I think this guy has actually stretched the meaning of the word beyond even its former, highly elastic boundaries.
Comment by Taktix® —
December 23, 2009 @ 11:16 am
Let’s see:
1. Drugs and prostitution are like spaghetti and meatballs. Check.
2. Anyone not following the O’Reilly/Limbaugh Doctrine is a Sorosite. Check.
3. Things, like alcohol, are O.K. because the Bible says so. Check. (And exactly how is “Jesus” warning us about anything in the Old Testament?)
4. America was founded on Judeo-Christian values, and therefore must be have Christian-based legal system. Check.
Congratulations, Ms. Grabar. You’ve scored in the 90th percentile of cluelessness…
Comment by mh —
December 23, 2009 @ 11:18 am
Picador –
“Guy”. You keep using that word. I do not think it means, what you think it means.
Comment by Mr. Obscura —
December 23, 2009 @ 12:04 pm
there was a rastafari-gram service, but they never managed to deliver a single message due to the tragic miscalculation of placing their storefront next door to a Quik Trip and across the street from a Lay’s plant
Pingback by Psychopolitik 2.0 » Someone is wrong on the internet! —
December 23, 2009 @ 3:16 pm
[...] Mona. You just may have found the dumbest fucking argument ever blogged. [...]
Comment by dhex —
December 23, 2009 @ 3:25 pm
there was a rastafari-gram service, but they never managed to deliver a single message due to the tragic miscalculation of placing their storefront next door to a Quik Trip and across the street from a Lay’s plant
i seriously doubt they’d be tempted by the poisons of babylon.
all joking aside, grabar would find much to like in such religious traditionalism.
Comment by Eric Martin —
December 23, 2009 @ 3:51 pm
(after the Cheetos are gone and the f*cking over), one is overtaken by an overwhelming desire to read Das Kaptital and scream “God is Dead!”
I see Mona attended some of the same parties I did in the early 90s…
Comment by D.A. Ridgely —
December 23, 2009 @ 7:51 pm
Further proof — as if it weren’t simply piling on at this point — that there is no contradiction in the proposition, “That person is a PhD and an idiot.”
Comment by mb —
December 23, 2009 @ 8:03 pm
Could I get some help over here? Seems my thumb is stuck in the eye of Western values.
Comment by Dr. Psycho —
December 24, 2009 @ 12:24 pm
Thoreau @ #1, I think that for some people, enriching violent cartels while oppressing minorities is the very definition of “Western civilization”.
Comment by D.A. Ridgely —
December 26, 2009 @ 2:32 am
I’ve written a bit of a response, myself, to Ms Grabar’s breathtakingly inane post.
http://www.positiveliberty.com/2009/12/mary-grabar-a-mans-death-from-swallowing-pot-during-an-arrest-illustrates-the-wisdom-and-goodness-of-outlawing-drugs.html
(Sorry, couldn’t get the link function to work.)
Comment by Seward —
December 26, 2009 @ 8:56 am
I think a good general rule is to stop reading, listening, etc. to something when the phrase “Western values” pop up.
Anyway, on the role of recreational drugs and the “West”: Hillman, The Chemical Muse: Drug Use and the Roots of Western Civilization