It's unpleasant for me to watch you willfully misunderstand Alex3917 with such vitriol.
It was clear to me from the beginning that he didn't mean the government literally had a campaign to poison the elderly, but rather, that that is the effect of poorly thought out, vindictive policies that the government has instituted. It's hard for me to understand how you could have misunderstood this.
You make such a big deal about his comparison of the death toll to that of the Holocaust, even though it was YOU, not he, who first brought the Holocaust up via your invocation of Godwin's Law.
Your refusal to address the assertion that addiction has nothing to do with the molecule is well advised, since you clearly didn't take the time to understand it. You may agree or disagree with his point, but it would be better to at least look at the links he provided before commenting; the second in particular, a study from Kaiser Permanente that discusses the origins of addiction, should make clear what he was talking about.
It's your final paragraph, though, that motivated me to write this reply. You find Alex3917 "offensive" and "disgusting"? What I find offensive and disgusting is dragging a controversial but interesting line of discussion down to the level of ad hominem attacks, strawman arguments, and deliberate misrepresentation of others' positions. That's not the kind of thing I come to this site hoping to read.
"It was clear to me from the beginning that he didn't mean the government literally had a campaign to poison the elderly,"
Well if that was his intent, then why did he write the literal opposite? It's quite easy to see why: it was to evoke an emotional response, to use grandiose sensationalist claims to either get people to read his comments or to back up or reaffirm his radical ideological standpoints. That's not the sort of thing I come to this site hoping to read. The point is that some policy decision have adverse effect; that fine, and exposing the exact mechanics is often enlightening. Phrasing it as 'oh we're being oppressed! We're living in the Maxtrix/1984!' is plain stupid.
a government campaign to poison the elderly and chronic pain patients
the war on drugs is responsible for vastly more deaths than the holocaust
drug addiction has nothing to do with the molecule
The above are things I do not come to this site hoping to read. These statements are not only false, but false in a particularly childish, self-righteous way. To affirm them demands an incredible misreading, or misinterpretation of the facts.
I find your interpretation of Alex3917's posts remarkably generous. It's not a "strawman" if the argument is actually being stated. I do not have the psychic powers to try and make sense of someone's scientific beliefs--if he has any that are scientific--based on a link and a semantically invalid sentence. I do not have the patience to scientifically debate someone who cannot make himself understood, who has no sense of what facts are relevant. And I do not have the generosity to take such infantile writing and divine from it some hints of reason, as you have.
I understand your distaste for insult, but I think there is a place for calling out nonsense for what it is. This discussion which you so dislike would have not gotten so far were it not for upvotes and support directed at this garbage. You cannot, if you value thought, defend such noise pollution on a website that is ostensibly for discussion.
It was clear to me from the beginning that he didn't mean the government literally had a campaign to poison the elderly, but rather, that that is the effect of poorly thought out, vindictive policies that the government has instituted. It's hard for me to understand how you could have misunderstood this.
You make such a big deal about his comparison of the death toll to that of the Holocaust, even though it was YOU, not he, who first brought the Holocaust up via your invocation of Godwin's Law.
Your refusal to address the assertion that addiction has nothing to do with the molecule is well advised, since you clearly didn't take the time to understand it. You may agree or disagree with his point, but it would be better to at least look at the links he provided before commenting; the second in particular, a study from Kaiser Permanente that discusses the origins of addiction, should make clear what he was talking about.
It's your final paragraph, though, that motivated me to write this reply. You find Alex3917 "offensive" and "disgusting"? What I find offensive and disgusting is dragging a controversial but interesting line of discussion down to the level of ad hominem attacks, strawman arguments, and deliberate misrepresentation of others' positions. That's not the kind of thing I come to this site hoping to read.