unconfirmedsourcesDOTgov

To be totally clear, the UK has been a fucked up place for centuries, I don't think Meta fundamentally changed the culture.

Having said that, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, etc are tools that enable political influence over the population at levels that were previously unimaginable. Look into Cambridge Analytica a bit or borrow Mindf*ck: Cambridge Analytica and the Plot to Break America by Christopher Wylie from your local library for details.

Starting as early as 2012 we have evidence that Facebook was pivotal in stoking racial tensions in Myanmar, leading to a genocide.

There's evidence that Meta was a major factor in Brexit, which more specifically relates to my claim with respect to influence in the UK.

The US election in 2016 was clearly influenced by Meta platforms, including taking Russian money to stoke racial tensions in line with the Russian Manifesto, The Foundations of Geopolitics.

I'm currently reading through Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams, which is a memoir about how these systems were conceptualized and built at Facebook, and so far I'd recommend it.

Obviously Meta isn't the only problem, Tiktok is clearly a problem of similar size and scope, and other social apps have their own challenges (X being owned by the richest man alive and actively influencing the algorithm, for example), but in many ways Meta is the OG, and blazed the trail for others.

Meta happened. UK, US, all over the world there is a correlation between the adoption of Meta's products and the corrosion of basic human rights.

You should try asking people about the last EULA they read the next time you're at a party. You're gonna be blown away.

But how could the trolls enrage well meaning people into moving to a less privacy respecting browser if the post wasn't designed for performative outrage?

A buddy of mine works for a fortune 500 company that started giving out MacBooks as the standard hardware this year. Apparently you need to jump through a bunch of hoops if you want to run Windows. I was shocked to hear it but Microsoft deserves to be humbled.

Bro I think you might need a T break.

You didn't need to say cannabis was good, you suggested that it was better that we think of the plant smoked as cannabis than tobacco as to warn people about the societal ills of tobacco use.

I'm not going to do a lit review of all of the studies about cannabis risk for you, I just picked an article that cited the one you provided with a different conclusion. The point is that there is no academic consensus on this and we don't need to revise LOTR because of your feelings about tobacco.

You're not wrong, smoking things is bad for your health. I'm not saying that the risk is exactly equal, but if you could lay out an easily understood framework for how to assess the impact of smoking a single cigarette vs a single joint, I would be impressed.

All I'm saying is that Tolkien wrote the books with tobacco in mind, which was way more popular during his time, and we don't need to pretend that they were smoking cannabis instead as some sort of some great societal PSA against the dangers of tobacco.

If we want to get really nitpicky, you don't even inhale pipe tobacco smoke, whereas you'd never do the same with cannabis or you'd miss out on the effects. Obviously there's a risk factor for mouth, nose, and throat cancer, but most western societies agree that adults should be informed of risks and allowed to make their own mistakes. Same goes for alcohol, mountaineering, and owning weapons.

Look, I can find academic papers that support my claim and cite them too, but the fact is that there isn't nearly enough data on cannabis consumption to reach a scientific consensus. We know that putting toxins in your lungs is bad for your health overall, but I don't agree that we can, in the same sentence, say "cannabis good, tobacco bad". They're both bad for you, and adults should be allowed to make their own decisions about when and how to use them.

Here, I'm not paying for full access to this paper, but it cites the paper you linked to and this one has itself been cited more often.

Marijuana use and risk of lung cancer: a 40-year cohort study

Russell C Callaghan, Peter Allebeck, Anna Sidorchuk

Cancer Causes & Control 24 (10), 1811-1820, 2013

Purpose

Cannabis (marijuana) smoke and tobacco smoke contain many of the same potent carcinogens, but a critical—yet unresolved—medical and public-health issue is whether cannabis smoking might facilitate the development of lung cancer. The current study aimed to assess the risk of lung cancer among young marijuana users.

Conclusion

Our primary finding provides initial longitudinal evidence that cannabis use might elevate the risk of lung cancer. In light of the widespread use of marijuana, especially among adolescents and young adults, our study provides important data for informing the risk–benefit calculus of marijuana smoking in medical, public-health, and drug-policy settings.

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cites=946268550444709876&as_sdt=5%2C30&sciodt=0%2C30&hl=en#d=gs_qabs&t=1762525435931&u=%23p%3D9kkM3NKxiJUJ

Nothing gets me ready to oppose fascism like some jury nullification in the morning. Should be part of every complete breakfast.

This make it sound like you're under the impression that tobacco is big cancer and cannabis is completely harmless?

Do you think it's the nicotine that does the cancer and THC actually cures you? Because while I hate to be the one to bear that bad news for you, it's the byproducts of combustion that cause the cancer, regardless of whether it's cannabis or tobacco.

Basically, stop gatekeeping and let people, halflings, elves, dwarves, and ainur enjoy tobacco if they want. We're all here for a limited amount of time, let me enjoy some pipe tobacco or a cigar without turning it into a moral panic requiring the redaction of one of the best stories of all time.

Also yes 10/10 for LOTR while stoned.

Good on you, keep it up. We simply cannot wave our hands at these people and dismiss them, they represent a majority of voters in the country. When they start seeing cracks in the facade, we need to engage them thoughtfully and with kindness to wedge those cracks open even more - until they're able to see past the hatred and ignorance and towards a future that is beneficial for all Americans.

Literally everything you said is just dumb hater bullshit. You added nothing to the discussion.