Scary Crazy People

(updated)

From the thread that keeps on giving.

Kender;
Thomas, your attitude and acceptance of bullshit definitions of alcoholism is a major part of the problem in this country.

Alcoholics CHOOSE to drink. The booze does not jump into their throats. It is a matter of personal responsibility. Once we accept that drugs and alcohol use is not a choice we teach people that they are powerless creatures and victims of something they can’t control, when in reality we all choose how to treat our bodies. The same actually goes for smokers and people that practice unsafe sex.

Part of the left’s plan (check the commie manifesto) is to get drug users and alcoholics deemed diseased. It is people such as yourself that are ruining the country through your stupidity and gullibility, and your belief in a personal choice being a disease proves beyond a doubt that you have the reasoning capabilities of a lower order of fungi.

I'm often accused of making generalizations about groups of people - and so I want to use this bit to demonstrate.. that I am showing you what a representative sample of right wing lunatics believe.

Kender is not just some whacked out freak, walled up in a Montana compound, surrounded by assault rifles, waiting for the rapture. This is a mainstream point of view in the right wing, and he obviously believes it with every ounce of his fiber.

Readers will remember that some of my favorite quotes, from people like Doug and Jennifer, are the ones that go along the lines of "no matter what you say, you won't change my mind"? There is nothing in the world, no demonstration, no evidence, no overwhelming expert opinion, that will change Kender's mind. His entire world view, just like Doug's, is premised on "personal responsibility" and the definition of what that means to them. If they accepted even a shred of possibility that they are wrong, their entire world-view collapses.

They can't have that, and so when I call them "science denying freaks", they do so only because they must.

I could go on and on documenting why Kender is sadly mistaken. Sometimes I have to work very hard to demonstrate my point.. doing research to collect statistics and so on.. but this one is pretty straight forward. The entire medical communities, biologists, physicians, psychiatrists, everyone.. classify alcoholism and chemical addictions as a "disease" because there are proven biological components to it that make some people more susceptible and others not.

That's not even a question.

Kender thinks I "have the reasoning capabilities of a lower order of fungi". That, in a nut-shell (so to speak), is simply the difference between their world view and mine.. and the difference between documenting the evidence versus simply pulling an opinion out of thin air and claiming it as the "truth" over and over.

Then they turn around and call people "stupid" for thinking that their made up "truth" isn't true at all, based on the evidence.. It's just really sad, but this is what I get for wadding in the drek of the extreme right wing religious nut-land.

After all, not only is my "attitude and acceptance" of something the entire medical world agrees with wrong, it's also "a major part of the problem in this country". Not only that, it's a leftist conspiracy, by all those doctors, to destroy America.

And then he calls me "stupid". heh

/update

When I read one of my posts, I try and do it from the frame of reference of a right wing loon. It helps me fine-tune it so it's harder for them to mischaracterize, paraphrase, and argue against a point I didn't make.. In other words.. I try to make it Doug-proof.

I realize I did not do such a good job on my first attempt with this post, so want to clarify.

I do not.. nor do any liberals, progressives, Democrats, believe that "personal responsibility" is not a noble purpose and driving ideology of the human experience. This is why academia is dominated by liberals. We crave and pursue knowledge and achievement.

However, we do NOT deny the evidence of the scientific method.

In this case, the specific condition of alcoholism, we recognize that it is a disease, there are biological factors, as well as psychological factors. We also do not excuse continued bad behavior.

The "personal responsibility" concept comes in the form of the individual with the disease recognizing they need treatment and doing their best to stick with it. That's how people recover, without being tortured by these right wing freaks who believe the addicts are just "weak willed" or somehow defective human beings.

It is NOT okay to go on, day after day, without seeking treatment and putting all possible effort into recovery. We understand that people fail, have failed, will fail again, but all anyone can expect is for people to try their best. That is, at it's core, what being a human being is all about.

You fail, learn something, pick up and go on.

The right wing, being the evil, condescending, vile, assholes that they are, would rather mentally attack an addict as a worthless piece of pond scum who is too weak of will to control their own behavior - this.. despite the entire world's body of medical evidence telling them that they are wrong.

And this is reason #423,523,213 why conservative right wing religious freaks are the most vile form of human beings.

/update 2

It just occurred to me that the loons are missing a critical piece of information.

Their Lord and Savior, George W. Bush, is an admitted alcoholic who received treatment and is in recovery.

heh

/update last (I hope)

I should stew on a post a good long while before I publish it.. I just keep re-reading and want to add more.

Anyway.. "treatment" for different addicts means different things. In Chimpy's case, his treatment was to stick his head up Jesus' ass. Apparently that worked for him. Somebody else may see a therapist.. somebody else might go to AA or NA.

That doesn't mean I agree with each method. I definately have my issues with AA - but it works for some people... They make people admit there is a "higher power", and that they are "powerless" over alcohol. That's bullshit...

But.. it seems that most of the AA groups allow you to define your own higher power, so if you think your lamp shade is your higher power, that's good enough.

Still.. it's bullshit.