Most voters are idiots. Easily swayed by the fear of the unknown and a rather diffuse urge to "protect their children", of anything and nothing. Control their children would be more apt, in most cases, but I don't even want to go there.

People are afraid of change in their life, and they are afraid of things (and people) they do not know. The more conservative and the less contact wanted with "the others", the more fear.

Alcohol was something they knew. And they knew that it ain't bad. They even had a drink or two themselves and did they die from it? No. Of course not. Did they go insane? No, again, of course not. And so the support for the ban was very low outside the overzealous self-proclaimed warriors of moral. It was even "cool" to break that law.

Not just among teenagers.

As you correctly identified, the main reason for the fear of drugs (and yes, I mean fear, it's not just rejection, it is fear) is that drugs are "the unknown", and that we've been told time and again that drugs are bad, bad, bad things. It doesn't have to be as hilarious as "Reefer Madness", but we've all had our share of "drug awareness".

Do you think it's a coincidence that the discussion of the legalization of Marijuana happens now that the "generation of love", the Hippies, are about to reach the age that just so happens to be about the age most top level politicians are in? The generation of politicians that is now in power is the same generation that smoked pot heavily during their teen years, and they learned that it's not really as their parents taught them, that it's not leading to the fall of humanity and civilization.

In other words, we'll probably see the legalization of Ecstacy around 2030.

I used to think that way, but I don't think anymore that this would be a good idea. There are certain drugs that are illegal for a damn good reason. That shit IS deadly. Not because it's cut, not because it's made in a less than perfect process, but because the shit simply is dangerous. Crack being one, and Croc sure being the latest addition to the fold of the horrible few.

Seriously, compared to that shit, heroin is a safe and sane drug. Which isn't so far from truth, though I'd not consider pumping that stuff directly into your veins a sensible idea. It is a very good pain killer, though.

Drugs, like any recreation activity, should be done responsibly and with care. In moderation and with the relevant safety procedures in place. I would at the very least recommend informing people about this. In a sane and sensible way, away from the current scare craze that serves nothing but leading to a "cry wolf" situation where people don't believe any kind of warning you may have for them. Because there IS very nasty shit out there that you should certainly avoid, and that you can easily avoid if more potent and less dangerous drugs (yes, that combination is very possible) are available cheaply.

Alcohol is a far more "acceptable" drug than, say, pot. Because it has a negative side effect. You get a hangover. So you "pay" for having a buzz. With pot, this ain't the case.

Huh? What are you talking about, it's working great! We can incarcerate people and use them for forced labour, serving as a money maker for the prison complex and cheap labor too. We protect the interests of pharma corporations who'd have to compete with drugs that actually DO work against various ailments, maybe even cure them instead of treating them (which is a serious dent in the profit, it's far more profitable to treat than to cure) but have expired patents and could be pumped out cheaply, or even be produced fairly easily in DIY processes. And we protect the interests of alcohol and tobacco corporations who'd have to compete with less dangerous, cheaper and more satisfying recreational drugs.

What's not to like?

There has been practically zero progress on handling the demand side. Doing so would require a radical rethink of how Western countries deal with drugs and drug addiction. This is not likely to happen in the next 20 years at least, and it is stupid to condemn other countries to 20 more years of violence by keeping our focus on limiting supply.

If we eliminated the need to grow opium, a some countries would find their economies transformed. Imagine Afghanistan without opium financing various criminal factions. We just need to figure out how to make cocaine without coca, and Middle America would be changed too.

Of course that relies on the secret getting out. Otherwise we are still stuck with the morass of violent crime.

I've just recently seen what the web is like without adblockers. Trust me. Suffering IS the appropriate term!

How many companies make Ram, Storage? How much does Ram and Storage cost? Compared to earlier?
How many companies make CPUs and GPUs? How much do they cost? Compared to earlier?
How many companies make operating systems (suitable for average desktop work)? How much do they cost? Compared to earlier?

Well, looking back in our history as a species, it seems to be eventually the only thing that eventually leads to change. Anything else has been tried and failed.

But don't start it too early. First, you need the army on your side. Without, using force is decidedly not a good idea, if history is any indicator.

If you can teach me to play the guitar (and trust me on this one, I've tried EVERYTHING), I'll believe you.

For the better part of the past 5 years I've been trying to learn this instrument. And I don't mean "pick it up every once in a while", I mean learn. Daily. Mostly because I'm not the kind of person that gives something up when I really, and I mean REALLY, want it.

But slowly I think I have to admit defeat. My fingers just don't want to stretch across bars. It takes me half an eternity to put my fingers down on the strings in such a way that they actually "ring". And we better not start with bar chords.

Until I insisted in learning to play the guitar, I would have believed you. Because I eventually learned to do anything. But this seems to be my limit.

You're forgetting who you're dealing with: MBAs. From the old "the knave thinks others are like him" they extrapolate that if anyone can learn what's necessary to push pencils and fill Excel sheets, anyone can learn anything.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/...

These things aren't rare: we're just not allowed to talk about them as a society, because "white male privilege", is my point.

The reverse of all of those things SJW go after, happen every day. They're a tiny fractions of all discrimination, but what makes them worse IMO, is that not only they happen, but when talked about, even in the news, people will be like "Err...whats wrong with it?"

As of today, its really not that bad. But we're definately going in a direction where instead of having equality, we're just flipping the table. "Ha!, its your turn to suffer!" kind of deal. And again, its happening with a round of applause.

then you don't know your history

this is not a dating site. if you're interested in such things you should be happy to know that gay rights are increasingly accepted. good luck to you and your romantic interests

there have been exotic glimmers of true fairness and equality, always. but they were on the edges of civilization, were fragile and fleeting, and not enshrined rights hard fought for at the centers of power. now they are

progress is not a straight path, it's two steps forwards and one step back. it will always be a fragile growth prone to breakage and backsliding. and then pick up again and resume

and if some horrible world changing event occurs: an asteroid, a plague, then i am sure we will backslide back into barbarism and lose our progress

but as long as civilization is stable, then we are on a new path of rights we have never, ever had in this world anywhere remotely on this scale before. your exotic historic oddities don't remotely compare