Psychopomp

Psychopomp wrote

Reply to by !deleted8871

If 'Die Hard' is a Christmas Movie then so is 'Trading Places'. If this is true, then 'Trading Places' is the best Christmas movie.

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Psychopomp wrote (edited )

Reply to by !deleted8217

In my experience of the punk scene in the UK I never really met anyone who claimed edge. It was all hard drinking and drug taking. I'm not sure if this was a cultural thing or simply an age gap thing- I was a teenager in the early 2010's, it may have been that there were straight edge people in the scene who were in their mid-late 20s but I didn't tend to mix with them. I know some straight edge people now, but it's mainly people who've struggled with/lost someone to addiction or substance related mental health issues, rather than people who arrived there through a politicial/ethical decision.

There are parts of those articles that I disagree with. The general assumption that alcohol/drugs are inherently counterrevolutionary seem to me to be bit short-sighted. While it's true that alcohol could/has been used to subdue people under colonial rule, you could equally point to any number of revolutionary movements that began in socialist pubs or other gathering places where social bonds were formed or strengthened by imbibing drugs. It's all about the material conditions.

It all sort of just comes down to: 'Ethical consumption under capitalism is difficult/next to impossible, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't do our best, and support each other as much as possible.'

Singling out alchohol and drugs for particular scrutiny may not be worth it, and the more important discussions (e.g. how living under oppressive states in alienating circumstances leads people towards destructive behaviours) can get lost if you make the drugs, and the individual's relation to them, the focus rather than systemic problems.

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