Mamdani, Marijuana Dependency, and Unconditional Life Acceptance
Added 2025-11-10 21:57:55 +0000 UTCIn this Patreon exclusive, Breht reads and responds to an article in the Tehran Times on the NYC mayoral race and left strategy around Palestine, then he plays and analyzes a Kurzgesagt video on the science and experience of marijuana dependency in your 20s and 30s, and then Breht discusses his ongoing grieving process surrounding his Dad's death and the life lessons he's learned in the wake of it. In the process, he articulates what we need in left leaders, cultivating psychological resilience, the importance of sobriety as a baseline, the benefits of behavioral moderation, accepting worse case scenarios in life, the sweetness inherent in grief, dead loved ones visiting you in dreams, and much more.
Comments
ππ½ Long(ish) time listener, 1st time caller (so to speak)... I was just catching up on this & others' pod episodes I missed last week, & tho late to the party on this one, felt compelled to comment on this one (rare to see topical overlap with anything in my own wheelhouse). Having a divergent perspective, I wanted to offer a few brief comments on the "marijuana dependency" piece speaking to why, esp since it has nothing to do w/ the anticipated defensiveness I heard mentioned. Please forgive how long this is, despite attempts at brevity (it's rare for me, I swear!). A few things that felt worth noting: ~ I get why it was introduced this way, there's really nothing about drugs, their use, or people who use them that's "totally divergent" from politics, especially here in the US. I was actually quite surprised to hear that framing given how significant our gov't's investment in & use of the so-called War on Drugs has been (including the many fictions that justify its existence & expansion), & one so successful & indispensable, not least as a tool of social control in service of white supremacy & of repression in dealing with leftists movements since Nixon. Considerations around (esp illicit) drug use are inherently & inescapably political here ~ Physiological dependence β substance use disorder (i.e. "addiction") & should't be used interchangeably. ~ Kurzgesagt's video is most problematic, which in reality is *not* scientifically grounded, despite including citations in their source doc, & that they suggest otherwise is gross & extremely manipulative. Numerous study quotes pulled as evidence for their assertions don't address or support the corresponding point & others offer evidence for an entirely different conclusion than that reflected in the video. Their own comments emphasize the lack of evidence for the video's bias; I've truly never seen a source doc with such frequently reference to authors having "extrapolated," "fill[ed] gaps with [their] own observations," &/or "tried to speculate" to reach their desired conclusions. That's just not how science works; it's duplicitous & pernicious. ~ The assumptions about & characterizations of people who use drugs that were shared were also incredibly patronizing & offensive. Perpetuating anti-drugs & anti-drugs use/r stigma ends up being one of the ways folks manage to do the state's propaganda for it. Just to be clear/explicit, it isn't moderation or abstention I disagree with, & don't discourage either one if that's what feels good to anyone; I'm ambivalent really. It's assigning moral value (positive or negative) to any given choice that's problematic, & ditto for any given drug itself (drugs aren't "hard/soft" or "good/bad," etc., nor do they have intent or agency despite frequently being anthropomorphized). Oh, & a quick +1 re: an earlier comment on using cannabis, the actual term for weed, rather than "marijuana," a foreign-sounding non-word the gov't invented to help demonize it by tapping American's racism/xenophobia. (Not that you need Sherlock to crack the case. After all, "Marijuana" = "Mari Juana" = "Mary Jane"... π) Anywho, food for thought if anyone actually read this far, & happy to elaborate or clarify or whatever if useful to anyone (feel welcome to holler if interested). Take care & happy Friday, y'all
observant.oktopus
2025-11-21 04:47:06 +0000 UTCReally amazing episode Breht, thank you. And such good timing. Iβve been questioning sobriety a lot recently and been tempted to experiment with drinking and doing drugs again after about 10 months sober. This reminded me of how much more clear my mind is now and how much more full my life is. Without drugs to take up my time I now have to find shit to do and itβs so much more fulfilling. Iβve come back to my old hobbies and picked up some new ones. Iβm learning an instrument, Iβm reading theory, Iβm doing a ton of animal rights organizing, and political learning and organizing. I have so many new friends that are motivated to change the world instead of just party. I need to be reminded of that every once in a while lest I think of the fun and insightful parts of drugs and think they have something more for me. Sobriety has so so much more to offer than any amount of cough medicine and horse tranquilizer can:)
Hamish Bradley
2025-11-20 04:34:16 +0000 UTC
