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  • That program was started at around the same time that the US government flooded the country with Crack Cocaine to fund their illegal wars in Central America

    If any one is wondering .... you should look up the story of Gary Webb

    EDIT: .... and if anyone is paying attention ... the story that Webb uncovered basically ruined his life because the government hounded him like a dog until he lost everything. Even then, he still kept fighting, resisting and writing about all the terrible things the government was doing.

    Then at the height of all the news about all this ... he died by suicide ... from two gunshot wounds to the head! ... and people tell me to stop believing in conspiracy theories. How the hell do you shoot yourself in the head twice to kill yourself.

    A simplified retelling of this story is in the film 'Kill the Messenger' (2014) which stars Jeremy Renner

    • Important clarification:

      Webb, an investigative journalist for the San Jose Mercury News, uncovered convincing evidence that proceeds from international cocaine trafficking represented a major source of funding for US-backed right-wing death squads in Nicaragua (known as the Contras) with South Central Los Angeles and other urban African American communities serving as key markets for the drug; and more distressing, that the CIA had become aware of this illicit commerce early on and incorporated it into a broader domestic strategy, allowing the cocaine pipeline to continue and thrive to a massive degree that eventually gave rise to the U.S. "crack epidemic" of the '80s and '90s and the birth of the prison-industrial sector.

      Webb DID NOT break the story of America's crack coming from the Contras with the CIA's approval. That fact had already been available around the time it occurred. Webb's contribution was gathering and sharing the details and more evidence. To be fair, Webb never claimed to have any evidence that the CIA engineered the whole thing, only that they knew it was going on, approved of it, and even met with Contra leaders and funders to discuss it.

      Webb's downfall as a journalist is mainly due to his making unsupported claims. If he had had evidence for all of his claims, it would not have made him vulnerable to being discredited. For example, the US Justice Department found that "the allegations contained in the original Mercury News articles were exaggerations of the actual facts," and that "the claims that Blandón and Meneses were responsible for introducing crack cocaine into South Central Los Angeles and spreading the crack epidemic throughout the country were unsupported." Even Nick Schou, Webb's biographer, agreed that, "the story offered no evidence to support such sweeping conclusions, a fatal error that would ultimately destroy Webb, if not his editors."

      On December 10, 2004, Gary Webb took his own life. It is true that there were two bullet wounds in his head, which has raised suspicions that his death might not have been a suicide. However, no evidence has yet been presented contradicting the coroner's findings, so we have to accept it as such for now.

      And yes, Kill the Messenger (2014) is worth watching. It is a surprisingly accurate film starring Jeremy Renner. It portrays how Webb assembled the story and depicts the media's tomfoolery and its impact on Webb's life. Even Webb's own son liked it.

      • On December 10, 2004, Gary Webb took his own life. It is true that there were two bullet wounds in his head, which has raised suspicions that his death might not have been a suicide. However, no evidence has yet been presented contradicting the coroner's findings, so we have to accept it as such for now.

        I fundamentally disagree with the premise of this statement and you should also.

        "What we are being told happened here is completely impossible, but no one has presented anything more plausible, so we must accept this as truth and move on."

        Absolutely not. Bullshit. Fuck that. You should be ashamed of yourself for even writing that in public. You're being lied to, right to your face, boldly and unashamedly, to rug-sweep a set of extremely illegal governmental actions without any sort of culpability - and your response to this is "Well, better not worry about that then!"

        How could you possibly think that's the correct response to that?

        Bit late to do something about it now, we missed that bus, but I can draw a straight line from Ronald Reagan to Contra to this to the fascist hellhole of an American society that find ourselves in in the current day. If anyone had held their government responsible for anything it has done at any point in time, we might have shifted that path just a little.

      • I remember when I used to think the government told the truth.

    • I just want to know.. Where The F... is the CIA when we really need them to protect the country? How is Tupperware Face still walking?

  • Whaaaaat? You mean to tell me that the guys whose entire existence is justified by locking up poor people for drug use, whose "justice system" is just a front for legal slavery, ran an "anti" drug campaign that maybe wasn't super good? Almost like that was... the whole point?

    • Even better was the fact the fact that this same president was also once the head of the CIA .... the same organization which most likely still included people he knew to work with South American drug cartels to initiate the Crack Cocaine epidemic of the 90s in order to fund their wars and conflicts in Central America.

      It pisses me off so much that so few people remember this history of America ..... on one hand they claim the moral high ground of wanting people to stop doing drugs .... when they, the actual government spy agency, were the ones who created the conditions for more drugs to be sold on the street!!!!!

      I've said it a bunch of times on this thread because it's important to me and should be important to everyone else ... look up the story of Gary Webb

  • That’s the same logic people use to remove things like sex ed, discussion of lgbtq, or even racism use.

    If we don’t talk about the thing then it won’t happen, or, if we talk about the thing then the kids will want to or know how to do it.

    DARE was pretty stupid, though. And i’m sure I have a DARE labeled pencil or two in the bottom of a box somewhere still.

  • That's because you have to try to know why you cannot do it. You can say all the words you want that you cannot do something but a teenager won't learn unless you give it to them and demonstrate the debilitating properties.

    My school of kids education is by practice and not by empty boring talking for hours. We talk about drugs? Sure here are all the samples see why exactly they are bad on your own.

    Kids do not learn just because you talk to them 50th time the same thing, they learn when they touch, taste and smell.

    This is why I aspire to be a future educator, because my methods are actually working as opposed to the shitty current standard that gave us flat earthers and anti vaxxers.

    Earth is flat? We call Bezos and do a trip to space for 4 worst behaving kids. Vaccines are a hoax? We unleash the smallpox and showcase that these kids who vaccinated survived.

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