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Lumifer comments on LINK: An example of the Pink Flamingo, the obvious-yet-overlooked cousin of the Black Swan - Less Wrong Discussion
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What do you mean, pointless? The War on Drugs has enormous benefits for certain kinds of people.
Let me list you some. It keeps the restless natives in check. It's a good excuse for expanding all kinds of the power of the state. It's an excellent excuse for just confiscating people's wealth and as such it funds a large portion of the prison-industrial complex. It provides lots of prisoners for the said prison-industrial complex.
How can you keep civilization running without keeping everyone fearful of the Holy... err.. Evil Trinity of drug lords, child pornographers, and international terrorists? X-/
Maybe you want to talk about the agency problem with your elected officials -- in that case try down the corridor, Mr. Barnard; room 12.
You are straw-manning. The war on drugs almost certainly reduces drug consumption and has almost certainly stopped lots of people from having their lives ruined by drugs.
I'm strawmanning whom?
Notice that I'm actually objecting to polymathwannabe's claim that the War on Drugs is "pointless".
I thought (perhaps mistakenly) that you were strawmanning the social benefits of the war on drugs.
I consider these benefits to be much lesser than the costs. But, as I pointed out, it depends on the point of view. It's an ill wind...
I thought he was being sarcastic. But my sarcasm meter is terribly miscalibrated.