Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How a Reddit forum has become a lifeline to opioid addicts in the US

theguardian.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 396 posts

Re: How a Reddit forum has become a lifeline to opioid addicts in the US

#71

Post by jimmaswell »

lsmarigo wrote: post #24
icpmacdo wrote: post #2

I think Reddit is interestingly a net social positive. For all the bad things that come out of it you can often see users helping others in a pretty significant way.

Reddit has some fantastic and fascinating communities and really interesting cult-like ones (/r/nofap) However I'd like to point out the admin policy towards hate groups and speech on reddit is in my opinion incredibly dangerous and damaging to our society. They will take action against subreddits like FPH (fat people hate) because of "real life" actions, meawhile there are thousands of highly upvoted calls to violen…

It's often said that the admins simply only shut down a subreddit once its negative publicity is enough to start hurting the website's brand or ad revenue in some way.

Re: How a Reddit forum has become a lifeline to opioid addicts in the US

#72

Post by jefurii »

danlindley wrote: post #38
vinhboy wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to think so. I enjoyed Reddit a lot, despite people complaining about it. Then /r/the_donald happened. Now I tread carefully because you never know what kind of propaganda is being spread around. People say stick to the subreddit. But I think that's silly. If the core of Reddit is rotten, then the subreddit themselves will be affected. It has happened to places I visit like /r/environment. There is a constant…

Reddit has been demonstrated time and time again that it is subject to, and vulnerable to, blatant manipulation and propganda. Whether it's a celebrity endoresement masquerading as an interview, threads defending corporations and/or their actions, the manufacturing of consent, the anti-democractic activities of shill accounts, or being subject to blanket disinformation, Reddit is a net-negative to society in my opini…

So it's much like traditional print media, just a lot faster and with fewer filters.

Re: How a Reddit forum has become a lifeline to opioid addicts in the US

#73

Post by aaronbrethorst »

gooseus wrote: post #62

What I find fascinating and disappointing is how much the opioid crisis isn't being talked about or addressed proportional to other societal issues. Billions of dollars of private research being poured into self-driving cars by our greatest minds and millions of dollars in lobbying against gun laws all in the name of preventing unnecessary human deaths... yet according to Ben Bernanke (and his references), opioid ove…

A couple notes:

1. The opioid crisis is getting a lot of airtime in the media outlets that I read.

3. The opioid crisis is one of the biggest reasons why the Senate's Trumpcare bill is now dead, and was also a major topic of discussion in the weeks leading up to its unexpected loss this week. In short, its drastic cuts to Medicaid would have decimated opioid treatment in some of the states hit hardest, and Senator Capito of West Virginia, at least, would have voted against it because the $40-odd billion dollars that Mitch McConnell would've specifically allocated to opioid treatment would have been a 'drop in the bucket.' Here's some earlier discussion of this point: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/capito-says-opiod-treatment-...

So, all said, maybe find some new sources of news and discussion?

edit: here's a new wire article from the AP that just crossed my RSS reader: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/democrats-trump-action-opi...

Re: How a Reddit forum has become a lifeline to opioid addicts in the US

#74

Post by hrktb »

vinhboy wrote: post #7
icpmacdo wrote: post #2

I think Reddit is interestingly a net social positive. For all the bad things that come out of it you can often see users helping others in a pretty significant way.

I used to think so. I enjoyed Reddit a lot, despite people complaining about it. Then /r/the_donald happened. Now I tread carefully because you never know what kind of propaganda is being spread around. People say stick to the subreddit. But I think that's silly. If the core of Reddit is rotten, then the subreddit themselves will be affected. It has happened to places I visit like /r/environment. There is a constant…

I have a hard time articulating it, but I feel like what’s happening with /r/the_donald and like minded subreddits is more a reflection of the real world reaching our online communities than the communities rotting by themselves or because of pure admin mismanagement.

Perhaps we thought our little islands of posh culture would stay on their own when reality is taking a dive ?

Re: How a Reddit forum has become a lifeline to opioid addicts in the US

#75

Post by smokeyj »

lsmarigo wrote: post #24
icpmacdo wrote: post #2

I think Reddit is interestingly a net social positive. For all the bad things that come out of it you can often see users helping others in a pretty significant way.

Reddit has some fantastic and fascinating communities and really interesting cult-like ones (/r/nofap) However I'd like to point out the admin policy towards hate groups and speech on reddit is in my opinion incredibly dangerous and damaging to our society. They will take action against subreddits like FPH (fat people hate) because of "real life" actions, meawhile there are thousands of highly upvoted calls to violen…

Honest question. Why do you care what people post online? The great thing about reddit is that you get to choose which communities you subscribe to. Your mentality is the equivalent of "I can't go to bed. Someone on the internet is wrong".

I think your basic premise is wrong - that "racism and xenophobia" are on the rise. You can't measure the number of people who aren't racist because you don't hear them. And before you argue that "not saying anything is being complicit" it's just not true. As a "minority" I just don't care what someone on the internet posts. It doesn't have power over me.

Re: How a Reddit forum has become a lifeline to opioid addicts in the US

#76

Post by vosper »

gooseus wrote: post #62

What I find fascinating and disappointing is how much the opioid crisis isn't being talked about or addressed proportional to other societal issues. Billions of dollars of private research being poured into self-driving cars by our greatest minds and millions of dollars in lobbying against gun laws all in the name of preventing unnecessary human deaths... yet according to Ben Bernanke (and his references), opioid ove…

In Sam Quinone's "Dreamland" (well worth a read) he talks about how the opioid epidemic stayed out of the public eye for so long, and he attributes a lot of it to the general perception of addiction as a moral failure, or weakness - parents don't talk about their dead children dying of addiction, because of the shame and judgement they feel [0]. So a lot of the deaths (and the suffering that can lead up to it) is hushed up. This tide is turning, now, as people are more willing to speak honestly and openly about how they and their families have been affected by addiction, and the realisation that anyone can be addicted to opiates, and it's not just a matter of not having sufficient backbone to resist their effects.

On the matter of self-driving car investment, vs opiate addiction treatment - car makers need to turn a profit, so they need something new to sell. A lot of people also commute daily, and don't enjoy doing so. So in the (distant) shiny future where your car drives you to work, they are building something that I think a lot of people will be willing to pay for, or use as a service.

[0] Addendum - it also avoided the public eye because of where addiction was happening, and who to. A lot of it started in smaller towns, often those struggling economically. The kind of places that don't get a lot of attention.

Re: How a Reddit forum has become a lifeline to opioid addicts in the US

#77

Post by LeifCarrotson »

clamprecht wrote: post #52
icpmacdo wrote: post #2

I think Reddit is interestingly a net social positive. For all the bad things that come out of it you can often see users helping others in a pretty significant way.

You basically justified the First Amendment guarantee of free speech. You have to take the bad with the good, because we don't all agree on what's good.

I agree in general, but some communications platforms (like Reddit, and like Facebook...and probably like HN) can be more or less accomodating of "echo chambers" that validate and magnify extremist viewpoints. On the other hand, similar effects can nourish minority cultures and communities...it's a hard problem.

I agree that free speech is a good thing, and I think that "You have to take the bad with the good, because we don't agree on what's good" is a broadly useful philosophy. But systems which take in both bad and good, and strengthen the bad more than the good, are themselves bad.

Re: How a Reddit forum has become a lifeline to opioid addicts in the US

#78

Post by knowaveragejoe »

vinhboy wrote: post #35
quchen wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s /r/the_donald, and how did it »then happen«?

A bunch of really hateful, and racist people came to reddit because of /r/the_donald. Unfortunately they did not keep to their subreddit. You can see influences of their hateful ideology in other subreddits. They also game the reddit voting system so their stories and comments are constantly being featured in /r/all -- so much so reddit had to take action. Their purpose is to troll, and they are damn good at it.

Indeed. Pick a thread even vaguely related to race(usually black people) or religion(usually Islam). Most of the time they are heavily downvoted so they'll appear near the bottom(sort by "controversial"), but every now and then one of their hateful copypasta screeds is upvoted near the top. I guess their brigade gets to it first in that case.

Re: How a Reddit forum has become a lifeline to opioid addicts in the US

#79

Post by awkward »

nickthemagicman wrote: post #54
bri3d wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I started thinking of Reddit that way, but once you start thinking about it that way, it's a pretty crappy software solution. A platform for diverse communities with a single SSO solution and frictionless cross-community posting combined with limited moderation features, poor ban capabilities, and easy discovery? That's not a good software recipe for a community to become empowered or build their own space at all.

Its already proven itself to be a great recipe for communities and empowerment...it's literally the best the world has ever seen. Hacker News even uses it's format...

On the other hand, PG built Hacker News specifically to get a reddit-like that has it's own culture, identity and moderation policies.

Re: How a Reddit forum has become a lifeline to opioid addicts in the US

#80

Post by knowaveragejoe »

dionidium wrote: post #20
vinhboy wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to think so. I enjoyed Reddit a lot, despite people complaining about it. Then /r/the_donald happened. Now I tread carefully because you never know what kind of propaganda is being spread around. People say stick to the subreddit. But I think that's silly. If the core of Reddit is rotten, then the subreddit themselves will be affected. It has happened to places I visit like /r/environment. There is a constant…

This is silly. I follow a number of subreddits on topics ranging from baseball, local news (city subreddits), credit card churning, maps, history, and many others. None of them have been affected by /r/the_donald.

I take it you don't browse many comment threads, then. Anything vaguely related to black people or Islam and they are virtually guaranteed to show up, spreading their soundbites and gotcha's.
Post reply on HN