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

theguardian.com

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

#221

Post by eregorn »

Karunamon wrote: post #179
kmnc wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reddit has always been a liberal echo chamber that thrives on self parody though... I am not sure how the existence of these anti trump subs leads you to believe that views that r/the_donald is racist and hate filled are misinformed. Also, I disagree with your last point since there are many altright subs, and r/conspiracy has become extremely pro Trump for some reason.

I know they're misinformed, because I look through there every now and then. I'll ask the same thing I ask every time this topic comes up: Where's the hate? Link some. I see posts praising LGBTs, I see plenty of criticism of Islam (usually in relation to Islamists' poor treatment of LGBTs or worse), but "hate"? Racism? No. That is hyperbole at best. Anytime I see overt racism, it's downvoted into the negatives. Given…

www.reddit.com/r/The_Donald/comments/6md2i1/remember_folks_this_is_what_all_muslims_men_want/

is +73 positive enough? I wanted to give at least one example but its a bit hard since the work comp doesn't load reddit and my cell has terrible reception here.

However, this is mostly about me wondering if you're being honest about this. I have seen this rhetoric before (show me a link!) and it usually isn't long before someone does actually link something. Usually, excuses are made why they don't count.

I find it very doubtful someone never showed you the racism/hate straight from the source when demanded.

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

#222

Post by icebraining »

bittercynic wrote: post #204
icebraining wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

though the boundaries of what's acceptable are tough to define. After denying it, you just explained why it's a difficult spot. By the way, website are in fact not legally responsible for that traffic, under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act[1], which the courts have upheld against sites like eBay, Google, Craigslist, Backpage and MySpace. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_230_of_the_Communicati..…

Thanks for the link! I only know as much about Section 230 as I just read at that link, but it seems that this doesn't provide protection for things like calling for violence against a religious/sexual/race group. I concede that the exact boundary of what is a call for violence is hard to pin down, but I don't think that makes it OK to throw up your hands and say "Anything goes on my site!"

> it seems that this doesn't provide protection for things like calling for violence against a religious/sexual/race group.

That's the job of the Constitution, as the SCOTUS made clear in Brandenburg v. Ohio, in which an actual KKK leader was being charged after participating in an armed rally and talked about getting revenge on various races and on those who supported them, like the President and Congress:

"(..) the constitutional guarantees of free speech and free press do not permit a State to forbid or proscribe advocacy of the use of force or of law violation except where such advocacy is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action."

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

#223

Post by bllguo »

irrational wrote: post #132
bllguo wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

parent explicitly mentions people making racial jokes and mentioning racial stereotypes. This occurs even in every large subreddit, well-behaved or not. They likely aren't even malicious on the part of the people who say them, but nevertheless, they are damaging comments to make, and I wouldn't blame people for leaving reddit because of them. that said there are plenty of small communities that are pleasant, sure. Bu…

What counts as a large subreddit? I mostly go to r/boardgames and r/javascript and r/webdev and I can't remember a single racial joke/stereotype. Maybe these are small subreddits or I'm just not looking at the "right" posts?

I guess I mostly had the defaults and other similarly sized subs in mind. But to me a subreddit is large and low quality when crowd-pleasing memes and joke comments bury thoughtful discussions.

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

#224

Post by awkwarddaturtle »

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…

> What I find fascinating and disappointing is how much the opioid crisis isn't being talked about or addressed proportional to other societal issues.

Actually, it is the opposite. Gun violence, opioid crisis, etc are given too much attention.

The deaths of opioid crisis and gun deaths are minuscule compared to the deaths cause by obesity, sedentary lifestyle, cancer, heart disease, etc.

Take the top two killers in america - heart disease and cancer ( about 600K deaths each ) vs gun violence + opioid crisis ( about 30K each ).

Heart disease by itself kill 10X more people than gun violence and opioid crisis combined.

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

#225

Post by bllguo »

nonamechicken wrote: post #90
bllguo wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

parent explicitly mentions people making racial jokes and mentioning racial stereotypes. This occurs even in every large subreddit, well-behaved or not. They likely aren't even malicious on the part of the people who say them, but nevertheless, they are damaging comments to make, and I wouldn't blame people for leaving reddit because of them. that said there are plenty of small communities that are pleasant, sure. Bu…

Indian user here. I avoid majority of Reddit's default sub because of this reason. Just yesterday, I accidentally came across on comment in /r/askreddit where they openly called Indian men as vulgar and rapey. When another Indian user questioned it, he was downvoted heavily. Honestly, 12 hours later, I am still angry. I think I will leave Reddit for good this time.

right, exactly! this kind of casual discrimination that people pass off as a joke. Obviously not a reddit-exclusive phenomenon; it's commonplace IRL, but it's especially noticeable in large subs where people are encouraged to make pandering, low-effort comments that appeal to the lowest common denominator

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

#226

Post by awkwarddaturtle »

JTon wrote: post #165
mherdeg wrote: post #70

Not covered in this Guardian article: the somewhat scarier /r/opiaterollcall (recently banned) and /r/cripplingalcoholism (not scary, just a discussion forum). I have been consuming reddit via the https://www.reddit.com/r/all/gilded/ feed and it is just WILD what kind of weird and worrying stuff is going on.

What took place in /r/opiaterollcall and why was it banned? EDIT: Looks like it was a place to connect opiate buyers and sellers

One of the bigger subreddits for many years is /r/trees which "promotes" marijuana and they haven't banned that sub even though marijuana is illegal in most states and most countries.

Reddit has really gone downhill ever since they turned into a nanny forum where they arbitrary enforce rules.

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

#227

Post by cprayingmantis »

unionjack22 wrote: post #211

I can't recall a similar degree of concern and push for treatment during the crack/cocaine epidemic in the 80-90's and the meth epidemic of the 00's. What is it about the opioid/heroin epidemic that differentiates it from those prior?

It's because opioids are legal. Anyone can obtain them with very little effort and they don't have to worry about being 'caught'. The only way to get meth or crack was to engage in an illegal transaction. Now you don't have to be a criminal to be an addict and I think that scares people (Although nothing has really changed other than society's view of it).

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

#228

Post by tnecniv »

awkwarddaturtle wrote: post #226
JTon wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What took place in /r/opiaterollcall and why was it banned? EDIT: Looks like it was a place to connect opiate buyers and sellers

One of the bigger subreddits for many years is /r/trees which "promotes" marijuana and they haven't banned that sub even though marijuana is illegal in most states and most countries. Reddit has really gone downhill ever since they turned into a nanny forum where they arbitrary enforce rules.

I remembered when I joined, /r/marijuana was a default subreddit...

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

#229

Post by fapjacks »

loeg wrote: post #214
fapjacks wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where did you purchase your kratom? If you bought it from a head shop or another shady vendor selling very expensive products, you were probably taking more than kratom.

Online, from a reputable vendor. Long ago.

I hope one day "reputable vendor" comes to mean a kratom vendor that tests their kratom and publishes the results. This is a particular crusade of mine.
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