
The Addicts Next Door - danso
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/06/05/the-addicts-next-door
======
mgberlin
Why do these opioid epidemic articles keep making the front page of HN? They
seem extremely off topic to me.

~~~
ashark
To be perfectly frank: everyone on the coasts suddenly cares a lot about poor
rural flyover-country and Appalachian people's problems because they elected
Trump and they'd really like them not to do anything like that ever again. His
election is being taken as a cry for help of the involuntary, show up at the
bank without pants and reeking of alcohol while screaming about how lawn
gnomes are out to get you sort.

The articles are on HN because they're all over the media generally, and
because most of HN would probably also prefer that someone like Trump not be
elected again in the future.

~~~
InitialLastName
I don't think it's wrong to work to understand the motivations and needs of a
newly visible and politically active (and potentially destructive)
demographic.

We don't need to degrade anyone to ask, "what can we do to find reasonable
candidates that represent the views of these constituents?" when the
alternative is the election of people like Trump.

~~~
ashark
I wasn't trying to degrade anyone with that description, just present the
point of view that I think is driving these sorts of articles in such quantity
and prominence. I think it's fair to say that Trump's winning the nomination,
let alone the election itself, was seen as an _alarmingly insane_ thing to
have happened by many (liberals and conservatives) and, by those who've taken
it as a sign there are issues that need to be addressed, is seen as more than
a little similar to an individual, very public display of desperate lunacy of
the sort warrants intervention and assistance. Like, "whoa, _that_ seemed like
an OK thing to do? Oh man, you _must_ need some help, let's figure out what's
gone so wrong in your life and try to fix it."

I doubt his voters see it that way, though, hence the "involuntary" part. I
don't think they were attempting to get across _quite_ that impression with
their vote, though the effect of having some of their problems addressed may
be the same in the end. Certainly many were expecting Trump himself to be the
agent of change in their lives, not a bunch of liberals and "RINO"s who now
want to (metaphorically, but also kind of literally) help them sober up, get
some counseling, and maybe get signed up for public assistance and job
training.

~~~
throwanem
Well, I can't speak for anyone else, but - and I've said this before on HN,
actually, to no more effect than I expect it to have this time - I voted for
Trump precisely in order to scare the everloving bejesus out of the US
progressive left. Because, from where I sit, either that happens, or something
a hell of a lot worse.

Because if you guys don't get your shit together and start looking after even
those people who don't agree with your politics, and believe things you think
are contemptible, and live lives that you don't understand and don't want to -
we're going to end up seeing the kind of enormities which will make history
forget Hitler's genocide, just as Hitler made history forget what the Turks
did to the Armenians.

A nation which once sought to be - which once _was_ \- a bastion of hope for a
better world, a beacon for downtrodden people the world over, will instead
collapse into the kind of ruin that poisons the world for decades to follow,
that taints the very ideas in which it originated. Every hope that anyone has
ever invested in this nation - uncounted millions of immigrants, including
your ancestors and mine - will become worth less than nothing.

Also, you and everyone you care about will almost certainly suffer and die,
and just as likely so will I and everyone I care about, and so will more
millions than in any such atrocity before, because - as with so many things -
every time we go this route of horror, we get that much better at it. So
there's that.

Maybe I sound like I'm scared shitless. If so, it's only because I am, all the
time now. If you're not, why in God's name aren't you? Because we're both
sitting on the same pile of sweating dynamite and gunpowder. If it goes off, I
doubt either of us will find much consolation in the fact that the other one's
also just been blown sky high. I'm not asking for a bomb squad to swoop in and
save us all like something out of the last act of an episode of 24. It's just
that I sure think it'd be nice if people would stop playing with all these
goddam matches and do something _constructive_ for a change.

~~~
tptacek
Nobody doubts that you're afraid, but many reasonable people, especially after
looking at the quantified facts, dispute that you should be.

The health and welfare of western civilization is at an all-time high. We live
in a society that enjoys safety and stability unthinkable to our grandparents,
who threw themselves bodily into machine gun nests and across long fields
zeroed by artillery not only because they were called on by their country, but
because the preceding several hundred years of history led them to expect that
obligation. In contrast, most of us raise children knowing that they'll never
be asked to put on a uniform, let alone required to, and send them off to
schools in cities experiencing all-time low levels of violent crime. We earn
more than our grandparents and enjoy a standard of living that approaches
"offensive".

But then, something that those of us who have had company exits can attest to:
for some people, the more you have, the more afraid you get.

That's understandable, but it's no principal on which to build a government!

~~~
throwanem
I appreciate you taking the time to try to allay my fear! But your comment
lends itself to no other conclusion, on my part, save that you have
fundamentally misgathered its origin.

There's a lot to unpack here, too, and doing so will, I suspect, require
considerable time and effort. Unfortunately, at the moment I haven't
sufficient of either to spare for such a task. No doubt, too, you have many
more demands upon your time than I do on mine, and I'm not inclined to presume
upon that precious resource. So: If you're interested in pursuing the matter
further, then say as much, and in response I'll put together the reply that
I'd have given here had I the time. Otherwise, I'll refrain.

(Or maybe I should just start a damned blog, the way some people here have
suggested. But it doesn't feel right, not having anyone to talk to. And why
should anyone bother to read it?)

