• Draghetta@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    I wonder if commenters here went beyond the headline, or bothered to read the quote in the comments.

    The actual quote is not remotely as sinister. He said that he will start these community farms (which is not a labour camp for f sake) where addicts (which is not everyone who takes meds, it’s those who do but shouldn’t, of which there are thousands) can voluntarily choose to go, which is a far cry from “I’ll shove anybody who takes antidepressants into a labour camp” as the title suggests.

    There are a lot of people who take meds from dealers instead of doctors, who may have started recreationally but are now addicted to them. This is what he is lumping together with other kinds of drug addicts. It’s not even that stupid, it has been shown in studies that addiction is more effectively addressed by giving the person meaningful things to do.

    Now you can have your opinion on this idea and you can be skeptical of his implementation and you really should, the guy is a nut job who shouldn’t be allowed within ten kilometres from a government office - but sending regular joes to concentration camps because they take meds is not what he said.

    This title is rage bait, don’t fall for it.

    • Ajen@sh.itjust.works
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      3 days ago

      Yep, this sounds like the harm reduction approach that the left has been advocating for. It sounds like these are alternatives to prison for people with addictions. Not saying he’ll be able to make it work, but “tax cannabis + harm reduction” is much better than what a lot of Republicans’ drug policies are.

      • SulaymanF@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        The problem is:

        • RFK wants to ban legal medications and his multiple other statements make it clear he thinks organic food can replace them. That’s creating clear harms for people.
        • He may envision this as a voluntary commune but in reality once he has government backing these could be something non consensual. It’s worrisome coming from an openly authoritarian administration.
        • Ajen@sh.itjust.works
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          2 days ago

          I don’t disagree with either of those points, I just don’t think they’re supported in the article. That’s why it’s rage bait.

        • yarr@feddit.nl
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          3 days ago

          RFK wants to ban legal medications and his multiple other statements make it clear he thinks organic food can replace them. That’s creating clear harms for people.

          Can you provide a source for this? I have seen RFK claim vaccines are harmful, but the above seems inaccurately broad. RFK’s criticism of vaccines seems to stem from a misguided goal of “proving” they are safe. I suspect his definition of “safe” does not match the FDA’s. For example, aspirin causes many deaths and injuries each year (aka “not safe”), but I haven’t seen RFK moving to ban aspirin.

          The belief that proposed government funded “wellness farms” would mutate into prison camps where citizens would be confined seems needlessly paranoid to me, but you can be as scared as you want. If there was a prediction market available on whether RFK would involuntary confine American citizens to prison camps in the next 4 years, I would gladly bet against that eventuality.

    • sansrealname@lemmy.ml
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      3 days ago

      Sad that I had to scroll all the way to the bottom to find someone who actually read the article. Has Lemmy become reddit?

    • AfricanExpansionist@lemmy.ml
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      3 days ago

      Yeah honestly it sounds like a government program I’d support if it was proposed by someone like Barack Obama. So 🤷. I hope it’s successful and that they look at introducing more government-led programs and initiatives for people in need (I’m not holding my breath)