Category Why We Can’t Have Nice Things

Jan 12 2021

Toxic #Wokeness and the Ten Principles

It seems some Social Justice Warriors have been riled up on Twitter today. The thread got a bit jumbled up so I’m recreating it here.

Neither of these tweets seems particularly partisan. Both are good questions, but some people seem to be triggered – perhaps because one side of politics doesn’t have good answers.

My response was simple and to the point, referencing The Tin Principles. Sadly, this seemed to only fan the flames of the fans of flames even more:

Here’s the official description of the “Civic Responsibility” Principle:

Civic Responsibility
We value civil society. Community members who organize events should assume responsibility for public welfare and endeavor to communicate civic responsibilities to participants. They must also assume responsibility for conducting events in accordance with local, state and federal laws.

It’s hard to see how this blog violates this principle in any way. We value civil society here, not a single political party or monoculture. We’re not organizing any events and we’re certainly not breaking any local, state, Federal or international laws.

“I hope you’re ostracized [for having different views to me]” and “GTFO” do not seem to fit the idea of “Radical Inclusion”. Are heterosexual white males no longer welcome at Burning Man?

Unfortunately for Cynthia, Burning Man is still predominantly white, male, and heterosexual.

The most recent Census data from 2019 shows that Burning Man is still 76% white and 1% black; 56% male and 42% female, and 66% heterosexual:

Source: Black Rock City Census 2019

It seems not much has changed demographically since Larry Harvey’s infamous 2015 statement that “black folks don’t like to camp”:

“Steve in Real Life”, who moved from the Bay Area to Reno in 1992, started out strong. Burning Man indeed has a proud history of assholery.

Unfortunately Steve got twiggered by a couple of retweets and decided to throw all the Principles of Burning Man out the window, insult us then block us while joining the call for this blog to be de-platformed:

Summer Burkes then chose to weigh in. She seems to have forgotten her previous work celebrating the gun-toting, Second Amendment loving cowboy history of Burning Man.

Here’s Summer in 2014, misspelling the name of the man she’s glorifying:

Fight Club is a book written in 1996 and then turned into a movie released 15 years ago this fall (we won’t provide any spoilers if we can help it). Author Chuck Pahlaniuk confirmed at several book-release events last year the “Project Mayhem” group in Fight Club’s story is indeed the Cacophony Society in real life … a wackier bunch of people, without the men-only Iron John subplot or all the property destruction and violence. (Well, serious violence, anyway.)

Source: Summer Burkes, burningman.org

Chuck Palahniuk proudly takes credit for the modern use of the term “snowflake”, and has been called a “darling of the alt-right and AntiFa”.

Source: Medium

Chuck believes in Radical Self-Expression and Radical Inclusion, unlike Summer:

Source: Medium

The word “heck” is clearly too controversial for Snowflake Summer to say, while calling for the silencing of different viewpoints is completely compatible with her tone of moral superiority:

I have always been quite clear to state that this blog has nothing to do with the Burning Man organization in any way.

Mere minutes before that tweet Summer had quite the potty mouth:

Her plan now is complete de-platforming of any voice she doesn’t agree with. No Radical Self-Expression, Radical Inclusion, Gifting, or Communal Effort for Summer! Will she be successful, or is there still a First Amendment in the Default World?

How does Summer reconcile her cult-like “literal worship” of Larry Harvey with his statements that Burning Man is the poster child for old-fashioned, Main Street Republicanism?

Source: Washington Post, via archive.org

Or what about Larry’s friendship with Republican strategist Grover Norquist, who on Burn Night proudly wore his Russian military uniform (allegedly obtained from shadowy ops arming the Taliban in Afghanistan)?

Grover got his freak on in classic Soviet Military Uniform

I have long advocated here that politics and Burning Man don’t mix, but it seems the Org has a different view, inviting Denis Kucinich to give the Keynote address at the 2015 Global Leadership summit:

2015 was a big year for politics invading the Playa:

We’ll let the late Larry Harvey have the last word:

Source: Washington Post, via archive.org

Can’t we all just get along? I thought that was the entire point of Burning Man.

Source: burningman.org
Jan 21 2018

Let’s Not Keep Meds From Chronic Pain Patients Because Dr. Nick Keeps Killing Celebrities.

Via wikimedia.

Opinion by Terry Gotham

This article goes out directly to the party people & Burners who think they can party like rockstar gods. While the measure of any varsity party person is the ability to handle multiple types of substances concurrently, that game has become intensely more dangerous in the last 5 years. In case you missed it, the coroner’s reports on Tom Petty & Dolores O’Riordan’s deaths came back. The lead singer of The Cranberries & one of the most distinctive voices of a generation is suspected of killing herself via fentanyl poisoning. And Tom Petty’s toxicology is so startling, I’ll just quote TMZ  (yes, it’s been corroborated elsewhere put the pitchforks down) directly:

Tom’s autopsy report shows the singer was on several pain meds, including Fentanyl patches, oxycodone (Oxycontin), temazepam (Restoril), alprazolam (Xanax), citalopram (Celexa), acetyl fentanyl and despropionyl fentanyl. The reason doctors prescribed the meds was because of a number of medical problems, including emphysema, knee problems and a fractured hip.
~Tom Petty Died From Massive Accidental Drug OD. TMZ.com 1.19.18

In the immortal words of Alex Shulgin, that is a “heroic” cocktail. For all my psychonauts and chem nerds out there, Kevin Shanks has an exceptional review of the chemicals here. For people out there that might not be too familiar with pharmacology, I’d like to explain why this combination of drugs is terrifying and a perfect example of the crisis currently afflicting all 50 states. While many have seen that pile of substances and flagged it as an “opiate overdose,” in a lot of toxicology reports, autopsies revealing multiple drugs are categorized in similarly incorrect ways. Some counties would flag it as a synthetic opiate overdose, while others only bucket many different types of opiates under the umbrella term “drug overdose.” Still others might even classify it as a benzo or Xanax overdose. While New York City differentiates between fentanyl and heroin in its reporting, this is not the norm. And that is a huge problem. Especially now that it’s easier than ever to be on half a dozen different drugs.

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Dec 24 2017

10 Questions With Terry Gotham: Brad Burge (MAPS)

(When meeting Brad Burge several years ago, I was immediately struck by his masterful ability to communicate to all comers at an academic conference we were speaking at. He connected immediately, and never lost the purpose, message, or empathy that we all strive to have when speaking to people we care about, even when addressing someone he’d never met before. He’s become one of MAPS’ most effective ambassadors, overseeing a period of rapid visibility expansion, to the point where MDMA & PTSD is coming up at the watercooler and at the holiday dinner table. I wanted an update on the MDMA/PTSD clinical trial after my previous article on it, so I was overjoyed when he obliged! Enjoy the chat, and feel free to refer to it while talking about MDMA & PTSD with your family over the holidays!)

Photo courtesy of MAPS.

Interview by Terry Gotham

1. Even with the recent Breakthrough Therapy designation, how do you keep going in the Age of Trump?
We have been able to make a lot of progress since the election, including getting the FDA’s stamp of approval for Phase 3 trials and the Breakthrough Therapy Designation, which came in August. Trump has taken a fairly hands-off policy when it has come to the FDA so far and has given every indication that his administration supports facilitating accelerated development of pharmaceuticals and new medical treatments. Plus, and more importantly, we see psychedelic science and psychedelic therapy research as bipartisan issues, since they are not about being countercultural or revolutionary or being oppositional in the traditional sense, but rather about being careful scientists and treating serious mental health conditions. Of course we think that this research has tremendous transformational value, and that the approval of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD is likely to change how our culture understands and treats mental illness, but we are working with the system to make those changes happen, not outside it. We have had equally positive media reports, for example, from The New York Times and Scientific American as from Fox News and Breitbart.

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