TheNerdyAnarchistMar 2, 2024
Anarcho Doggo

So fucking infuriating. Criminalization is not a solution to substance use struggles. Housing, mental health support, community, holistic well-being are the goddamn solutions.

This NIMBY ass liberal fuckshit. 110 was an amazing step in the right direction and instead of building on it, OR state legislators are just kowtowing to developers and soulless wealthy residents who want to see houseless people struggling just disappear into a prison cell.

https://www.opb.org/article/2024/03/01/oregon-legislature-passes-bill-recriminalizing-drug-possession-sends-to-governor-measure-110/

I knew this would go this way. Democrats with an overwhelming legislative majority proving constantly why they do not deserve anyone's fucking vote.

Oregon’s drug decriminalization experiment appears dead

The voter-approved Measure 110 is nearing its end as the Legislature sends a bill unwinding Oregon«s drug decriminalization toward the governor»s desk.

OPB
Mar 2, 2024 at 2:57pmWeb
Show threadAnarcho DoggoMar 2, 2024

This is so personal and it makes me so angry. For anyone who has struggled with substance use of any kind is profoundly aware of how incarceration and criminalization are completely antithetical to addressing underlying issues.

I have so much love for the deeply caring and thoughtful folks who fiercely advocate for harm reduction and actual support systems.

Repealing 110 was so fucking predictable with the relentlessly trash politicians that plague this world but the impact is still so devastating. I'm so tired. I can feel the imminent suffering this will bring in my soul.

Love waking up to new ways the world is terrible. The irony of this news just making me want a drink and a cigarette... our society is the cause; the coping is the symptom

Show threadLee BogomilMar 6, 2024

@AnarchoDoggo
"In every American community there are varying shades of political opinion. One of the shadiest of these is the liberals. An outspoken group on many subjects, ten degrees to the left of center in good times, ten degrees to the right of center if it affects them personally."

– Phil Ochs

(CW: For anyone unfamiliar with the song this is in reference to, the audio contains homophobic and racist language in a satirical context.) ->
https://invidious.lunar.icu/watch?v=azdlpIy7oaQ

Love Me I'm a Liberal (Live)

Provided to YouTube by Elektra Records Love Me I'm a Liberal (Live) · Phil Ochs Phil Ochs In Concert ℗ 1966 Elektra Entertainment Producer: Jac Holzman Producer: Mark Abramson Guitar, Vocals: Phil Ochs Writer: Ochs Writer: Phil Ochs Auto-generated by YouTube.

Phil Ochs - Topic | Invidious
Show threadWeyoun 6Mar 2, 2024

@AnarchoDoggo the Democrats voting for this will have primary challengers wielding this vote. I plan to support this.

There are only 2 possibilities:

1. The majority of Oregonians still support 110. If so, we have the numbers to pass it again and primary the candidates supporting 4002.
2. A portion of Oregonians have caved to the very deliberate and obvious extortion effort opposing 110 so that a majority no longer supports decriminalization. This will require a longer-term strategy involving a lot more coalition building.

Show threadLee BogomilMar 6, 2024

@weyoun6 @AnarchoDoggo
It’s mostly your second hypothesis, except that it’s not a matter of extortion and won’t be fixed by political “coalition-building”. It’s been driven mainly by a couple of related factors:

1. Unrealistic expectations that the “treatment” provisions of 110 would magically solve the addiction crisis without requiring any deeper social changes that middle-class liberals would find too disruptive, and

2. Scapegoating drug users as the cause of skyrocketing houselessness so as to maintain the economically necessary atmosphere of denial around the obvious fact that it’s overwhelmingly a function of the real estate market.

https://www.oregonlive.com/politics/2024/02/oregonians-support-making-drug-possession-a-crime-again-according-to-poll-by-group-pushing-measure-110-repeal.html

Oregonians support making drug possession a crime again, according to poll by group pushing Measure 110 repeal

The new polling released by the group lobbying for cracking down on drug possession shows little change in public opinion since last August.

oregonlive
Show threadCyMar 2, 2024
Welcome to democracy! Oh what's this, a bill people are voting on? They voted to pass the bill, and now it's law? What a great democracy! Oh by the way legislators un-passed the law, so your vote doesn't count anymore. No you don't get to vote on that. Democracy! :D
Show threadLee BogomilMar 6, 2024

@cy
It's not really a problem of the process being undemocratic. See the polls I cited above; if another referendum were held on 110 this year, it's pretty likely it would be rolled back by popular vote. Just over the past 2 or 3 years Oregon's (especially Portland's) political culture really has lurched to the right at a dizzying pace. I mean, it's depressing how many conversations I've had with people in Portland who publicly self-identify as radical leftists, socialists, etc. but have privately told me they strongly support both this and Ted Wheeler's camping ban. 🤮

"Sometimes the problems we face stem not from capitalist conspiracy, or from anything conscious on the part of the state, but literally just from people sucking and there being a lot of them."

https://mastodon.social/@rechelon/111934823258084399

Show threadCyMar 6, 2024
It may have been likely, but they didn't trust us to vote the way they wanted. They took away our vote. That could apply to any vote on anything, unless I'm really missing the mark here.

It is depressing how (cough Intel) big companies dragged in a ton of dazed, gentrifying commuters, trained from birth to be antisocial and isolated, but those "consumers" actually get credit for being unpredictable enough that the legislature had to pull back the curtain and just kind of... remove the democratic process. This is a hope for humanity, and a reminder that fascists target power hierarchies, are always a minority, and never play fair.

Also they always put the blame on people sucking in general, especially when they start going into overpopulation and eugenics. Doesn't mean people don't suck, but I'm skeptical when someone says that's the problem.