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#alcoholism

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The sack, rape, desecration and murder of #empire ...:

* The 1770 #Bengali famine, designed by the #EastIndiaCompany to destroy the local #cotton #fabric industry and invent a poisonous drug trade in its place.
* The looting and burning of the #OldSummerPalace near #Beijing, ordered by the same #Elgin who chopped up the #Parthenon.
* The destruction of the #Irish language through imperial policy, as dramatised in #BrianFriel 's #Translations (a magnificent and ambiguous play, describing linguistic polarisation, but not itself partisan).
* Labour #racism and engineered #alcoholism in #SouthAfrican #gold mines, from the 19th Century, with repercussions even until now - #ZamaZama mining is its modern evolution.

None of this is forgotten. Let it never be forgotten.

A post about me

nilio.ca/post?title=A%20post%2

This post is an attempt to start writing on my blog, it's a journey to find a creative direction for the future of what I will write while I don't want my blog to be too tech-oriented (just enough).

In this post I write about myself, my struggles and how I've overcome them. There is a bit on how I use computers and my current projects.

nilio.canilio - A post about me

#WhiteSupremacist renounces extreme beliefs after taking ‘love drug’ #ecstasy as part of study

By Isabel Keane
Published June 18, 2023

"A former white nationalist leader said he changed his extremist views after taking the 'love drug' ecstasy as part of a scientific study, according to researchers.

"The man, only identified as Brendan, took the psychoactive drug MDMA in February 2020 as part of a University of Chicago study about whether its use increased the pleasantness of social touch, wrote Rachel Nuwer, author of 'I Feel Love: MDMA and the Quest for Connection in a Fractured World,' for the BBC.

"After completing the study, Brendan left a cryptic message at the bottom of a survey for the researchers.

"'This experience has helped me sort out a debilitating personal issue. Google my name. I now know what I need to do,' he said.

"The researchers looked up Brendan and discovered he had been the leader of a US Midwest faction of Identity #Evropa, a notorious white nationalist group rebranded in 2019 as the #AmericanIdentityMovement.

"Brendan had led the white nationalist group up until two months earlier, when activists exposed his identity and he lost his job.

"Researching Brendan further, the scientists also discovered he had attended the deadly '#UniteTheRight' rally in #Charlottesville, Va., in 2017.

"They later reached out to Brendan asking him to clarify what he meant by his comments at the bottom of the survey.

"'Love is the most important thing,' he told them. 'Nothing matters without love.'

"'This is stuff you can’t really put into words, but it was so profound,' Brendan said of his experience with the drug.

"Brendan took MDMA in February 2020 as part of a University of Chicago study.

"'I conceived of my relationships with other people not as distinct boundaries with distinct entities, but more as we-are-all-one. I realised I’d been fixated on stuff that doesn’t really matter, and is just so messed up, and that I’d been totally missing the point. I hadn’t been soaking up the joy that life has to offer.

"'There are moments when I have #racist or #antisemitic thoughts, definitely,' he said. 'But now I can recognise that those kinds of thought patterns are harming me more than anyone else.'

"Brendan said he had leaned left while growing up but became more right after joining a conservative fraternity at the University of Illinois.

"He described feeling encouraged by #DonaldTrump, noting, 'His speech talking about Mexicans being rapists, the fixation on the border wall and deporting everyone, the Muslim ban – I didn’t really get white nationalism until Trump started running for president.'

"He said he joined Identity Evropa to meet others who shared his views and quickly rose in the ranks, eventually traveling around the US and Europe to huddle with other white nationalist groups. He likely would have continued along this path had his identity not been exposed, Nuwer noted in her article.

"Harriet de Wit, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral science at the University of Chicago who led the experiment, was still astonished by its results nearly two years later when speaking with Nuwer for her book.

"'Isn’t that amazing?' de Wit said. 'It’s what everyone says about this damn drug, that it makes people feel love. To think that a drug could change somebody’s beliefs and thoughts without any expectations – it’s mind-boggling.'

"The use of MDMA and other #psychedelics have gained traction in the medical community as they have shown positive results for treating some disorders such as #PTSD and #alcoholism.

"Brendan told Nuwer that the drug helped him 'see things in a different way that no amount of therapy or #antiracist literature ever would have done.'

"'I really think it was a breakthrough experience,' he said.

"Still, he said he knew of other white supremacists who had previously used MDMA but had not changed their minds.

"According to Nuwer, MDMA 'does not seem to be able to magically rid people of prejudice, bigotry, or hate on its own.

"'But some researchers have begun to wonder if it could be an effective tool for pushing people who are already somehow primed to reconsider their ideology toward a new way of seeing things,' the researcher wrote.

"'While MDMA cannot fix societal-level drivers of prejudice and disconnection, on an individual basis it can make a difference. In certain cases, the drug may even be able to help people see through the fog of discrimination and fear that divides so many of us.'"

nypost.com/2023/06/18/white-su

New York Post · White supremacist renounces extreme beliefs after taking 'love drug' ecstasy as part of studyBy Isabel Keane

Today in Labor History January 12, 1876: Working class novelist Jack London was born. As a kid, he was an oyster pirate in Oakland, along the shores of the San Francisco Bay. As a young man, he became a hobo, riding the rails from town to town, looking for handouts and sometimes work. He wrote about these experiences in his short novel, “The Road.” He was also a lifelong alcoholic, which contributed to his early death. In his novel, “John Barleycorn,” he wrote about both his alcoholism and his experiences as a laborer in numerous low-paid, backbreaking jobs. He was also a socialist and a champion of unions and working-class activism. With respect to strikebreakers, he famously wrote: "After God had finished the rattlesnake, the toad, the vampire, He had some awful substance left with which He made a scab. A scab is a two-legged animal with a cork-screw soul, a water-logged brain, a combination backbone of jelly and glue. Where others have hearts, he carries a tumor of rotten principles." London was also one of the first Haoles (non-Native Hawaiian, or white person) to learn how to surf in Hawaii.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #jacklondon #fiction #union #scab #socialism #hawaii #surfing #novel #alcoholism #oakland #pirate #books #author #writer @bookstadon

"I’ve spent untold hours analyzing downloaded boards played by world champions, and it’s worked: I’m a much better Scrabble player because of it, to the extent that I can no longer play against people who aren’t as obsessed with the game as I am." —Brad Phillips for The Paris Review

theparisreview.org/blog/2024/0

The Paris Review · Scrabble, Anonymous“As was the case with alcohol, my first and last thoughts of the day are usually Scrabble related (RELATED anagrams: ALTERED, REDEALT, ALERTED, TREADLE).”

Añadir #psilocibina a #psicoterapia como tratamiento del trastorno por abuso de #alcohol aumenta la eficacia del tratamiento: menos días de borrachera y menos tragos diarios que el placebo y la psicoterapia, seguido a 8 meses

#Alcoholism #Treatment #Psychiatry #Addiction

jamanetwork.com/journals/jamap

Bogenschutz MP, et al. % of Heavy Drinking Days Following Psilocybin-Assisted Psychotherapy vs Placebo in the Treatment of Adults With Alcohol Use Disorder. JAMA Psychiatry. 2022;79(10):953–962.

jamanetwork.comPsilocybin-Assisted Psychotherapy vs Placebo in the Treatment of Adult Patients With Alcohol Use DisorderThis randomized clinical trial evaluates the combination of psychotherapy with psilocybin vs active placebo in patients with alcohol use disorder.