[ralfn]

There are a lot more people that do or have smoked pot, than those who base their identity on it. The cults were always a minority.

It's like the difference between a commuter on bike here in the Netherlands (more than 30% of all trips) vs the handful of cyclists in spandex with some fragile unsafe bike wanking about how light their bike is.

One is a cult, where it becomes part of someone's identity, one is just person trying to get to work.

We should have the discipline to realize that the people carrying the flag of anything are the least likely to be true representatives of the thing.

[eurasiantiger]

I’m willing to bet that the annoyance meme of spandex cyclists is intentionally amplified, possibly even created, by marketing agencies working for oil and car companies.

I’m also willing to bet that Cheech & Chong et al. are manifestations of a similarly forced meme, with many industries funding the various ”lazy brainless stoners”.

The exact same pattern can be found from nicotine vapes (the entire ”vape nation” annoyance meme was definitely a graft), and probably a lot of other things.

The point seems to be to control people socially by associating their habits with annoying qualities and fictional negative outcomes, superficially supported by anecdotes represented as scientific truth.

[aaron5]

I really like this: "we should [develop] the discipline to realize that the people carrying the flag of anything are the least likely to be the true representatives of the thing."

What other examples are there? Am I one of these people in ways I don't even realize?

I would love to be eating a meal with someone who says this, and then have a really fantastic conversation spring from it: Does this help me feel out my own blind-spots better? Is this always bad? Is this always true?

Great statement, well articulated. Thanks!