The Lingering Legacy of Psychedelia | Hacker News Reader

The Lingering Legacy of Psychedelia

newyorker.com

51 pointssamclemens11 comments

Anyone with a cursory understanding of LSD's history and effects can skip this read.

Woefully absent is a mention on how the Nixon Administration blatantly whipped the public into a frenzy about communist/Eco-terrorist hippies and riotous blacks by associating them with LSD and heroin, respectively, just so they could use "rule of law" to terrorize and arrest political enemies. This is the true catalyst of the war on drugs and it is a story that needs to be told again and again until it is done.

Something that wasn't obvious at first glance is that this is a book review, it just starts with some back-story that I assume is covered in the book.

The review reminded me of stories of the WELL. I just looked it up for fun and noticed the book & review are discussing Stewart Brand who's one of the people that started the WELL.

This article kind of reminds me of when a report was due in 7'th grade and I didn't really want to do it.

I'd just look up a bunch of stuff and reword it and jam it all together with no real thesis or point. It always passed.

That prepares you for a career writing clickbait for Aol or Demand Media.

Please don't post unsubstantive dismissals. If an article isn't good enough for HN you can always flag it, but contentless snark just lowers the signal/noise ratio for everyone.

Hmm. Suppose you personally don't think an article is very well written but don't want to deprive other people of the opportunity to read it; surely a single inoffensive post critical of it is better than losing the whole article? Posters on this site seem pretty mature and level headed so it's not like one person is going to start a riot.

> Suppose you personally don't think an article is very well written but don't want to deprive other people of the opportunity to read it;

jqm's post is not constructive. Even a less snarky "I found this article badly written" probably doesn't help other people decide whether or not to read it. You can flag it or not as you see fit, but there's no value in posting a comment like that.

> Posters on this site seem pretty mature and level headed so it's not like one person is going to start a riot.

Only constant enforcement keeps the site that way. http://lesswrong.com/lw/c1/wellkept_gardens_die_by_pacifism/

It's a juvenile article Dan. Your censure is unjust in my opinion.

These comments of yours also lower the S/N ratio. Go get some sleep.

I tried, indeed I did try, trice upon a time I didst, sorry, I just can't, I just can't get to the end of the article; reminds me of trying to tackle a Henry James novel in school, one knows one is not going to succeed but regardless one forges ahead in the vain glorious hope that there is light at the end of the tunnel, or at least an end to the paragraph, only to flounder, in a miasmic fugue of cognitive disphoria .. :)

ps: It's a fiction that LSD helped certain people in their creativity. These so-called psychonaut are selling a dangerous form of snakeoil. Terence Mckenna and the rest, after decades communicating with DMT machine elves etc, what have they brought back from the 'other side', absolutely nothing of value. Going on the blurb on Amazon 'Heads: A Biography of Psychedelic America' reminds me of 'The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test'. A very interesting section in there on 'Ken Kesey'. He of 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest ' fame. I don't think Tom Wolfe could have wrote 'Acid Test' if he actually was on LSD.

Beware criticising a Newyorker article round here, they'll never let it go.

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