Comment · Fri, January 22, 2016 · Ceretropic & Nootropics Depot
How concerned should we be about the UK Psychoactive Bill?
Original post in this thread
Cartesian_Dualism · 6 points
Looking at the bill in its current state, it appears as though it's going to blanket ban literally anything and everything defined as "psychoactive" by default unless specifically exempted - which, unless I'm missing something, seems so ludicrously vague that I'm struggling to even imagine how it's going to be enacted. There was a recent attempt to amend the draft to include a short list of exemptions for racetams and other nootropics (L-Theanine, choline, etc), but it doesn't seem clear yet if it's been made official or not.
I'm wondering what this is going to mean not just for nootropics, but also supplements on the whole. Just how much is this going to affect if, or perhaps when at this point, it passes?
What they were answering
theskepticalidealist · 1 points
It's because they only think of arguments to support their position when it suits them, which is pro-ban, even if it involves contradicting themselves. They know it weakens their case if they allow certain things to get a pass, so they don't like the idea of nootropic supplements or poppers. Therefore their mind reaches for any reasonable sounding argument to use in support of this. At it's core the validity of their argument is irrelevant because they don't hold the position they do for the reasons they say. If they did, they'd have to ban alcohol and cigarettes as well.
They only tried to come up with a reason because they know they can't just expect someone to accept a disagreement with nothing other than their opinion. The reason they give for some specific issue (such as on the nootropics and poppers conversation) may even be perfectly valid or at least debatable on it's own, yet in context ludicrous and irrelevant. In effect if we put their arguments in context they argued against the bill itself, because to accept their train of logic to also ban nootropics and poppers we either have to ban alcohol and cigarettes as well for the same reason ("endorsing" dangerous substance use and abuse) or they proved the purpose of the bill is intellectually bankrupt. Of course they never get taken to task on these things so the whole circus continues
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb · Ceretropic & Nootropics Depot
Have you considered the possibility that cognitive dissonance is actually making them not even realize the contradiction in their statements? I've met a lot of people that are really not intellectually capable of introspectively looking at their positions, and realizing the issues with them. I find that these types of people gravitate toward government positions. They could very well not even realize the logical inconsistencies in their arguments.
Of course they could also just be willfully ignoring them to suit their agenda. However, I try to look toward incompetence before I look toward malice. It's possible they are just blinded by their views, and do not realize just how horribly misaligned this bill is.