Caffeine of the masses

There was a guy I knew from college who I had … disagreements with on Facebook a few years ago.  Most of these disagreements were because I’m not an asshole while he was some flavor of libertarian.  Like, he basically called everything he didn’t agree with socialism, and he gave the impression that if a Democrat politician said, “I propose ….” he’d immediately start screaming, “Tyranny!” I say some flavor of libertarian because I think there were times where I asked him what exactly he believed, and he replied with things like, “It’s not my job to educate you.” Eventually, he unfriended me because, I don’t know, I hurt his feelings, or something.  I do miss poking the bear, especially since I’ve recently had an interesting idea that I’d love to hear his response to.  Even though it would probably just be, “That’s deranged socialist thinking.”

I can’t remember what the issue was – possibly gun laws – and I can’t remember if it was my friend or someone from his libertarian circle jerk piling on, but I think they said something along the lines of “socialism makes people slaves to the state.” And even if I’m misremembering things, the statement is something negative about socialism, so they’d probably agree with it.

Anyway, the question I’d like to ask him was if he drank coffee in the morning.  His response would probably be something like, “IS THERE ANYTHING SOCIALISTS DON’T WANT TO DESTROY?” which I would take as a “Yes.” I would then have a hypothetical question and answer bit.  Why do you drink coffee in the morning?  I’m tired and it wakes me up.  Why are you tired?  I didn’t get enough sleep.  Why didn’t you get enough sleep?  I have to get up early and go to work.  Why don’t you just stay asleep until you are fully rested and go to work later?  BECAUSE THAT WOULD BE INEFFICIENT FOR OUR CORPORATE MASTERS.  I’d then point out that for some jobs – like in an office – there is some evidence that not having set start times leads to happier employees who are more productive.  But why do facts matter.

The point of this, is that if the state told everyone to take these pills that altered their brain chemistry to decrease violent tendencies and make them “better” citizens, my friend would be crying “TYRANNY!” And for once, he’d be right.  Meanwhile, it’s “normal” for people to self-medicate, altering their brain chemistries to be more efficient cogs in the corporate machine.  And just bringing this subject up means I’m a deranged socialist.