re: Diving into Shawn Ryan’s RFK Jr interview.

quote:

---

Politics aside, could you vote for someone who was 40 years sober from a serious drug addiction?

---

Everyone has demons. Everyone has had a struggle. Almost every great leader or "contributor" of some sort has had a crucible to go through or some sort of low point in their lives, a rock bottom point, and it was transformative and they emerged better for it. I wouldn't hold this against someone like RFK Jr, ignoring anything political and so forth. In a broader context though, you never hear anything like this about people like Lindsey Graham, but he's a psychopath and I would never trust Lindsey Graham with anything, not even walking a dog. Lot of things I would trust RFK Jr with.

quote:

---

IMO 40 years clean is a HoF type recovery but that’s a really big knock.

---

Only if it's viewed in a vacuum and not against the general array of human failings, IMO. In a 'zero defects' approach, I think you most often end up with the Lindsey Grahams of the world, who evade things like openly admitting addiction yet are absolute psychopaths and bad people.

quote:

---

Not to diminish people struggling with alcoholism but it’s a different addiction than meth and herion I think.

---

As someone who has gone through heroin, cocaine, and alcohol addiction all at different times… alcohol was the worst because it damn near killed me trying to quit. Straight up full blown seizures where I seriously injured myself multiple times. I had to have surgeries from hitting the ground and tearing shite. I would wake up at night with blood pouring out of my mouth from biting my tongue. My tongue was actually deformed and had bite marks for like 6 months because of how many times I’d just be chewing on it for who knows how long. For context I am now 5 years sober lol

I am more likely to trust the person who made a mistake and never makes the same mistake again over the person who never makes mistakes (liar) or the person who is always making mistakes (incompetent)

quote:

---

The best I can tell, is this line of reasoning primarily stems from the “disease” model which is what allows insurance companies to cover rehabilitation expenses.

It’s a good thing that insurance covers this, but the mindset has moved downstream of that and corrupted much of the system as a whole.

---

You could be right, although does insurance pay for AA? Does AA even cost anything? Because these 12-step programs are the primary peddlers of the disease model through the years.

I find it both unscientific AND infantilizing.

A lot of addiction is a RESPONSE to something - buried trauma or added stress, etc. When those things are directly addressed, the addiction doesn't have a place.

Again, there ARE some people who literally just have to watch themselves like a hawk. Thankfully, those are the minority.

quote:

---

Especially over a douche who showers with his own daughter in a creepy way.

---

I would as well.....however, is there a non-creepy way to shower with your teenish daughter?

Bingo