Remembering the Golden Age of Propaganda

Simon Kirby comics include this reference to reeferVia Project Child Murdering Robot comes a recommendation for what looks like a pretty good book: The Best of Simon and Kirby.

What makes it really delightful is this page (part of the comic industry’s failed attempt to stay on the good side of government).

Click on the image for the larger, readable version.

“I killed ’em all!! When I don’t get a reefer, I go crazy…. crazy!

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17 Responses to Remembering the Golden Age of Propaganda

  1. Jon Doe says:

    Let’s not forget about the famous “my ward is a junkie!” cover from Green Lantern/Green Arrow:

    http://www.postmodernbarney.com/2005/01/my-ward-is-junkie.html

  2. claygooding says:

    It is funny too us now,but the sad truth is,many of our opposition remember these propaganda articles even without actually remembering their origin,but it has shaped their ideals,values,and fears on marijuana.
    Because the government was spreading lies about marijuana,the literature and even the movies fell right in line and spread them too.
    And now our government has dug itself into a hole with their propaganda so deep that only the citizens can pull them out. All they do is keep digging.

  3. BruceM says:

    It’s worth pointing out that the government isn’t the only one who blames criminal action on drugs. Criminals do it themselves – all the time. You have any idea how many times I’ve had a client tell me that “the pot” or “the pills” made them do it (steal the car, assault their spouse, whatever). They think it’s a viable defense. When I explain to them that “intoxication” is not a valid defense, and voluntarily telling the jury that you were on drugs will only make things worse, they forget about the “drugs made me do it” theory 100% of the time.

    I was just watching a documentary on the rapist Ramondo Rapalo who raped a bunch of women in florida. When he was finally caught, the first thing he says is “the pills, they made me do it!” From what I could tell, it sounded like he was using that “khat” stuff (not even a pill).

    The idea of voodoo pharmacology – that drugs make us do things we don’t want to do and we can’t control ourselves and we don’t even know we’re doing it – is the most fundamental but pervasive lie of the drug war. But if every criminal is going to blame their actions on “the drugs” they were taking, it’s only going to get more and more ingrained into the social fabric.

    I’d dump a client before I’d let them use a “drugs made me do it” defense. If that’s the defense they insist upon using, they’ll have to get another lawyer. And although I don’t believe the government should be allowed to dictate what can and cannot be used as a defense (they should be able to say what the crimes are, but not the defenses to them – if someone wants to use a “the victim was a stinking nigger and deserved it” defense they should be allowed to do so, and if they get an acquittal so be it), it makes sense that people who choose to use intoxicant should have to use them responsibly. Maybe voluntary intoxication could be a mitigating factor at punishment, though keep in mind I’m talking about intentional crimes here, not crimes like DWI that require no proof of culpable mental state.

    Anyway, the government surely started it, but as long as criminals are constantly blaming their actions on “the pills” or “the pot” can you really blame them for taking advantage of that for propaganda purposes? The fact the criminals are lying to reduce or eliminate their blame (“it’s the pills’ fault not mine!”) doesn’t come in to play at all.

  4. claygooding says:

    Agreed on criminals using or attempting to use drugs as a defense. I once spent 9 months as a guest in a county facility,and it was one of the most popular excuses among the other guests. I did not have much sympathy for anyone using the excuse though,because I had used the majority of the drugs they were trying to scapegoat and when I would say that the drug had never made me do anything I didn’t want to do,they would quit talking about it with me.
    Although I have to agree that one drug is very much to blame with peoples actions. I believe there is a felony in every bottle of tequila.

  5. Chris says:

    This was probably done without a hint of irony that everyone is smoking tobacco and interrogating the evil drug user.

  6. drewbob says:

    HAHAHAH, “Mr. Blaze”

  7. Reefer Madness says:

    Those dastardly hippie menaces! They might raid your munchies pantry! No cold beverages will be safe from the cotton mouthers! Lock up your wife and loved ones ohh the horror! Save us government put your Midas touch on it.

  8. BruceM says:

    I don’t even think alcohol makes people do things they wouldn’t ordinarily do. I think it just opens them up and brings out their inner, evil self. I’d certainly agree that in terms of drugs having an influence on bad behavior (more like inhibiting people’s control of their ability to maintain good behavior), alcohol is the most dangerous and intoxicating substance out there.

    I’ve never used PCP and I’ve never known anyone who has (not even a defendant-client), but that’s the only other drug that, from what I’ve heard, might approach the dangerousness of alcohol.

    In vino veritas. If you’re a violent asshole, alcohol will remove your inhibitions to allow you to be the violent asshole that you are. But if you’re not a violent asshole, alcohol won’t make you violent.

    Even alcohol won’t make you rob a bank, rape a 90 year old woman or 9 year old child, commit money laundering, steal firearms, etc.

    What’s interesting, though, is criminal defendants NEVER say “the alcohol made me do it” (if alcohol/drunkenness is mentioned in the police report, the client will deny being intoxicated every single time). Only “pills” and “pot” seem to be viable excuses to criminals.

    And if society is going to be consistent, it should allow drug use to be a viable defense. After all, why would you punish someone for something they had no control over doing?

  9. D.S. says:

    haha. “I need a marihuana!” These writers are a bit overzealous in their article use.

  10. And yet all of the cops are smoking what could be called ‘Virginia Dope’

    I wonder how much impact nicotine withdrawal has had on crime…

  11. Duncan says:

    Crime never pays? Hmm, I’ll have to change my name to Crime.

  12. DdC says:

    “Marijuana is the most violence-causing drug
    in the history of mankind.”
    ~ Harry J. Anslinger

    Harry Anslinger’s Personal Gore File’s

    “You smoke a joint and you’re likely to kill your brother.”
    ~ Anslinger

    Reefer Madness Teaching Museum

    Qui Tacet Consentit
    He who is silent gives consent

    Reefer Madness By Abbie Hoffman
    The Nation, November 21, 1987

    “Marihuana leads to pacifism and communist brainwashing”
    ~ Anslinger

    American High Society
    http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/451
    Comix and Cannabis

    “In some districts, inhabited by Latin Americans, Filipinos, Spaniards and Negroes, half the violent crimes are attributed to marijuana craze. Dr. Lee Rice of San Antonio reports that eighty per cent of all the murders committed by Mexicans are done while the killers are drugged by marijuana.”
    ~The Christian Century (newspaper) – 1938

  13. Servetus says:

    Speaking of intoxication as a bogus defense, today a man was arrested on an air flight who claimed his behavior was the result of consuming two marijuana cookies:

    http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/02/03/ap/national/main6170184.shtml?tag=cbsnewsSectionContent.12

  14. BruceM says:

    Sometimes I think people really do convince themselves that their asshole actions were the result of “the drugs” (when they have to explain themselves, that is).

    Which is better to believe about yourself: (a) you’re an inconsiderate violent/thieving asshole or (b) “the drugs made me do it!”

  15. Hope says:

    Servetus.

    Oh my gosh.

    That’s peculiar behavior to blame on cannabis consumption. I can understand he might want more snacks later in the trip and perhaps he could blame that on cannabis consumption … but screaming and dropping his pants in public?

    I don’t think so.

    Having a wasp up his britches leg could cause such behavior… but too much cannabis? I doubt it very much.

  16. Servetus says:

    Hope.

    Yeah, I doubt it too.

    If he were really that ripped on cannabis cookies, he would have passed out in his plane seat.

    Maybe he was off his other meds? A drug cross reaction? A full toxcicology report might reveal something.

    If not, it might be a psychotic espisode? Sleep walking, maybe Ambien?

    Truly strange, whatever it is.

  17. kaptinemo says:

    (Facepalm moment)

    Jeez. He had to be on something else besides cannabis.

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