Why America will always be a nation of drug addicts and sin

[wahdangun]

yes I'm totally agree with you, the information is the key in here.

what do you expect from them if they don't have proper information regarding sex, and since they have been doctrined to think that sex is bad they less likely will search the information or ask someone else.

i think this is the right time to separate our education from religion.

 

[wahdangun]

The bolded is an assumption on your part. I was told, my friends were told, everyone on that stupid "16 and pregant" show was told.

So if they were told, and they did it anyways, who's fault is that?

Your outlook is much the same as the people at NATO who for some reason believe that if we throw enough money at Africa all its problems will simply go away.

wtf they were still kids so what do you expect from them ? especially since the "adult" said that sex is bad.

 

[thecoolnessrune]

wtf they were still kids so what do you expect from them ? especially since the "adult" said that sex is bad.

What do I expect from them? How is that even a question? I expect them to know better. This stuff isn't hard. Sex makes babies. We all knew this, and again, everyone I listed above knew it too. So why did it happen? Because they were stupid about it. No amount of education or "sex is good" is going to fix something that teens are being irresponsible with. As already has been mentioned, idiocracy is real.

Please, inform me as to how an adult saying that sex is bad somehow forces a pregnancy in a teen.

 

[ImpulsE69]

Actually...these days the kids ARE that stupid.

Think about it. They have ready access to so much more information about everything than we ever did. Many parents openly talk about sex with their children. They are bombarded with sex from all angles. If they don't know sex causes pregnancy and how to prevent it by the time they are having sex, it's no ones fault but their own.

Lack of knowledge is not the problem. Lack of responsibility is.

 

[dmcowen674]

Why America will always be a nation of drug addicts and sin

Since we know abstinence only doesn't work

What?

Last I checked if there is no sperm, no baby.

 

[destrekor]

We are a nation that refuses to let go of our old ancestry rife with Puritan rejects and their sheltered view of civilized life.

Because of that, I tend to agree in some respects: we fucked ourselves over, and continue to lay the abuse on ourselves, and have established a society that will crumble due only to our own failures to mature as a society used to essentially having it all.

 

[dmcowen674]

What?

Last I checked if there is no sperm, no baby.

Oh crap, I stand corrected.

There was no sperm for Jesus

There is your answer, America is full of Virgin Mary's

 

[LiuKangBakinPie]

Because of crap like this as well
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2223807

 

[LiuKangBakinPie]

Since I posted the OP? Holland's teen pregnancy rate: 1/10 that of the US. Either people in Holland are genetically superior to Americans or it's the more obvious answer that one group understands risk and the other does not (because they were never told). By shear coincidence, education also seems to be the biggest predictor of drug safety. Smoking is as legal as ever, but it's way down in the US since the public has become informed about the dangers of smoking. Similarly, gun accidents seem to be much more common now that people don't know shit about guns. The people who use them every day never seem to have a problem, but people who have never seen a gun before are the ones who accidentally discharge guns.

Holland or the Netherlands? You know they are not one and the same right/

 

[corwin]

So kids are getting pregnant because they've "never" heard of any forms of birth control before...and kids are OD'ing on drugs because they have no clue it could happen...right

These are happening because kids don't give a fuck here or think they are immune, "that won't happen to me, that only happens to other people"...comparing other cultures to ours is disingenuous and frankly stupid, there's way more differences than just what you want to look at that contribute to the situations being different.

 

[dank69]

So kids are getting pregnant because they've "never" heard of any forms of birth control before...and kids are OD'ing on drugs because they have no clue it could happen...right

These are happening because kids don't give a fuck here or think they are immune, "that won't happen to me, that only happens to other people"...comparing other cultures to ours is disingenuous and frankly stupid, there's way more differences than just what you want to look at that contribute to the situations being different.

Is it possible, and I know this is far fetched, but is it possible that it could be both?

 

[SlitheryDee]

Is anyone else encouraged to find out that we have such a high abortion rate? We're getting rid of unwanted children in record numbers.

 

[corwin]

Is it possible, and I know this is far fetched, but is it possible that it could be both?

So they have never heard of birth control or OD'ing on drugs and they have the mentality that it just won't happen to them or give a fuck?

If they don't know how could they not care or feel it doesn't apply to them? And seriously in this day and age there isn't a kid out there who doesn't know, even if it isn't taught in school the information is bombarded everywhere, there's condom and birth control commercials on TV FFS, how could they not know? The problem resides directly with the children today and their attitude towards risky behaviors

 

[zebano]

Correlation =/= causation but it's a big red flag. Honestly, it's possible that it's a difference in our kid's attitudes and they know but don't care about the risks. That said, what we're doing isn't working so IMO it's worth trying a different approach. That said I think you'll have major trouble changing the approach due to the religious folk.

 

[ImpulsE69]

Is anyone else encouraged to find out that we have such a high abortion rate? We're getting rid of unwanted children in record numbers.

Not at all. The smart people get abortions. The ones who SHOULD get abortions don't and continue to spit out more. It really is a never ending cycle.

Drugs are a completely different issue. Drugs are both a peer pressure "I want to be accepted" thing and an escape mechanism. There is no hiding of information.

 

[Saint Nick]

I'd have to agree. The sexual repression in the US is what causes high teen pregnancy rates and unsafe sex. It isn't talked about. Oh well, I talk about it and people get uncomfortable. Not sure why.

 

[ShawnD1]

Lack of knowledge is not the problem. Lack of responsibility is.

That's the weird part. In Holland, you're not really responsible for anything. Medical care (kids get hurt a lot) is free. Good school is free. Day care is free University is either free or damn near close to free. Having a baby in Holland does not ruin your life. It's inconvenient, but it's not the end of the world. USA is the total opposite. Public school sucks shit so you'll need $10,000/yr if you want your kid to not be a retard. Another $10,000/yr for day care. Then another $10,000/yr if you want them to attend university. Having a baby means you're 99% likely to be in poverty for the next 20 years because you can't afford day care unless you work, so that means you need to drop out of college and get a job. Of course that job will probably suck because you're young, inexperienced, and you don't have a college education.

Holland:
-rely on education; tell people the whole story and hope they choose correctly (use condoms, drug A does this, drug B does that)
-use "harm reduction" strategies ("realpolitik")
-sex and drugs are public health issues
-nobody is held responsible for their mistakes
-people act responsible anyway

USA:
-rely on ignorance and bullshit; tell them condoms don't work, tell them smoking 1 cigarette makes you a hopeless addict, tell them LSD makes people jump out windows
-use idealistic strategies that assume humans of reproductive age (16) don't naturally want sex nor do they naturally seek out drugs (even though our bodies have evolved special systems for processing drugs like caffeine and alcohol)
-sex and drugs are morality issues
-you are so fucked if you mess this up, and nobody will help you because that would be "socialism" which is bad
-lots of people screw it up and ruin their whole lives

 

[LiuKangBakinPie]

That's the weird part. In Holland, you're not really responsible for anything. Medical care (kids get hurt a lot) is free. Good school is free. Day care is free University is either free or damn near close to free. Having a baby in Holland does not ruin your life. It's inconvenient, but it's not the end of the world. USA is the total opposite. Public school sucks shit so you'll need $10,000/yr if you want your kid to not be a retard. Another $10,000/yr for day care. Then another $10,000/yr if you want them to attend university. Having a baby means you're 99% likely to be in poverty for the next 20 years because you can't afford day care unless you work, so that means you need to drop out of college and get a job. Of course that job will probably suck because you're young, inexperienced, and you don't have a college education.

Holland:
-rely on education; tell people the whole story and hope they choose correctly (use condoms, drug A does this, drug B does that)
-use "harm reduction" strategies ("realpolitik")
-sex and drugs are public health issues
-nobody is held responsible for their mistakes
-people act responsible anyway

USA:
-rely on ignorance and bullshit; tell them condoms don't work, tell them smoking 1 cigarette makes you a hopeless addict, tell them LSD makes people jump out windows
-use idealistic strategies that assume humans of reproductive age (16) don't naturally want sex nor do they naturally seek out drugs (even though our bodies have evolved special systems for processing drugs like caffeine and alcohol)
-sex and drugs are morality issues
-you are so fucked if you mess this up, and nobody will help you because that would be "socialism" which is bad
-lots of people screw it up and ruin their whole lives

Its The Netherlands not Holland

 

[mrCide]

I blame stupidity and religion (same thing, really)

 

[ShawnD1]

Holland or the Netherlands? You know they are not one and the same right/

Henceforth, I shall call out anyone who says "America" when talking about USA since USA is only 1 country out of the 35 countries that make up America (23 are in North America, 12 are in South America).

 

[Gothgar]

The amount of care I have is high.

 

[AnonymouseUser]

I blame stupidity and religion (same thing, really)

Not necessarily the same thing, but they do tend to feed off of each other. Seeing how the Netherlands are 48% non-religious, we could definitely learn something from them. Ahh, but that is nothing but a pipe dream...

 

[dardarla]

comparing other cultures to ours is disingenuous and frankly stupid, there's way more differences than just what you want to look at that contribute to the situations being different.

Just because the 'situations' vary, does not mean that there is nothing we can learn from others. The world would be a much better place if we looked at what was working in other countries and followed their lead. No point in wasting money on re-inventing the wheel. We know that the harm reduction strategy works much better than the "War on Drugs".

Here's the worst case scenario when it comes to "The War on Drugs". Turns out that getting rid of the heroin supply for Russia's 2 million heroin addicts, doesn't make them any less addicted, especially when the country refuses to offer any sort of medical intervention to help people get through the withdrawal. Heroin withdrawal sucks, and because there's no help, people resort to Krokodil to push them through, only to discover the withdrawal for that is even worse and it'll eat you inside out until you look like a zombie and die. It's being called an epidemic. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/krokodil-the-drug-that-eats-junkies-2300787.html
http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2011/08/24/krokodil-and-the-terrible-cost-of-the-war-on-drugs/

Meanwhile, in Portugal, drug use has been cut in HALF following a decade of decriminalization.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkai...lization-drug-abuse-down-by-half-in-portugal/

We can and should learn from the successes and mistakes from others.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Because drugs and sin is fun?

 

[ShawnD1]

Here's the worst case scenario when it comes to "The War on Drugs". Turns out that getting rid of the heroin supply for Russia's 2 million heroin addicts, doesn't make them any less addicted, especially when the country refuses to offer any sort of medical intervention to help people get through the withdrawal. Heroin withdrawal sucks, and because there's no help, people resort to Krokodil to push them through, only to discover the withdrawal for that is even worse and it'll eat you inside out until you look like a zombie and die. It's being called an epidemic. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/krokodil-the-drug-that-eats-junkies-2300787.html
http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2011/08/24/krokodil-and-the-terrible-cost-of-the-war-on-drugs/

In Soviet Russia, drug eats you!

comparing other cultures to ours is disingenuous and frankly stupid,

I guess this is part of the problem right here. Some Americans United Staters think they are not human. They are reptiles.

Serious question: what are people from USA actually called? You can't say American because America is the name of 2 continents, so that's as stupid as saying "I'm European" when you really mean German.