We've Lost the Plot

On circuses, ketamine, and pissing into the wind.

My good friend Evan Stern published an excellent article in his newsletter “Certain Thoughts” today, and this one is largely an expansion on his general ideas. If you’re a regular reader of Certain Thoughts (and you should be), feel free to read that one first.

I’ve always been skeptical of moral panics around drugs - especially when they’re completely divorced from a clear “addiction” narrative, or center around use of legally prescribed pharmaceuticals and/or recreational use completely outside the workplace. We live in a world where nearly everyone consumes caffeine, and it’s considered completely acceptable for lawyers to return to the office after a 3 martini lunch. Alcohol and caffeine are, in fact psychoactive - as is chronic pain while sober - as anyone with chronic, debilitating, back pain will tell you.

Millions are prescribed powerful, mind-altering opiates simply so they can function in the workplace - and are all the better for it! Nobody has any problem with this, as long as they’re not operating heavy machinery. It’s considered a societal good, something we tolerate so people may remain “productive”. This is why attacking anyone on moral - not legal - grounds for drug use is purely a distraction from material harms they engage in, and empowers a very specific type of moral-panic bullshitter who is quite harmful to all of us.

There’s no possibility of legal repercussions in Elon’s case, and the morality of consuming illegal drugs outside of work and legally prescribed ones during work is, at worst, dubious, and at most, debatable. We’re talking about a man who created a Federal Department whose name is a literal joke (DOGE) - making the whole of our Federal Government much more of a joke than it already was. A man who oversaw tens of thousands of worker layoffs, every one predicated on lies. A man who bought one of the largest social media websites on earth just to turn it into a right-wing hellscape, and to push racist conspiracies like “The Great Replacement Theory”. A man who uses his obscene wealth to fund fascist political campaigns throughout the entire world.

All the mushrooms, ritalin, and ketamine in the world could never compare to that.

Finally - has anyone thought of how these reports of drug use were released at the precise moment the Trump admin cut him loose? It seems, to me, this serves only to reinforce that decision - as if to plant in our minds: “Perhaps this is the best course of action”, whether you supported Musk’s actions thus far, or not. I find it disturbing I’ve never heard this articulated so far, as it seems so very obvious, to me.

This sort of “leading distraction” reminded me of a story about PT Barnum - arguably the Donald Trump of the early 20th Century - from Robert Greene’s “48 Laws of Power”:

One day a beggar approached Barnum in the street. Instead of giving him money, Barnum decided to employ him. Taking him back to the museum, he gave the man five bricks and told him to make a slow circuit of several blocks. At certain points he was to lay down a brick on the sidewalk, always keeping one brick in hand. On the return journey he was to replace each brick on the street with the one he held. Meanwhile he was to remain serious of countenance and to answer no questions. Once back at the museum, he was to enter, walk around inside, then leave through the back door and make the same bricklaying circuit again.

On the man's first walk through the streets, several hundred people watched his mysterious movements. By his fourth circuit, onlookers swarmed around him, debating what he was doing. Every time he entered the museum he was followed by people who bought tickets to keep watching him. Many of them were distracted by the museum's collections, and stayed inside.

By the end of first day, the brick man had drawn over a thousand people into the museum.

A few days later the police ordered him to cease and desist from his walks - the crowds were blocking traffic.

It seems to me the recent drug tales and the “sexual fiasco” stories re: Stephen and Katie Miller are how we’re led to buy tickets to the Trump Admins museum. We should be sharpening our saws, fixing our streets, and lending support to our neighbors who increasingly need it, instead.