He literally got blue-pilled... The greatest fear of these guys๐
this post was submitted on 18 Jun 2023
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But in the case of Brendan, he had recently been exposed as a white supremacist and lost his job when he was enrolled in the study. He was full of regret about getting caught out.
I imagine that this person was already contemplating personal growth, and the drugs just kicked his not-fully-conscious or not-fully=acknowledged feelings into conscious, actionable thought.
Nuwer pointed out that Brendan's "seemingly spontaneous change" appears to be an exception to the norm. MDMA releases the chemical oxytocin, which our bodies naturally produce. The chemical causes animals to fiercely love their own, but also protect them from others โ which can mean a disdain for outsiders may actually increase.
Maybe he felt a surge to protect humans in general, and that intense feeling changed his outlook. Yeah, definitely, we should treat this as an exception not the rule, but I find myself wondering if he was already open to change, even if he didn't realize
I was wondering if he was already wanting to change and that's why he signed up to the study.
I think that's likely as well. It may have been the thing that gave him a push to change, but I don't think anything would have happened if he hadn't had doubts beforehand.
Interesting. I took MDMA is in college once. It wasnt a game changer or anything.
Now LSD. The one time I did that, it definitely altered the "lens" i viewed the world in, for the better. I did this with some friends to make sure it wasnt a bad trip, but mostly in solitude. Im not sure that it really changes much of my political leanings, but i did have some deep introspective thought and it did affect how I viewed others and the world, and generally in a more empathetic way.
That said, after having some friends that arguably abused it, i avoided too many more further interactions with it which was good. Because around the 4th time I did it, i was in a bad way, and had an awful trip, which turned me off to most mind altering substances for a while.
One human does not make a trend, but it is interesting. They'd have to test many more white supremacists to see if the effect will be same for the majority of test subjects.
If it were a "cure" then the right-wingers would become very scared of getting drugged.
Edit:
MDMA has, for instance, been used by the Taliban to channel connection to the divine during prayer chants, according to Nuwer.
Nuwer pointed out that Brendan's "seemingly spontaneous change" appears to be an exception to the norm.
Read the article guys. Won't work for everyone and could maybe even be used by White Supremacists to be more like the taliban.
Kind of seems like we should dose the entire planet in MDMA for a day and just see what happens. Might be really good.
Do you want Reavers? Because this is how you get gorram Reavers.
Off topic: does Lemmy have a browncoat community yet?
Or, huge amounts of people will kill themselves or die due to medical completications.
There is no medical basis to think for a second that that would happen.
Mhhm, yup, people already on a myriad of medications definitely won't have any adverse reaction to MDMA and there are no medications that have negative interactions with it at all. And people with incredibly fragile mental states, the already suicidal, and people of varying different psychoses also definitely aren't already close to being a danger to themselves and others. Oh and how can we forget all the people who absolutely don't have unknown medical conditions that could be exacerbated by getting dosed with MDMA
Totally safe, totally cool
The case suggested that MDMA has the potential to "influence a person's values and priorities," the authors wrote in a case study about Brendan. They hypothesized that if extremist views are fueled by fear, anger, and cognitive biases, they could potentially be treated with drugs.
It's interesting to learn, what this paragraph seems to suggest, that for some people holding extremist views is actually the result of mental illness. It is probably hard for people to realize and/or even admit that they are ill until something drastic happens.
Fear, anger, and cognitive biases are not mental illness. Experiencing emotions is a completely normal human experience. All humans have cognitive biases because of how our brains our wired.
Yes thats true.
That's not what they said though.
They said extremism. Which is absolutely not a completely normal human experience.
Extremist views are not normal, correct. I was addressing the quote and response because I want to be clear about the implications of a single anecdotal finding amongst a study on a drug being used for a very different purpose than the context being examined here. I don't want people jumping to too many conclusions.
I've taken MDMA and it didn't change my beliefs.
I've read some people on the other site that became vegan after trying shrooms... lmao I've taken plenty of cubensis and I enjoy meat like it's my last day on earth.
Of course his name is "Brendan". hmmm
we finally found a cure
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