Starving Artist, everything you say about the 1950s and '60s only provides evidence of your ignorance of the 1950s and '60s.
My mother was prescribed amphetamines to lose weight after having babies and valium to counteract the amphetamines so she could sleep at night. Her and all her contemporaries were all on the same regime and they also gathered for cocktails every night. She was eventually hospitalized for a “nervous” condition, when she stopped taking the pills. Heh, who would have thunk it? This was in middle class america in the late sixties early seventies.
I think we mostly agree that Mr. Starving’s perspective is flawed, but I’ll just comment on this factoid.
First of all, note that amphetamines are almost opposite to valium in effect. Indeed amphetamines are often described as the most addictive and most pernicious of drugs.
From this page:
True, this was not “illicit street drug” use. Based on his diction, I’ll guess that Mr. Starving is one of those who thinks powder cocaine is a fine upstanding Republican drug, useful in cementing Job Creating entrepreneurial relationships, while crack cocaine is an evil Democratic drug, useful in dulling the underclass to keep them suckling at the big government teats. :rolleyes:
Harumph! I rather like Ginsberg. He at least made an effort in his readings, instead of being monotonal, like most poets.
It’s not the delivery, it’s the content. 
OK, it’s also the delivery. 
<beatnik.
…Neidermeyer?
Whatever happened to bongos?
Oooof. Try listening to Dylan Thomas. His delivery is so rich that one recital of “Fern Hill” will add to your belly fat.
I like Ginsberg, too. But dig some Gary Snyder, Gregory Corso, and Michael McClure. They did write better poetry.
Actually, see: non-sequitur.
His support comes from reactionaries. And it would be nice if people would stop conflating the two terms.
Aaannnd, as long as I’m making wishes, would anyone like me to pick them up a pony?
Duh, but I stand by my barely-commital “I rather like Ginsberg.”
And Thomas? He was fucking Welsh! He would’ve been deported if he couldn’t read the phonebook without singing. “Nae, Northern Ireland would take ye. Off to Hated England with ye.”
“How can you say man evolved from apes? Were you there? I don’t think so!”
“Those goal posts are blocking the footpath between the Ladies’ Bridge Club and my pharmacy! Move them down to some alley somewhere!”
Dude, if you want people to rekindle any respect for the political right, you’d be trying to cover Trump with a thick tarp infused with lead thread so not even Superman could see him.
FTR, my wife was basically sexton for a Hindu group that met at our community building. One person said, “You’re so polite. Are you English?”
She drew herself to her full height and said, “I am Welsh, and we held off the English at the River Severn for hundreds of years until betrayed by treachery.” Her dates may have been off, but the lovely Indians could relate.
Not so much “stupid” as “desperate”, but, eh, closer to getting back on topic:
Bachmann has at least performed the public service of shooting the Starving Artist argument through in the head with a silver bullet, staking it through the heart, burning it, and burying the ashes at a crossroads, all in one short sentence:
When I hear things like that I get the suspicion that several conservative evangelicals that are friends of Israel and Jews are friends alright, but not much for altruistic reasons. I think that many do not see the Jews as regular people but as lambs being fattened for “the end of times”.
Utah state Rep. Todd Weiler, on internet porn :
That’s… that’s not how speech works, son.
The stupid is strong with that reasoning… Has he tried, I dunno, just not watching it? Or maybe that’s too complicated for him.
That actually sounds a lot like internet users that get caught a lot in conservative families watching porn or erotic material. “No, really mom-dad-uncle-aunt-granpa-wife! It was an attachment/site that was secretly sent by evildoers!”
Let him who hath not been compelled by an unidentified outside force to look up lesbian orgies on YouPorn cast the first stone.
[George Carlin]
Didn’t anyone tell the reverend that the radio has 2 knobs on it? One turns the radio off, and the other…changes the station! Imagine that, Reverend. You can actually change the station. It’s called ‘freedom of choice,’ and it’s one of the values this country was founded on. Look it up in the library, Reverend, if you have any left when you finish burning all the books.
Of course, I’m sure the reverend isn’t all that comfortable with something with 2 knobs…
[/George Carlin]