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I had trouble sleeping last night because of this fact that @sharanvkaur pointed to me: in 1933 - when Lee Kuan Yew was 10 years old - ONE in FOUR Chinese adults in Singapore were addicted to opium. ONE IN FOUR https://t.co/gKvvBrFeXA https://t.co/M70u3zp5Yb
Between 1825 and 1910, opium accounted for up to 55% of the British government’s revenue! More than half!! https://t.co/Pu8iC1Ovty
I’ve mentioned before in conversations with friends that “drug policy in Singapore is like gun policy in the US - it goes beyond rational cost-benefit analysis, it goes deep into the psycho-history of the population.” I believed this, but I didn’t realize just how deep it went https://t.co/pMU2acRktZ
I’m actually a little hesitant to read + learn too much about the history of colonialism because I have a feeling it will literally make me sick. I’ll have to work up to it in small doses, like strength training. It’s a tightrope for sensitive people https://t.co/427cWb3feE
When outsiders talk about the drug laws and mandatory conscription and how creepy-clean everything is, they never seem to *get it*. They don’t get the pain. Imagine if 3-5% of Americans were murdered by invading forces. For context, 9/11 killed ~0.000092% of Americans https://t.co/XNPj3IBGaZ
