Blaming Victims: Normalizing Harm in the Addiction Economy
Addiction Economy Thought for Today - it has been puzzling us for a year how the mass ill-health and death from The Addiction Economy has become, well, normal. Why were there not protests in the street and people gluing themselves to stuff to draw attention to the harm caused by these industries. We now think we know why:
Because when it comes to ill health and addiction the view of medical science, politics, healthcare and public opinion is that it is all our fault and our addictive environment is nothing to do with it. Keep an eye out on the news and you will see we are right. We have a nice 'bullshit bingo' crib sheet coming for you!
For example here, two articles here in the Times giving a thoughtful and detailed discussion about how many of us are ill and can't work:
"The soaring cost of ill health benefits is a key reason why Britain is paying more tax without getting better public services, according to experts who have urged the government to get a grip on the problem.
Ministers acknowledged on Thursday that the rise was “unacceptable”, with Rachel Reeves saying that doing more to “get people off long-term sickness benefits and back to work” was crucial to her plans for boosting the economy."
See how it's all about policies to 'get people off benefits', not addressing the root causes - unhealthy foods, drinks, cigarettes, anxiety and depression brought on by isolation often through social media use?
Nothing in the budget about this. Because Labour need to be business friendly. That's the attitude which gave us the laxest gambling laws in the world and the most gambling related suicides and harms per head of population than anywhere in the world.
We are chained to our unhealthy and addictive environment. Without addressing this directly and structurally we are all stuck in this ill health spiral.
The Health Foundation Report of a couple of years ago called Addressing the Leading Risk Factors for Ill Health does begin to do that. We will be doing one shortly.
https://lnkd.in/enyvc9zi
Perhaps when we get this damned book written me and Joe Woof will start gluing ourselves to things in protest!