» posted on 21:06 - 29 October 2009 | posted by Lev » last modified on 21:07 - 29 October 2009 | last modified by Lev Okay, this has kinda pissed me off, and really isn't helping me get over the incredible anti-Apple sentiment I've been gaining the few weeks.
A lot of the time at night, I like to play around on my iPhone and check out new programs from the Apple App Store.
I stumbled upon one called "Drug Addiction", and was intrigued enough by its "noble" aim to educate people on awareness of drug abuse, so I downloaded it and gave it a look.
Holy crap, have I not seen so much flagrant misinformation since the film "Reefer Madness". My biggest gripe with the program wasn't its complete partisanship, or even its scarce scope of information, or even the fact that most of the information was incredibly outdated, irrelevant and antiquated. My biggest gripe was that no where do I remember seeing the word "use". Anytime anyone drinks a beer or smokes a joint, it's "abuse" - well, at least according to this program. No where in any of the few substances listed was there the slightest distinction between use and abuse.
Nope, just more of that outdated fear-mongering we've all grown up with.
So I thought - heck, even though the program already has a 2 out of 5 star rating out of more than 10 ratings already, I felt it was necessary for me to have my say. So I did, and guess what?
My score seemed to have been accepted, but my written review was NOT added.
Being all the wise to many of the other disgraceful ways I've learned Apple conducts its business (overly aggressive DRM that can make Microsoft look like a saint, planned obsolescence with iPods and iPhones, unjustified and zealous program review process, removing threads critical of them or their partner companies in forums - to name a few), I felt it was necessary to copy my review and paste it into the notes program in the event that Apple would play big brother.
So here it is, my review of a crappy propaganda program - which seems to coincide very well with what other people thought of the program (judging from its score):
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First of all, there is an enormous difference between use and abuse, but this app fails to ever make a distinction of the two. Many drugs CAN be used recreationally without necessarily abusing them.
Nothing but a lot of antiquated misinformation and scare mongering.
Yes, drugs CAN be bad, but let us not forget we all use psycoactive substances, whether it's for a headache, boost of energy from a cup of coffee in the morning, to sleep better, for depression, etc..
Some illicit substances are not nearly as damaging as they are often made out to be, so how about we finally stop with all the scare tactics and focus on factual information from places like www.erowid.org (which focuses on educating and not mindlessly scaring)?
The last thing the world needs is more falsified information, which does far more harm than good - by giving people the mentality that if one thing they were told about something is a lie then maybe it all is.
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Am I the only one who finds nothing worth censoring here other than my idea? No obscenities (like many of the reviews they allow to be posted), no personal or defamatory slander (like many reviews they allow) - nothing. Just a little bit of reality, that for whatever reason, doesn't coincide with Apple's world vision.
You know; commercialism, spending, waste, consumption. All those things that make society tick. Could it be simply that ideas like what I've expressed are not popular by conglomerates simply because they challenge the established structure of society itself? Think about it; we're supposed to buy into the concept of finding happiness through buying things, and all of our super technologies - it doesn't seem a very popular idea to find happiness in a glass of beer, a pill, or a joint, because that undermines the entire foundation of how we have created our economy. "We" don't want people to be able to use substances that make them happy and content with life, because then they aren't going to want any part in much of what "we" think is important in life - namely: commercialism, spending, waste and consumption. So I guess, arguably supporters of drug prohibition may very well be right that drugs may hold a power than causes people to drop out of many social institutions. And maybe it's just my view of the world here, but I see that as a good thing. We *need* more people who's focal point in life is feeling good and happiness, and not all those things we are conditioned into thinking are important.
So yeah, let's just keep spreading misinformation, and scare-mongering. It's doing a whole lot of good, isn't it?
Screw you, Apple! --- "Apple censors negative, leg...ore" has been viewed  times ---
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