I wrote this piece to challenge the idea that Prohibition was ever about virtue.
If you’ve ever felt like history was sanitized or weaponized, this is for you.
Appreciate any feedback or thoughts—especially from folks who care about systems, history, or propaganda.
Thanks for reading.
Just want to say—thank you to everyone who showed up in this thread. Whether you agreed, challenged, clarified, or added something new: this is exactly what I hoped would happen.
I’ve been upvoting every comment (even the ones I don’t agree with) because engagement is the point.
We don’t have to all think the same—but if we can hold space for conversation like this, without falling into chaos or ego, then we’re already breaking the script they wrote for us.
So yeah—thank you for thinking out loud with me. Keep questioning. Keep resisting. And keep talking to each other. This is what remembering looks like.
Yes—exactly this. When morality becomes a tool of the state, it’s almost never about actual ethics—it’s about justifying control.
I say that as someone who’s a recovering alcoholic. I’ve seen firsthand how moral panic gets used to punish people rather than help them heal.
Prohibition was sold as virtue, but it became a weapon. And that’s the pattern across history: state-sanctioned morality always hides a power structure underneath.
You’re right—it’s not about belief, it’s about obedience. And violence is the enforcement mechanism. That’s why these conversations matter.
Absolutely. Credit scores are like modern-day caste systems—just digitized and sanitized. A surveillance-based sorting mechanism that rewards debt and punishes survival. It’s not about trustworthiness. It’s about obedience.
This whole subthread is gold. Honestly, I’m just here nodding along. Housing, land, even access to basic space—so much of what we call “freedom” is just choosing between systems of control. The bigger question is: what would it take to decommodify survival itself? That’s where my brain’s been lately.
100% agree with this—it can be both. That’s the pattern. A genuine movement arises, then gets rerouted by those with power to serve their own goals. The real question is: who benefits when morality becomes law? If it’s not the people most affected, it’s probably control disguised as compassion.
LMAO not the syphilitic Puritan angle! I’m crying. But yeah—for real, Carrie Nation and the hyper-moralist crowd were absolutely a factor. And that’s what made the system so effective: it was easy to rally people around a symbol of “virtue,” even when the underlying policies were violent and self-serving. Empire’s always had a talent for finding the loudest moralist to hide behind.
Right?? If it brings joy or freedom, they regulate it.
But if it makes money or keeps people numb? Green light all the way.
Totally hear you—yeah, the temperance movement was real, and alcohol abuse was absolutely devastating in a lot of communities. I know that personally, too—I’m a recovering alcoholic. So I’m not pro-alcohol in any way.
But what I’m unpacking in this piece isn’t about whether alcohol is good or bad—it’s about how morality gets weaponized by power.
The public may have pushed for prohibition from a place of real concern, but the way it was implemented—the violence, the profiteering, the way it disproportionately harmed marginalized people—that wasn’t driven by purity. That was a moral cause hijacked by empire.
So yeah, I’ve got my own values about this. But I’m laying out facts, patterns, and historical receipts so we can all look a little deeper than just surface-level intentions.
Great questions—thank you for asking!
I’m currently working on a proper EPUB version for the eBook (shouldn’t be long now), and I completely feel you on the privacy front.
I used Google Docs temporarily for access, but I’m planning to switch to Payhip or Ko-Fi file hosting soon so people can download directly with no tracking.
I’ll update the post as soon as that’s in place. Appreciate you looking out—this is exactly the kind of awareness we need more of.
That’s exactly it—same machine, just with new masks.
I really appreciate your perspective, especially coming from someone who’s seen the cycles firsthand. The fact that governments still wrap control in the language of “safety” says everything about how long this game’s been played.
And yeah… trusting the powerful because we voted for them—that part hits. Manufactured consent is real.
I think what gives me hope is that some of us are starting to ask deeper questions. Maybe not enough yet—but it’s a spark. And sparks spread. Thank you for sharing yours.
What do y’all think we still aren’t being told the truth about?
If they could sell Prohibition as virtue and get away with poisoning people—
what else do we accept as “normal” that’s actually built on control and profit?
What do y’all think we still aren’t being told the truth about?
If they could sell Prohibition as virtue and get away with poisoning people—
what else do we accept as “normal” that’s actually built on control and profit?
What do y’all think we still aren’t being told the truth about?
If they could sell Prohibition as virtue and get away with poisoning people—
What else do we accept as “normal” that’s actually built on control and profit?
For those who know what this is—you know what to do.
If you’ve seen signs of this on your campus, in your org, or in your inbox… document it.
Assume everything digital is traceable. Assume nothing is private.
This is exactly why I post in these spaces—so I can learn just as much as I speak. I hadn’t heard of Pedagogy of the Oppressed before, but I just looked it up and I’m floored. That idea—that liberation must come from the oppressed themselves, and that internalized oppression must be rejected—is everything I believe about education, revolution, and reclaiming power.
Praxis as reflection and action… that hit me hard. I’m definitely going to dive deeper into Freire now. Thank you for sharing that knowledge with me.
Wow, I really appreciate this response. You’re right—what we’re dealing with isn’t just an education system that’s “not working,” it’s one that’s working exactly as intended. The standardization of thought, emotional suppression, and the illusion of choice all serve the same machinery.
You nailed it with: “Our most powerful weapon is questioning and reading from all sources.” That’s literally the whole point of my piece—if we aren’t allowed to ask who benefits from our ignorance, then we’re not being educated… we’re being indoctrinated. Thank you for bringing that clarity.
I wrote this because the crumbling education system is something deeply personal to me. It’s not just broken—it’s familiar.
Has anyone else ever felt like you had to unlearn and reteach yourself just to actually understand the world?
Because when a system fails us that hard, we’re forced to become our own teachers. And that’s where resistance begins.
I wrote this because the crumbling education system is something deeply personal to me. It’s not just broken—it’s familiar.
Has anyone else ever felt like you had to unlearn and reteach yourself just to actually understand the world?
Because when a system fails us that hard, we’re forced to become our own teachers. And that’s where resistance begins.
I wrote this piece to challenge the idea that Prohibition was ever about virtue.
If you’ve ever felt like history was sanitized or weaponized, this is for you.
Appreciate any feedback or thoughts—especially from folks who care about systems, history, or propaganda.
Thanks for reading.