When Rhetoric Becomes Reality

Wednesday, October 8, 2025

For years and years we were told marijuana is no different than alcohol.  And yet, as post legalization numbers start to roll in a very different picture is developing.  Over 40% of fatal car crashes involve a driver with weed in their system.  The same statistic for booze stands at roughly 30%.  There are roughly 100 traffic fatalities daily in the U.S.  So, 10 more people or so a day are dying because of marijuana as compared to alcohol.  Not pretty, not pretty at all.  Certainly a very different picture than was painted by all the rhetoric that preceded and accompanied the legalization movement.

Clearly rhetoric and reality are two different things.  I think we all remember the advertising that sold us on that toy that we absolutely pestered our parents for until they had no choice and that, when we finally laid hands on it, ended up being just abysmal.  We don’t call this “lying” – it’s “sales hype,” or “hyperbole,” or “spin.”  Yet rhetoric has a way of creating reality.  Companies have sold millions of such disappointing toys making billions of dollars.

Decades of rhetoric, and a great deal of illegal consumption, have lead to the legalization, in many parts of the country, of marijuana.  Alongside the spoken rhetoric of “same as booze” has been the largely whispered rhetoric of “everybody does it anyway.”  (For the record, never once in my life.)  The traffic fatality study cited above concludes:

The rate of drivers who tested positive for THC did not change significantly before or after legalization (42.1% vs. 45.2%), indicating that legal status did not influence the behavior of those who chose to drive after use.

Wouldn’t that have been a handy stat to have during legalization discussion?  A stat that would indicate to me we need to further stigmatize its use, not destigmatize it.  But then as Vodkapundit points out on HotAir, the currently available legal weed is something quite different in potency than the weed of my long ago youth.  Not to mention, all legalization did on California is increase the black market because taxation of legal weed made it unaffordable.  The point remains, when our rhetoric becomes reality – we do not get what we expect.

Discussion of violent action has become quite prevalent among the Left.  We are seeing this violent rhetoric become reality – I do not need to run down the recent laundry list – we all know it.  What I find deeply concerning is what the unexpected outcomes might be.  Some are worried the Right might take the same path – a reasonable concern.  I worry more about where once a flash mob resulted in a musical performance, now might result in something far less beautiful.  They have been organizing flash mob shoplifting in California for several years now. What happens in the flash mob carries weapons?  They arrested a guy yesterday, on his way to blow up a church, with 200 explosives in his possession.  Imagine he was going to provide those devices to a flash mob.

It is bad enough when so-called influencers mouth off about violence, but these days those seeking office are shamefully following the influencer lead.  The outcome will not be pretty.

Rhetoric is powerful.  Winston Churchill won WWII with it.  Martin Luther King, Jr. ended segregation with it.  Billy Graham saved souls with it.  These days it seems turned to far more nefarious use.  We have to fix that.