But what has distinguished the West from the rest of the world (and maybe still does, now that the Muslim world has backslid much more than the West on average) is that it rose above tradition. As a jingoistic Westerner myself, I feel like much of the West is being overtaken by internal barbarians.

Lying to the senators or lying to the public? Or both?

There may be other mechanisms.

Opioid addiction is also a potential side effect of blood thinners, via a similar mechanism.

OK, since I’m retiring now, I’m updating my class consciousness from proletarian to rentier, and as such, I am going on strike against the bourgeoisie, refusing to finance any more of their dumbass projects until they offer me better spreads.

Who said it was equivalent to a professional? It may meet or exceed human performance on some tasks, but I don’t think it was ever claimed (and surely not by OpenAI) that psychotherapy was one of those tasks.