Part of what's going on in Mexico is that the cartels have spread romanticized images of themselves to the point where many Mexican youngsters actually aspire to cartel life. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcocorrido

Music promoting crime and kids aspiring to that life isn't a purely Cartel thing unfortunately. Gangster rap and drill music often promote crime.

Indeed when El Chapo was arrested there were loads of memes going viral about how good he was to the poor. I do believe this is somewhat factual (not El Chapo but drug lords in general) but they tend to be equally or even more cruel to those who don’t bow to their whims.

I would guess this reputation is based on a few high-profile charity cases optimized for maximum PR impact.

For some young people their only role models are terrible people who take advantage of their trust and get them into this life. It's a big issue in the U.S. too.

They are setting up legitimate business, and hiring whole towns.

I can see why certain people turn their heads.

There's part of me that went numb to other countries problems. America needs to help itself. I'm seeing more desperate, disenfranchised Americans than ever.

I think it comes down to economics. Countries are not islands. Poor countries and poor neighborhoods create a situation where people legitimatize criminal gangs. Many men may see that as the only way to gain any power.

In a country with more money, more opportunities and a vietual police and military monopoly on force the situation is different. We have many, many prisons in America. But think about what it was like in the prohibition era. I would argue that the biggest difference was actually economic.

Not even just power, I grew up in a fairly poor neighborhood (in the US) and most of my friends were pretty poor. The guys who sold weed or harder drugs had a lot more money to spend than those who worked legitimate jobs as teenagers. When you’re given the option of working a job that doesn’t respect you and then going to college so you can make a few thousand a month seven years from now or selling drugs and getting that plus respect now it isn’t hard to see why people choose the latter. And that’s in the US in the developing world the choice is more be poor and maybe work in agriculture, take a chance and moving far away and maybe finding a decent job or getting into a gang where you can take care of your family now.

We didn’t become the dominant species on earth by playing nice with others.

no, we became the dominant species on earth by playing nice with each other.

though that kind of thing usually plays along in-group/out-group boundaries.

An equivalent question is: why does human evil exist?

Your answer will depend on your worldview -- your beliefs on matters like origin, meaning, morality, and destiny.

If you're not sure, I'd suggest evaluating candidate worldviews with an eye toward comparing the extent to which their propositions correspond to reality and are internally consistent.

It’s not evil. These people don’t go to bed at night thinking they are the villain. The real answer is more depressing: people have to eat. These police are part of a system that is threatening the livelihood of cartels and with the exception of a few people at the top this livelihood is what feeds theirs families.

What? You can definitely find jobs to eat in Mexico. This is the silliest take. It's not like the villages suddenly don't have land to grow food on

I mean, I didn’t say you couldn’t. But that doesn’t change the fact that cartels are businesses and the reason for these terrible things aren’t because the people are evil but because it’s their livelihood. I’d also wager that working for a cartel pays a lot better than working on a farm in Mexico. It also isn’t a “take.” When you start throwing around words like evil you are demonizing the enemy which you should never do.

It's not so much demonizing someone as calling a spade a spade.

These cartels are built on an explicit disregard of ethics and human rights. People in these organizations are encouraged to commit bloodshed against innocent people.

To say that's not evil is a grave ethical miscategorization -- and those who fail to label evil accurately can't help stop its progression.

Humans do this when they are extremely poor and must survive poverty by themselves and then, an organization (criminal, by the way) starts to take care of them.

Care is materialized by revenue here, but imho, what is important is that those organizations won by giving those people a future the government failed to provide.

Would you take a life if one was taken from you?

Because that's who we are.

Money.

I think drug users should be called out for supporting this violent industry similar to how drunk drivers, sexual harassers, and racists are social pariahs

The problem is more that people don't know all the problems that are causing when buying cocaine. In the end, if they're doing it at home without harming anyone, what's the issue? I would relate it more to how people eating meat are contributing to global warming without realizing it.

Of course the standard exclusion will apply if you’re rich and powerful.

Drug addicted individuals are not garbage. They are human beings. I see them as worthy of compassion and a sincere helping hand, however it can be given.

More needs to be done to wean them off drugs, rehabilitate them, teach them how to contribute to a healthy, functioning, civil society.

I agree.

Not the murderers? Seems like your opinion is biased by hatred.

If someone punches you in the nose, you(or someone you love) might want to punch them in the nose twice. Repeat x 100000000