Voting age should be low. Maybe 8? 0 is good to I'm not kidding. Talk to any 8 year old and they're much more level headed compared to those 10x their age. But the current system is set up to crush them relying only on the good will of seniors to protect their future. This isn't a new idea btw https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/nov/16/reconstruct...
Wouldn't this in effect give a parent with multiple children multiple votes.
Mail in voting means you'd just fill out the ballots for your kids.
I think voting should remain at 18. Although I have some ideas on making more concerns local. Why does most of my tax dollars go to the federal government rather than the state.
At the State level at least I have a remote chance of being heard. And if I don't like what my state is doing, I can drive 50 miles to another.
Counterpoint: alcohol is one of the best drugs on the planet for anyone on the spectrum of introversion to crippling social anxiety. In all my (many) years, I have found no better path to becoming socially acceptable (even likable) to neurotypicals/extroverts than 3-4 shots of vodka. This is an unfortunate, but very real fact for many of us. I've heard good things about Phenibut, but (1) it's very difficult to obtain…
Oh-ho, no, not in my experience. I used to be devastatingly introverted. Alcohol helped, but it’s nothing compared to GHB or MDMA. Ecstasy will give you the gift of gab like you can’t believe. minor edit: I should say I am ignoring the context of where it’s acceptable to do such things. You probably shouldn’t do G at Christmas with the in-laws. (Though our quarantine Christmas this year with friends…) I’m just making…
G yes, but MDMA can hardly reliablyreplace alcohol for general social settings given that you cannot do it all that often without issues, and that it has an even worse comedown for most people.
Although I live in a place where weed is legal, I don’t use it. I enjoy the occasional glass of a nice scotch, though, and I love a good stout or porter beer. This is where it gets a little strange for me: by every metric I can think of, I’d be better off replacing alcohol with weed. There seem to be fewer negative effects, it’s not a source of empty calories, and looks like a better recreational drug in every way. A…
Although I live in a place where weed is legal, I don’t use it. I enjoy the occasional glass of a nice scotch, though, and I love a good stout or porter beer. This is where it gets a little strange for me: by every metric I can think of, I’d be better off replacing alcohol with weed. There seem to be fewer negative effects, it’s not a source of empty calories, and looks like a better recreational drug in every way. A…
Setting aside tradition/ritual, which I don't think should count for nothing, I can think of many objective metrics on which alcohol is superior: - Flavor - Fills the stomach (can be a disadvantage too, but is advantageous in some situations, e.g. while waiting for dinner to be served at a party) - Doesn't consume itself (i.e you can set down a drink and come back to it 30 minutes later) - Easy to consume a small amo…
There are lots of ways to consume weed that don’t have those drawbacks. There’s a dispensary around the block from me, and even though I don’t use it, I went in to look around to see what our new neighborhood shop looked like. They had a wide selection of edible candies, vape pens, and even drinks. It looks like it’d be very easy to get a consistent dose without burning anything. I know how much alcohol I can drink to get a pleasant effect without getting drunk, and I’m supposing I could do the same for weed if I wanted. (Or maybe not: it looks like the effects greatly vary based on strain, or how much CBD you take with it, etc. The “how much should I take to relax?” formula looks quite a bit more complicated.)
I've heard this more lately and can't square it with what I had understood about those super long-lived cultures; like in Italy or Japan, where supposedly they drink moderate amounts of alcohol approximately daily.
There's no doubt that alcohol in excess is very bad for a person.
There's enough doubt about whether light-moderate alcohol consumption (i.e. a small glass of red wine with dinner and two or three once in a while with friends) is harmful or protective that it seems pretty clear that, whether the net effect is positive or negative, it's not terribly strong.
We get really hung up on whether something is "good for you" or "bad for you", without focusing as much as we should on exactly how bad it is: we just want to sort things into either the "good" bucket or the "bad" bucket and feel the corresponding dose of pride or guilt.
Alcohol consumption increases cortisol production, so I'd say the opposite is true.
I had a doctor tell me it was probably preferable to have a beer after work to unwind than try to quit. I dunno, I think it's very dose and situation dependent. There are social aspects to drinking in our culture and being social has health benefits.
The difference is that the average smoker dies at 80, and the average alcoholic dies at 35.
Source? 35 feels realllly young, but I guess it depends on what’s considered an “average” alcoholic. If someone is spending their entire day drinking string liquors everyday, I can maybe see that.
I was being approximate, but here is the more nuanced explanation:
"This study found an average of 93,296 alcohol-attributable deaths (255 deaths per day) and 2.7 million YPLL (29 years of life lost per death, on average) in the United States each year."
Setting aside tradition/ritual, which I don't think should count for nothing, I can think of many objective metrics on which alcohol is superior: - Flavor - Fills the stomach (can be a disadvantage too, but is advantageous in some situations, e.g. while waiting for dinner to be served at a party) - Doesn't consume itself (i.e you can set down a drink and come back to it 30 minutes later) - Easy to consume a small amo…
How can flavor possibly considered an objective metric?
In the sense that alcohol beverages sit on your tongue and most have a designed flavor, of which there are many varieties to enjoy. But I suppose you're right, marijuana smoke does have a flavor, and you may prefer that to any alcoholic beverage.
But granting that it's not objective, it still something one could point to (and I would) as a reason for preferring alcoholic drinks.
Counter-point: Alcohol was key in the creation of the United States. "In the drink, a dream; and in the dream, a spark."[1] "...the Founding Fathers despised each other. Like, these bros couldn’t stand the sight of one another and it’s a goddamn miracle our country ever came to be, that’s how much they hated one another."[2] In 1787, two days before they signed off on the Constitution, the 55 delegates to the Constit…
>Counter-point: Alcohol was key in the creation of the United States.
Some people theorize it was one of the main driving forces for agriculture and civilization itself.