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America has a drinking problem

theatlantic.com

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Re: America has a drinking problem

#271

Post by sciurus »

matwood wrote: post #180
paulgb wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've replaced the beer in my fridge with Athletic Brewing's non-alcoholic beer.

How do you like it? I like the taste of beer, and often want something more than water at night. But, I don't typically have alcohol except on the weekends (my wife and I joke about 2 beers and things are getting crazy lol). So during the week I often drink milk or a sugar free sports drink. Tea is also ok, but I try to avoid all caffeine late in the day.

They're decent, and definitely towards the top of the pack of non-alcoholic beer brands. Clausthaler is also ok if you prefer a lager to an ale.

(I spent a couple months trying every variety of non-alcoholic "craft" beer that I could get my hands on earlier in the pandemic)

Re: America has a drinking problem

#272

Post by TameAntelope »

umvi wrote: post #172

I was watching "Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist" with my wife the other day and I commented "These characters seem to all be alcoholics" because seriously they have a drink in hand nearly every scene taking place outside of the workplace. I think part of the problem is glorification of alcohol in pop culture. Heck, at certain times of the year we look forward to watching a bunch of back-to-back alcohol advertisements (…

They explain this in Lucifer by attributing Lucifer's higher tolerance to his demigod status, but it's... kind of a problem, especially for the not-deities who are seemingly always at his club, getting shitfaced.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#273

Post by [deleted] »

jacobolus wrote: post #267
blhack wrote: post #116

Some of my most cherished memories are those where I was out drinking wine and having really good food with my wife and friends. When people were telling stories about Jesus, the central figure of their religion, one of the miracles they told of was him turning water into wine. This is held up as one of the most important stories in their entire moral system. When the pyramids were being built, the builders were paid…

> When the pyramids were being built, the builders were paid in beer. Yeah, because water used to be much harder to sanitize, and “beer” (thick, lumpy, mildly alcoholic – think fermented porridge) is basically liquid bread. Doing manual labor all day takes a lot of calories, and cereals are much cheaper than alternative foods. It’s hardly a healthy diet though. Keeping peasants drunk enough to be pliable is a side be…

[deleted]

Re: America has a drinking problem

#274

Post by k__ »

Barrin92 wrote: post #135

Article mirrors my experience. For context I'm German, my wife's French and we've got family in Croatia who own a vineyard so I'm used to being around alcohol and people drinking. My first impression when I spent time was in the US was indeed how bipolar drinking is compared to Europe. We probably drink a hell of a lot more in raw terms than the average American does.Two glasses of wine for dinner, another one in the…

I'm German, and I'd consider drinking 2-3 glasses of wine plus a glass cognac a day quite much.

But I'd consider drinking daily or even weekly much.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#275

Post by sciurus »

bitcurious wrote: post #225
leifg wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Genuine question: what do you drink instead? Do you stick to water or do you order any kind of soda/lemonade (or something I’m not thinking about)

Usually seltzer, coffee, tea. Recently I discovered Hoplark “hop teas” which (to my tastebuds) separate the best parts of beer from the alcohol.

If you like hop-flavored beverages, definitely try Lagunitas Hoppy Refresher.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#276

Post by throwaway894345 »

piyh wrote: post #106
throwaway894345 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also drink about this much per week. I like a beer or wine or whiskey every now and again, but I've never really seen the point in getting buzzed or drunk (or high for that matter). When I do drink, I only have 1 or 2 at a time, not out of an express desire to stay sober, but because I'm usually pretty naturally satisfied by that amount. For whatever reason, I like sobriety. It's strange to me that people should th…

Take it to the extreme of an LSD trip, you can get something out of it that you can't get any other way. You take a day to mentally dig into your psyche and cut through so many of your mental ruts, while having some crazy hallucinations. Sobriety is great and preferable 99% of the time to me, but your framing of "escaping or distorting reality" is founded on a trust that your senses and current mental processes are o…

> Take it to the extreme of an LSD trip, you can get something out of it that you can't get any other way. You take a day to mentally dig into your psyche and cut through so many of your mental ruts, while having some crazy hallucinations.

Maybe. I'm unconvinced that this is the only way to achieve any kind of insight. In particular I'd be surprised if it outperforms a cup of coffee or a rhapsodical conversation for any type of insight.

> your framing of "escaping or distorting reality" is founded on a trust that your senses and current mental processes are objective reality and that reality is desirable.

How can a high be "more real" than what you perceive through your senses? That seems almost incorrect by definition, so I guess I plead guilty to the charge of believing that sober experiences are more real.

With respect to "I'm assuming that reality is desirable"--yeah, if you think reality isn't desirable, then you're escaping, so I think you're [agreeing violently][0] with me here. I am guilty of the charge that I think escapism is bad and confronting reality is good.

[0]: http://joe.blog.freemansoft.com/2020/02/recognizing-violent-...

Re: America has a drinking problem

#278

Post by TameAntelope »

Drunk Discord channels have re-created a lot of the missing "socialization" aspect of bar life I missed during the pandemic.

I'm... not sure it's a good thing, but it was an interesting/unanticipated development. I don't think the author should be so quick to dismiss "Zoom" drinking! UX matters in this space, in a weird way.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#279

Post by elliekelly »

vdnkh wrote: post #168
fantod wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Noticed this when I was in Germany/Austria as well. In America, if you go out drinking then that's the primary activity. It's what you're doing. But in central Europe socializing and seeing friends is the activity and you just happen to drink because that's what you do when you see your friends.

This makes no sense. Do you think that Americans go out drinking to get drunk arounds friends, but not to socialize with them?

It definitely depends on the type of bar/club you’re at but a lot of them have music so loud it’s impossible to hold a conversation.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#280

Post by ska »

kelnos wrote: post #220
ska wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TFA states that top 10% is at least equivalent 2 bottles/wine per day, which is more than your 6-pack, closer to a 12-pack. 10% is not outliers. edit to avoid confusion: this wasn't an average, this was the bottom of the 10% decile. So clearly there are bigger drinkers out there, but 10% is a lot of minimum 10-drink-a-day people.

I think the error we're making here is that the top 10% doesn't all drink the same amount. The top 1% might drink 20 drinks per day, while someone in the 91st percentile might drink 7 or 8.

That claim was for the minimum of the top 10%, being 2 bottle wine equivalent per day, which is about 10 standard drinks.

Undoubtedly there are far heavier drinkers in the top end of that 10%; but 10 drinks is a lot, and 10% isn't outliers.

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