401–410 of 938 posts
>Now some grocery stores have wine bars, beer on tap, signs inviting you to “shop ’n’ sip,” and carts with cup holders. What the hell?! That's absurdly irresponsible and dangerous considering most people travel to the grocery store in a car. Why aren't local authorities stamping down on this?
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 would probably say that Germany isn't indicative of the Eurozone at all.
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"we also have a very painful past and present" I don't see why that is more true of the U.S. than say Germany, Japan, Russia, China etc.
We've both refused to own our past national transgressions the way Japan and Germany have, we have more diversity than all of those countries, and have also not scrubbed all mention of said painful past from our national history like Russia and China.
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This is a common refrain but at the same time it seems to be the one substance commonly used across most of the world since ancient times. None of the other supposedly less harmful, banned drugs are so ubiquitous. Perhaps there's a good reason for this (besides varying availability of other substances)?
Nope, I'm quite convinced it's the varying availability of the other substances. Coffee, tea, and tobacco, became at least as widespread once global trade made that possible. Coca was late to the party because it doesn't grow well outside of its native region. Cannabis is an odd one, in that it was extremely widespread and making solid inroads in Europe and North America, when it became a weapon for United States rac…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
"we also have a very painful past and present" I don't see why that is more true of the U.S. than say Germany, Japan, Russia, China etc.
We've both refused to own our past national transgressions the way Japan and Germany have, we have more diversity than all of those countries, and have also not scrubbed all mention of said painful past from our national history like Russia and China.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Isn't meth just plain destructive, what it does to your body, and brain?
It's somewhat more subtle, pure medical grade methamphetamine (desoxyn) taken orally is theoretically the best ADD medicine available but it's almost never prescribed for political reasons. Meth has lot less sympathetic side effects than dextroamphetamine per unit of dopaminergic stimulation, this simple difference enables abuser to consume ridiculously large dose and those high doses are destructive. https://astralc…
[41] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23688691/
[43] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3355623/
[45] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7299411/
I'm going to generalize, but the US is more diverse (rank #90 vs #151 for Germany, #169 for France, #111 for Croatia [0]) and we also have a very painful past and present that makes us acutely aware of our inability to socialize. America also has a cultural obsession with self-reliance/liberty/frontier-as-a-virtue which makes "socializing" a bit of a taboo concept, in a weird way. It's a crutch to "need" to be around…
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> The very fact that you (as do most of us) consider it a "normal life" activity indicates a very skewed and unhealthy perspective has taken hold at a fundamental level. I would argue it and the stats answers your own question. By in large yes they can. And personally I’m not one to judge peoples lifestyle decisions provided it’s not an epidemic of people doing things like b&E to hawk a motel microwave to get their n…
How do it and they answer the question in another way to mine given that it is a toxin and millions are using it to damage their health every day? How many of those millions using could genuinely give up today forever easily if they wanted to?
There are plenty of toxins that we freely ingest daily..Heck water in sufficient amounts is a toxin. Pretty much anything your liver has to process is a toxin in some form (i know thats simplifying it but still....).
It would be easy to argue its not even the most abused or greatest threat to our health. I would argue that would would be sugar, or more specifically HFCS. Thats in literally everything, from crackers to gatorade. It also abused by people ranging from young children, even toddlers to the elderly. And Obesity and related diseases kills at much higher rates. Congestive Hearth Failure alone kills around 500k people a year in the US..
And I would argue etOH isnt really even 2nd place in the list of normalized drugs we abuse readily. Caffeine is probably that one, and there are PLENTY that couldn't quit that cold turkey if they wanted (I am one of them, and have tried multiple times). Its also another one used by both kids and adults.
I'm going to generalize, but the US is more diverse (rank #90 vs #151 for Germany, #169 for France, #111 for Croatia [0]) and we also have a very painful past and present that makes us acutely aware of our inability to socialize. America also has a cultural obsession with self-reliance/liberty/frontier-as-a-virtue which makes "socializing" a bit of a taboo concept, in a weird way. It's a crutch to "need" to be around…
I'm going to generalize, but the US is more diverse (rank #90 vs #151 for Germany, #169 for France, #111 for Croatia [0]) and we also have a very painful past and present that makes us acutely aware of our inability to socialize. America also has a cultural obsession with self-reliance/liberty/frontier-as-a-virtue which makes "socializing" a bit of a taboo concept, in a weird way. It's a crutch to "need" to be around…
The "self-reliance/liberty/frontier-as-a-virtue" culture, which is strongly tied to Southern culture, is the culture that is more open about socializing with anyone. It's Northern and West coast US culture where people don't even want to look at each other in the eyes. Southerners will greet strangers and pick up conversations with randoms in a bar. That's taboo in the North.
Your premise is wholesale incorrect.