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America has a drinking problem

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Re: America has a drinking problem

#931

Post by jcadam »

kortilla wrote: post #917
jcadam wrote: post #803

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Split a bottle of wine with the wife most days. That equates to 2-3 "standard" drinks per day I suppose. I find buying standard bottles of wine (versus boxes, 1.5L big bottles, etc.) exerts a certain amount of discipline. You're going to be averse to uncorking a new bottle after you just finished one :)

FYI: both you and your wife are classified as heavy drinkers by the NIH. https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/alcohol-health/overview-alcohol-co... I’m curious, what do you tell your doctor when he/she asks how much you drink?

One. One shelf.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#932

Post by kbenson »

tekknik wrote: post #930
kbenson wrote: post #928

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would sound a lot more sincere if it made any sense. Let me spell it out for you, since apparently the actual content of my original comment and my note about how you seemed to be viewing it as "another topic that you want this to stand in for" were not clear enough: I said nothing about race. I wasn't intending to say anything about race. I wasn't using poor as a stand in for some minority. I was making a case…

> I wasn't using poor as a stand in for some minority. Good. That’s clear now. > Really? That's an interesting observation coming from someone that just took a discussion that wasn't about race and decided to not only assume it was about race, but then inject their opinion about how that makes it wrong because there's no evidence that racism is the problem, and how in fact racism isn't on the rise, people assuming th…

> Yes finding racism (or insinuating like you’ve done here)

I'm not insinuating I've found racism. I'm insinuating that you making a conversation about race that wasn't about it originally is ironic as it's doing the same thing you complained about. You "felt" that I was talking about race and decided to make a dismissive comment because of that. Because of what you "felt" about my comment, because it surely wasn't based on what my comment actually said.

If you believe people making issues about race that aren't really about race is part of the cause of a rise in racism, a bit of introspection on your own approach's contribution to that problem might be warranted. This doesn't mean I'm calling you racist (I feel compelled to spell this out, as past experience in this conversation with you leads me to believe you will think that's what I'm trying to say), but that your actions may be causing the the same harm they are intended to critique, regardless of your views.

> ... is turning non racist people racist. And that’s not opinion, you can go learn that in on your own!

So, something stated as fact (specifically noted as not opinion no less), and no reference provided. Do you truly not understand the difference to what I did?

Re: America has a drinking problem

#933

Post by piyh »

throwaway894345 wrote: post #276
piyh wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

>In particular I'd be surprised if it outperforms a cup of coffee or a rhapsodical conversation for any type of insight.

Ego death is a hell of a thing to experience. We can talk about it and how some people can reach it through years of meditation, but LSD is a sure ticket to it and the value of it is in the qualia of the experience, not the knowledge of what it is.

Imagine your psyche is a factory you've built over your life and you're standing high above it supervising. Regular introspection is walking through the lines and tuning the machine. Ego death is a tidal wave knocking down everything you've built, adjusting to your new reality, and the rest of the day is watching as it all comes back together. There's a level of forced commitment and intensity of the experience that you can't simulate. I'm not claiming you'll reach enlightenment, but something more akin to the learning from tearing down and rebuilding an engine, except it's ~~you~~.

There are real gains to going through it if you're of sound mind.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#934

Post by tekknik »

kbenson wrote: post #932
tekknik wrote: post #930

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I wasn't using poor as a stand in for some minority. Good. That’s clear now. > Really? That's an interesting observation coming from someone that just took a discussion that wasn't about race and decided to not only assume it was about race, but then inject their opinion about how that makes it wrong because there's no evidence that racism is the problem, and how in fact racism isn't on the rise, people assuming th…

> Yes finding racism (or insinuating like you’ve done here) I'm not insinuating I've found racism. I'm insinuating that you making a conversation about race that wasn't about it originally is ironic as it's doing the same thing you complained about. You "felt" that I was talking about race and decided to make a dismissive comment because of that. Because of what you "felt" about my comment, because it surely wasn't b…

> I'm not insinuating I've found racism.

Hey great, I don't really believe you though. Especially not with all the association with poor being a race thing. Some groups are tired of the racist conversation already. Some people have moved onto calling it other things so the conversation still happens. If you're not one of them, great! It's very unlikely you will convince me however, given that you'd be a bit of an outlier speaking quite literally.

> If you believe people making issues about race that aren't really about race is part of the cause of a rise in racism, a bit of introspection on your own approach's contribution to that problem might be warranted.

Please tell me on what I need to introspect on?

> This doesn't mean I'm calling you racist...

Oh I'm quite comfortable with my lack of racism, so nothing you can say would carry any weight. Sorry I felt compelled to spell that out.

> but that your actions may be causing the the same harm they are intended to critique, regardless of your views.

What harm am I causing exactly?

> So, something stated as fact (specifically noted as not opinion no less), and no reference provided. Do you truly not understand the difference to what I did?

I mean I just did what you did no?

Re: America has a drinking problem

#935

Post by marton_s »

Bissaka wrote: post #720
fataliss wrote: post #615

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And even then, if prohibition showed one thing is that forbidding alcohol does not prevent alcohol drinking at all :D

Allow me to offer a different perspective. I'm 40 years old who is a muslim. I spent half of my life living in a muslim/arab country and the other hald in the west. Here is what I've seen: 1- Of all the people I know where I grew up in the arab country, probably only 2-3 drunk. This does correlate with the data [1]. But those 2-3 people did drink heavily. 2- Alcohol in the arab world has a different meaning. In the a…

Thanks for sharing your perspective, I found this pretty insightful.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#936

Post by darkarmani »

tekknik wrote: post #929
slickfoxx wrote: post #924

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chicago gun laws aren’t the problem. 60% of the crimes in Chicago involving firearms are committed with a gun purchased out of state, specifically Indiana, which has some of the laxest gun legislation in the country. Downtown Chicago is closer to the Indiana state line than the suburbs of Chicago.

Are you missing the point where there’s a law on the books but some people don’t care? Say you get rid of the Indiana, then they’ll get there guns elsewhere. The problem is not the guns

> then they’ll get there guns elsewhere. The problem is not the guns

The harder it is to get guns, the less people that will get them. Are you really saying that if you make people drive 500 more miles to acquire guns, gun crimes levels will stay exactly the same?

Re: America has a drinking problem

#937

Post by darkarmani »

adventured wrote: post #185
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but the median American really doesn't drink much - our Puritan values run deep. For many of us, it's not about Puritanical values. We simply choose healthier behaviors. It's true that the median alcohol drinkers in America doesn't drink much at all. The vast majority of alcohol is consumed by 10% of the population. Drinkers tend to cluster with other drinkers, and non-drinkers tend to become less interested with a…

The parent is entirely wrong about it being puritan based. The US long ago lost its puritan influences as a primary. The US is a very different place today vs the 1960s or 1980s culturally. Puritanism is a small fraction of influence in the US at this point culturally. The reason Americans drink less alcohol at the median, is due to how American populations are heavily distributed in housing developments, in suburbs,…

> The US long ago lost its puritan influences as a primary...Puritanism is a small fraction of influence in the US at this point culturally.

Are you including the US' views on sex and nudity and the puritan work ethic in that? Sex and nudity in films will make them get an instant R-rating, but murder will only get a PG-13.

The puritan work ethic is the reason Americans work themselves to death and judge the poor: "They obviously deserve it because they must not work hard." It's obviously circular reasoning, but "not working hard" is a moral failing in the US.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#938

Post by casion »

rrrrrrrrrrrryan wrote: post #598
casion wrote: post #461

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lest we not forget the many, many people who simply can not stand the taste of alcohol. There's quite a few people that fall into that category. Some of us can't even stand fermented breads, let alone a light wine.

A personal question, and I truly mean no offense - are you on the spectrum? The only people I've met (in real life) to date who can't stand the taste of alcohol are children and people with Asperger's, I assume because bitter tastes are a sort of sensory overload for them. Purely anecdotal and could be a complete horseshit theory, but I'm just curious.

I missed this comment, but in case you see it: no, I'm not on the spectrum.

I am a supertaster however. That likely is the cause of my distaste for alcohol.

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