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@DahGangalang@infosec.pub
Post #1847325
2026-04-25 23:20 UTC
Yeah, in terms of individual health, I have no doubt that avoiding alcohol all together the best bet.
Personally, I subscribe to a flavor of "social lubricant" take on alcohol. That is, being a human and managing all the required social interactions and minor slights, stressors, stigmas, etc is a lot. And alcohol works to turn off some of the parts of the brain most active in social situations. That is to say that alcohol (and/or other mood altering drugs) are bad for the individual, but good for society.
Do need to caveat that take with: there's a left and a right to what's acceptable levels of intoxication. I don't think the world would be better with everyone getting outright shit faced every night, and even a glass every night might be excessive; its easy to fall prey to addiction and that's undesirable. But also, I don't think we'd be better off without alcohol all together. I think a couple glasses per week - and not drinking those glasses alone - makes for a healthy enough middle ground.
Replies (2)
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> alcohol .. bad for the individual, but good for society
Alcohol is ranked as society's most harmful drug, because no, for way too many people it's not just a few drinks per week in a healthy social setting. It's also one of the few drugs where you can literally die during withdrawal.
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There's a good reason we've had alcohol for almost as long as we've had civilization, and I think you hit on some key points of it here. It's a social lubricant, many important meetings and decisions of history might not have happened without a little drink to loosen some tongues.
That's not to say that it's good for you, but alcohol has been present alongside human evolution in sort of the same way that dogs have. We go waaayyyyyy way back together.
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