What is driving the current “anti alcohol” rhetoric online

Zellephant said:
It seems as if being an “anti alcohol” influencer has become very popular lately - and at least for me, my algorithm seems to like recommending their content to me.

It’s also not being driven by the typical hyper religious Quaker types or Islamists etc - it seems to be coming from normal, everyday folk.

I recently saw an article talking about the billions of dollars the global liquor industry is losing because people are consuming so much less alcohol etc.

Now, to me, this all seems a bit odd. I never trust someone who is a teetotaller without a very good reason. People who claim they don’t touch alcohol because they simply don’t like it or see the point, in my experience are always hiding some other serious issues.

Beer and wine, ciders, mead, whiskey, grappa, gin etc have played such an important cultural role across societies for decades. There are real physical and mental health benefits to responsible alcohol consumption and always have been. Sure, in the same breath, abusing alcohol has always had negative impacts. But overwhelmingly, people who drink, do so responsibly. The majority of people who drink wine at home, or go to the pub with their mates for the game aren’t degenerates.

So, what is up with this cringy social media craze of promoting how much better your life is without alcohol. It seems so fake, and lame - and it’s also hard to believe their is any real commercial interest that would be interested in driving content creators towards this.
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you clicked on a youtube video and the algorithm goes like "negative or positive opinion" about "Topic" and then down the rabbit hole you go. cheers.
 
NoStepOnSnek88 said:
Apologies @Zellephant, but I have to ask which benefits are those ?


PS: I'm going to be extremely honest and serious here for a moment, truthfully, I deeply despise alcohol, I'm not going to go into the who, what, when, where, why, and how.
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His original “physical and mental benefits” were debunked so he pivoted to benefits such as it creating employment.

Anyway, subsequently it was revealed that he’s both an alcoholic as well as directly linked to and benefitting from the alcohol industry so no one really takes his views on the topic seriously.

Employment (It supports a deep employment chain all the way from farm to table)
- Land preservation (Good alcohol, especially beer and wine, and their distillates, starts with good crops, which requires good land management).
- Historical and cultural preservation of techniques and traditions - both linked to the production and consumption of it.
- Taste/Enjoyment - both in its base form and as an ingredient in cooking - are a very direct benefit. How exactly is one to make Bolognese or Coq au vin, or thousands of other delicacies, without it?
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Azbubu said:
His original “physical and mental benefits” were debunked so he pivoted to benefits such as it creating employment.

Anyway, subsequently it was revealed that he’s both an alcoholic as well as directly linked to and benefitting from the alcohol industry so no one really takes his views on the topic seriously.
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He's so much of an alcoholic he only knows how to cook with it as well.
 
Azbubu said:
His original “physical and mental benefits” were debunked so he pivoted to benefits such as it creating employment.

Anyway, subsequently it was revealed that he’s both an alcoholic as well as directly linked to and benefitting from the alcohol industry so no one really takes his views on the topic seriously.
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thestaggy said:
You don't have to be the stupid one to have your life upended or even ruined because of alcohol.

I'm responsible and have one drink with dinner. On the way home, someone who has just left a bar after 10 drinks skips a red light and t-bones me.
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South Africans in general are fckng idiots, they don't need liquor to do that. A young girl with a small car jump a stop sign yesterday almost straight into me. Sht happens and most of the time it doesn't involve alcohol.
 
Craig_ said:
South Africans in general are fckng idiots, they don't need liquor to do that. A young girl with a small car jump a stop sign yesterday almost straight into me. Sht happens and most of the time it doesn't involve alcohol.
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This is the Status Quo Bias or the Nirvana Fallacy (sometimes tied to the Appeal to Purity or Possibility vs. Probability error). It assumes that if a bad thing might still happen anyway, a helpful change has no value.

Why the Logic Fails
    • It demands total perfection.
    • It ignores risk reduction.
    • It treats all safety steps as all-or-nothing.
Common Examples
    • "Why lock your door? A thief can still break a window."
    • "Why wear a seatbelt? You can still die in a bad crash."
 
Craig_ said:
South Africans in general are fckng idiots, they don't need liquor to do that. A young girl with a small car jump a stop sign yesterday almost straight into me. Sht happens and most of the time it doesn't involve alcohol.
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Alcohol is a significant driver of road accidents, murders, physical assaults, sexual assaults and domestic violence in SA. If you're going to throw out stats about how many people it employs and how much it adds to the economy, at least be honest about the flip side of those stats.

Also for most of human history our ancestors didn't have access to instant death in the form of vehicles and guns. A drunken or tipsy idiot in the modern world poses far more danger today than they did even a hundred years ago - times change, and what was culturally acceptable for our ancestors doesn't quite hold up when the world has changed.
 
Icarium said:
Alcohol is a significant driver of road accidents, murders, physical assaults, sexual assaults and domestic violence in SA. If you're going to throw out stats about how many people it employs and how much it adds to the economy, at least be honest about the flip side of those stats.

Also for most of human history our ancestors didn't have access to instant death in the form of vehicles and guns. A drunken or tipsy idiot in the modern world poses far more danger today than they did even a hundred years ago - times change, and what was culturally acceptable for our ancestors doesn't quite hold up when the world has changed.
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A 100 years ago?? You do know what was happening 100 years ago? Though alcohol was a driving force.
united-states-primed-for-warfare-chicago-gangsters-forced-police-to-equip-themselves-with.jpg
 
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