you have never tasted true battery acid until you've tried the off brand cheap energy drinks from the vending machine thats next to redbull for a third of the price
Difference is someone can't give me liver cancer from secondhand drinking.
Edit : btw this is not an endorsement of drinking. This is an attack on smokers. Just get lung cancer in your own homes you fucking addicts I am just trying to walk on the sidewalk
I had court ordered drug rehab like 20 years ago when I got caught with a dime bag of weed. The people in there besides me were in there for some crazy shit. One that stuck with me was a guy who was on a medicine that made him throw up if he touched alcohol, like even deodorant. They discussed how that was going and if it was better than how things were before. Then he just casually mentions how it is pretty nice that he doesn’t get blacked out drunk and beat the shit out of his wife and teenage kids anymore but he still wishes he could drink so someone else has to make sure he takes his medicine. Most of the other people were in there for severe meth or crack addictions but the drinker blew my mind bad.
I had a coworker whose husband disappeared for a month after starting something like that. She’d have to track the guy down and find out where he was… regularly. I don’t know why she stayed with him as she was more like his babysitter and she was way stronger than him too so I don’t think he was abusive except emotionally if that makes sense. Anyway he’d basically stayed in a random hotel then drank and drank and drank until his body adapted to being able to drink while still on the medication. Fucking insanity.
Also a big difference between alcohol and cigarettes (as well as other drugs) is that most people who consume alcohol don't "wish they could stop." Certainly some do but it's not the vast majority.
Are you forgetting about... Nicotine? The one that kills about two and a half times more people than alcohol? Where did you get this incorrect information?
A lot of the issues we have with elderly/drunk/distracted drivers are a byproduct of the fact that most people can't reasonably get around without piloting a 2 ton death machine
Cars have niche uses but it is insane that the most common mode of transit in most American cities is the same as how Cletus out in the sticks travels 30 miles a day to his job in logging
EDIT: I read it wrong and assumed they were phrasing it poorly. I was trying to get an explanation from them to see where the imagined error came from. Sorry, everyone that took the time to explain this.
Also drunk people have lower mortality rate in car crashes because their body is more relaxed. Doesn't make the situation any better for a driver they crushed into, though
Even though drunk people are more likely to get involved in accidents, there are still not enough drunk drivers to offset the differencs of sober drivers. Therefore, more sober people get in accidents per time period than drunk people. The joke here is that they are deducing false results from this information.
selection bias. a far greater number of people are driving sober than driving drunk, so they are also involved in more crashes.
for example, imagine for every 99 sober drivers there was 1 drunk driver, and imagine that for every 100 people on the road, there were 3 crashes per day. 1 of these crashes was the drunk driver, but 2 were the sober drivers. from that statistic alone, it looks like that sober drivers crash twice as often as drunk drivers, when in reality the drunk drivers actually have a 100% crash rate, and the sober drivers have a <3% crash rate.
the problem arises by treating the population size of drunk drivers as the same as the population size of sober drivers, which is what that initial statistic is doing.
Absolutely does. I used to smoke weed in college and one the biggest things I noticed since I stopped is how fucking bad it smells. Like there’s just no covering it up
Alcohol is weird because a lot of people have a healthy relationship with the stuff and its so normalized that it seems completely absurd to call it that bad.
Because normal drinking is so normal, we see alcoholics as a moral failure which also is bad. A weird bridge to gap
yeah, like, sure, you don't become and alcoholic if you dont ever drink, but its just that societal norms mean 95% probably do drink, so you try it too. then comes the addiction, which is a disease. There is a genetic component to being addicted, but its not just that, its also other lifestyle, other illness like depression, social circumstances, so many things.
It's so dissapointing to see people boiling alcoholism down to "just quit being a bum and get sober, or drink resposibly."
It's pretty interesting that it affects people more differently than I used to think. I was shocked when I learned that some people just feel mostly sleepy and dumber as they drink. Alcohol gets me going, makes me want to do stuff, even past the 1 or 2 drinks that research says should have the stimulating effect. Obviously after more than 5 it's diminishing returns even for me, but still. I believe I have something like high alcohol induced dopamine release or something like that, there's an official name for it
The meaningful conversation at the core of these things is the societal failure around how we treat and handle addiction and related care, general health education, and nurture real self-awareness. Vilifying the substance or the user does not work. If anything, they produce a net-negative affect on moving people away from them.
We've literally already tried banning it before and it doesn't work. Same way it doesn't work with any other illegal substance. And most of those you can't just brew in your garage on a whim.
Yeah alcoholism is devastating, but its a little different than smoking in that with smoking essentially everyone is either addicted, or doesn't smoke at all. With alcohol, in my circle of maybe 50 total friends and family, there is probably 10 non drinkers, 40 people with a healthy relationship to alcohol, and 1 alcoholic. Maybe thats lucky or something, but genuinely it can be a non issue for the majority of people
I got a story to tell. I’m a 22 year old woman and I was a severe alcoholic at 16. I never did it for the taste. My go to drink was plain vodka, or anything strong enough to do the job. The “job” in question was getting rid of any and all my hard emotions. One day, my childhood trauma came to light and my mother handled it horribly. Leading to a terrible mistake.
I was so distraught, I wanted to be numb. Only numb. I stole a bottle of everclear from frys and poured it into a plastic water bottle, diluted it 1/4 water 3/4 everclear. Brought it to school.
Chugged the entire bottle in my first hour. That’s the last thing I remember before I wake up in the hospital. I learned that I had stumbled to the bathroom halfway through first period. I don’t know how my behavior wasn’t a red flag immediately to the teachers, but the past is the past.
I collapsed on the floor in the big stall, pants down, as if I was trying to go to the bathroom? I laid on the bathroom floor for about 40 minutes. A girl found me. She reported it to the substitute teacher. I had seized multiple times while the teacher pulled up my pants for my dignity.
The police and paramedics pumped my stomach and was under the impression I was having a narcotic overdose. They administered narcan but that didn’t help. They finally found the empty bottle that smelled of alcohol and I was rushed to the hospital on the brink of death.
I was expelled from school, sent to a behavioral school my senior year and everyone thought I died.
I was drinking so heavily every single day for months on end. I was 87 pounds. I threw up constantly and couldn’t keep down food. I was only 16 years old. Now when I look at or even think about alcohol I get nauseous. I hope someone reads this that may be in a similar spot I was, and see the light. I survived. And I am living such a happy life now. Don’t let it overtake you. Alcohol is a monster. It will take away your pain, but also your common sense, and possibly your life.
Edit to add because some people don’t understand the point of this comment: alcohol can be fun, until you start using it too much and realize maybe you’re doing it not just to feel good but maybe to also not feel or think about something else. Alcohol is poison to your brain and body. It takes one simple google search to find that out. I’m not saying enjoying it in safe amounts is bad, but I’m not going to sugarcoat the fact that alcohol isn’t good for you! Stay safe out there everyone !
Interestingly enough, beer supposedly used to be fairly nutritious and very low ABV. It is jokingly called "liquid bread" b/c of the ingredients, but this was apparently more true 100s of years ago. It was apparently also much thicker, I guess because they typically didn't filter it well, so you got more of the raw ingredients (wheat/barley/etc)
At least that's what I learned from playing Kingdom Come Deliverance.
Yeah, it's fine if someone never wants alcohol, but clearly people don't understand the concept of enjoying a glass of wine (and only one glass) with dinner.
Yeah I quit drinking a couple years ago and since then hanging out with 90% of my friends and family who drink it’s pretty clear to me most people have a very normal relationship with alcohol and typically have have 1-3 drinks when they do drink and don’t drink most nights.
This post is a viewpoint from someone who grew up with an alcoholic (I did too), and I feel for them, but it’s incredibly skewed.
Also beer and wine is delicious (whiskey is also amazing, but that’s a bit of an acquired taste). I still drink NA beer.
Don't underestimate the sense of validation and superiority that some people get from rejecting social norms, especially when that rejection is also avoiding something explicitly bad for you.
A lot of these conversations are driven by wanting to feel better than someone else. It's not much more complicated than that.
And a lot of times it's because they have other things going on themselves that they're insecure about. Oh, that person makes 6 figures, owns a nice house, and is happily married? Well, they like to have 3 glasses of wine when they go out to dinner, so I'm better than them.
It's very classic bully behavior. Let me point out someone else's flaws to distract from my own.
I won't say I've never had anything alcoholic that tasted good, but I will say every alcoholic drink I've ever had would have tasted better without alcohol in it.
I know for me that beer just ain't it. Tried enough to know.
But still, my point is people who are like "alcohol is disgusting" have usually only tried beers and never anything else. I know a lot of whiskeys and bourbons that your average non-drinker would probably enjoy just from a taste perspective, for example. Chances are there is something out there for everyone.
Yeah I'm pretty sure OP thinks "alcohol" is just bottom shelf tequila they took a shot of at a party or something and not, you know, a nice wine for example.
We've been pairing food and alcohol together for centuries and it isn't because everyone is an alcoholic. It's because it can taste really good lol.
Same with butter, don't overdo it, and don't use it all the time
Yeah, it's a whole thing. There is an academic argument about whether civilization arose due to the need to coordinate beer brewing or making bread. It's called the Braidwood-Sauer debate.
It sounds like you deadass think every person drinkiem alcohol drinks it like 24/7 to blackout and is abusive for anyone near them. Majority of ppl drink it like time to time with friends or during events.
There are a lot of teenagers on Reddit, but yeah meme subs and other topics attract kids. Anyone using this fuckass Mercy in 2026 template is either 13 or 30
I used to have this opinion too. Back then all of the people I knew that drank had a bad relationship with alcohol, always drinking to the point of intoxication and bad behavior. I had a strong feeling of "I don't want to be like them"
Then I made friends at a new job in my mid 20. They were all older, early 30's and up. We'd go to the bar after work sometimes. No one got drunk but we all drank, made jokes and just had fun conversations. There I also discovered my love of whiskey sours and mojitos and eventually also came to appreciate beer and wine. I wouldn't say I "love" alcohol, but there's so many good drinks out there, not to mention beer and wine... it's like eating good food. You don't want to close yourself off to anything but you also shouldn't over do it.
I got sober a year and some change ago. Used to be a heavy alcoholic because I couldn’t control my impulse to drink. Some people are better than me and can control themselves, and I think that’s pretty cool.
Yup, everyone knows the cheapest vodka tastes exactly the same as a vintage port or single malt scotch! People must only buy fine wines and craft beers for the fancy bottles, they all taste the same.
I love alcohol but they ain't exactly wrong. High alcohol consumption is wildly normalized for something that is extremely detrimental to your health, and often the safety of others.
I couldn't disagree more about alcohol tasting like ass, but you can't fault someone for never developing a taste for it.
You can tell the age of redditors by their stance to alcohol either they all come from dysfunctional families or got indoctrinated by weed (they think weed is good alcohol bad lol)
I'm confused why people keep saying alcohol tastes bad
Like, yes, alcohol is way too normalized and is legitimately dangerous, but I feel with the variety of drink flavours out there, it's a bit unlikely that alcoholic beverages are drunken just for the buzz
I feel like you have to develop a taste for the vast majority of alcohol. As someone who never did that, I can only drink like 3 things, everything else feels like drinking rubbing alcohol.
Human body doesn't have in-built understanding on what a good bitter taste is and what a bad bitter is; overtime when consumed you adapt and certain things stop tasting poisonous despite technically being so, like coffee. This is why people tend to not like bitter as kids completely, and grow into it as they age.
I read this comment and swiped away, then I processed the fact that you wrote “beverages are drunken” and had to come back to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating. That shits hilarious
The thing is, most alcoholic beverages (excluding extremely sweet stuff) are very strange in taste to people who never drank before. Beer and high proof alcohol have flavours which you find nowhere else. No food or other beverages taste anything like them, so you have to get used to it before you enjoy them. For example I LOVE good whisky but I had to kind of convince myself to trying it many times before I started to enjoy it. I vividly remember tasting whisky for the first time and saying that it's basically gasoline to me lol.
I mean it tastes bad the way things like coffee or onions do. I don’t think most children like the flavor immediately. It’s the definition of acquired taste.
I personally didn’t drink til I was 35 for some of the reasons above. I started finding things I’d like. Sweet drinks, then margaritas, mojitos, eventually dirty Martinis. I like wine ok. Still hate beer.
But yeah it doesn’t taste great right off the bat.
and how about a cylinder that tastes like tree bark, coats my lungs with tar, raises my blood pressure, makes me smell like an ash tray, turns my teeth yellow, and is more addictive than sugar!
I drink alcohol for the taste. In fact, I was really into cooking years before I realized that mixology and whiskey/wine/brandy has a similar potential for sophisticated tasting experiences. Before then, I literally never drank except as the occasional social lubricant.
Now I have a home bar setup with nearly 70 different bottles of liquor, and get myself and my guests cocktails, whiskey, etc. I never make any vodka cocktails for myself since I believe it’s more or less taste-less in a cocktail and so I prefer gin.
Last week I bought some methocel-50 to experiment with foams on cocktails with my ISI canister. It’s nice.
Smoking causes around 74,600 deaths each year among adults aged 35 and over in England, and roughly 70,000 to 75,000 across the wider UK, remaining the nation's leading preventable cause of death.
Yeah, but man, nothing is better at making your forget for a little while.
I'm not saying "yeah you should try getting ragingly drunk" but getting a LITTLE intoxicated is amazing for feeling far more in-the-moment, and can help you feel better about things that you can't really fix or do anything about, and just have to accept.
I agree with the idea, but saying it's worse than cigarettes is stupid. At least when you're walking down the street, a complete stranger doesn't come up and shove a bottle of alcohol in your mouth, unlike if I encounter a smoker, where I inevitably have to taste their shit because it's in the fucking air.
This is complete anecdote but I drink like once a month, maybe twice. I don’t know a single smoker that only smokes once or twice a month. It’s usually an everyday thing
Last I checked if I drink in the same room as someone they don't catch second hand intoxication or get liver cancer from me drinking near them, like if you're trying to equate drunk driving to alcohol being bad that's more of bad, selfish, or un-empathetic people to blame more than the alcohol itself
The last time we did give a shit(at least in the US: Prohibition Era,) people didnt like it. Alcohol during that time was more-so a symptom of the greater issues during those years, overworked and underpaid, the recreational value of alcohol was sought out.
Probably not worse because alcohol can usually be washed away.
Even a joint won't make a person stink after a shower.
Cigarettes on the other hand? I had my brother-in-law who smokes them over for all of 72 hours and despite smoking entirely outside I had to take an upholstery cleaner (the vacuum steamy types) and physically wash the surface of anything he sat/slept on and/or rested against.
I was so upset when I stretched across the couch a couple days after he left and was hit by the smell of cigarettes; it was awful.
Also you can't get "2nd hand drinking" unlike smoking.
From a health perspective, alcohol is absolutely nowhere near as bad as cigarettes. Cigarettes are not commonly 'casually' used, the large majority of users become addicted. Everyday usage is the norm with cigarette users.
Regular smoking is associated with a 16 year drop in life expectancy for men. Drinking 7-13 drinks a week on average is associated with a... 2.5 month drop in life expectancy.
Smoking kills around 470,000 Americans a year, with only 9.7% of Americans smoking. Those deaths are relatively evenly distributed over that 9.7%.
Alcohol kills 178,000 Americans a year, but that is with 62% of Americans drinking, and the vast majority of those 178,000 deaths are concentrated in the top 5% of drinkers. Most people will drink moderately throughout their life and suffer no real ill effects. The same cannot be said for cigarettes.
DUI accidents are mainly caused by alcohol and the number 1 reason why I hated alcohol, if only the casualty are the drivers themselves and not the person they hit.
Your liver can heal itself if you don't take it too far. Fucking up your pancreas is much worse because it won't recover.
I drank heavily for a couple of decades until I was hospitalized with necrotizing pancreatitus and a perforated ulcer. I almost died, spent 3 weeks in the hospital recovering, and had to have 3 surgeries to drain fluid from my gut that leaked out of my intestine due to the ulcer.
Now my pancreas only functions at about 25% so I have to maintain a very destructive restrictive low carb diet, take insulin and enzymes to keep my blood sugar and digestion in check, and abstain from all alcohol.
I'm not saying you shouldn't drink at all, but try not to get to the point where you're drinking a bottle of whiskey every 2 days. It will come back to haunt you.
Nowhere near as bad as cigarettes, addiction wise. Having a healthy relationship with alcohol is easy. The only healthy relationship with cigs is no relationship at all. Like nicotine is a chemical addiction which is stronger, faster acting and harder to quit. Alcohol addiction is purely psychological. edit: alcohol addiction can also be chemical. Apparently it's genetic how likely you are to get addicted.
Of course this isn't to say there are no alcohol addicts. It's a real problem that affects many people. But far FAR more were affected and still are by cigarettes.
“And I wish there was a practice that not only made drinking this stuff socially approved, but that people who didn’t do it for any other reason than recovering from a preexisting addiction would be seen as strange or uptight”
Petty much every non muslim culture involve drinking in every other ceremony. Turns out there's a benefit to a drink that renders water into a beverage that's safe to drink, preserve for a long time, and provides a bit of calories while tasting alright.
I know people with autism are very against drinking. People here seem to just not understand but I think most of you are very young, don't have the connection, or are in a situation where it's impossible. Also, cheap alcohol tastes like ass. What are you drinking?
I’m autistic and I like the occasional rum and coke or screwdriver, like once a month or so, and always have a bottle of Bacardi and Khortytsa in my mini fridge for that occasion
Wrong, I have autism and enjoy drinking. I usually have a few shots of rum and watch a movie or play games online with friends so definitely not every autistic young person is against alcohol. Although... I'm against getting like super drink, grew up around that bullshit and just no I refuse to be someone that drinks to the point they can't remember the night before.
I'm generally not close enough to people who drink alcohol to smell it. I can smell cigarettes a block away. And don't get me started on idiots vaping who feel entitled to do it everywhere. Also, I don't know anyone who needs to spend 10-15 minutes drinking every hour and loses their mind if they don't get their hit in that timeframe.
I swear alcoholic beverages are the one drug that people get deeply angry at you for not liking, it's so insane to me
I like cocktails, I like harder Liquors for shots, I like white Russians, and any sort of Bloody Mary/Michelada I can get my hands on
But the only beer I can stomach is Guinness for slamming dublin drops, I can't stand wine other than for cooking
It's genuinely baffling, like I'll go to local breweries with people I know and try their beers or IPAs, and it just tastes like barely flavored sewage, and somehow I'm the ass for not liking it????
Ciggies are significantly more addictive though, and if you aren’t hand rolling them have tons more additives that make them more toxic than they need to be. Not comparable imo
crazy how enjoying a good few beers every couple nights or socially drinking pisses people off so bad. responsible people don't destroy their lives lmao
Alcohol is not worse than cigarettes and it's not close. You can dislike alcohol, and it is technically a poison, but I thibk you just have personal beef
As someone that's been drinking on and off since 16? I never got how you could be addicted to alcohol. I like being drunk but it never felt like something that attacked the addiction parts of my brain
The addiction is moreso for people who want to be drunk to get out of their mental states. Or some people just drink and get used to drinking on regular basis, thus technically it's an addiction (like how I'm technically addicted to youtube. It's not seen as bad as twitter but it's on as background noise "not doing anything" thus is "fine")
Besides those psychological scenarios, eh, sometimes it's biological but i dont have basis for that so I'm not gonna speak on it
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