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Alcohol
iirc it’s a confirmed, 100% proven carcinogen and is a poison with zero net benefits.
Humanity has a penchant for making "taking some poison" part of social gatherings. This isn't exclusive to alcohol or tobacco, recreational drugs have been a social lubricant for millenia.
and addictive
No net benefits today.
Various alcoholic drinks of the past were a benefit in helping to provide hydration and calories in an unclean environment.
But doesn't alcohol dehydrate?
In large concentrations. A lot of beer back in the day was small beer with an alcohol content closer to a light beer today. The drawbacks of the low amount of alcohol was made up for by not getting an intestinal infection.
Some of the best times of my life in my 20s were enabled through alcohol. I traveled the world using my own money, met countless interesting people in pubs and at festivals.
As I sit, fully sober at my workstation in the office some 20 years, later I can think back to those times and can't help but pity anyone who says it has zero net benefits.
yeah. people drink it because its a damn good social lubricant.
keyword is "net" -- you made friends, but the health risks involved may considerably offset that benefit.
i'm sober and have made countless friends sans alcohol, many of them drink themselves; and if alcohol was a contingent on them being my friend, I'm not sure I'd want to be friends with them.
Hard disagree, but that might have a lot to do with me being Scottish.
“Only the people who prayed lived” is an easy statement to make as the dead ones can’t speak for themselves.
“Alcohol is why I have friends” is understandably believed because you’ll never know the life you’d have had had you not drank it.
I get it’s the pillar of many cultures and a welcome one at that, but the fact it’s a proven carcinogen should not be dismissed, forgotten, or trivialized.
Nobody’s denying alcohol has risks — it’s a carcinogen, that’s just a fact. But risk isn’t all-or-nothing. A weekend drink in a social setting is not the same thing as chronic heavy use, and public health research makes that distinction.
The “you’ll never know the life you’d have had without it” line is basically unfalsifiable — you could say that about anything from coffee to football to religion. Humans bond over shared rituals, and in many cultures moderate drinking is one of them. That social connection has measurable wellbeing benefits too.
I mean nobody drinks it because it's healthy.
But but but muh 1 glass of red wine a day study!
Zero net benefits my ass! 🖕🏻
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