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Comment by klardotsh | Hacker News Reader

Alcohol and caffeine are the only two drugs I can think of (okay, in some circles maybe cannabis too) where the response to "I cut this thing out of my life" is often "why?" or "you know you could still do a little?"

One exercise to illustrate the ridiculousness and disrespect of phrases like that is to replace "alcohol" with "crack".

"I don't do crack anymore" would basically never be responded to with "you know, you could still have a little crack every so often!", so what's the difference? Some folks don't do alcohol anymore. And whether that's for health reasons, for "I'm tired of dancing on the bartops" reasons, or just for "I got bored of the scene" reasons, that's their business.

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"Alcohol is humanity's oldest friend. How could I abandon a friend?" - Yang Wenli

The difference is the huge influence alcohol has had on all human cultures throughout history. Yes, it's poison, but it's our poison.

Plus 1 to the LOGH reference using it as if it was real historical person who said that.

Yep, carry a vice for long enough and it becomes a virtue. It takes a great mind to see this for the folly it is. So can't fault a normal person for not being able to.

I'll tell that to my alcoholic mom next time I'm home and she's done downing her daily bottle of wine, I'm sure I'll feel much better

That’s an absurd comparison… crack is no where near as harmful as alcohol

You had me in the first half, not gonna lie... :P

> crack is no where immediately as harmful as alcohol

FTFY :P

Clearly you’re bot talking about per capita harm?

I don't know about "per-capita harm" but based on some loose research and opinions of doctors, alcohol is overwhelmingly more harmful overall (to self and to society) than anything else. The next drug on the list is heroin but it's not even close, followed closely by crack, and then crystal meth is an extremely distant fourth place followed by cocaine. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/206300#2

Is that because alcohol is a magnitude or so more widely used than any of the other (hard) drugs we consider to be harmful?

That article is vague and I don’t think the overall methodology is that good, however it does say:

“ The most harmful drugs to the individual are heroin, crack and crystal meth “

if the same number of people who regularly consume alcohol chose to use crack instead.. well I bet the situation would be a whole lot worse.

In the case above, that's because it was invited.

Saying "I cut this thing out of my life" is one thing, it's another to say "I cut this thing out of my life, and so should you". The former is a statement about one's own preferences; the latter introduces a conversation about how much of the thing should be in the lives of the people in the discussion.

That's two people expressing opinions about how often the other ought have that thing in their life. The person who initiated that should know that.

The difference is that it's legal and widely enjoyed by others. Cigarettes are too but there's been a widespread shift in public opinion meaning this doesn't occur.

You'll sometimes see the same stuff said if someone announces they are vegetarian or made another dietary change.

I did the trifecta in the past year of cutting alcohol (still on an indefinite break from that), caffeine (my 7 months sans-caffeine has now ended due to lack of many positive changes; may as well allow myself a Coke every so often if I want), and meat (3mos and counting), so yeah, I definitely get it. I've had inquisitive eyebrow-raises at all three, though fewer of them the more things I changed (folks just started assuming I was in a Trying New Things time, thankfully)

One thing I forgot, is the psychology behind it - it seems in my experience at least, people want people to enjoy things they enjoy. You get this with meat eaters telling vegetarians "just try a steak once to see how it is, it can't hurt", people asking their friends to drink or try drugs (or MMOs), or in my case seafood - hate the stuff, I think my genes are messed up meaning it basically tastes like garbage to me. But people that have known me for a while still ask me to "just try it".

Anyway what I'm getting at, is they will be a lot more open to suggesting these things when the thing is legal, both due to pure numbers of fellow enjoyers you encounter but also social factors of being open about it. Up until they get used to your change, then they might stop.

>One exercise to illustrate the ridiculousness and disrespect of phrases like that is to replace "alcohol" with "crack".

Or replace it with "oxygen" and see how ridiculous it is to suggest absteining from it. See how bad analogies cut both ways?

Yes, it's ridiculous to suggest abstaining from a thing that all known living entities on Earth require for sustenance. I'll give you a hint: that thing is not ethanol. And besides, nobody's saying, by saying "I don't do alcohol anymore", that YOU can't down all the Everclear you want, so I have no idea where this overly-defensive comment came from.

>so I have no idea where this overly-defensive comment came from.

A, ad-hominem pop psychology, the hallmark of every good argument.

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