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This isn’t culture war for today. It was between roughly 1918-1930’s. It’s short and about why he quit drinking alcohol. In my opinion he hit all the key points on the subject, his logic is correct, and wrote it in a very concise way.
He does seem to miss drinking alcohol. I have to agree as a mild alcoholic he’s correct. I think he’s also correct that cannabis isn’t the great substitute society now claims it is. Shrooms I am far less sure on.
It’s not culture war today but I’ve grown a lot of respect for the prohibitionists as being basically correct. I also wanted to post this as I felt like it’s a good example of fantastic writing.
https://pmarca.substack.com/p/on-pausing-alcohol?r=h8x
Edit: should we either more explicitly allow less culture war subjects or have another thread. Sitting on an Afghanistan article I found that was good journalism but it’s not heavily culture war
He made a followup post: https://pmarca.substack.com/p/followup-on-pausing-alcohol
As an alcoholic (not physically addicted, but sure am mentally), I've been experimenting with not drinking. I feel just like Marc does. I sleep and exercise and just generally live MUCH better when not drinking. But fucking hell, I'm less happy. I love the depressed/self-destructive/edge-off/dopey feeling of being drunk.
I feel like people who really get his comments have had some alcoholism in there life. I personally can’t buy a bottle of alcohol without finishing the whole thing in 24 hours. I end up talking myself into having a glass of whiskey to relax at the end of the night and it’s all gone the next day.
Does seem like he’s on to something about finding new drugs. Humans do need a social lubricant. I think the evolutionary biologist would say it arised from a natural fear of strangers or something like that. In the modern world where strangers are not dangerous a relaxant is needed. Something ideally without long term health problems from consumption and preferebly with low or no risks of addiction.
I sort of want to write a reply here as a woke prohibitionists using their rhetorical tricks. Scolding people who drink fine and not wanting it banned because a lot of other Americans suffer from the abundant availability of alcohol.
He seems to be writing this from the perspective of someone who knows he has some troubling drinking issues. And isn’t quite capable of taking away the bigger negative side effects on binge drinking. Seeing other comments some people just get this because they do it themselves. And some write in a style where they don’t get it and likely don’t have the same issues.
This is the same for me, but I'm a beer drinker. Part of why I only drink beer is that it's much, much harder (neigh impossible) to get physically addicted.
The way I avoid drinking is to just not buy any beer. If I buy a six pack, it's gone in 24 hours, and then I wish I had bought more. When I don't have beer I end up looking in the fridge anyway to see if maybe I missed a can somewhere the last time I looked. It's not great.
Something that really helped me was getting a garmin watch. It really lays bare how much of a difference even one drink makes. It doesn't have a "tell me whether I had a drink or not" mode, but it certainly could get one added based on how clearly it knows my sleep and recovery are worse on days I drink. My HRV and restlessness in sleep are drastically worse.
Of course I say this all while I'm hung over and feel too shitty to exercise because I drank too much yesterday...
Are you me? I was about to write this same post. I also stopped buying beer. It's been less than a month, and I've done a few bouts of sobriety before (30-60 days worth, twice in the past three years), but after enough mornings after too much beer, I just resigned myself to not buying it. I'll drink if I go out, but if there are cans in the house, I'm going to find them and drink them.
I also stopped buying cannabis at the same time, mostly because getting high makes me want to get drunk, and getting drunk makes me want to get high.
I think it’s just a heavily common experience. 10-20% of the population probably falls into this grouping. And some probably limit the issue with kids keeping them busy.
It’s also very curious that 3 of our last 4 POTUS are sober. Bush was an alcoholic and fully gave up. Biden and Trump don’t drink. It’s almost like you get incredibly bored without alcohol to distract you and need to find major goals to carry yourself.
And fwiw I think a non-drinking potus is a bad thing. I think people are far more chill and get along with each other who do. It’s like being an alien who doesn’t follow the normal cultural rituals.
As someone whose normal alcohol intake rounds to zero, I have no idea what the rest of you are talking about. Being drunk is awful. My head hurts, I can't think or talk straight, I'm super sweaty, plus a few other random pulls from the Grab-Bag of Unpleasant Symptoms! There's like this teeny thin line where I've had just enough to disinhibit myself, but not so much that my body starts going haywire that's pleasant, but it's just about impossible to maintain for more than about 10 minutes at a time. I enjoy the taste of a few beers, wines, and whiskies, but barely ever drink them because the side-effects of the booze are so unpleasant.
Maybe you are consuming too much at once
For reference, the amount of alcohol intake I find pleasurable in an evening is [two fingers of whisky / a glass of wine / a beer] consumed slowly over a 2- to 4-hour period. Anything more turns unpleasant quickly.
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