this post was submitted on 23 Dec 2024
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Alcohol.

Lots and lots of people lean heavily on it and think that alcohol is the spice of their life. When, it contributes to so many problems than it's so-called benefits. We tried, in America anyways, to outright ban alcohol. Problem was that the person who wanted it banned, was too extremist.

Like he didn't think it all through and think just going for the jugular of the problem is what will work. When, it didn't and just made people work around it until eventually the ban was dismantled.

So, since then, we've been putting up with drunk drivers, drunk disputes, drunk abusers and other issues. I still wish we could just slam our hands down at the desk and demand we sit to discuss in how to properly deal with this issue than people proclaiming that it's not a problem.

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[–] shinigamiookamiryuu@lemm.ee 3 points 3 hours ago

I have wondered this about certain harmful cultural values. Culture seems to be the "great enabler" when it comes to things we would wish would change about people (think of Japan's habit of overworking people or Greece's penchant of old inequality). And the fuel of the flame there is going to take a gamechanger to douse.

[–] Anissem@lemmy.ml 9 points 6 hours ago (2 children)

Lying in bed, debating if you have to pee bad enough to get up

[–] Num10ck@lemmy.world 2 points 3 hours ago

keep an empty gatorade bottle by your bed. wide mouth, soft lipped.

[–] svc@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyz 2 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

What are you talking about? Catheters have already solved this problem

[–] Anissem@lemmy.ml 2 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

You have to take it out though

[–] svc@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyz 2 points 6 hours ago

That's a different problem. Or, if you don't want to solve that problem, you'll have an infection problem. But you don't have to worry about getting out of bed in the middle of the night anymore.

[–] Cruxifux@feddit.nl 13 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

I don’t think we will ever have a society that is truly saved from class warfare. I think that the upper classes will always exist in some form and they will always oppress the vast majority of the population, with varying degrees of brutality. I also think this is the most important issue in our society and must be dealt with. It’s depressing.

[–] Funkytom467@lemmy.world 13 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

In Marx's own idea the point were class warfare is no more is when our civilization can satisfy any needs of anyone.

It would be the ultimate goal of communism, perfect equity through infinite automation of all resources.

Then they would only be art, philosophy, science and social activities.

Except, as long as there's limited resources, fighting for it is our nature. To the point of having to much if may be.

[–] folkrav@lemmy.ca 2 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

Considering how little we actually know, how much we are still figuring out today, how wrong we once were, and most definitely still are on many things, about said nature, the naturalistic argument is IMHO rather weak. The argument silently assumes too many things, at least with our current knowledge - that human beings do actually have an inherent nature, that said nature is uniform enough across the whole species to make that generalization, that said nature is inevitable and can't be evolved past or rationalized against, that it always was the case and will always be, etc.

[–] harsh3466@lemmy.ml 6 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Human beings. The issue is humans.

[–] tetris11@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

You humans sure are a contentious bunch

[–] deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz 1 points 1 hour ago

You've made an enemy for life!

[–] UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml 10 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (2 children)

Getting consent to creating a life from a unborn child. Every human being was raped into existence by their parents.

Rent is due in 7 days.

[–] otp@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 hours ago

I don't know if that's a problem with society so much as it is a problem with reality.

...or a problem with time and sequences of events.

[–] Funkytom467@lemmy.world 0 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Everyone has the option to stop their lifes if wish be.

Most don't not just from some technicalities but because parents or otherwise we have a biological urge to consent to being alive and make live being.

The consent is from our nature and only extreme circumstances makes it otherwise.

[–] als@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 3 hours ago

Not true, police come and lock you up if they catch you trying to stop being alive

[–] EABOD25@lemm.ee 10 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

There's no problem in society that can't be fixed. But the problem is there's too much conclusion without proper understanding

[–] stinky@redlemmy.com 7 points 8 hours ago (1 children)
[–] SleepyBear@lemmy.world 8 points 8 hours ago (2 children)

I understand the point in OPs post, but I disagree with it based upon evidence we have available to us. I think first and foremost it is important to mention (I dont have the studies linked but it shouldnt be hard to find) that teenage drug use overall is trending downward, with that including underage alcohol use/abuse. If younger generations use it less, the problems caused by alcoholism will be less prevalent as time goes on. Secondly, weve been putting up with drunk drivers for a while but (as our younger generations have been told for about 20 years now) the consequences for drunk or impaired operation of a motor vehicle have become more and more severe. I do believe alcoholism is something that can and will be phased out given enough time. The only thing that is still a mystery is what vice is going to replace it, and whether it is going to be better or worse.

[–] Funkytom467@lemmy.world 2 points 7 hours ago

Yeah education and prevention were always the best measure against addictions. But when it's something deeply ingrained in society it takes time to move on. I like to think society is it's own living thing, evolving much slower.

[–] freagle@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 7 hours ago

Driving will end long before drinking will

[–] PonyOfWar@pawb.social 5 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Crime. There'll never be a world without it and at some point society will have to realize that there's an "acceptable level of crime", beyond which any further measures to reduce it would be unacceptably authoritarian.

[–] MutilationWave@lemmy.world 2 points 4 hours ago

Fix poverty and you fix crime. I mean there will always be people with severe mental disorders that make them violent or deadly, but this could also be potentially handled by making complete mental health check ups part of universal healthcare. People who are likely to become violent could be separated from the population and potentially cured.

I remember the case of a 6 year old girl who was adopted from a situation of severe abuse, violent, sexual, and neglect. She became a violence obsessed psychopath. She kept trying to stick needles in herself along with other self harm behaviors. She attacked her adoptive parents with a knife. After this they locked her in her room at night and put a lock on their bedroom door. She attempted to kill her brother, and tortured and killed animals.

There is a documentary about her called Child of Rage. Warning - this is extremely disturbing.

Eventually, as no progress was being made, she went to live with a therapist for intense behavior modification therapy. She was cured without the use of drugs. Now she is a successful RN and author.

I went way off track here but I wanted to reemphasize that poverty is the source of the vast majority of crime, and even the most broken psychopaths can be cured.

End poverty, end child abuse, end crime. End capitalism.

[–] iii@mander.xyz 6 points 8 hours ago (3 children)

Alcohol abuse is a symptom of trauma. Trauma begets trauma. That's the thing never solved. Take away alcohol, it'll find another avenue.

[–] stinky@redlemmy.com 5 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Studies have shown that not all alochol abuse is trauma-related.

https://filtermag.org/addiction-trauma/

[–] MutilationWave@lemmy.world 1 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

That's an interesting article. I appreciate that they mention that the studies may be flawed because they attained wildly different data, probably due to methodology. They also mention that people with personality disorders are often not caught by these surveys.

[–] stinky@redlemmy.com 1 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

Did you not read it? Personality disorders ARE caught by the studies. The article references a 2020 study by Elizabeth A. Evans et al., which explicitly examined the prevalence of personality disorders among people with opioid use disorder. It states, β€œ55.1 percent of women and 57.0 percent of men with opioid use disorder were found to have a personality disorder, such as borderline, antisocial, etc." Also, the article mentions findings from 16 studies on antisocial personality disorder among people with alcohol use disorder (AUD). Seven studies explored borderline personality disorder in AUD populations, with prevalence estimates ranging from 6–66 percent and a median of 21 percent. These wide-ranging results reflect the inclusion of personality disorders in the research.

I'm certain you misspoke?

[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 6 points 8 hours ago (3 children)

Not to mention it occurs naturally in rotting fruit. It would be like attempting to ban photosynthesis.

Are we gonna outlaw yeast, too?

[–] deepfriedchril@lemmy.world 8 points 8 hours ago

Stay away from my bread.

[–] iii@mander.xyz 6 points 8 hours ago

During prohibition in the US, there was inoculated fruit juice being sold with the warning like: "do not leave unattended for 2 weeks at room temperature, as it may ferment".

[–] UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml 3 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago) (1 children)

Weed is illegal in many parts of the world, as are psychedelic mushrooms.

And those are even harder to make consumable than fruit literally fermenting on a tree, or yeast getting into some sugary drink.

So unless we’re gonna get rid of leavened bread and cut down every Marula tree we’re not getting rid of alcohol.

[–] themeatbridge@lemmy.world 3 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Sometimes alcohol abuse is just addiction. Trauma soon follows, though.

[–] iii@mander.xyz 5 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

A person chases oblivion for a reason. In my experience.

[–] ComradeMiao@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 6 hours ago (1 children)
[–] MutilationWave@lemmy.world 2 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

I'm not OP, but I am a former alcoholic, and the son of a woman who drank herself to death.

In many cases we have severe untreated mental illness, often inherited and/or from childhood trauma. We are generally suicidal. Getting black out drunk (chasing oblivion) is better than living with your thoughts and emotions.

Anecdotally, I'd like to add that most of the many alcoholics I've known have very strong empathy and emotional intelligence. The sad state of the world certainly contributes to some people's alcoholism. I know it did with mine.

For many reasons, alcoholics choose to kill themselves slowly with alcohol rather than a faster way that could cause even more grief and pain to the people around them.

[–] themeatbridge@lemmy.world 1 points 5 hours ago

I believe that has been your personal experience, but that's not the case for everyone. Addiction isn't rational, and alcoholism wears a lot of costumes.

[–] ex_06@slrpnk.net 3 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago) (1 children)

β€œRandom” events of β€œevil”. Basically I think we’ll never reach something like 0 murders, 0 rapes, 0 stealing for little greed and so on. Or even 0 addiction (edit: i'm not including addiction to the previous list of crimes, i wanted to add it as another class of issues for we will never reach a true 0)

We are very very far from the ideal situation tho, there is a looot of margin of improvement

Like your alcohol thing in the post: ban only makes it worse and still now you (as US, not you OP) have a very weird relationship with alcohol with the thing that minors cannot touch it and people have to drink from a paper bag lol. Let’s say that you are not really trying hard to improve the situation. We’ll never reach 0 alcoholists but society is not in a good shape and alcohol is cheap so ye

[–] stinky@redlemmy.com 5 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Addiction is often people trying to escape from pain using anything they have available. It's not evil.

[–] ex_06@slrpnk.net 6 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago) (1 children)

yes, hence why i used a dot before it. i guess it's not clear and i should edit

tell me if it's better now :)

[–] stinky@redlemmy.com 2 points 6 hours ago

oh, ok, thank you

[–] freagle@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 7 hours ago

None. Society is constructed by us, including all of its "issues". We built it all.

[–] Anissem@lemmy.ml 1 points 6 hours ago

You know that thing, when you’re walking through an isle in a store and each person tries to step aside and so ensues some of the most awkward moments? That.

[–] j4k3@lemmy.world 0 points 8 hours ago

The limited scope of human attention and the ineptitude it creates in governance is impossible for a mortal being to fix in our finite existence. We will eventually formulate an AGI that can address this primal flaw, but defining who or what is fixing the issue becomes an unsolvable philosophical paradox in the idealized fantasy world of philosophical definition.