>If you like to go out on the weeks and drink 8 beers with your friends, all the more power to you. People have been drinking since time immemorial, it's part of who we are as human.
This just isn't true at all and it's probably offensive to large groups of people who view alcohol drinking (with pretty good reason) as a vice.
Abstaining from alcohol is also a praised act since time immemorial. Trying to keep one's mind and body free from intoxicants is also a noble goal and is something that is part of us as human, AND it is what distinguishes us from animals (animals in general don't abstain from things out of sheer willpower, but human beings in general do, be it dieting, teetotaling, etc.).
Life is also too short for you to accelerate your end voluntarily by drinking 8 drinks in one night in rapid succession.
This is the only part of modern social life where it's okay to tell people to do risky and dangerous behaviors which endanger the public. Excessive drunkenness is a public health problem. This past year should have made us keen to the fact that many actions we take for granted have consequences on others
Abstaining from alcohol is also a praised act since time immemorial. Trying to keep one's mind and body free from intoxicants is also a noble goal and is something that is part of us as human, AND it is what distinguishes us from animals (animals in general don't abstain from things out of sheer willpower, but human beings in general do, be it dieting, teetotaling, etc.).
This just isn't the truth. "Free from intoxicants" might be noble for some, but on the other hand, different sorts of intoxicants have been used for religion for a very, very long time. Folks have used this stuff for a very long time - not just alcohol. Folks to this day espouse the benefits of things like LSD and MDMA: pot/hash can be used to good effect.
Not to mention that folks bond over such experiences. Drinking 8 drinks in a night isn't necessarily dangerous, depending on the strength of the alcohol - no one said it was rapid either, nor unsafe. Just like you an do LSD or mushrooms and not be unsafe.
And there is just no way to know if animals abstain from things out of sheer willpower: We simply cannot communicate with animals on a level to give us that understanding. Animals DO seem to partake of mind-altering substances, though. (catnip, anyone?).
We tell folks to drive every day, and driving is a risky and dangerous behavior which easily endangers the public, by teh way.
1) If I want to accelerate my end voluntarily, that is my prerogative.
2) You have no evidence that drinking 8 beers in one sitting once a week will cause (1). Send me lots of studies that link excessive alcohol consumption to esophageal cancer, I will send you lots of studies that show the opposite.
3) Not everyone drinks excessively and partakes in "risky and dangerous behaviors which endanger the public" (this is a ridiculous assumption you're making). I do not drink and drive. I live in a city where I can walk home. etc. 99% percent of the time I actually am at home with friends, even pre-covid.
Quote frankly... I don't even binge drink that often, but I will defend anyone's right to do so, without judgement.
noble is very subjective. I'm sure some religions(judio-christian) might see it as noble, but that is far from the only view point, before or since those religions
This just isn't true at all and it's probably offensive to large groups of people who view alcohol drinking (with pretty good reason) as a vice.
Abstaining from alcohol is also a praised act since time immemorial. Trying to keep one's mind and body free from intoxicants is also a noble goal and is something that is part of us as human, AND it is what distinguishes us from animals (animals in general don't abstain from things out of sheer willpower, but human beings in general do, be it dieting, teetotaling, etc.).
Life is also too short for you to accelerate your end voluntarily by drinking 8 drinks in one night in rapid succession.
This is the only part of modern social life where it's okay to tell people to do risky and dangerous behaviors which endanger the public. Excessive drunkenness is a public health problem. This past year should have made us keen to the fact that many actions we take for granted have consequences on others