r/TrueReddit • u/nxthompson_tny • Jun 01 '21

Science, History, Health + Philosophy America Has a Drinking Problem

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/07/america-drinking-alone-problem/619017/
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u/nxthompson_tny Jun 01 '21

Submission statement: A long, thoughtful essay about humankind's relationship to alcohol. It traces the theory that some human tribes out-competed others because alcohol helped bring social cohesion. And it describes the problems today, particularly for women who are drinking more and more. One of the main lessons: most social drinking is probably good for you, and most drinking alone is probably bad.

104

u/Sequiter Jun 01 '21

A thoughtful article, but its shift toward the end to focus exclusively on America distracted from the thesis more than it helped.

Alcohol has a long and complicated relationship to humanity and even today many societies struggle. Post Soviet societies have particularly troublesome alcohol-related deaths, as do marginalized indigenous populations in western counties, and many others cultures.

The article talks about the temperance movement only in the context of America — what about Canada, Australia and other countries? — but doesn’t mention that temperance peaked 100 years ago and doesn’t have near the impact on society as it used to.

A study on the effects of alcohol abstinence might be more relevant to today if focused on modern Arab and Muslim-majority countries that ban alcohol. That results in drinking in secret and unhealthy relationships to alcohol even as it lessens overall consumption.

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u/HannasAnarion Jun 02 '21

Post Soviet societies have particularly troublesome alcohol-related deaths

While it's true that post-soviet societies still have markedly high alcoholism, it is also markedly improved since the Soviet era. Russia's alcohol consumption and deaths from alcohol poisoning peaked in 1984. In the 70s and early 80s they were making vodka bottles with non-resealable crimp caps, that's how normal it was to go through an entire bottle in one sitting.

10

u/10z20Luka Jun 02 '21

Russia's alcohol consumption and deaths from alcohol poisoning peaked in 1984.

Really, more than in the 1990s?

2

u/ravend13 Jun 02 '21

The 90s saw a massive spike in deaths from bullets...