Have you ever heard or seen something that initially seemed to be totally fine, until you saw just how truly dangerous it actually is?
What is a much bigger threat than initially presented?
Have you ever heard or seen something that initially seemed to be totally fine, until you saw just how truly dangerous it actually is?
What is a much bigger threat than initially presented?
Hard disagree, but that might have a lot to do with me being Scottish.
“Only the people who prayed lived” is an easy statement to make as the dead ones can’t speak for themselves.
“Alcohol is why I have friends” is understandably believed because you’ll never know the life you’d have had had you not drank it.
I get it’s the pillar of many cultures and a welcome one at that, but the fact it’s a proven carcinogen should not be dismissed, forgotten, or trivialized.
Nobody’s denying alcohol has risks — it’s a carcinogen, that’s just a fact. But risk isn’t all-or-nothing. A weekend drink in a social setting is not the same thing as chronic heavy use, and public health research makes that distinction.
The “you’ll never know the life you’d have had without it” line is basically unfalsifiable — you could say that about anything from coffee to football to religion. Humans bond over shared rituals, and in many cultures moderate drinking is one of them. That social connection has measurable wellbeing benefits too.
It being unfalsifiable is the point because it meant to be a pendulum to your unfalsifiable original point that you’re thankful for alcohol because you see it as the reason you have the outcome in life that you did.
Many people have traveled and made friends, they did not need a carcinogen to do it, which nullifies it from being a positive exclusive to alcohol.
Dial back the sanctimony, Amigo. BBQs are a carcinogen. Do you berate people who invite you to a BBQ as trying to lure you to a carcinogen event?
There’s no berating here or superiority being touted. At least that is not my intention.
The entire point of the question was to provide an example of something that is understatedly more harmful to us than originally presented.
I said alcohol and it hasn’t a “net” positive; meaning whatever benefits people think it has is outweighed by the fact it may give you cancer. Your response— as I read it, as it met my statement with a smile— was dismissive of that because you’ve made friends.
I’m now just arguing that that positive benefit is not exclusive to alcohol and should not be in its “pro” column.
At no point have I meant to imply someone is better than others to abstain from it; however, perhaps this is an example to clarify what I think your point was that this is a negative of being sober or opting to not drink, is that you cannot make friends with some people because they will feel judged by your abstinence.
I did say I wouldn’t want to be friends with those people, but that’s more because I don’t enjoy the social pressure or situation in which someone else in my immediacy.is uncomfortable by my personal choice that only affects me.