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Comment by Cyph0n | Hacker News Reader

I'm always interested to see how people react to a news article or study that criticizes alcohol. I have noticed over time that alcohol consumption is usually a taboo subject to discuss for some reason, and almost everyone I talk to immediately gets on the defensive when I say that I don't drink and never will. Can anyone shed some light on why exactly people don't like it when someone doesn't drink, especially when it's for health reasons?

Anyways, I'm not surprised that most of the comments here are either outright defensive or are just proposing ways to undermine the content of the study. Reading through the comments, arguments include: the one size fits all "correlation is not causation", ad hominem attacks on WaPo itself, half-jokingly accusing the article author of drinking, and arguing the semantics of what constitutes a "drink".

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This happens with any large lifestyle choices. If you bring up a study about having kids or religion increases or decreases your risk of depression or life fulfilment you'll see the same thing.

People feel passionately about life choices they've made.

That's a good point actually. I never thought of it that way.

> almost everyone I talk to immediately gets on the defensive when I say that I don't drink and never will

Choosing not to drink is your choice to make. But if _almost everyone_ you talk to about it goes into defensive mode, that sounds really weird. Are you around people that don't react normally to social situations? "No thanks, I don't drink" is a common thing to hear for anybody.

Depending upon tone, some people may view it as a "I am holier than thou" type comment. I cannot drink for legit medical reasons and when I tell people that the common reaction is "have a drink anyway" but I haven't had anyone be defensive about it.

"No thanks, I'm driving". Works for me.

Alcohol has a social function that goes far beyond drunkenness itself. It's used as a bonding tool or as a way to establish trust (In vino veritas?) and determines how a large portion of recreational time is spent. It can signal cultural identities and social class, and so can the absence of drink. For instance, some religions forbid inebriation and some countries and classes have an extensively developed interest in specific forms of alcohol. Lastly, there is a complex moral aspect to consumption that can leave drinkers in a hostile mood if confronted by someone who doesn't drink, even if that person had the best intentions. This is especially true if you add your prediction that you will never drink in the future.

I'm sure I'm overlooking a few things but if you put this all together it's unsurprising that you encountered negative appraisals of your own lifestyle and that this study was met with doubt.

Similar to the "stupid things" comment, I think it's that people who drink tend to have so much fun doing so, that they extrapolate what you're saying into "I don't like to have fun." Obviously that's not likely to be the case, but the strong association people have between drinking and fun makes them draw that correlation... thinking that they won't have as much fun with you unless you get on the same wavelength. Pretty dumb.

> Anyways, I'm not surprised that most of the comments here are either outright defensive or are just proposing ways to undermine the content of the study

To be fair, alcohol is one of those topics where research is frequently contradictory: Studies sometimes show moderate consumption is healthy (or has no effect on mortality rate, at least), and others show no amount of consumption is healthy. Even meta-studies frequently contradict each other.

Given that, I think it's fair for people to be extremely skeptical of studies involving alcohol (and coffee, our other favorite drug that no one's quite clear on).

I think people fear that the heavy hand of the state - or employers wielding powerful economic incentives - will come down on alcohol as it did on tobacco. Once something is declared "unhealthy" there is strong pressure to eliminate it, as health and productivity are the twin goods of modern society. I'm a nonsmoker, but I feel for that group of smokers (mostly pipe and cigar afficionados) that have had one of their major pleasures curtailed.

"and never will" is a fairly aggressive claim and implies alcohol is super bad. Just saying I don't drink is way less aggressive.

Alcohol itself is not a taboo subject. People like to brag about what kind of stupid things they did when drinking. After that, not drinking is kind of like saying "I don't do that kind of stupid things".

I suppose it depends on context - where would a person be asked/expected to drink?

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