Comment by bjoli | Hacker News Reader

Comment by bjoli | Hacker News Reader

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Do you know how fucking annoying it is to have to defend not drinking? We live in such an alcohol centric culture that we should celebrate anyone not participating in it because of the bad effects it has on society.

I drink very little (small kids , living so I have to drive to get home), maybe 3-4 times a year. At every social gathering I have to defend not drinking at least once. I am so frickin tired of it that I started saying I get too violent when drinking or that I can't drink because I would hit my girlfriend. At least if they point it out in a rude way. That shuts them up.

I once had to help social services get a child from an alcoholic father. He was their 3rd child that evening and they were one of 20 teams. That is when I decided alcohol is poison and that anyone not drinking is commendable.

I understand the nice effects of alcohol. Indo consume it. I have started being the sober guy at every event where there are kids to show that you don't have to. Every person not drinking is a benefit to society.

If you have taken to saying ‘you would hit your girlfriend’ just to shut down that conversation, that is bordering on deranged.

It depends on the person asking. If they are pushy and don't accept an "I'd rather not" or even "no I'm driving" I hit low.

I must however admit that I have a tendency to become a polemic ass-hat, and trying to persuade people to drink alcohol is a shitty thing to do.

I can definitely see it being a lot harder when it's 'not tonight thanks' versus 'I don't drink'. I've never heard anyone try to persuade someone teetotal to start, and I assume in a group there'd be voices of reason stepping in.

At just 3-4 times a year though you could probably get away with the latter? Even if the same people present they'd probably just be briefly confused and forget or move on I'd have thought.

There was nothing to defend though? It wasn't about drinking or not until top-level commenter made it so.

It is about the country France keeping alcohol production up by promising to destroy wine it paid market rate for.

It is about alcohol politics which makes it about drinking.

Was anyone attacking not drinking in this thread?

> Every person not drinking is a benefit to society.

I think your personal experience is perfectly valid but that quite a jump. I would say moderate drinking is a net benefit to some societies in multiple different ways.

While everyone is different I personally find that I generally become less violent when I drink.

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