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Comment by tptacek | Hacker News Reader

All sorts of things elevate all kind of risks of cancer, but this is one of the few we moralize this way.

because those other things, on the whole, do not destroy people and their families in as acute a manner as alcohol and alcoholism do.

On the other hand, what exactly is freedom?

Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose.

Then make that argument, and leave the cancer argument, which is easily knocked down, aside.

What are you asserting?

That the "cancer" argument about alcohol is special pleading.

What would motivate false claims that alcohol correlates with cancer incidence?

I didn't say the science is wrong, I said the argument is special pleading.

What is special pleading? I’m a native speaker and think you are too but have no idea what you’re saying.

You can just Google the term.

No moralizing required. The pandemic measures in some states made liquor and drink delivery easier or legal and frankly glorified alcohol consumption. My friends in New York who own a liquor store 5x their sales and moved into an old big box storefront.

Returning to 2019 regulatory framework is not prohibition nor blue laws. It would likely reduce alot of human suffering without impacting moderate drinkers.

What in the regulatory framework substantively changed?

The only thing I can recall was to-go liquor sales with takeout - which I strongly suspect is not a big mover of change here.

In New York, bars are able to sell booze for off premises consumption. Delivery of packaged liquor also became more available.

It facilitates alot of work day drinking and bad outcomes for people with problems.

I think its worth studying - but I suspect that's nipping around the edges again - if you're dying of alcohol related illnesses, its from buying sizable quantities of booze at the place that sells booze - not a beer with lunch.

? Really? Neuroticism about health is one of the most common vectors for modern secular americans to moralize at all. Just look how worked up people get about obesity and smoking, both of which are very high risk factors for (among many other health risks) cancer. Alcohol is actually uniquely celebrated by people who are otherwise very concerned about health from my perspective.

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