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Culture War Roundup for the week of November 4, 2024

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Also - how many people even drink tap water anymore? (I am one of them, but my country chlorinates, not fluorinates the water). Almost everywhere around me is either bottled or filtered trough some britta like crap.

We have RO systems attached to our taps in my home, so I don't need Brita or bottled.

I would say almost everyone. I almost exclusively drink tap water.

I do!

I drink mostly tap water.

Depends on where you live; varying with the source tap water can be awful or quite tasty. The tap water in Toronto is delicious, in my opinion.

Many do, one of the reasons being that a lot of bottled water is literally just tap water.

I'm not joking- there was a study in the US earlier this year that upwards of 60% of bottled water is sourced from municiple tap water.

We can make the argument that a filter 'changes' it, but a lot of tap water is itself going through filters installed in homes / point of exit.

I drink it all the time. Most people in the lower classes do.

I have a Pur pitcher, but bizarrely... I like the way the tap water tastes.

I'm pretty comfortable and drink liters of tap water daily. Always have. I always saw drinking bottled water at home as low class coded, like buying furniture on credit, or keeping a cc balance. Who pays that much for water? Tap water where I grew up and live has been pristine. Superfluous bottled water at events, or premium branded water is the real divide in America. I'd bet that anywhere in the developed world the the risk adjusted ROI for drinking bottled water is massively negative barring govt alerts (ie blue baby).

I was always taught that drinking bottled water is a stupid waste of money.

It's convenient when leaving the house on a day trip or whatever, and it sorta takes up space that would otherwise be occupied by soda or juice boxes. My family kept a case of it in the garage fridge for that exact purpose. And we had well water.

Forgive me, I didn’t mean to imply that drinking bottled water was stupid in literally all circumstances, only that it would be strange to but it when properly treated tap water is a viable alternative.

I would normally refill a flask or old bottle from the tap if I wanted portable water, but I drink bottled water in countries where the taps aren’t safe or if I’m suddenly thirsty when out and about.

Agreed. I can't believe this whole planet fell for the scam, to be honest. I guess double-walled steel water bottles were more expensive in the 90s or something but...