With apologies to our many friends and posters outside the United States... it's time for another one of these! Culture war thread rules apply, and you are permitted to openly advocate for or against an issue or candidate on the ballot (if you clearly identify which ballot, and can do so without knocking down any strawmen along the way). "Small-scale" questions and answers are also permitted if you refrain from shitposting or being otherwise insulting to others here. Please keep the spirit of the law--this is a discussion forum!--carefully in mind.
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Notes -
One aspect of Trump that I feel like is under-discussed is his abstinence from alcohol and other drugs throughout his life. Close to 70 percent of American adults drink alcohol (and knowing a fair cohort of baptists and Mormons who drink semi-regularly, but would never self-report, I expect this number is actually higher), making him something of an outlier. Could it have any explanatory effect on his seemingly age-defying stamina and energy? His resilience in the face of social/legal/political headwinds that would sideline most men half his age?
Having made the recent decision to eliminate alcohol from my life, I've noticed immense dividends in terms of my own personal health both physically and mentally. Particularly when it comes to attacking difficult problems head-on, rather than kicking the can down the road. In conjunction with the RFK MAHA agenda, I wonder if a further shift toward tee-totaling (which Gen Z seems to be steering toward already) could be a side effect of Trump's second term.
It could be important for Trump because he's taxing his liver with a poor diet otherwise.
But lots of people can drink relatively heavily and still be quite functional, famous examples including Churchill and QE2. Elizabeth, the queen mother, was a downright lush and lived to 102.
Biden is a teetotaler as well, so it's clearly no guarantee against senility.
My guess is abstaining from alcohol has a mild positive effect at best. Alcohol consumption is probably best modeled as neutral to one's health below a certain, relatively high, threshold (say 3 drinks a day) beyond which it becomes exponentially more negative. Obviously, this will vary by sex and ethnicity, with white men probably having the best genetics for drinking.
I was under the impression that any amount of alcohol consumption has overall negative impact, in that it raises your overall risk of cancer and other digestive and liver problems.
Studies are all over the board. 10 years ago the consensus was that minor alcohol use was better than abstention. But obviously there were important confounders such as 1) drinkers have more friends and 2) many teetotallers are ex-alcoholics.
More recently there was a big new study that tried to claim all alcohol use was bad that sent my bullshit detector into overdrive.
So what to believe? If you think, as I do, that it's important to consult non-cucked sources, here's a good one:
https://www.emilkirkegaard.com/p/is-some-alcohol-good-for-you
According to the article, the balance of evidence would seem to indicate a slight positive effect for drinking in very small amounts, and then negative effects after 2 drinks a day.
Did they ever try to correct for #1?
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Epistemic status total raging speculation, but I wonder if there's a significant effect of how exactly you drink (average less than 2 drinks per day, but in reality that's getting pretty drunk at 2 or 3 social events per month? A glass of wine or two with dinner with your loved ones? Or a stiff double just to get to sleep each night?) and/or of who exactly you are. Some research suggests alcohol might be beneficial for heart health but harmful to other organs systems - maybe if you're predisposed to heart problems you're better off drinking a little, but not otherwise.
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