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naraburns  nihil supernum  16d ago (text post)   26875 thread views

U.S. Election (Day?) 2024 Megathread

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.

If you're a U.S. citizen with voting rights, your polling place can reportedly be located here.

If you're still researching issues, Ballotpedia is usually reasonably helpful.

Any other reasonably neutral election resources you'd like me to add to this notification, I'm happy to add.

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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?

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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