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Culture War Roundup for the week of February 27, 2023

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All else aside, I think the trend of people that didn't have any apparent drinking problem proudly announcing that they've quit drinking and feel so much better is really weird. I'm really not clear what they're optimizing for or what they're experiencing that is ostensibly so much better in their post-alcohol phase. I guess Andreeson spells it out a bit:

I do not have a drinking problem, but part of that is that it runs in my family, and I take some care about it. If a buy a bottle of whiskey, I will have 1-2 glasses a night until it is gone, taking maybe 4-6 nights. But I notice a significant difference in QoL stuff between those 4-6 day spans and weeks where I don't drink at all. It amounts to maybe a 10-15% overall difference in a general "how good do I feel?" sense. Some combination of better sleep, less stress on metabolic systems, etc.

A few people have mentioned bottle are we talking 5ths or handles or pints?

I am talking about 5ths.