[imetatroll]

This is simultaneously funny and sad. I wonder when alcoholism will get a front row seat during zoom meetings (or even IRL meetings). "Can't help it hick I'm an alcoholic".

I think a lot of societal change these days can be summarized by the idea that self-labeling is seen as transforming something into "everyone else's problem".

[watwut]

Modern treatments do actually treat alcoholism like a disease. The one that cant be cured, but can be managed.

It is trying to remove the shame from the equation, because it is not a productive emotion. It makes people postpone and avoid steps necessary for treatment.

[ViktorRay]

Yes but the issue here is that treatments exist for alcohol use disorder and that one cannot use the simple presence of alcohol use disorder as an excuse to dodge accountability.

And yet people are using things like "time blindness" as excuses.

[const_cast]

I think socially it's because addiction is stigmatized heavily. Despite having real psychological disorders that fuel it, addiction is still largely viewed as self-inflicted. Of course this stigma doesn't come out of nowhere - people who are addicts almost always devolve into dangerous and asocial behavior. If someone is an asshole who stole 50 bucks from you to shoot up, it's easy to think they're a heroin addict because they're an asshole. But really it's the other way around.

[wat10000]

As the great philosopher Hedberg once said, alcoholism is the only disease you can get yelled at for having.

[dogman1050]

Mitch Hedberg was a genius.

[kingkongjaffa]

This is interesting point.

Western society has basically built a hyper capitalist system that creates individualistic consumers, but has failed to hold individuals accountable to minimum standards.

The bar has never been lower and we just sort of amble on as a lonely, isolated society so long as the stock market grows quarter to quarter.

[samdoesnothing]

No that is ridiculous. Stop blaming capitalism for every problem in the world, it just makes you look childish.

Especially when it comes to alcoholism. As if the soviet union was a bastion of soberness with a high bar or something.

[const_cast]

> Stop blaming capitalism for every problem in the world, it just makes you look childish.

Economics is intertwined with every other study. We can't pretend socio-economics isn't real, social interactions fuel the economy and the economy influences our social interactions.

Also, making connections to way capitalism might fuel addictive disorders, such as, say, talking about advertising of alcohol and tobacco, does NOT mean that we are saying communism is perfect. Communism fuels disorders in other ways. It's actually quiet childish to take any analysis of capitalism as a praise of communism. It's the sort of "team sport" mentality you see in politics among the most uneducated and reductive among us.

[nradov]

If you want to criticize capitalism on a website run by literal capitalists then the onus is on you to propose a better alternative. So far none of the other economic systems that humans have applied at scale have worked out better. I mean Islamic fundamentalist theocracies have lower rates of alcoholism but that advantage comes with some pretty severe downsides.

[const_cast]

But nobody is trying to prove or show a better alternative, that's my point. A critique of capitalism doesn't mean we should dismantle capitalism.

I don't get it, because we do this with other stuff all the time. I program in C#, guess what? I have plenty of critiques of C#. That doesn't mean I want C# to go die, I love C#. It seems to me everyone understands this... until it's capitalism. And then, suddenly, it's our first day on Earth.

Also capitalism, like everything, is not just one thing. It's a complex beast and there's infinite possible implementations of a capitalist economy. Nobody actually wants raw, unregulated capitalism because that sucks major ass. Yes, that's a technical phrase.

Meaning, we can, and should, be looking to progressively improve our economic system. I mean, it's what we've been doing since forever.

[wolvesechoes]

It was created because those hyperindividual consumers will not enact any political change as it requires numbers and solidarity, something that our society of snowflakes finds disgusting. Everything else is a byproduct.