Drinking to get drunk: Why it's clever

[Roman Candle]

I saw a headline in a newspaper the other day, (must have been a slow day for news), giving this shock statistic: "90% of under-21s drink to get drunk!". Well, I didn't seem to think this was very shocking. In fact, it's definitely a good thing.

When I drink to get drunk, I am poisening my body. Alcohol is poison, and I am pumping it into my body. However, I do this with a distinct aim. While on the one hand it's not good for my body, I sacrifice a little bit of my health in order to alter my conciousness. That is a trade that I make. However, when people drink without the intention of getting drunk, they're just poisoning themselves. And why? Because they like the taste. Now, I'm sorry, but how is that not incredibly stupid? Would you drink cyanide because you liked almonds?

So, it's apparently acceptable, and a good thing as well, to drink alcohol but not get drunk. And here's the odd thing. It justifies alcohol as a drug. You can be an aging old millionaire, you can be a school teacher, you can be a highly respectable lawyer, and you can use as much of this drug as you like. And what's more, you can pretend that it's not to 'get high'. It's socially acceptable. And you can buy litres of it, and take it home, and if anyone sees you sipping on a glass, then that's fine. Because it's just a drink.

On the other hand, no one can say that they smoke skunk because they like the taste of the smoke. But you can say that you like the taste of beer. But here's the thing. If you're drinking, (drinking poison, that is), because you like the taste, then you're clearly extremely stupid.

Which is why drinking to get drunk is clever.

 

[rexxzecutioner]

Retarded logic.

 

[djzalzer]

But drinking in itself is not clever, just drinking to get drunk is better than just drinking. Personally, I can't stand alcohol.

 

[ryanwh]

They do it because its a taboo. Before 21, drinking constantly makes you a cool guy. After 21, suddenly you're an alchoholic.
Its kind of like back when I(and most people) would simply go to someone's house and not do anything there. Just sort fo be there, doing basically less than I could at home but around someone else. "Hanging out" for the sake of, because its the cool(?) thing to do and it sounds like an activity even though it isnt really(but its time consuming and sounds like an activity when dropped in conversation, which is why people do it). You drink for the sake fo drinking, so you can be all like "yeah I went out drinking on saturday" because we live in a society where its cool to be able to say that. Its generally stupid.
I dont think anyone drinks alchohol for the taste, nobody Ive ever met.

 

[rexxzecutioner]

I dont think anyone drinks alchohol for the taste, nobody Ive ever met.

Depending on the drink. I can't stand most beers but I love wine, rum and whiskey. Also a big fan of tequila and vodka(when mixed).

 

[ryanwh]

Well standard beer, I mean. It tastes like piss, we can pretend it doesnt but it does, all of them. Piss and copper. Of course wine tastes good to many people, and girly drinks taste good to everyone, but Im pretty sure he was reffering to the drink of choice in America.
edit
He's from London. :P
Nevermind. Maybe its different there, I hear the food is pretty bad so maybe you build up an immunity eating and drinking terrible meals all the time.

 

[rexxzecutioner]

Haha, whoever drinks BEER to get drunk is a fucking moron. There is much more effective subtances than any beer for that purpose.

 

[ryanwh]

The thing I dont get about beer. K it was created as a reaction to the cost of importing wine, it became too expensive so Americans started infusing alchohol with other things created rum, beer, wiskey, logger(in canada I think), and various knockouts deeper south. So that's why they did it then. But NOW, we're growing own wine vineyards and, so why the hell are people still making beer? A canadian logger tastes better and gets you drunker, anything south of the border will just fuck you up proper like nothing. How did beer become the smooth alternative to liquir when it tastes just as shitty?

 

[rexxzecutioner]

There are some beers that taste amazing.

 

[ryanwh]

Name one. Someone once reffered me to Sam Adams after a rant like this and yeah, that was BS.
I've never had anything one could still consider beer that tasted good and I've had every standard at the bar. So they must not import the good stuff to Virginia.

 

[Wings]

I like to drink, and that's me. Pretty much will drink just about anything out in the market if I had the chance. Do I drink to get drunk? No, I happen to like the taste of beer (Guinness for example). Vodka, Irish Whiskey, Irish Creme, Scotch, Rum..you name it. Everyone is different in that aspect.

However when you refer to alcohol as being poision (you cannot compare cyanide to an alcoholic beverage...that is just stupid)...then you must consider the pollution you breathe everyday to be poision too. Maybe you should stop breathing because you are breathing in poisionous fumes (make much sense? Probably not...but neither does this thread). Alcohol is bad for you, yes I admit. It destroys the liver when taken in large amounts. But too much of everything is bad for you.

Alcohol is a drug to those who become addicted (alcoholics). Having the occasional drink here and there does not justify wrong doing...but that's society for you.

 

[rexxzecutioner]

Gouden Carolus and La Fin Du Monde are pretty good. My friend sent me some as a birthday present last year.

 

[ryanwh]

Quebec beer?
Hmm...

 

[rexxzecutioner]

Yeah, and Gouden Carolus is Belgian.

 

[Roman Candle]

Lots of people love the taste of beer. I certainly used to. And it was not invented, and certainly not in reaction to import costs. It's almost as old as bread. Anyway, by drinking I meant drinking anything.

rexxz, I'm not sure what you meant in your first post.

maybe you build up an immunity eating and drinking terrible meals all the time

I'm sorry, but this is just confusing. And slightly offencive

Before 21, drinking constantly makes you a cool guy. After 21, suddenly you're an alchoholic

Erm, not really. Not after the age of fourteen, anyway. By then, I think most people, (now that they've had the chance to get properly shit-faced a few times), reach either the opinion that drinking to excess if pretty shit (valid), or the opinion that getting drunk is fun, and that sometimes you just have to do it (also valid).

Wings, I was exagerating comparing cyanide and alcohol, but I think you are too in comparing city pollution and vodka.

And by clever, I did of course mean less stupid :D

The best beer I've ever tasted was a Guinness from Ireland, (as in bought there) - nectar from heaven, I swear. But now I can only drink beer if I'm already too drunk to taste it. Ever since I went to stay in Paris with a friend for a week - *shudders* - the tastes of beer and my own vomit have been permenantly fused in my mind...

 

[ryanwh]

Erm, not really. Not after the age of fourteen, anyway.

Well its different here, we have a 3 year buffer where you can die for a country, drive a car, and buy cigarettes, but not any kind of alchohol. Also, around here, people dont drink when they're 14. Cultural differences I guess. So yes, its a fun taboo for an 18 year old here to drink and many start for that very reason.

 

[Jstreet]

So you took the time outta your day to justify drinking to get drunk.

I drink to get drunk to beat the shit outta somebody, cause I don't feel much pain when I'm drunk...It's when I'm sober that it all comes back to me.

 

[Roman Candle]

My serious point was that it's only socially acceptable to drink alcohol as opposed to using other drugs because people can essentially pretend that they drink because they enjoy the taste. Which is, if you think about it, not exactly clever anyway.

ryanwh, it's legal to drink from 18 here, and at fourteen anyone can get their older brother to go and pick up a bottle of whatever for a party. But they're tightening up on people who sell beer to people underage. For instance, you're not likely to get served in a bar in London if you look vaguely under 18 without id. People seem to have this ridiculous idea that laws are made to be followed exactly to the letter...

 

[Lene]

Nope I tend to agree with Ryanwh. Underage drinkers, drink for the novelty of it. Not usually because it tastes good. And a lot of people are under the assumption that you need to drink to have a good time.

Not everyone is like that, but from what I've seen with people who aren't supposed to be drinking, that's the case.

 

[Roman Candle]

Drinking is one way not to have a good time, not a prerequisite, and it's sad that some people don't realise that. But then, if you're at a really bad party then sometimes... :lol: I jest, surely.

Anyway, I didn't intend to start talking about underage drinkers. I'm talking about adults, and respectable people who are basically addicts and get away with it.