Japan Wants Young People To Drink More Alcohol (cnn.com) 196
The Japanese government has been hit in the pocket by an unusual problem -- its young people aren't drinking enough. From a report: Since the pandemic began, bars and other premises selling alcohol have been hit hard by Covid-19 restrictions, causing sales -- and liquor tax revenues -- to plummet in the world's third-largest economy. The government's solution? Launch a contest to find new ways to encourage young people to drink more. The "Sake Viva!" campaign, overseen by the National Tax Agency, invites participants to submit ideas on how to "stimulate demand among young people" for alcohol through new services, promotional methods, products, designs and even sales techniques using artificial intelligence or the metaverse, according to the official competition website.
"The domestic alcoholic beverage market is shrinking due to demographic changes such as the declining birthrate and aging population, and lifestyle changes due to the impact of Covid-19," said the website, adding that the competition aimed to "appeal to the younger generation ... and to revitalize the industry." The contest includes promotional ideas for all types of Japanese alcohol, with applications open until September 9. Finalists will be invited to an expert consultation in October, before a final tournament in November in Tokyo. The winner will receive support for their plan to be commercialized, according to the tax office.
"The domestic alcoholic beverage market is shrinking due to demographic changes such as the declining birthrate and aging population, and lifestyle changes due to the impact of Covid-19," said the website, adding that the competition aimed to "appeal to the younger generation ... and to revitalize the industry." The contest includes promotional ideas for all types of Japanese alcohol, with applications open until September 9. Finalists will be invited to an expert consultation in October, before a final tournament in November in Tokyo. The winner will receive support for their plan to be commercialized, according to the tax office.
beavis we need to go there & the chicks are ho (Score:5, Funny)
butthead: beavis we need to go there & the chicks are hot there as well
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Oh God, where are my mod points. I'd love to mod this post funny.
Re:beavis we need to go there & the chicks are (Score:5, Funny)
Oh God, where are my mod points. I'd love to mod this post funny.
This is one of the bad things with the slashdot moderation system. Most people think labeling a post as "funny" is a compliment. After all, the slashdot FAQ page says, "Choose 'Funny' if you think the comment is actually funny, not just because it seems intended to be." However, in the slashdot moderation system, "funny" means bad, and a point is subtracted. For slashdot, funny is effectively the same as troll. I don't know if this is a bug or intentional.
Re:beavis we need to go there & the chicks are (Score:4, Informative)
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[...] in the slashdot moderation system, "funny" means bad, and a point is subtracted. For slashdot, funny is effectively the same as troll. I don't know if this is a bug or intentional.
No idea of where this might be documented, but a lot of "Funny" posts have a '5' score and even end up in "Hot Comments".
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Click on the post score. GP post has +4 from 100% Funny mods.
It is possible to apply an adjustment to posts based on their overall moderation, on https://slashdot.org/my/commen... [slashdot.org]. But that's only a fixed offset that's added or subtracted from the post total, not something that inverts the meaning of individual moderations.
Re: beavis we need to go there & the chicks ar (Score:3)
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What I don't get is with legalized alcohol vending machines and a large amount of research into robotics, why COVID-19 wouldn't have inspired such solutions to take over the same marketing space that bars had before.
Of all the horrible ideas... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Of all the horrible ideas... (Score:5, Insightful)
They are encouraging young people to do something that is expensive, unhealthy, addictive, and can lead to unwanted pregnancy (among many other regretful outcomes), all in the name of revenues.
I don't think the morality of the situation is even a factor.
Re:Of all the horrible ideas... (Score:5, Funny)
can lead to unwanted pregnancy
Given Japan's demographic problem - I think this is a feature, not a bug. Pretty sure the government would prefer that young people fuck like rabbits and make babies.
Re:Of all the horrible ideas... (Score:5, Insightful)
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back in the day, women didn't get time off for birth. Have the child, and it's back into the fields to work.
That's a great way to produce more field workers, but it's not so great when you have any other goals. We can and should do better.
I worked in a place that gave women a year off, and a guarantee they got their job back. It made no difference. Most of these women were just not successful in finding a man worthy of marriage and procreation. They had no man to reproduce with.
I keep seeing articles about how Japanese women aren't interested in the attitudes of Japanese men. I do think that's the bigger problem.
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Most of these women were just not successful in finding a man worthy of marriage and procreation. They had no man to reproduce with.
I suspect that your experience with female coworkers is constrained. The notion that a modern man has to meet some modern societal perspective standard in order to be "worthy" to pass down his genes is an artificial one, for the same reason why significantly obese women in the middle ages & Renaissance were considered "hot".
Meanwhile, "baby fever" is probably a genetically linked behavior. And modern women can successfully produce offspring and raise them to (sexual) maturity to society's standards wi
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Women completely have the upper hand in mate selection when it comes to humans (Tinder swipes are a sure teller of this story). This is because they have a lot more vested in bearing a child and raising it. Jordan Peterson goes into more details on this in his books and video clips. And raising a child by a single mother can surely be done, but it requires a solid family support and/or a very financially stable woman to accomplish that. It's just much easier if there's a second parent there (woman or ma
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You know - back in the day, women didn't get time off for birth. Have the child, and it's back into the fields to work. The premise that a woman's desire to reproduce is completely eradicated because of some weird patriarchal punishment of women is specious at best.
Back in the day a woman's desire to reproduce was nearly irrelevant.
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And still far more relevant than male desire to reproduce. See: basic biology.
See, this victim card playing leads to some really dark places, such as having to recognize that single most genocidal force in human history has been female mate choice. It's genocided off ~25% of nearly every generation, in all cultures.
In case you didn't know, we all have twice the number of female ancestors compared to male ones. This is because on average, every woman reproduced once she hit sexual maturity, but only half of
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You know - back in the day, women didn't get time off for birth. Have the child, and it's back into the fields to work.
If the women were working in the fields, who was taking care of the infant?
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Or that civilization imposes a lot of arbitrary values (to survival and successful procreation) upon its members, from Nature's point of view. Civilization provides a ton of benefits to the humans within it; it also sets/imposes wacky standards which aren't relevant to survival outside of civilization. Evolution will eventually decide which one best ensures survival of its offspring.
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Then they should make it affordable. The average Japanese can't even afford to move out of his parents' home, let alone rent one large enough for a family.
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Beer: Ugly chicks need loving too!!
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They are encouraging young people to do something that is expensive, unhealthy, addictive, and can lead to unwanted pregnancy (among many other regretful outcomes), all in the name of revenues.
I don't think the morality of the situation is even a factor.
Differential analysis - they'd like to have more young people get drunk, have sex, then reproduce.
Japan apparently has a real problem with Leftover women, and herbivore men. The idea might be to get them lit, and let nature take over.
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Young Japanese don't feel the same pressure to get married and start a family, so they aren't so willing to settle. By that I mean they aren't interested in being introduced to potential spouses, or in putting so much effort into finding one themselves. The single life is pretty good, and a lot cheaper. A single salary is enough to buy a house or apartment. For women it's freedom because they can keep their careers (many married men still think that wives should be stay at home mothers, or at least earn les
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Young Japanese don't feel the same pressure to get married and start a family, so they aren't so willing to settle. By that I mean they aren't interested in being introduced to potential spouses, or in putting so much effort into finding one themselves. The single life is pretty good, and a lot cheaper. A single salary is enough to buy a house or apartment. For women it's freedom because they can keep their careers (many married men still think that wives should be stay at home mothers, or at least earn less than them), and for guys they don't have to be a wage slave to support their family.
Yes - Women are free for the moment, and a man is a hindrance, virtually useless, and we're evil anyhow and yet - what happens when they hit their 60's and have no support structure? It is the height of solipsism for a woman to say I don't need a man in my life to be happy. But so many are becoming older and start to understand that aside from being the cause of all problems, we could be of at least a modicum of help to her.
But when you are approaching old age, parents are gone or in nursing homes, an
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I think you are right. And I think it won't work.
One contributing factor may be the worldwide drop in testosterone [slashdot.org]. Without it to give men sex drives that are strong enough to overwhelm their power of reason, men are clear-headed enough to recognize that the long-term consequences of reckless sexual activity are not worth the short-term benefits. It may also be that the lower testosterone leaves men less attractive to women, thus making the whole enterprise an unrewarding and expensive uphill slog, furth
Re: Of all the horrible ideas... (Score:2)
Re: Of all the horrible ideas... (Score:2)
Well, due to phthalate poisoning and weird social dynamics the Japanese are disappearing. Much of SE Asia has the same problem.
Alcohol helps procreation!
It's going to be hilarious when China introduces mandatory minimum of 3 kids per family. They'd have to if they want to have an economy worth a damn in 20 years
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This is basically the worst case scenario for governments enacting "sin" taxes. I might have considered it trolling for someone to suggest sin taxes would encourage governments to encourage those sins for extra revenue, but it looks like I would have been wrong. I could hardly believe what I was reading in that story summary.
Re:Of all the horrible ideas... (Score:5, Funny)
Hey, no kinkshaming. The octopus has feelings, too!
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Is that you, Deep?
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It seems like it's part of the plan to keep the masses from asking questions about the sustainability of their society.
Japan is well-known to have massive amounts of inefficiency baked into business as essentially a jobs program. The less efficient you are, the more workers you "need" to employ.
This seems like just more inefficiency. Keep people from doing things of consequence because doing things uses resources.
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round about way to say broken window fallacy.
Re: Of all the horrible ideas... (Score:2)
That's capitalism for you (Score:2)
To be fair this is closer to crony capitalism where an industry gets propped up. And I'm no communist (they never seem to get out of the "dictatorship" phase of "dictatorship of the proletariat"), but something like Democratic Socialism would be a good idea right about now.
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Re:Of all the horrible ideas... (Score:5, Insightful)
Ah for the good old days before the USG and MIC came along and spoiled the garden of eden that the earth had always been before by inventing warfare.
I mean really man. Rank the most destructive conflicts in history from largest to smallest and go down the list until you find the first one started by the USA.
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95% of people respond with, "ahh, it's fine."
It's darkly humorous that the first reply to your comment is basically "ahh, it's fine".
Well that's one way... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Well that's one way... (Score:5, Interesting)
We want babies, lots of them, and we want YOU to bear the costs of raising them.
Also we want to skim off the top of the costs you must bear just to have a chance at making them.
Also, we still want to overwork you and underpay you and leave you with no life of your own apart from this.
Why are you opting out?
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We are the Last Generation. (Score:2)
Single biggest middle finger to Authority I've ever heard in my life.
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Err, since the dawn of time, men and women have been having kids, and they sacrificed and paid for them.
Since when did this expectation change?
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Since the dawn of time, children were put to work as soon as they were capable of working. It's relatively recently that we've decided that child labor is bad and children should just be supported by their parents and go to school. That's fine, but it means parents no longer benefit from having children.
The costs and benefits of having children used to go to their parents. Now parents just get the costs, and they're bigger than ever.
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I dunno about that.
Aside from the pleasure of "making" them, people get great pleasure from raising kids...making little copies of themselves gives people a great deal of pleasure.
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Many people who want to have children can no longer afford to do so. That's sad. For those of us who decided it didn't seem like fun, it's not sad at all.
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Almost all people on the planet can afford children. About the only one that can't are severely disabled.
What you're talking about is "having children and keeping single upper middle class lifestyle". I.e. expensive vacations, lots of personal free time for hobbies and so on. That is indeed nearly impossible for anyone but aristocracy.
Which is the way it's always been for humanity.
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I think it depends on you. For me the costs like loosing my ability go to parties, buy meaningless stuff is no great loss. I never enjoyed parties, or buy things. My kids bring me great joy.
But the cost of bringing up a child has definitely gone up, especially the cost of education. It used to be free, but its just getting more an more expensive. I would of thought that it should be getting cheaper with the internet, the most efficient way of sharing information ever devised. However it seems society is jus
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I wasn't implying that the expectation that parents raise their kids has changed. But I was pointing out that the people demanding there be more kids are also not the people paying for them.
"I want the benefit of this, and I want you to make the sacrifice to make it happen" is a selfish and entitled attitude for anyone to take, government or otherwise.
See also: I want this foreign power put down, and you must go fight and die to make it happen.
One of my favorite things (Score:3)
My mom used to spend about $300/mo on beer and cigs (the cigs killed her, lung cancer). I'm adjusting for inflation here, so it was more like $150-$180 in real dollars.
Young people smoke a lot less, even accounting for vaping (though Juul trying hard to change that). But they also drink a *lot* less. When they do they buy more expensive stuff, but that doesn't make up for how little they drink. And the trend keeps continuing as you get younger. Boomers drink more than Gen X who drink more than Gen M who drink more than Gen Z.
Basically, it's funny to see the young folk constantly being based by old people (as you do) while indulging in fewer vices, working longer hours and being better educated.
Statistically of course. Newspapers & TV love to dredge up the worst examples of a generation and parade them like they're Avatars. Our 24/7 news cycle of hate did more harm to this country than FB & Twitter combined.
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Because old people still think you have to pay $2000 for a computer or $1500 and $150 a month for a cell phone (which you can, but no genuinely poor person is doing that). They're so out of touch with the prices of modern stuff they can't see past their own spending.
They don't understand inflation (Score:2)
Never mind that nobody pays that for a computer. They will spend $1000 on a phone.... which is about $300 inflation adjusted from when they were kids. That phone is often functioning as Gen Z's phone, computer, shopping catalog, Music Player, GPS, email (replacing letters), games machine, camcorder....
Boomers actually spent _more_ on electronics inflation adjusted. They just don't thin
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Until recently, every year the phones got a lot better in at least one way. Until only slightly less recently, every year the PCs got a lot better, usually in multiple ways. Back in the sixties it was a few years between significant improvements of cars, radios, whatever. The further back you go, the longer the pauses between developments (though some techs are stalling out somewhat now, like mass produced semiconductors.) Also, lots of stuff required a lot of special labor. A Model T might have had a longe
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$1500 and $150 a month for a cell phone (which you can, but no genuinely poor person is doing that)
I beg to differ, I volunteer at a budgeting service and I can definitely say genuinely poor people do that. You ones that can't afford food, but they are stuck in a phone payment plan. To me its your choice if you want to spend that much on a phone, but I don't think you should borrow (that includes a fixed term plan) to do so, even if you can afford the repayments. It leaves you vulnerable if something unexpected happens, you should have spare money not obligations that need to meet.
Also I am old, and I ha
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A friend of mine developed in his 20s an unhealthy Warhammer habit. His dad berated him about the cost of the figurines, but shut up quickly when my friend did a napkin calculation for the cigarillos his old man smoked. Those stinkin cancer sticks cost more than my friend's Warhammer figures.
And anyone who ever bought one of them knows just HOW overpriced those plastic figures are.
Warhammer isn't necessarily unhealthy (Score:2)
Churches do this... but so do cults and televangists. And for every nerd who spends $1000 a year on 40k (which is kind of the limit for most since you can only build and paint so much) you'll find a hundred people in
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while Games Workshop can be very predatory at times there are much, _much_ worse options out there.
Nobody can tell if it's a genuine GW mini under the paint :D
I thought working 12 hours (Score:2)
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From what I'm seeing on the news....I guess you're right, in that young people don't work.
This is the problem with "vice taxes" (Score:5, Insightful)
On paper, it makes sense to tax so-called "vices." People are going to buy their addictions, government makes money, politicians get to crow about either "punishing" people who partake or how they're using the funds responsibly depending on their personal views, everybody wins. The problem is that when you're simultaneously pushing people to cut back on usage of them for health reasons, as well as occasionally taxing them into the stratosphere, people stop buying them. This is a good thing for society since we want fewer smokers and heavy drinkers and the like, but ends up causing issues like this where a government has gotten dependent on the revenue stream and suddenly either had to promote it again or figure out alternatives.
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Love drinking, but right next to making chocolate healthy, getting a similar high while trashing your body a bit less would be a really good use of research.
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DOWNER ALERT - of all of the stupid things you can do with your body, alcohol has by far the worst "damaging effects-to-acceptability" ratio.
Meth is a hell of a drug tho. Both of them are hard on body and brain alike, but meth is rougher on everything but the liver. Yes, we know alcoholism can do permanent brain damage, but even if we didn't know that about meth you would be able to tell just by being around former meth heads. They are never quite right again. What's really sad is that the methamphetamine epidemic was really fueled by the military, they love to hand out uppers.
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Well, that's a blast from the past. It's not really anything you could call an "epidemic" anymore though. Gawd but it did used to be a huge thing in raves, circuit parties, and the Castro bar scene back in the day. Circa 2005-2010 though, the tweakers all seemed to either burn out and disappear, or realize they had problems and clean themselves up. I'm not sure I but into "permanent brain damage" though. While meth wasn't really my thing, I know some ex-tweakers from my own party kid days. And they pr
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Circa 2005-2010 though, the tweakers all seemed to either burn out and disappear, or realize they had problems and clean themselves up.
Heh no. Maybe in the big cities it has, but out here in the sticks it's still raging.
Re:This is the problem with "vice taxes" (Score:4, Interesting)
> getting a similar high while trashing your body a bit
> less would be a really good use of research.
That already exists. It's called GHB. It is very similar to being drunk. But there's no hangover... in fact you wind up feeling GOOD the next day because you slept fantastically. (You used to be able to get it at health supplement stores like GNC. Bodybuilders used to use it after workouts to sleep more deeply so their muscles would build up.) It doesn't carry the calories or sugar spike of alcohol. And aside from throwing up if you overdo it, which you already have to worry about with alcohol, it has almost no deleterious side effects; UNLESS (And you knew there'd be an "unless" right?)...
But of course, we are a nation of idiots. And so many people darwined themselves in the past by ignoring all the warnings and mixing it with booze that the governamt scheduled and banned it "for your own protection." *sigh* Sometimes I really do hate human beings.
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so many people darwined themselves in the past by ignoring all the warnings and mixing it with booze that the governamt scheduled and banned it "for your own protection." *sigh* Sometimes I really do hate human beings.
You'd hate them even more if you realized that it really had to be banned because it was being used as a date rape drug, and yes, sometimes killing the victim.
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Taxes on vices should be viewed as public health policy to encourage healthy behaviors in your population, not anot
Play the lottery more!! (Score:2)
And smoke more while you're at it. This is what happens when the government sells the voters on a punitive tax (usually intended to target a specific product or industry) saying that the revenue will go to fund schools or some other financial/social-service bottomless pit hole in the ground. The desired effect of reducing smoking or whatever takes place and the revenue stream dries up but the bottomless pit social services always grow and you end up with a deficit. Usually, the proposed solution isn't to
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Gotta give Japan a little credit for trying to encourage the less-desirable behavior.
Give them credit for choosing what is arguably the worst available option? I don't think so.
Government at its finest (Score:2)
Pretend to care about the deleterious effects of vices so you can regulate an industry when the real goal is a de facto capture of the industry in order to profit from it.
How's about we let people do whatever they want so long as they aren't drunk/high/whatever in public where they can cause a nuisance or a menace?
Re: Government at its finest (Score:2)
Export, I understand, but domestic consumption? .. (Score:2)
The way you fix japan (Score:2, Flamebait)
is you mandate an 8x5 work week. Make it illegal to allow employees to work more than 40 hours per week.
Suddenly, demographics will change.
Expert consultation (Score:3)
Finalists will be invited to an expert consultation in October.
I expect a full Japanese delegation on the München Oktoberfest.
This is why Sin-Taxes don't work (Score:2)
Re:This is why Sin-Taxes don't work (Score:5, Funny)
Sin tax error.
Not just Covid restrictions (Score:2)
A large part of the decrease in drinking might be due to social media. People who see videos of themselves when drunk. That can be the best way to moderate liquor intake.
Jägermeister (Score:2)
They should look at what Jägermeister did in the 1990s and copy their playbook.
Jägermeister managed to do a complete turnaround for their brand from something that your grandpa would buy to somehow "cool" and orange.
IMHO one of the most douchebag moves ever, comparable only to tobacco companies targeting kids with their advertisements.
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A Sign of Corruption (Score:2)
have more sex! (Score:3)
https://www.europarl.europa.eu... [europa.eu]
This sounds more like a plan to get drunk and repopulate the island.
Let's get young people to drink more (Score:2)
I don't see what could possibly go wrong.
Who needs alcohol? (Score:2, Insightful)
I understand it used to be cool. I get that some people genuinely cannot have as much fun socially wihtout alcohol...but for the rest of us. Why have it?
Generally speaking there's no need for anyone to consume alcohol. Gone are the days beer was a cleaner source of water.
It's an unnecessary expense. It is unhealthy with numerous negative long-term effects in regular large quantities. Even getting hammer once a month is quite bad for any person.
As drugs go it's a downer with very little upside. Perhaps
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Perhaps controvertial as a statement but it's less healthy than ecstasy and that's illegal in most countries.
Overuse of MDMA can literally permanently negatively affect your ability to feel pleasure. And I think many if not most of us have known people who have used way too much and have obvious conditions as a result.
It's time humans move on from Alcohol as a recreational drug.
Every. Single. Drug. Has. Drawbacks. When. Misused. One might argue that all use of alcohol is misuse, since it always does harm even if it's also somehow doing some good due to inclusion of other compounds. Further, the drawbacks for each drug differ from person to person! The person who can respons
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After reading this I just feel like I have to harm myself some more.
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After reading this I just feel like I have to harm myself some more.
This is Slashdot, so have at
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It's a reading comprehension test, and you just failed. That's not how English works.
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I became allergic to alcohol over a decade ago.
I was never all that keen on it, but did enjoy it occasionally. Helped wind down a bit in the evenings. I do occasionally miss it, but not much.
Probably for the best. Too easy to self medicate for pain with it.
Re:Who needs alcohol? (Score:4, Interesting)
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I'll be you're fun at parties...
[rolls eyes]
Re: Who needs alcohol? (Score:2)
One word: Wuhei (Chinese for 'effortless existence'). No idea if it's spelled like that.
See this, fascinating stuff:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=... [youtube.com]
The whole podcast is worth listening to.
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Not that young.. (Score:2)
Yet another reason... (Score:2)
Sounds like yet another reason to not drink, to me.
(Also, sounds like a really strong reason to not trust the Japanese government. I mean seriously... WTF, dude?)
Aversion to a good thing. (Score:3)
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That's a great way to get a grandkid with its eyes a little too close together. Maybe that's useful for target shooting or something. Saves on Binoculars, you can buy smaller ones.