That Clydesdale ad was so touching that I decided to [View all]

[cthulu2016]

become an alcoholic.

Nothing says sincere and lasting love like Budweiser. It brings out what is best in people... and horses, apparently.

I do not think that alcohol should be illegal. By no means. I have strong views on civil liberties and think that a wide range of drugs with horrific downsides in human misery should be legal, including Budweiser.

But what is it with treating alcohol like it is a patriotic American fucking Tradition that brings families together and brings out the best in us all?

The annual national Budweiser "awwwww..." is, to me, about as cute as would be Smith & Wesson running superbowl ads about how every day is Christmas when the gun wagon comes to town.

As of few years ago, I know that the average murderer and the average murder victim were both legally drunk. Don't know if that has changed... but I do know that the state with the highest murder rate relative to its gun rate per capita is Louisiana, where the biggest city sells hard liquor on the street around the clock.

Oh... and that city also happens to have unbelievable rape per capita stats.

It just strikes me as odd that we talk about gun deaths and rape all day without noticing that alcohol is a major factor in both.

I assume this is because everyone knows that prohibition was famously bad public policy, and that many think that if something is bad it should be illegal (a crazy authoritarian view, IMO, but kind of the norm) and since outlawing alcohol is bad public policy then alcohol must not be so bad.

But the world is more complex than that.

Alcohol should, of course, remain legal.

And if anyone doesn't know that alcohol is a major, or in some cases the major, cause of an incredible swath of social ills then they have never looked into real American society much.


One can oppose prohibition while still recognizing that cute ads about how alcohol makes people trustworthy, reliable, kind, wholesome, attractive, loving and grown up are like ads for the dazzling smile one gets from crystal meth.

It's ironic, and in a sick way.

Disclaimer: The majority of Budweisers drinkers do not, after imbibing, crash their car into people, lose their job, beat their spouse, abuse their children, embezzle, frequent street-walkers, get into brawls, shoot people they feel have wronged them or rape their date. But an amazing number of the people who do those things happen to be drinking. And most gun owners don't shoot up a school... but that very true fact doesn't make me think that guns are benign or make the world safer. Human autonomy has a substantial downside... a fact which does not, in itself, justify authoritarianism. The cognitive dissonance that may arise from that is our birth-right. Liberty produces anxiety.