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MisterMarcus t1_iu63ddu wrote

Reply to comment by HPmoni in TIL Al Capone was only 33 when he was locked away for tax evasion and developed neurosyphilis, leading to his death at 48. Eliot Ness was 27 when he formed the Untouchables--he died in a state of financial ruin in his 50s, likely hastened by his heavy drinking in his later life by capsaicinintheeyes

> Drinking used to be worse back then. Americans would get drunk on their lunchtime. Alcohol apparently ruined lives.

I remember reading that alot of progressives, especially feminists, actually strongly supported Prohibition for this reason.

They were sick of men getting blind drunk and then beating the crap out of their wife and kids every night.

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ELH13 t1_iu8f8up wrote

Alcohol doesn't make a person violent. It just lowers their inhibitions. Most would find an excuse without the drink.

Edit: Downvotes. Looks like I triggered some people. I guess by the same token alcohol causes people to commit sexual assault or rape, and causes them to cheat on their partners. What a wonder drug.

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LorenzoStomp t1_iu991lo wrote

It's not that you are wrong, it's that your point doesn't change the argument. Women (and kids) weren't seen as people back then so more men felt like it was okay to treat them like shit, but it was generally frowned upon to be kicking the crap out of them every night. Those feelings were more likely to express themselves when alcohol lowered their inhibitions. Changing how men view women was/is a much longer process, prohibition just helped it along. If staying sober gives ol' Jimbob the ability to restrain most of his violent urges and leaves him with enough money to feed his kids, at least those kids had a chance of growing into better people than their dad.

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ELH13 t1_iu9uvne wrote

Well firstly, you say women and children were seen different back then. I mean, industrial revolution, kids were chimney sweeps and working in factories. That treatment has next to nothing to do with alcohol and as you said, their perceived value.

I'd say the following had/has more to do with it than alcohol:

  • Unmanaged/unrecognised trauma from world war 1. We saw the repetition of it in world war 2.

  • Social underclass/being poor and the associated sense of a lack of control over their existence, so controlling what they could (I mean, your example of Jim Bob - you've gone redneck, which while not suffering like Black people, were/are still the social underclass).

I'm sure there's more, but - alcohol is way down the list on the reason people feel the need to pound out their frustrations on others. Those feelings are already there. Removing alcohol, again, removes inhibitions but it doesn't get to the root cause.

All I'm saying is, alcohol is a symptom and not a cause. Removing alcohol won't do much for most people because the underlying cause/s are still there.

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