Don't forget it was mostly poor, weirdos, outcasts, and the weirdly religious that escaped or were rejected by the normalcy of Europe and came to north America so for their ancestors European culture was as foreign as anywhere else.

Easiest way I have explaining it is it's like a zipper that went a little off track. Sometimes the only way to get that zipper right again is to undo the whole thing and start from scratch.

The little errors in software are like pubes getting stuck in your fly. Sometimes the zipper or software still kinda work, sometimes everything will be off by a bit, and sometimes it just fails completely and you have to start again.

That was OPs take, not mine. A lot of people have let alcohol have more negative effects on them than before the pandemic. I don't think people losing their struggle or not even able to identify their problem with alcohol use are losers.

I do think people who excuse that into affecting others (by driving for example) are absolutely losers. Get as fucked up as you want without hurting people, it's your life and your health. Drunk driving is engrained in some cultures (like the southern US) in some truly appalling ways that would blow the mind of a European driver. In the end it's as much the increase of general selfishness in people post pandemic as it is the rise in alcoholism.

Covid took a lot of people from normal drinkers to a more dangerous place. The amount of wine moms picking up their kids from school after half a bottle is way too damn high.

How much would it cost to make breath machines part of every car? You could have an emergency bypass to get to a hospital or something, but a light could come on the car so police can follow and help you and know you are operating drunk. The technology exists, and if it was on every car I couldn't see it adding more than $10 to the price.

The world would be a much better place if we took the option of driving off the table if one is drunk, especially since some humans aren't human enough to simply not drive drunk. This includes the people driving after a 3 drink dinner or a 2 martini Friday afternoon lunch. Those drivers can go to hell too.

Was it that traffic is so low out there people treat it as "stop-tional" and if they can see (or think they see), they don't even slow down?

A terrorist organization is as a terrorist organization does

Your friends usually have your best interest at heart. If they warn you, know that they probably didn't take the decision lightly, and real friends become real friends by actually caring about you. If the friend is good, not only will they not lead you astray, but your words through conversation with them will show you the way without them even telling you.