I really suck at knowing when I'm being trolled. I'm not the one in the screenshot but I'm in the thread. This comment was just particularly egregious.

link

  • Wertheimer [any]14•6 months ago

    As bad as it is now, imagine what this was like:

    By 1810 the number of distilleries in the young nation had increased fivefold, to more than fourteen thousand, in less than two decades. By 1830 American adults were guzzling, per capita, a staggering 7 gallons of pure alcohol a year. . . In modern terms those 7 gallons are the equivalent of 1.7 bottles of standard 80-proof liquor per person, per week—nearly 90 bottles a year for every adult in the nation, even with abstainers (and there were millions of them) factored in.

    From Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition, by Daniel Okrent

    • TheCaconym [any]13•6 months ago

      How did they even function, jesus

      Mind you in my country they were happily providing red wine to children in elementary school cafeterias as late as 1956. Parents would give them like half a bottle to carry to school in cases where the schools didn't provide it

      • @tocopherol@lemmy.dbzer0.com1•6 months ago

        I would bet you that your country has less problems with alcoholism into adulthood than the US though, from stats I've seen places that tend to have more relaxed drinking ages and customs like you say have fewer issues later on.