I cannot easily express in words how stunningly false this is. Alcohol is signaled over and over and over and over across all forms of information as fun, relaxing, sexy, festive, appealing, exciting, luxurious, and sometimes even healthful in moderation. Any notion of it being bad for you is relegated to small print messages specifically about pregnancy and driving.
Stunningly false is a bit strong.
What I mean is: no one thinks consuming alcohol is good for them. At worst they might think it’s health-neutral in the amount that they drink, but the majority of people know it’s bad for them.
It’s been effectively communicated, by laws and culture around booze, that it’s a thing for adults to choose to do, and accept consequences from. (Hangovers, drunk driving, abuse, and many other societal ills that are pretty cliche and well known) Just because the people making it, leave off the consequences, doesn’t mean everyone is brainwashed.
Notably there's a LOT LESS advertising for cigarettes than for alcohol in the US. Cigarette ads are banned in most media here. But sexy night club intrigue alcohol TV spots still abound.
> it’s a thing for adults to choose to do, and accept consequences from. (Hangovers, drunk driving, abuse, and many other societal ills that are pretty cliche and well known)
This is true, but I think the strongest statement we can make is that everyone believes that the good vastly outweighs the bad, otherwise we'd all stop.
> What I mean is: no one thinks consuming alcohol is good for them.
Even with very specific and reductionist notions of "good for" we have decades of "red wine is good for you" reports. Beyond that, relaxation and fun are good for you. We know this because we also have a lot of media telling us.
> the majority of people know it’s bad for them
Like a billion people out there think that God actually talks to them and tells them what to do on a daily basis, so I bet you're significantly overestimating.
My point in the GP post is that someone isn't going to be convinced to stop drinking because drinking is bad for them, they know it's bad for them. They had to wait till they were old enough to buy it, and maybe they've had a few hang overs, they know what liver cirrhosis is, and have seen a TV show featuring an alcoholic. They ignore those things, because they like drinking. They'll hand wave away why their drinking isn't a problem. Even with bunk click-bait articles like "red wine is good for you". We're on the same page there!
Sugarfree gum, feels pretty inert. There's no laws around the sale or packaging. There's no health warnings. There's no TV shows where someone's life is irreparably destroyed because of their gum habit.
So the root comment's family, I think were just being concerned.
"Inert thing you don't think about gives your family member cancer" is a scary thought! Of course I'm going to talk to ${familyMember}!
"Alcohol gives you cancer, along with a lot of other bad diseases" is a "well I still like a cheeky glass of red winkwinkwink" sort of thought.
You're taking an extremely niche information set and generalizing it broadly to the public. Have you actually met the public? The average person knows approximately nothing and gets along fine because in practice knowing nothing doesn't significantly affect outcomes.
> "Alcohol gives you cancer, along with a lot of other bad diseases" is a
I bet you most people do not know or believe that alcohol causes cancer or any other disease, especially not when consumed in the amounts that they personally consume. At worst they believe that nonspecific "too much" alcohol will damage your liver in ways they don't understand but that not too much alcohol is fine because your liver heals itself and the amount that is "too much" is abstract and far off in the distance.
