In Vino Non Veritas
Some really smart guy wrote a brilliant letter to the Richmond Times-Dispatch on the popular myth of alcohol as truth serum. Money quote:
Does anyone really believe that every person who has ever gotten drunk and had a one-night stand with an unattractive member of the opposite sex must have privately harbored a fetish for the uglies while sober?
Couldn’t have said it better myself.
August 21st, 2006 at 8:52 am
heh.
August 21st, 2006 at 12:31 pm
No you probably couldn’t have said it better yourself than whoever that no name was who wrote that. ;-)…What was your last name X?
August 21st, 2006 at 12:44 pm
of course.. sort of.
supposedly man wants nothing more than to have sex. when sober, he is constrained by what he believes to be societal norms… no screwing ugly, old or drunk women. But give him enough alchohol and the inhibitions go away. He also loses the ability to anticipate the negative reaction he will suffer if/when news of his actions get out to his buddies/cops, and so he’s off doing what comes naturally, jumping on anyone who will have him…. just like Mel Gibson, when drunk, let down his inhibitions and let loose with what comes naturally for him.
that wasn’t so hard to figure out, was it?
August 21st, 2006 at 1:18 pm
No, Steve, it wasn’t. The only thing that was hard to figure out was whether that comment was really from you, or from someone lampooning you (and, I might add, doing a heckuva job).
August 21st, 2006 at 1:42 pm
“Xrlqville”?
August 21st, 2006 at 1:46 pm
nobody does me like I do me.
August 21st, 2006 at 2:11 pm
*wince*
August 21st, 2006 at 2:14 pm
Here you are, Pat …
http://xrlq.com/xrlqville
*wince* was at steve sturm’s last, to be clear.
Xrlq, what happened to “all bloggers should be anonymous!” ? :)
August 21st, 2006 at 2:29 pm
Patterico, there’s a little known provision of the Virginia Code requiring one-third of all cities, towns, streets and counties to have weird names. I mentioned a few of them shortly after moving here. Another gem is Fauquier County, the county with an attitude.
August 21st, 2006 at 2:32 pm
Anywyn: they should be. Letter-writers probably should be, too, but unfortunately the newspapers don’t see it that way.
August 21st, 2006 at 5:37 pm
Or… it’s not so much that guys desire the uglies, it’s that getting drunk leaves a guy unable to distinguish just who he is getting in bed with. He may think he’s about to score with a hottie only to find out the next morning that she not only isn’t hot, she ain’t even a she… Just like getting drunk left Gibson unable to figure out it wasn’t Nazi uniforms the cops who stopped him were wearing.
August 21st, 2006 at 6:27 pm
Right, and I’m sure that if he had been stopped by Nazis he would have asked one of them if he was Jewish? Dude, you really have to get past this alcohol-as-truth-serum stuff. Alcohol impairs your brain. All of it. Not just the part that tells you whether it is socially acceptable to do X, Y and Z. Not just the part that tells you which chicks are hot and which ones are not. It impairs everything.
August 21st, 2006 at 6:56 pm
I don’t know about you Xrlq, but when I play Rummy after having a few drinks it doesn’t make me dumber, it just lowers my inhibitions about what card I throw away, and as a result, in lowers my inhibitions about throwing away cards that my lovely wife calls rummy on. But trust me, I really wanted her to call rummy on those 3 Aces! I swear!
August 21st, 2006 at 8:33 pm
I’ll have to take your word for that, Joel. You’ll never get me drunk enough to play Rummy in the first place. All because of my deep-seated inhibitions, I’m sure.
August 21st, 2006 at 9:41 pm
Joel’s right, Xrlq — the question is about inhibitions. Enough alcohol and your inhibition to bed a nasty babe is torn asunder. The same could be said about Gibson’s inhibitions to voice his feelings about Jews.
August 21st, 2006 at 10:13 pm
Nonsense. I don’t need any “inhibitions” against bedding an ugly chick. Unless my brain is impaired, I have no desire to do such a thing. Lowering inhibitions is only one of many effects alcohol has on people, particularly hard core alcoholics.
August 22nd, 2006 at 1:38 pm
I’m sorry, Joel, I’m not quite clear on what you’re saying. You’re arguing that, if you play Rummy drunk and throw out cards that cause you to lose it’s not because your judgement and rational thinking are impaired, but because your inhibitions are lowered? So, what, you’re saying you have a deep-seated desire to lose, but your inhibitions usually keep you from doing so? I think “alcohol makes you dumber” is probably the better explanation.
Given the number of times I’ve seen my friends tell bald-faced lies while drunk (I’m not a drinker myself, so I have to go with second-hand anecdotes, sorry), I find it hard to believe that alcohol works as a truth serum, revealing one’s true personality and/or beliefs. The fact that Gibson would make racist comments while drunk and angry may give us insight into his true feelings, but it just as easily may not.
August 22nd, 2006 at 6:23 pm
Robin…
Hehehehe, that was much my point. That, alcohol is lowering my inhibitions is a crock, it just makes me an idiot. Now all that being said, the real reason I drink if I’m going to play rummy with my wife, is because she’ll drink too, which is about the only way I’ll have a chance. ;-)
August 29th, 2006 at 4:06 am
The guy gets blitzed, and in a drunken stupor blathers things that his bigoted jackass dad spouted in front of him every day of his childhood… what a friggin surprise!
Cripes. Where were all you poster children for the perpetually outraged when countless politicians said things that were just as blatantly racist *while stone cold sober?*
September 3rd, 2006 at 5:41 pm
No such thing asd an ugly broad. Merely cover her face with a flag and salute “Old Glory” Being aroused helps