The new temperance
Timothy P. Carney
It is the age of the new Puritans, and so it is no surprise that the devil’s brew is next for cancellation.
It’s also the age of self-improving bros trying to shed the harms of a toxic world, and so, of course, dudes everywhere are seeking gains from swearing off literal poison.
Also, America’s largest generation, the millennials, is turning the age when hangovers become automatic, and so, of course, Twitter is filled with promises never to drink again.
Teetotaling is once again in vogue.
Vox, the journal of the technocratic-rationalistic millennial Left, constantly runs features on the virtues of prohibition and the evils of alcohol.
“Imagine if the media covered alcohol like other drugs,” wrote Vox’s German Lopez. “Meet alcohol, the drug making people run around nude and collapse in the streets.”
“Prohibition worked better than you think,” explained Lopez on another occasion. “America’s anti-alcohol experiment cut down on drinking and drinking-related deaths — and it may have reduced crime and violence overall.”
(On a separate occasion, Lopez mentioned, “The U.S. government once poisoned alcohol to get people to stop drinking.”)
“Dry January” has been going on for a while as something of a secular Lent combined with a New Year’s resolution. The more aggressive try to go from the excesses of New Year’s Eve to the excesses of St. Patrick’s Day without a drop of the dram in between.
Exodus 90 is an app-based and brotherhood-heavy Catholic spiritual exercise that commits dudes to something of a double Lent: no alcohol, sweets, snacks, etc., for the 90 days before Easter as a means of liberating men from their dependencies.
The market is responding. Nonalcoholic beers are getting better, led by Athletic Brewing Company, which makes far superior products to the old St. Pauli N/A. Flavored seltzer is targeting these markets, too, with the oddly named “Liquid Death” the most noticeable.
Zero-proof bars are the logical next step. The “Binge Bar” near Capitol Hill in Washington is a brand-new, booze-free pub targeted to recovering alcoholics who still like to hang out.
The temperance movement of a hundred years ago had all sorts of cultural causes. So does its 21st-century child. Let’s see if this one can proceed without the feds poisoning anyone.