Thursday 14 May 2015

Public Health: The Anglosphere's Global Disease

You gotta laugh at the obsessive puritan mentality sometimes.


The morbidly obese bubblegumphobe is referring to this meme going around 'public health' circles that binge-drinking is uniquely British; that it is a behavioural disease which has now spread to our neighbours across la Manche. So frighteningly swiftly has this happened (despite British drinking culture being thousands of years old) that poor Ministry of Health politicians in Paris have not had time to coin a French word for it, apparently, so have pinched 'le binge-drinking' instead.

He may have a point, you know. The French are renowned throughout history for being crap at wars because they couldn't pitch a tent until they discovered that the English were doing something called 'le camping' - if only Napoleon had known that, eh? Likewise, their poor workers were toiling for seven days a week without respite for centuries until some Gallic traveller visited our shores and dscovered that we enjoyed two days off which we called 'le weekend', and when cars were invented those tortured Frenchies were driving around throughout the day and night before someone told them about the peculiar - but brilliant - British invention of 'le parking'.

Similarly, we Brits had never experienced déjà vu until the French taught us about it; we had no businessmen in this country until a wandering French entrepreneur enlightened us as to how trade was done; women went commando as a matter of course because underwear was only sold on these shores once the French imported lingerie; Britain was devoid of art until our continental neighbours taught us to paint; we couldn't beat eggs without the French teaching us about omelettes; and British people cast no shadows until we'd discovered people in France had seen mysterious things called silhouettes.

It all makes sense now, doesn't it?

Of course, there might be another explanation. You see, the French have always been pretty relaxed about their booze, it's why we like to go there and buy the stuff at dirt cheap prices. Wine is a family thing and is available in supermarché wire baskets at knock-down prices compared to here.

In Britain (and other English-speaking countries), however, we've always had finger-wagging temperance lunatics who like to sneer at the choices of others, and embark on moral panics about the hellfire and eternal damnation that will ensue if you dare to consort with the demon drink. Our history is sadly riddled with the rotten anti-social nerks. And the terminology these puritans create to support their irrational moral crusades necessarily involve terms like 'binge-drinking' to describe something as inconsequential as a couple of pints of Stella on a Sunday afternoon.

The only thing being imported into France is that twisted and illiberal mindset by way of the globalisation of miserabilism, whereby charmless and disloyal grunts like McKee attend international summits and run down his own country in order to spread the dictatorial 'public health' disease to other - previously relaxed - nations so that their people can suffer too.

That's why the French don't have a word for binge-drinking; it's because their own snobby social engineers aren't as imaginative with their self-aggrandising and illiberal vocabulary as the minging, long-practiced, career neo-temperance shitsticks we are cursed with in Britain.


6 comments:

Dick_Puddlecote said...

Insane and stupidly inciherent economically and practically. Australia is becoming a goldfish bowl to study the emergence of criminal markets due to political stupidity. :)

jude said...

Exactly, the ANTZ live in their own world here, and it bears no resemblance to reality. They simply don't have the capacity to understand basic logic.


The discrimination and hatred of smokers, (and vapers thanks to the lies coming from PH from Chapman, Daube and other assorted nutters), is so bad, that people will not admit to smoking/vaping, because it can mean that they receive less and poorer quality healthcare, lose employment and employment opportunities, they are discriminated against when wanting to rent houses/flats, they are ripped off by insurance companies, the list is extensive. So of course they tell the various orgs that they do not smoke.


The ANTZ nutters then believe this, because being narcissistic they want to believe that they are in control, and claim some sort of victory.


Reality, however, has a way of catching up with them.


Chapman's antics are bizarre, claiming all sorts of nonsense, while trying to appear like a reasonable person, at the same time spewing his nasty little comments on twitter, and blocking any dissenting voices. A fascinating study of the narcissistic mind set.

nisakiman said...

Excellent post, DP! I had a good chuckle over it.

The only thing being imported into France is that twisted and illiberal
mindset by way of the globalisation of miserabilism, whereby charmless
and disloyal grunts like McKee attend international summits and run down
his own country in order to spread the dictatorial 'public health'
disease to other - previously relaxed - nations so that their people can
suffer too.


That paragraph gets it in a nutshell. Yes, 'the globalisation of miserabilism' is exactly what it is. It's socialism in microcosm; the desire to bring everyone and everything down to the lowest common denominator.

Happily, here in the southern parts of Europe (and I think it applies to all the Med countries) there's none of that silly guilt-tripping about alcohol. People drink what, when and how much they want, and nobody considers it any of their business.

Interestingly though, here in Greece (I don't know about the other Med countries) it's considered very bad form to be seen to be obviously drunk. By all generations. Being able to 'hold your drink' is essential in Greek social life if you are a drinker. Although to be honest, though they drink a fair bit, the whole 'get down the boozer with the lads and let's get ratted' approach to drinking never really reached these shores. That seems to be a peculiarly British trait. But hey - different strokes for different folks. And I don't think Britain is alone there, either. The Nordic countries have a similar drinking culture. Must be something to do with the weather! :)

Carl Hughes said...

Isn't there some remote island the other side of the world, completely cut off from civilisation that we can send Professor Bobble Gom and the rest of the lunatic puritans?

Switchtoecig said...

or to do with who started first, historically. I'm not an expert but it seems that biological resistance to alcohol influence has to do with who had more time to develop it through the centuries. What my Mediterranean uncle has drunk so far could have killed a couple of Swedes already. Yet, nobody has ever thought of him as a drunk. This historical drinking perspective may also explain the damage alcohol did to American Natives.

John M said...

The Germans do have a word for it.

"Oktoberfest"