I was reading about Mel Gibson’s anti-semitic rants, and his apology about being drunk* when I remembered this meme. I agree with the meme, that our brains tend to feed us what we’ve heard from our environment, but our conscious mind overrides that with our processed thoughts.
People use “he didn’t mean it, he was drunk/high” as an excuse for racist/misogynist/whateverist comments. The response is typically “you don’t become racist when drunk, you just drop your inhibitions and reveal who you are.”
But if you agree with the First Thought meme, what if being impaired isn’t revealing what you really think, but is preventing you from thinking at all, and just getting stuck on your conditioned response?
*Gibson is just an example. This post is not about litigating whether he personally is racist, but about this sort of behavior in general.
But science says the exact opposite is true. A drunk person has lower inhibitions so they express what they think easily. They don’t sugar coat it or try to hide their thoughts. This picture is a feel good thing which might be true in some situations but is generally wrong and is defending bad behaviour.
Yes we’re in agreement about how alcohol affects inhibitions. The question is more about our thoughts. When impaired, we don’t hold back from speaking, but are we speaking our true thoughts or just the basic garbage that’s been littered on top of our thoughts?
Also to be clear, I’m not excusing the behavior. It’s not OK to express racist thoughts regardless of whether it’s how you feel when sober or not. And if drinking causes someone to do that, they ought not drink. The purpose of this discussion is more about how we judge the person afterward: do we judge them solely on their actions? Or, as people online usually do, also judge them for their thoughts?
I judge the actions of drunk people equally to actions of sober people. Being drunk and doing something stupid revealed the true person behind the facade they put up when sober. I will absolutely hold them accountable for everything they said and did.
Imagine your SO comes home drunk and confesses that they cheated on you. In the morning they are a loving SO once again. How would you judge them? Will you let it slide because they were drunk or will you confront them?
I think the point is that we are not what we think, we are not our first thoughts.
How we choose to act despite our initial impressions is what defines us, not the thoughts themselves.
I agree with this. Our actions are more important than our thoughts.
What I am saying is that drunk actions are equal to sober actions. Speaking your thoughts is an action.