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.
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?