Unpopular Opinion

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If your first thought is what you're conditioned to think, maybe you can't access your "defining" thoughts when you're drunk. (lemmy.world)

submitted 18 hours ago by Okokimup@lemmy.world to c/unpopularopinion@lemmy.world

45 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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.

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[–] Outwit1294@lemmy.today 18 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

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.

[–] buffing_lecturer@leminal.space 10 points 7 hours ago

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.