re: #120 sagehen

addiction to drink and drugs never gave anybody racist attitudes, or caused them to think racist thoughts.

it does cause people to say out loud the thoughts that, when they were sober, they knew enough to bite their tongue and keep their thoughts to themself.

There’s a myth that drugs/alcohol cause people to say what they really think about stuff. They don’t. The hateful, hurtful things get said, not because they addict believes them, but because that part of the brain that is unleashed at the time knows that those are the things that will typically most hurt the listener. Ginger Baker is a case in point. He didn’t actually believe the hateful shit he said to people that he actually loved.