The press has been very hostile to AA and other 12-step programs this month.
First of all, numerous articles about that Moderation Management group have been hitting the mainstream press this week. Never mind that MM's founder died drinking, and killed two innocent people because of her drinking. There are undoubtedly heavy drinkers out there who can moderate their drinking, but I don't care. There are also active alcoholics who think they are merely heavy drinkers who can somehow moderate their drinking, and who will go to great lengths to believe that lie. Countless alcoholics have died thinking they could moderate their drinking; I pointed out a few examples in my posting yesterday.
Here is a post from over a year ago refuting the claims that serious alcoholics can moderate their drinking: https://elplatt.com/return-moderate-drinking-still-lie
Not only has Moderation Management been getting a lot of press this month, but also anti-stepper Gabrielle Glaser just got a long article with the same tired old anti-stepper talking points published in The Atlantic. The best refutation to her talking points published so far is the article "Why Alcoholics Anonymous Works" by Jesse Singal: http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2015/03/why-alcoholics-anonymous-works.html
Back in the time before I started drinking and during my active drinking, the mainstream press was not this hostile towards Alcoholics Anonymous. Indeed, in my day, 60 Minutes aired a segment about how one controlled drinking program was a failure that killed no less than four alcoholics. The fact the press was so friendly to the 12-step program is one of the reasons I got clean and sober as quickly as I did.
I am worried about the bullshit active alcoholics are reading these days. Moderation Management's bullshit that a heavy alcoholic can drink normally again already killed its founder and two innocent people; I wonder how many other people MM and the positive press it is getting this month will kill. I wonder how many active alcoholics will read Glaser's article in The Atlantic and take the drink that kills them instead of getting to a meeting and getting better.
Alcoholics need help, not people cosigning their bullshit.
