Alone, not being able to find a better explanation for something than X isn’t good support for X being the explanation. There needs to be significant positive evidence in favor of X, or there’s no reason to choose it over “Ayedunno” (aka the null hypothesis).
You’re right, of course. This statement certainly wasn’t well formulated. I do see significant positive evidence, however, even if the case isn’t airtight.
A less strong and more limited claim would be that the different treatment of these issues is—to some extent that can’t be determined exactly but is definitely significant—due to the fact that alcohol impairment evokes extraordinarily negative associations in the North American culture, which biases upward the amount of attention given to problems that involve this factor, as well as the intensity of public condemnation of people causing such problems, relative to similar problems that don’t involve this particular factor. It seems to me that this claim is evident from the facts mentioned earlier.
Saying that the cause of bias is that drinking is low-status is basically a shorthand for the above long-winded statement, with the added claim that the negative view of alcohol is to a large degree status-related, and that the apparent indifference towards certain dangerous behaviors similar to drunk driving is strongly reinforced by the fact that cracking down on them would mean condemnation and meddling into the lives of lots of high-status respectable folk. I agree that this latter point is harder to justify, and my personal view of it is influenced by personal observations and experiences that are hard to translate into formal written arguments.
You’re right, of course. This statement certainly wasn’t well formulated. I do see significant positive evidence, however, even if the case isn’t airtight.
A less strong and more limited claim would be that the different treatment of these issues is—to some extent that can’t be determined exactly but is definitely significant—due to the fact that alcohol impairment evokes extraordinarily negative associations in the North American culture, which biases upward the amount of attention given to problems that involve this factor, as well as the intensity of public condemnation of people causing such problems, relative to similar problems that don’t involve this particular factor. It seems to me that this claim is evident from the facts mentioned earlier.
Saying that the cause of bias is that drinking is low-status is basically a shorthand for the above long-winded statement, with the added claim that the negative view of alcohol is to a large degree status-related, and that the apparent indifference towards certain dangerous behaviors similar to drunk driving is strongly reinforced by the fact that cracking down on them would mean condemnation and meddling into the lives of lots of high-status respectable folk. I agree that this latter point is harder to justify, and my personal view of it is influenced by personal observations and experiences that are hard to translate into formal written arguments.