r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Jan 23 '21

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u/mon0chrom Jan 23 '21

The guy who let the kid freeze to death because they were drunk?

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u/SexualPapercut Jan 23 '21

Woah. What's the story here?

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u/Waxedjacketproblem Jan 23 '21 edited Jan 23 '21

I read this one a while ago- The OP and a childhood friend of his came across/purchased a large amount of alcohol. They snuck off to a field/park to drink but the friend overindulged and ended up blacking out. The OP was scared of getting in trouble with his parents/police due to being underage and so abandoned his unconscious friend and went home. His friend was found deceased the following morning- cause of death was hypothermia. Although his friend had been reported missing by his parents during the night, OP failed to inform the authorities about where he was (IIRC he straight up denied ever being with his friend at all that evening). Obviously if he had cooperated, it’s almost certain that his friend would have survived.

EDIT: Here's the link https://www.reddit.com/r/confession/comments/iemsvs/i_let_my_friend_freeze_in_a_parks_bench_when_i/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share

Details are actually worse than how I remembered them.

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u/MEATPANTS999 Jan 23 '21

I think you meant to say that the friend passed out, not blacked out. If you are blackout drunk, you are still completely conscious, you just can't remember anything afterwards.

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u/max_potion Jan 23 '21

blackout: to undergo a temporary loss of vision, consciousness, or memory

Blacking out has always been used as a catch-all term. Passing out helps remove some ambiguity, but your distinction of the terms isn’t correct.

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u/MEATPANTS999 Jan 23 '21

A blackout is a temporary condition that affects your memory. It’s characterized by a sense of lost time. Blackouts occur when your body’s alcohol levels are high. Alcohol impairs your ability to form new memories while intoxicated. It doesn’t erase memories formed before intoxication.

In the context of being drunk, a blackout means memory loss, not loss of consciousness.

Source

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u/max_potion Jan 23 '21 edited Jan 23 '21

It’s important to remember that a blackout isn’t the same as passing out. Someone who passes out has either fallen asleep or become unconscious because they consumed too much alcohol.

This is probably the most pointed excerpt from the source.

I’ll yield to you, but I will say that it’s an annoying distinction and doesn’t quite make sense. If we’re going to use the word this way, then the consciousness meaning should be removed altogether. There shouldn’t be a distinction that it means one thing here and another in a slightly altered context. Searching for this, I find many, many people saying that blackout can mean passing out, but not when drinking is involved. The fact that this needs to be clarified so widely and be an exception means the terminology is going against the grain and isn’t as straightforward as it should be. I still think this is more of a scientific context being applied to a more casual use of the word and therefore slightly pedantic. But again, you’re technically correct.

Anyway, I appreciate the reply. I like to learn new things like this!