Citation Needed - Prohibition

Episode Date: January 16, 2019

Prohibition in the United States was a nationwide constitutionalban on the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages from 1920 to 1933. During the nineteenth century, alcoholism, family violence, and saloon-based political corruption prompted prohibitionists, led by pietistic Protestants, to end the alcoholic beverage trade to cure the ill society and weaken the political opposition. One result was that many communities in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries introduced alcohol prohibition, with the subsequent enforcement in law becoming a hotly debated issue. Prohibition supporters, called "drys", presented it as a victory for public morals and health.   Our theme song was written and performed by Anna Bosnick. If you’d like to support the show on a per episode basis, you can find our Patreon page here.  Be sure to check our website for more details.

Yeah, it's like a choose your own adventure. Cool, what's it called? The Bander Snatch, it's Bander Snatch. Oh, I actually have that one bookmarked, yeah. Uh, Netflix. Um, what? No, I thought we were talking about porn hub. What?

Nope. Hey guys, here are the news. What, wait, what news? What are you talking about? Well, I started a few lobbies in the last year to get some things outlawed and it just came through that, uh, all of the bills have some things outlawed and it just came through that all of the bills have passed outlawed like what? Well, for starters, no cigarettes. Those are what the fuck you did what? Yeah, don't don't worry. I've got a carton right here

that I'm willing to let go for say cool thousand. That seems good. Dude, that's like five dollars more than normal. I'll take it. I'll take it. And Heath, Scotch, outlawed today, buddy. How dare you, motherfucker! Yeah, don't worry, no big deal. I have this bottle of log of O116, I can tell you for, what do you think?

10K? Gimme, okay, I bought it, I bought it. All right, last bottle, got a piece of myself, and it's gone. Damn it. Okay, and Cecil. Tom, Tom, I don't drink that much and I quit smoking years ago So I don't know exactly what you think. Yeah, but I had him banned straws What the fuck I love straws god damn it. I could let this box of bendy ones go for

How about I never tell people about the, you know, these are yours, these are all yours. You can have these, these bendy straws because we're friends. Yes. Two years. And Eli. What, Tom, what, did they make pedophilia

and cocaine legal? I mean, what, man? No, I just, I have your money for the photos, man. Oh, how much you have? 11,000? Hmm. Can you throw in a box of straws? Hello and welcome to Citation Needed. The podcast where we choose a subject, read a single article about it on Wikipedia and

pretend we're experts. Because this is the internet, and that's how it works now. I'm beans and toast Bosnick, and I'll be whipping up this ether frallic. But I'll need a band of maloinks to juice up the wiggle while. First up, two Wingo Wangoes who would never give you the banana oil Cecil and Noah I am a pass I guess I don't I don't know I'm gonna chase yourself you zazzled what the grief up he like just cuz he knows his onions this is what it sounded

like when we still let white people make our slang you can see why we outsource it now yeah it's better now it's better now and also joining us tonight two heavies who know where Jimmy Hoffa is bowling heath and Tom Okay, Eli who is Jimmy Hoffa in your head actually and and more importantly when is Jimmy Hoffa in your head? 19th century 19th century, he's the guy. The hockey player makes the donuts. Yeah, I don't understand this setup at all, but if the question evolves the location of someone's balls, I'm gonna go with, he's robot mom.

Is he's two-syn. Oh, two-syn. Oh, I like this running gag. That conference didn't get that much publicity. Don't worry about it. Now, before we begin tonight, we'd like to take a moment to thank our patrons. They toss us the dash that helps us make the bathtub gin that's currently in your tumbler. If you'd like to learn how to join their ranks, be

sure to stick around till the end of the show. And without other way, tell us, Heath, what person-place-thing concept phenomenon or event will we be talking about today? All right, in honor of the centennial anniversary of the ratification of the, I don't even want to talk about it, but the 18th amendment. We're going to be talking about prohibition in the United States. And Cecil, you dropped the spectacles on this yellow slash. Are you ready to spill the Thor ragna rook? And what point did you run out of slaying? You like about 10 minutes before the record began. So 19th century. What was prohibition?

All right, well, it's going to be hard to do this enormous topic justice on this show. There's so many things that I would have to leave out. And in fact, a lot of things that I'm going to mention could have their own show dedicated to them. Okay, great. And if the things you leave out are boring, I'm sure that no one will pick those up and run with them, Cecil. So never fear. All right. So the temperates movement in the United States started out extoling the virtues of moderation of alcohol. It was happening since the early 1800s. The moment then went on to promote moderation with lower content alcoholic beverages and renouncing distilled spirits. Boo, nerd, I'll drink 60-odd tools if I have to. I don't care. I'll just switch

to Nikewell and cocaine, whatever the fuck it takes. Then still later, it promoted capital T total abstinence when it came to alcohol. Okay. All right. You can renounce my liquor cabinet all that you want. You can call it names. You can insult it's dubious, parental lineage, but the factory remains gentlemen that I own not one but two globe bars and no amount of vitriol will fit my good spirits. I don't want to spoil anything, but hey but eventually America rejects the idea of temperance.

I don't know if anybody noticed. Entirely, just the whole. Alcohol had long been part of human life and daily social activity. For several thousand years, people from all over the world had partaken and drinks with lower alcohol content, like wine, beer, mead, cider, and for several hundred, Western civilizations had been imbibing distilled spirits, but America did have something of a drinking problem.

Ah, I don't know. It sounds like drinking had an America problem if we're being fair. Yeah. Yeah. It's only a problem if you admit you have one. To admit to your stuff stuff is stubborn denial. I am.

Very calm, very relaxed. Okay. Seasal, on a scale from one to heath, what kind of drink and problem we talked about here? Not really. No, we said no putting me in scales. We said that earlier. Okay, on a scale from one to pre-divorced Tom,

what are we talking about here? You know that like two month period? Well, alcoholism was on the rise. Alcohol-related deaths and diseases were also increasing. Also fun was increasing. Good stories that aren't boring as fuck were increasing. I mean, the whole picture's easily there. And drinking alcohol was considered a masculine activity at the time.

And so these problems were mostly a facting met, except when those drunk men beat their wives to death. Yes. Very true. Very true. And this was also a time where women had few rights and few opportunities to provide for themselves. So there is a lot of families that were in turmoil because of alcohol and alcohol abuse. There is a lot of families that were in turmoil because of alcohol and alcohol abuse. One stat in this article is that on average, before prohibition, Americans consumed 1.7 bottles of hard liquor every week.

Which is three times what we consumed on average in 2010. What do you know that's because? Nope. Nope. I see what you're doing. Cecil, I see. Now I'm going to let you suck me into a fucking Louis CK. I don't think anybody's arguing that now is better than Heath.

Maga. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. I mean, guys, have you seen the old, timey pictures of the women in the 1800s? Like, just using beer goggles wasn't going to do the trick, although Jesus 1.7 bottles of hard liquor No one's gonna do a lot of tricks on it Root beer goggles don't do much

Most of the drinking establishments had a majority of male patrons the saloon was not the kind of place that women would frequent I mean sure there were women, but they were working women It wasn't the kind of place where you could bring the family for wings and some pub grab on your way home from church. Uh, fun fact, bars are still not places where you should bring your family for wings. Just a fun, hard, hard, dreamy, hard, dreamy. What are you talking about? Monday night at bishops, 10, seven wings for my whole childhood. You're saying about drinking more than 1.7 bottles of alcohol a week? That's like a little bit of day.

No, not a little bit of day. How much is... Okay, I don't want to talk about it. I don't talk about it. I'm very calm. If they have pretzels, it's a restaurant though, right? That's the restaurant. And if you have pretzels at your's a restaurant though, right? That's... It's a restaurant. And if you have pretzels at your house, you're drinking with friends. Reading descriptions of these places, I gotta say they sound fucking awful.

These saloons sound like a sausage party in the old-timey restroom at Rigley Field, the one with the piss trough. We'll all stop. All right, okay, so we're saying a piss trough built into the side of the bar is, uh, good. Bad. I, you say first.

Bad idea. He, I'm pretty sure anytime humanity reaches piss trough, it's time to cut ties and start over. Yeah, I like the piss trough. It's a nice opportunity to establish dominance through awkward eye contact. Yeah, the Irish guys establishing dominance at the piss trough eye contact. I'm guessing. Here's the fun thing. If you're ever in a place with a piss trough, if you come in and you go, oh, they have a slip and slide here.

You'll get a good laugh. You'll get a big, that's a good one. So saloons at this time were often funded by breweries. The brewery would basically purchase the establishment and the saloon keepers sold their products exclusively. The brewers were something of a political powerhouse too. They formed a lobby in 1862 to combat the prohibition movement. They called it the United States Brewery Association. Yeah, their first logo is two brothers fighting themselves to death in a waffle house parking lot. Most of the breweries were Germans, they were just like constantly invading each other. There's also this weird tension between the states and the federal government around alcohol. For the federal government, the sale of alcohol brought in a lot of tax money.

This was a major revenue stream for the Fed. It was something like one-fifth of the tax income at the time. At the same time, many states were signing on with the Temperance Movement and banning the sale and manufacture of alcohol, main bandit in 1851, and it was dry for five years before the repeal of that law. Around that time, 12 other states followed suit. Yeah, they actually invented cold fusion for five years in Maine, but then they forgot how to do it. Got a room to hold thing.

It's like a parking lot full of electric wagons, power. Like, you can sit there and make. I love it like we make decisions on public health issues based on how much money the government is either gonna make or not make. Like, that's a great system. If anyone needs me, I'll be filing for medical bankruptcy. That's it.

We eventually, eventually we all will. So do we know why these conservative assholes were trying to ruin every party ever? Just like a power thing. What's going on? We look back at the temperance movement. We tend to think of it as a conservative in nature. And this really wasn't the case, though. The moment looked to help out the working class who were hardest hit by the problems of alcohol, the problem was that they made one very common mistake. They never asked what the people they were trying to help out the working class who were hardest hit by the problems of alcohol. The problem was that they made one very common mistake. They never asked what the people they were trying to help actually want. I mean, pretty sure asking people who drink too much poison, what's best for them is a bad idea.

But whatever Cecil, you were saying it's your ass. I love that Eli cannot resist instinctively siding with the militant school marms right? The group and mother's against drug driving meetings. What can I say? Okay, and one more quick question. Do you drink at all? Yeah, of course.

Good, good. And how many drinks do you have in a week? A work week? Is that what you mean? Yes, of course, yes. Oh, I mean, you know, no more than usual. I'd say the 25, 30 just enough to stay sharp on the job, standard amount. Yeah. Right. Yes. Good, good, good. Just one more quick question here for your intake form. It says you're here because you think you leave vomited up your liver yesterday. Now, did you save it on ice?

I did. Save it on ice. Yep. But then I ran out of ice in my drink. So I guess I did. Of course. Of course. I already. Yeah. That's right. Yeah. Exactly. So I'm going to be okay though. Right? That's. Oh, no, I haven't. No, no, I can't believe you're still standing here talking to me. No, that's absolutely. Oh, right. Right.

So I guess no reason to quit now. Absolutely not. Great, cheers. Cheers. That was real audio of every doctor's visit in Heathenized hometown, fun fact. To put a ducky with a mic in it. The nation at this time was swelling with immigrants.

These immigrants bought with them a culture of drinking alcohol. These immigrants came from places like Germany and Italy where beer and wine were part of daily life. And in a lot of ways, while temperance movement had a lot of progressive roots, it would also embrace a very anti-immigration stance. We can turn anything into xenophobia in America. Yeah. Fucking immigrants always taking our American sugars

and turning white fucking communist ethanol with their day go yeast gross. To the yeast. Many of the people in the Temperance Movement just ethanol with their, day go yeast, gross. Many of the people in the temperates movement were white, Anglo-Saxon Protestants from rural communities. So there was also an urban versus

rural thing going on, as alien as that would seem. The saloons in the city were associated with immigrants, and were also reported to be a place where a corrupt politician could trade away some beverages for a vote. That's ridiculous.

Although, I guess to get millennials to vote, you need to trade stamps. That's stamps. Yeah. Yeah. Wow, a powerful T totaler and power who blames immigrants for voter fraud. How far have you gone? 100 years. All right.

So tell us, Cecil, how did Turner, the century, Noah and Eli find the Mike Pence for the Jewelman? You know, even though the temperance movement was a growing political force, there wasn't enough steam to actually enact prohibition. Right. Because they wouldn't put any ethanol in their engines, you know. Temperance needed a couple of things to fall into place before it became an amendment. And they weren't going to settle for anything less than a change in the constitution.

And this is something that I think might be one of the biggest factors in the downfall of the T totalers and the prohibition in general, the ability to compromise. And if they had, we might still be talking about how that one time back in the day, you didn't need a prescription for boobies. But we'd still have assault rifles over the counter. That's for sure. Yeah, that's true. Meanwhile, my more Gellens chronic fatigue celiac spoon deficiencies.

Oh man, we are one alternate universal way from Heath being that douchebag friend who tells you weed cures cancer, aren't we? Yeah. Yeah. Just waving a scotch in your face. Glau come on. Glau come on. Glau come on. So the first thing to fall into place was the passage of the 16th Amendment.

And this is the income tax amendment. With the addition of this revenue stream, the United States government could actually afford prohibition. The second piece was World War One. And like I said earlier, there was this anti-immigration thread that really held this prohibition tapestry together. So war with one of those immigrant cultures really sped things up. Yeah.

So in case you were wondering what the downside of World War One is, here you go. And I just want to talk about something wacky here. One of the anti-German sentiments at the time was against doxins for some reason. I already reported that people would just kill them and some people also rename doxins Liberty Hounds just to stick it to the chisels. I guess like all of America in perfect summer. We hated Germans for no reason. So we killed and renamed dogs for less reason. Well, I mean, Liberty how never caught on, but we do still call them weiner dogs.

So it's not like we ever really got over it. Yes, true. Welcome to Zeno's. Would you like to try the hate plate? It's a weiner dog and freedom fries. Yeah. Right. So this wedge issue was also well orchestrated by a temperance movement that was becoming

something of a political powerhouse in its own right. The anti saloon league was a powerful temperance oriented political association that could really make or break a political campaign. These swing voters would vote for any dry politician. And women started to become a lot more politically active in this movement too. Sometimes staging prayer circles outside saloons and blocking doors in acts of civil disobedience. Okay, see, this is why Ellen DeGeneres has no business backing up Kevin Hart. Like it's not, not your thing is about men and drinking, stay in your lane.

What the fuck? So what do I mean by that? Can we rewind that? I got lost. I got lost. I mean, me and I meant the good part. There was some good part in there. There's no good parts.

It's all good. A good part or zero. I don't know where no good parts. You guys, feedback for us. And you know, Street it out. You guys think about Kevin Hart and Ellen DeGeneres. You guys say, I'm here to listen.

Cowards. Nothing. Exactly. Okay. So back to the essay. So the amendment passes on January 16, 1919, when it's ratified by 36 of the 48 states, two states rejected the amendment, Connecticut and Rhode Island.

In October, President Woodrow Wilson vetoed the amendment, but both the House and the Senate would override his veto and they created legislation on prohibition called the Volsted Act. Overrided his veto, just a quick reminder, there was a time when Congress would accomplish things. They were the wrong things, but still they were things. Yeah. All right. So tell us, Cecil, what was the Volkswagen hack? All right.

So the Vulsted Act was, it was kind of weird. It regulated sale and manufacture of alcohol, but not consumption of it. It provided that, quote, no person shall manufacture, sell, barter, transport, import, export, deliver or furnish any intoxicating liquor, except as authorized by this act. Unquote. Did not say drink. Yeah.

And the liquor authorized was that for industrial purposes like dies and fuel as well as for religious purposes and all of a sudden every store in New York City, it's also a tapestry coloring business somehow and a gas station and our lady of Angus tora bitters the church. Well, see, I like to imagine that one alcoholic Catholic during prohibition who didn't know where the speak he was. So he just like snuck back into the communion line over and over again in different disguises. This is my blood. Triple distilled and purified for your pleasure. Hey, drink and black out and remember. Prohibition win and effect exactly one year after it was ratified on January 16th, 1920.

And things look bleak for the alcohol consumers in the United States. The T totalers were pushing for an amendment because they knew how hard it would be to repeal it. One senator, more a shepherd said, quote, there is as much chance of repealing the 18th amendment as there is for a hummingbird to fly to the planet Mars with the Washington Monument tied to its tail. End quote. Suck it. Yeah.

Made it happen. They had a year before the law went into effect. Is that like was like a national challenge just to see how much alcohol in that year you could hoard in your house. Yeah. That's what Warren Harding did that. I heard. Yes.

He like took all he had like a mention full alcohol and like, yeah, it happened. He was like, all right, this all goes to the White House now because I can't transport it at that point. Who isn't doing that? Who's not like, well, alcohol futures are looking up. Jesus Christ. All right. Well, if how fast he up. This is Christ.

All right. Well, if how fast Heath jumps on his cues after 8 p.m. as any indication, I've got a telescope to buy. So let's take a quick break for a little ditty. We like to call apropos of nothing. You are. You did. Q, what?

Alan DeGeneres. You did, Q. What? I'll end the generous. Gentlemen, thank you for coming to the first alcohol tobacco sex and gambling free meeting of the League of Gentlemen. Yeah, it's good. So... So... So... I... I just... Nevermind, nevermind. No, what? What?

Nothing, I was just saying... You guys... You already know. Cool, cool cool cool Hey, hey, what about? Nah, nope can't Not gonna guys want to drink shoe polish shoe I mean I would like that car drinking it. It's done. Sorry And we're back. When we left off, America faced a future where nobody ever ate at White Castle.

What happened next? So when prohibition starts, the enforcement of the law is actually a problem. See there's no funding for it. So states and the federal government pushed the responsibility for it back and forth. In 1920, there were a total of 1,500 agents tasked with the enforcement for the country. And we had a population of 106 million at the time. To Jesus. Shogun Utah.

I call Utah. To us. To Jesus. Shotgun Utah. I call Utah. Oh, too fast. Too fast. Yeah. You like broken Utah. Wow, making it illegal for one or more hydroxyl groups to attach to a carbon atom was tough to one for I guess they can't plan for everything.

That's true. Right. Immediately, people tried to bend and break the law to prescriptions for medicinal alcohol skyrocketed. People used the loophole regarding religion and became religious leaders like rabbis. The amount of sacramental wine increased dramatically. There were also people illegally making an importing alcohol into the country. Just like old timey tweaked out Jesse Pinkman trying to buy 20 bags of yeast at 20 different supermarkets

I like bread. I'm making some Matsa stupid Becoming Jewish right before world war two this plan has no downsides I love the idea of some guy desperately leafing through a list of diseases looking for one with booze in it. Like, doc, I'm pretty sure I have a fetal alcohol. The business of importing or making liquor was highly profitable. And there was a huge market for the sale of bootleg alcohol.

There were some really big names in crime that got very rich running boot lagging operations. Al Capone and Lucky Luciano both made a fortune running illegal booze. A few people on the other side of the law also saw the profitability of boot lagging and started their own enterprises. Former police officer Roy Olmsted from Seattle and distinguished lawyer George Remus from Cincinnati were also running huge boot lagging enterprises. Okay, I feel like George Remus from Cincinnati were also running huge boot lagging enterprises. Okay, I feel like George Remus might have just been stocking up for when he got there. There's like, all right, sir, we've done it. We've made this, this thing nearly everyone wants illegal now.

This will certainly make people not want it now. Hey, what are you doing? What are you doing there? Nothing. No, I'm not doing anything. I feel like you're bootlegging right now. Are you bootlegging right now? No, I'm not.

We're bootlegging right now. While we're talking about it, you're bootlegging. No, it's just, I'm not. No, yes you are. You're bootlegging right now. We just passed the law. We haven't even invented the word bootlegging. And it's crazy somehow you're doing that verb.. Your boot lagging right in front of me.

It doesn't even exist as a word yet. I don't know. No, no. I just saw you. So three bottles. Four would be great. Fine choice. Fine choice.

Four more. I'm done. Yes. At this time, there's also the emergence of the speakeasy. This is basically a place where you went to illegally buy and drink alcohol. This became a very different place than the pre-prohibition saloons. Women were attending these speakeasies and drinking in public right alongside the men. Just a small town.

Get the fuck off the stage. What? Someone's doing it. Yes, yet I already hate it. I hate you. Fuck you. Here's a golden globe. So, tell us, Cecil, what does the government do about this? Release a bunch of cobras

into the Speakies. He's taken through the edit with these motherfuckin snakes and his motherfuckin Speakies. You know, kind of actually, like they do do the government fights back against these lawbreakers by poisoning and dust. Trial alcohol. You see, boo laggers would sometimes use industrial alcohol to make drinkable alcohol. So the government just filled it with poison. And the article says that quote, as many as 10,000 people died from drinking denatured alcohol before prohibition ended. I'd like to know what to take back the laugh he just left.

Not funny, very serious. The leader of the anti saloon league, this guy was one of the people who craft, helped craft the vultus that act said, quote, the government is under no obligation to furnish people with alcohol that is drinkable when the constitution prohibits it. The person who drinks this industrial alcohol is a deliberate suicide. And, of course, still safer than the water and flint. That's true. That's true.

Fucking human periquot. Okay, when you reach, sure he's dead, but at least he isn't drunk, you've lost the thread. Yeah. That's the, yeah. Couple of other interesting sides in this story, the Ku Klux Klan was for prohibition and threatened violators of the law with vigilante justice. See?

See? I'm on the good team. Wait, what? Also, the stock car had its origins as a moonshine running vehicle during this time. They tried to make the car look as close to originals possible while tricking it out so it could outrun the police. And I can't help but think these two have to be related somehow. Yeah.

Yeah. The criminals and the cops were both stupid. So number one strategy, nothing but left turns. Let's see the KKK and the stock car races. I just watched both for the fires. All right, so prohibition gave us NASCAR and the KKK. Anything good come from the CSO and any benefits? Well, after several years of this experiment,

it started to see some positive and negative results. The positives were first seen in the early years. Mostly, these were related to health and society. Blah, blah, blah, boo, nerd, tell them a blah, blah, that's what you said. So the health and society piece here is less absenteeism, fewer cases of alcohol-based diseases, and fewer workplace accidents due to alcohol. These numbers even before prohibition ended would eventually rise, but at the start of

it, things look promising. Wikipedia also lists this fucking judgey McJuderson comment under positives, quote, a superior moral tone. And quote, the fuck that means. Okay. I don't want to get alled-man on the land here, but I'm pretty sure letting people put stuff in their bodies if they want to.

It's morally superior. Okay, well, if the listeners knew what you had in your rectum right now, they'd be slower than not along. That's fair. In my rectum. Am I rectum being detained? Is it?

It's not. Mine is. Cause super glue is a part of that equation. It's a whole bad thing. I don't want to get into it. Some of the numbers on this are pretty astounding. This quote from Wikipedia is from Harvard men were 29.5 per 100,000 in 1911 and 10.7 in 1929. Admissions to state mental hospitals for alcoholic psychosis declined from 10.1 per 100,000 in in 1919 to 4.7 in 1928. What? That's five people. The mental hospital can't fit five more people in their fucking cage.

Adia, five people. You're fine. Arrests for public drunkenness and disorderly conduct declined 50% between 1960 and 1922. For the population as a whole, the best estimates are that consumption of alcohol declined by 30% to 50% end quote. Oh, still waiting for the positive. Yeah. It's not a world I want to live in. Cecil, I hate to be the Noah in a previous episode, but prohibition sounds like a massive success. They were. There were some negatives. There were some negatives. Uh, yeah, I would imagine there would be, um, maybe the death of joy, happiness. It's gone.

The best thing is a negative, was that a negative Cecil? No more happiness. I guess, I guess that might be for some people that are angry drunks. Yeah, I imagine. I'm the, the first was that people just broke the fucking law. People drank and speakeasies. They had their own stills. They bought bootleg liquor and all this money and merchandise went on taxed and people who were running criminal enterprise were raking in the cash. How one of the guys at champion this cause that I mentioned earlier, more shepherd, they found a still on his property that produce 130 gallons of moonshine per day.

So easy. Jesus. This guy should have his face on t-shirts from the gap at this point. Like, fuck, Che Guevara, communist revolution. Fuck you, Morris Shepard is a goddamn hero. He's in 30 gallons a day? So fucking weird.

It's almost as if like creating a black market for something that people have been doing for thousands of years, only serves the drive supply underground and create a more dangerous and less regulated environment for that self-same product. I'm glad we've learned this little history lesson. I wanna repeat that one.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So I'm not saying there aren't negatives, so I'm just still waiting for it. Yeah. So near the end of prohibition't negatives, Cecil. I'm just still waiting for it. So near the end of prohibition, the government was in the midst of the Great Depression and seriously needed the revenue from taxes and jobs that would come with legalized liquor. FDR ran on a campaign that promised to repeal the amendment and one handily. Indeed. The 21st Amendment, which repealed the 18th was introduced in February about a month after

FDR was inaugurated and it was ratified in December of that same year. But just for the fucking money, like this is it, like I love that the health effects were like massive and measured and like consumption was down and all it, you're just like, ah, fuck it. I just want the money back. That's what we want. All of our morals for sale at the time too. Yeah. Fuck say, what do we have to care? We don't. And that's the story. So tell us, Cecil, what

did we learn today? Well, a couple of interesting observations. The first is that there is a lot more regulations that people follow on alcohol now that it's legal than they did when prohibition was the law of the land. There are plenty of places where you can't get liquor after a certain time or on a certain day of the week and hell there's even dry counties, but even though those are restrictions, people pretty much obey the laws. Yeah, but the laws in Utah are fucking crazy. When we did a live show in Salt Lake City City I asked the sound guy at the venue where to find a liquor store and he was like oh Do you have a passport and a strong essay? Do you have a wax and seal of the monarchy?

That's gonna be tricky don't worry though. worry though, okay, there's actually like a gun shawl loophole type thing. I can tell you a bottle from the whiskey soda machine that's built into the back of my truck. But no, you can't just buy it at a store like a fucking savage. There are rules. That's what actually happened.

And he like sold me a bonnetire bottle of whiskey from his personal soda machine. It was really weird. The least believable thing is that he just sold you one bottle of whiskey. This whole story, this whole fucking story is just like, it's just America perfectly. Like you can have as much freedom as you, whoa, holy shit. Okay. Nope. No, no, no freedom at all. No, oh god. That's worse. Okay. You can have some freedoms, but only when I say so. Yeah. We're like, we're about to fucking eight year old kids trying to cram all our Halloween candied our mouth and one. one point. So much fun. I love doing that. Yeah. Another aside here, women played a huge role in both prohibition and the repeal. Is that because they're most of the people?

So they're not. They were a large part of the temperance movement and helped pass the amendment. And then later women came out against the movement like Pauline Sabin, who was once a Republican party official that eventually used her influence to help get FDR elected because of his stance on prohibition. I get it. Whiskey Dick is both a curse and a bless. This whole fucking back and forth is just like the legislative version of like a little to the left or more or too much put it back. Yes.

We eventually gave women the vote so they could get rid of prohibition. Yeah. Yeah. And finally, I want to point out that some people really liked prohibition. The article says that in the late 30s, quote, after its repeal, two fifths of Americans wish to reinstate national prohibition end quote, and that quote, in 2014, a CNN nationwide poll found that 18% of Americans believe that drinking should be illegal end quote. What?

I know. Norck. And if you had to summarize what you learned in one sentence, what would it be? Why stop now? Let's keep blaming women, guys. We can keep doing that. Way ahead of you, Cecil. Ellen had no business defending Kevin.

Thank you. Wait, what did I say? Did I say that? Called back to it now. So you said it yellow with anticipation or cirrhosis. I'm not sure. All right. I got one for you here. When you consider prohibition

in its totality, so let's clear that the temperance movement was addressing very real problems, many of which were alleviated, not by banning alcohol, but by figuratively taking away America's PlayStation until we prove that we were mature enough to have it back. Right. So given that takeaway, what other national policies might we consider enacting? A, explaining to death row inmates that this will hurt us more than it hurts them. B, drawing a line through Texas and letting the immigrants have the left half if they keep it clean. C, making duplicitous politicians write their campaign promises on the board 50 times, or D literally taking away America's PlayStation until we prove

that we're mature enough to go. I'm going to go with a secret answer. E we should all be spanked until we're sorry by British dominatrix's. I have no idea what that has to do with your question, but that's definitely the answer. Yeah, no, I don't either, but that is what I wrote down for the answer. So I guess you're right. Well done. None of O for E. All right. Cecil Prohibition works great, which is why no one buys

sex or drugs in the countries that just regulate these things are obviously failing. So to prove my point out of the country's below, which has the highest rate of drug addiction, a Portugal, B, the Netherlands, C, the United States, or D definitely the United States. I'm going to go with secret answer E. Mexico is failing because they have to go fund me our wall for us. I guess. Sure. Well done. Okay. Cecil, which of the following is the most obvious downside to having another prohibition? A, Heath will stab you.

B, you're murdering babies before they're even conceived by accident in a room or sea, he will stab you again. I'm gonna go with A. I've been trying to get Heath to stab me for years, but he won't swipe right. He just won't swipe. He'll swipe right. Oh yes he will. There should be like a prohibition museum

with just like piles of tiny little shoes from the kids who never got conceived. Drunken accident. That's important. Never forget. All right. Well, he's made the first Holocaust slash 9-11 joke, which means that this week's winner is Noah.

Yes. And it also means that I'm gonna pick Heath for next week's essay. Ah, congratulations to me. That's our worst. All right, well, for Cec Tom, Noah and Heath. Tommy, thanks. Thank you for hanging out with us today. We'll be back next week. And by then, Heath will be an expert on something else. Ah, damn right. Between now and then, you

can hear Heath and I on our fitness show, waking up counts as a sit-up. You can listen to Noah, Cecil, and Tom on their show, old guys with a cat. We'd like to help keep this show going. You can make a per episode donation at patreon.com slash citation pod. Or why not leave us a five-star review everywhere you can. And if you'd like to get in touch with us, check out past episodes, connect with us on social media, or check the show notes. Be sure to check out patreon.com slash citation

pot. Guys, guys, I think that shoe polish might actually be poison. I think it has poison in it. Yeah. Yeah. You guys want to stop drinking it and talk about the weather? No, more, more shoe polish. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

I'll take seconds. I finished it. Damn it. Ah, man. I finished it. Damn it. Man. Oh, I want to eat the hotel. You need to leave this out. You need to leave this out. There's a reason you're single, buddy. I'm serious.

I'm fucking serious. You need to leave this out. I'm fucking serious. You need to leave this out. Just put that. Cecil just put that as the outlet. Just see he's going. I'm fucking serious man. You need to get this Fine. This one won't come out until next week. You're good. Cecil you're good. You got something to say so looking to my Inform see some looking to my way for I'm talking like I'm talking Right You said a little rage that we'll say that It sounded a little high

I don't know I'm just gonna be a real drunk You're You have no love in your life Fuck you Fuck you.