I am making this a private poll so that people can respond anonymously if they wish. But first a little housekeeping.
While I will be listing a dozen or so activities which I consider possible vices, please only vote for activities you personally engage in that you think you should not. If you’re okay with smoking a pack of cigarettes a day downing a six-pack of Coors every afternoon, or watching porn for four hours each night, then those are not vices IN YOUR VIEW and need not be voted for even if you do one or all of them. Likewise, if you think any of those are bad things but you don’t do them yourselves, then don’t vote for them. Vote only for the activities you yourself indulge in but find difficult or impossible to stop.
Poll in a moment. As noted above, the results will be private.
I’m only using vices as a convenient catchall term. As the OP says, if you have no problem with, say, fucking a different girl met in the bar every night, it’s not a vice from your POV. On the other hand, if you think smoking even one cigarette a week is too much but find yourself unable to stop, that qualifies.
I try to focus on the sins of omission rather than commission* since I agree with the MLK Jr quote “evil can’t be forced out, it must be crowded out.”
*if you’re considering a snarky joke based on “sins of emission,” please, do come up with one that hasn’t been made before. I’ll wait.
I think it would have been better to start with a thread asking people for their vices first, so you would get a more accurate list.
For example I think a lot more people would list failure to exercise/being a couch potato (which you don’t list) than exercising to excess (which you do list).
Likewise you didn’t include anything about religion. Consider the traditional 10 Commandments:
I am the Lord thy god, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.
Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.
Honor thy father and thy mother.
Thou shalt not murder.
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Thou shalt not steal.
Thou shalt not bear false witness against they neighbor.
Thou shalt not covet anything that belongs to thy neighbor.
There are people who are religious on this forum. Yet you include anonymous sex but not adultery as a vice???
Reading this poll made me feel pretty good. I only checked two: overeating and treating others like shit (not worded exactly that way). None of the others is a problem for me. Hey, I’m not as much of a loser as I thought. I think I’ll order two large pizzas and cuss out the delivery guy when he gets here.
P.S. A cluttered house used to be a problem, but in my new, smaller house everything has a place and it’s NEVER untidy. BIG accomplishment for me. Knowing that makes me want ice cream.
Given that I do a bunch of the things on the list, but don’t mind, I think my main vice would be that I’m too open-minded for my own good, but that’s not on the list.
I don’t mind my drinking, it is rare and all in good fun.
I don’t smoke (only because it is illegal)
I won’t mention cigarettes, cause they gross me the fuck out.
But my TEMPER? Some days I feel like I could burn this world down just to avenge the smallest slight. Fortunately, I’m the self destructive type - I break my stuff. My rage has NEVER gotten me to harming another person/animal/possession, or even myself. Instead, I break my expensive things. For instance, in a rage one day I threw my mouse through the LCD TV I use as a computer monitor. Smart…run off to Walmart for a $400 replacement…
I’ve tried counting to 10, holding my breath, etc etc, but for the most part I caveman-short-circuit and rage out before I can initiate those techniques.
I think I’ll order two large pizzas and cuss out the delivery guy when he gets here.