Yoshizawa Situation

[TotallyUncool]

Absolutely!
If you're sufficiently addicted to alcohol, you can reach a point where you start the morning that way - and that once you get to that point, the next step may be the emergency ward, jail, or worse.

[Celedam]

…or she's telling the truth and there's some other medical reason (e.g., diet, medication, hormone imbalance, systemic infection, organ malfunction) why the alcohol didn't leave her system.

[MariaLisseth]

Also Makoto san mentioned something in the Kenshu concert


研修生紺名古屋夜
まこと氏
これはスタッフから触れるなと言われましたが 20年間MCをやってきてこのまま黙って帰るのは僕には出来ません
吉澤ひとみのことです
研修生のみんな
先輩がごめんね
吉澤ひとみに代わって謝るつもりはありません でもいつか解り合える時が来ると思います
#hpkenshu

研修生発表会夜公演、MCにてまことが吉澤ひとみに関して話す
「触れないわけにはいかない。
この子達(研修生)は悪くない。
いつか許し合いたい」と。
そして、その後に歌われた「念には念(念入りVer.)」の歌詞が心に響き、いつもと違った感じに聞こえた
#hpkenshu

まことさんから吉澤ひとみの件について
｢スタッフから『この件は言わないでくれ』と言われましたがここで触れずに帰るのは僕の正義感からは無理だった｣という主旨の言葉を述べ、
研修生へ｢ごめんね｣。そして｢擁護するつもりはないですがいつか許しあえるんじゃないかと思います。｣
#hpkenshu

I think he is also apologizing

[Starra]

…or she's telling the truth and there's some other medical reason (e.g., diet, medication, hormone imbalance, systemic infection, organ malfunction) why the alcohol didn't leave her system.

In which case she should still be aware that she was too drunk to drive, given that I'm sure this isn't the first time it's happened -- it just sounds like this is the first time she's injured people and gotten caught.

[Celedam]

In which case she should still be aware that she was too drunk to drive

You might be hyperaware of your physical condition, given your history, but that is not typical of most people.

given that I'm sure this isn't the first time it's happened -- it just sounds like this is the first time she's injured people and gotten caught.

And you're basing that on what, exactly?

I'm serious. It seems like everyone is ready, willing, and even happy to write her off as a irredeemable alcoholic based on this one incident about which we know very little. I thought this was the "sensible" forum where we don't recklessly speculate. H!O blubbers, JPH!P snarks, MM-BBS sneers, but we express cautious disappointment and then wait for more information. At least that's how it used to be.

[Zunu]

In which case she should still be aware that she was too drunk to drive

You might be hyperaware of your physical condition

Give me a break. You don't have to be "hyperaware" to know that you're drunk.

but that is not typical of most people.

And what are you basing that on exactly?

At the end of the day nobody here knows the full account of what happened and we may never know. But we do know she was intoxicated and she caused an accident. That's not innuendo. We also know when we're being bullshitted to. If you've ever had to deal with someone with substance abuse issues, you know that when they spin a yarn that doesn't pass the smell test, it's 99% likely to be bullshit, and that you're not doing them or yourself any favors by giving credence to it. As Carl Sagan famously wrote, "Keeping an open mind is a virtue -- but, as the space engineer James Oberg once said, not so open that your brains fall out." Here's her narrative:

1) Supposedly had a few mild drinks, slept more than long enough to for that amount of alcohol to be metabolized yet through some mystery woke up still severely intoxicated
2) Somehow completely failed to realize that she was still drunk.
3) Somehow failed to experience any other symptoms of acute renal failure or whatever symptoms one would expect from a mysterious sudden-onset medical condition that would cause one to fail to process alcohol, e.g. nausea, vomiting, etc., such that they would deter her from driving.
4) Coincidentally after experiencing this bizarre medical mystery for the very first time, she has a collision with her vehicle.
5) Coincidentally in this collision she finds herself in a situation where she is unable to pull over as the law requires.
6) Even after few mild drinks, driving the next morning, getting into an accident, waiting to get home, calls cops, finally takes a blood-alcohol test and is STILL severely intoxicated, yet not immediately hospitalized with what would be, if true, a potentially life-threatening condition.

In real life, in my experience, people with super-improbable explanations for appearing to be drunk or high are usually deep into substance abuse and denial about its effects on their life. It's sad and tragic to see people in that situation, for reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with passing judgment or writing them off. In fact, I don't see anybody in this thread claiming Yossy is an "irredeemable alcoholic," and personally I would strongly disagree with someone implying that alcoholism is something irredeemable. On the contrary at least she belatedly came to her senses and experienced enough remorse to call in the accident. Good for her on that, I suppose. And in terms of "recklessly speculating" I would say to look toward your own speculative "medical reasons" to explain away the unfortunate facts that we already know, that she was well over the legal limit early in the morning, exercised poor judgment and perhaps willful disregard, and injured some innocent people in a motor vehicle collision. This is a much more serious situation than getting caught smoking or holding a boy's hand or sneaking out of a love hotel. Drunk driving is truly wrong, not just "oppressive Japanese society" wrong.

[boinsie]

I think it's the hit-and-run aspect that has sent most people over the edge from being willing to accept excuses, to finding the situation entirely unacceptable.
It's one thing if she thought that she was legally okay to drive (perhaps her tolerance is super high, etc), but it's entirely another once she injures two pedestrians and drives off.

[Starra]

You might be hyperaware of your physical condition, given your history, but that is not typical of most people.

I'm sorry, but I'm pretty sure if you're drunk enough to effect your driving like that then you should be able to tell before you get in the car and you shouldn't fucking be driving.

And you're basing that on what, exactly?

...Because she's 33 and I really doubt this is the first time she's been drinking the night before the has work in the morning. That doesn't just randomly happen one day.

I'm serious. It seems like everyone is ready, willing, and even happy to write her off as a irredeemable alcoholic based on this one incident about which we know very little. I thought this was the "sensible" forum where we don't recklessly speculate. H!O blubbers, JPH!P snarks, MM-BBS sneers, but we express cautious disappointment and then wait for more information. At least that's how it used to be.

That's not what I'm saying at all. Did you miss the part where I said that if she's an alcoholic that's shitty for her and that I hope she gets help? Because it really feels like you did.

Either way, she broke the law, she got people hurt and she's mature enough to know that she shouldn't be drinking and driving. Even if she's telling the truth and she didn't drink after midnight like she said, I find it hard to believe that she wouldn't recognise that she was still a bit tipsy when she woke up the next morning. She was still four times over the legal limit, it's not like she was juuust over it a little bit.

Also, cry me a fucking river.

I think it's the hit-and-run aspect that has sent most people over the edge from being willing to accept excuses, to finding the situation entirely unacceptable.
It's one thing if she thought that she was legally okay to drive (perhaps her tolerance is super high, etc), but it's entirely another once she injures two pedestrians and drives off.

That, and given that her brother was killed by a drunk driver you'd think she'd be more careful. It'd be like if I started making fun of people for being suicidal/killing themselves a few years from now.

[Zunu]

...that got dark. You kind of amaze and scare me at the same time sometimes, Starra.

[Starra]

...that got dark. You kind of amaze and scare me at the same time sometimes, Starra.

I don't really see a reason for sugar-coating things like that . Maybe it's a bit of an exaggeration, but to lose a sibling and then (albeit more than 10 years later) go and do the exact same thing that got that sibling killed seems like a pretty shitty thing to do to me.

I know not everyone gets on with their siblings etc, but still, to potentially put someone else in that situation when you could very well prevent it comes across as super iffy. Nobody should be hurt or killed by a drunk driver.

FWIW I don't give a shit about people drinking, it's when they then go and endanger other people that I have an issue. Stay at home and get drunk, sure, you're only hurting yourself. But actively going out after getting drunk and breaking the law (and I'm not talking about Yossy here, I'm talking about people in general) is a dickhead thing to do, especially if you have people around you who try and make an effort to stop you.

(Also, I don't hate Yossy because of this, I just hate her actions and the multiple levels of shitty decisions she made. She fucked up and broke the law, and even if she didn't do it knowingly, she still got people hurt. I also don't like that she was drinking that much the night before a public appearance but I know that's just me being a prude because I'm sure that happens a LOT.)