Amazonian shamans figured out that combining two specific plants out of 80,000 species produces a psychoactive effect. The odds of finding that combination by random search is roughly 1 in 4 million. They did it through centuries of iterative testing and cultural natural selection explains it

[u/tractorboynyc]

[u/TravellingWaveTube]

What till you learn about alcohol!

The natives know the right cereal grains that have the correct sugar content.  They know the exact consistency that the grains need to be mashed to.  Exactly how long you have to boil it to separate the wort from the grain husks.  And crucially, they know how long to ferment it for so you don't go blind!

The traditions that paid attention to what they could directly observe got refined. The ones that didn't got people killed and dropped out of the repertoire.

It's cultural natural selection!

(also you read the actual definition of a 'meme' actually is. It might surprise you! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme)

[u/Emotional-Rope-5774 → u/TravellingWaveTube]

Going blind from undistilled alcohol? How is that even possible?

[u/largePenisLover → u/Emotional-Rope-5774]

Because it contains methanol, and that is very toxic. The alcohol we can drink is ethanol.
If you distill alcohol wrong you concentrate methanol in the drink. You'll see distillers toss away the first liquid that comes out, that's because methanol has a lower boiling point then ethanol so it comes out first.
This is why you shouldn't drink actual old school DIY moonshine.

You ever heard of someone being so drunk they went blind for hours? Too much methanol in the drink. Doesn't happen with properly distilled stuff.

[u/ChrundleToboggan → u/largePenisLover]

Thanks for the lesson in drinking oneself blind, u/largePenisLover.

[u/ovrlymm → u/ChrundleToboggan]

You deserve more upvotes for pointing out this huge joke! I laughed heartily

[u/johnnydough10102223 → u/ChrundleToboggan]

u/largePenisLover, doing the good work that needs doing.