Alcoholics Anonymous is about letting go & letting God

So sad that you will never know the joy of sobriety because of your resentments.

Email from Twelve Stepper

AA has freed millions of people from alcoholism by teaching people to release their character defects that keeps them locked into a state of anger and selfishness. AA will continue this service in spite of your hostility because AA forgives you. We’ll be waiting for you with an empty chair when you’re ready.

Dear Twelve Stepper,
Would that be the chair between the pedophile and molestation victim or the stalker and his prey? Wait! Don’t tell me. I wish to be surprised when I meet the many and varied folks of AA.

Too late!

Like Christians defending Christianity, Twelve Steppers accuse critics of “anger” or “some bad experience” that turned the person against AA. How could anyone say mean things about AA when it is such a good organization guided by the singular purpose of helping drunks get sober?

Because it is a fraud, just like Christianity!

AA, born of the same irrational religion, is a worse fraud since it is another Christian cult that denies being a sect. Clouding itself in spirituality bullshit, AA claims it is not even religious, yet somehow, the AA’s Twelve Steps focus on submitting to God in powerlessness, turning one’s will and life over to God, and confessing all sins (“the exact nature of our wrongs.”) For a spiritual program (not religious) AA strangely shares many of the Christian rituals of confession and prayer.

These similarities stem from AA because it is a religion, not a recovery program for alcoholics.

Let me break this down for you, Twelve Stepper. Christians place faith in an implausible belief that a god takes a personal interest in them and has provided the means of salvation through His son, who He sent to be nailed to a cross. You, and the rest of the Twelve Steppers, have bought into the absurdity of Christianity, reborn into a new religious sect (cult), which took the salvation concept and applied it to a substance use disorder.

To believe AA works, one must accept that a God, personally interested in them, provided salvation from alcohol by sacrificing Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob (AA’s Founders) for them to be blessed with the Twelve Step cure to drinking. Never mind the millions of drunks who died of liver failure before Bill and Bob; this doesn’t matter since divining the reason God makes some suffer while blessing others is beyond the drunk’s purview. The Twelve Stepper, just like the Christian, needs only faith to clear his mind of these logical worries and keep his brain empty of resentments through prayer.

Does this make sense to you? Does this seem plausible?

To believe an implausible idea, you must forsake rational thought, and there are consequences for this commitment, with the most damaging being a susceptibility to deception and dishonesty.

Twelve Steppers run around claiming their religion “has freed millions of people from alcoholism” when AA has some of the lowest efficacy rates of treatment protocols. The APA, despite claiming AA Twelve Step Magic shows effectiveness, admits,

One analysis of cognitive-behavioral approaches, for instance, found that 58 percent of patients receiving cognitive-behavioral treatment fared better than those in comparison groups.3

These comparison groups include AA, and despite severe limitations of studying AA in controlled settings, researchers found that:

Attending conventional AA meetings was worse than no treatment or alternative treatment; residential AA-modeled treatments performed no better or worse than alternatives; and several components of AA seemed supported (recovering alcoholics as therapists, peer-led self-help therapy groups, teaching the Twelve-Step process, and doing an honest inventory).

At best, AA might help 5% of the people who attend, but that number is arguably false since it does not account for the rates of natural remission or the inaccuracies of measuring an anonymous program, e.g., lack of verification in self-reported surveys.

Yes, it is true, Twelve Stepper, your booze religion is a failure, and worse yet, you are a liar for claiming otherwise. Just like the Christian fraudulently presenting his religion as a strong possibility, you discuss AA as a practical and successful approach to treating a disorder. Wittingly or unwittingly, you are complicit in that lie.

But it gets worse!

Not only do you lie, but you also fall prey to the effects of believing an implausible idea that coincidentally is similar to what Christians suffer. The dumbness required by the Christian to believe men are women’s spiritual leaders, empowering sexual harassment and abuse, AAs achieve with oldtimers, members with years of sobriety that empowers thirteen stepping the newcomer. Just like the Christians, AAs gaslight victims by telling them they are sick and they are the ones wrong. So coercive are AA members, victims have apologized to their rapists, described best by Stanton Peele in his discussion of Rebecca Fransway’s 12-Step Horror Stories wherein victims of rape are:

told to “look for [their] part” and even to “make amends” to their rapists. There are treatment center counselors who recommend jail for coerced clients who, even though no longer problem drinkers, resist 12-step treatment. There are AA members who die after taking “medical” advice from their sponsors or other AA members. There are others who are driven to suicide by the cruel treatment they received in 12 step groups. And there are untreated emotional needs — both of the victims of AA groups and 12-step treatment centers, and of the aggressors in these groups. One comes away from these stories with the feeling that one has had a glimpse into hell.

Much like the Christian, the Twelve Stepper is a willful illiterate, ignoring all literature but the Grapevine, the Big Book, and other nonsense while accusing the critic of hostility.

Take your forgiveness, and ram it in your ass!

No one needs your chair, your coffee, or your brand of 12-Step Christianity. I cannot think of a worse hell than sitting one minute listening to some douchebag AA evangelist (all of you) preaching the wonders of your booze religion and gratitude for the Christian alcohol God who allows you to defraud sick, hurting people of practical and more effective solutions.

Sincerely go fuck yourself!

Thanks 🍾 ✝️ 🍷