A well-meaning phrase that seldom actually improves anything overall, but instead merely results in a lot of emotional discomfort and sexual-harassment accusations.
"Hugs not drugs" usually doesn't solve anything, anymore than dry-drunks are actually helped by being given sweets as a reward for not imbibing, which of course merely gets them hooked on sugar instead or alcohol --- it just trades one serious addiction for another. So all that "hugs not drugs" does is to cause people who would ordinarily crave drugs to instead begin invading others' personal boundaries by demanding affectionate gestures many times per day --- again, nothing is really "solved" or "improved"; it merely shifts the abuse from one destructive habit to another comparably-damaging-to-society activity.
by QuacksO July 28, 2018
by brian cooper July 5, 2007