Bystander or Enabler? The Impact of Peers on Substance Use Disorder

Olivia Benge, BS, BFA

The Event:

On June 21st, internet streamer and social media influencer Ludwig Ahgren, better known as just “Ludwig” hosted a live event on Twitch (a widely popular livestreaming service) by the name “Beerio Kart”. The focus of the event is an alcohol-based challenge for the popular go kart racing video game Mario Kart. The rules of the game are simple: Get first in the race, but before you can cross the finish line you must finish an entire can of beer without drinking while driving. As more matches are done, the players progressively get more intoxicated, thus making it harder to properly react and play the high-speed video game. This type of binge-drinking is already somewhat concerning to stream to a potentially young and impressionable audience, but not outside of what we already see in various mainstream media. Where Ludwig’s stream crosses the line of “generally accepted” alcohol use in entertainment is concerning an attendee at his most recent event. Joseph Manual Marquez, better known by his online tag Mang0, is a professional e-sports player and live streamer who attended both of Ludwig’s Beerio Kart events.

Mang0 comes with a history of excessive drinking of his own, from drinking in excess out of ‘celebration’ to fully passing out live on stream. This dangerous behavior culminated in an eventual ban from Twitch for 7 days due to dangerous consumption of alcohol. Despite knowing this, Ludwig went on to invite Mang0 to this binge-drinking-focused live event, at one point bragging to other contestants that he was the one to beat due to him being an alcoholic (the assumption therefore being that he can hold his liquor better than anyone else). One streamer, Valkyrae, questioned this, asking if the event was therefore enabling his obvious problem, but the topic was quickly moved past, and the event went on.

As the night continued and Mang0 became progressively more intoxicated, he began to sexually harass the women participating in the event by explicitly humping a Mario-themed hat near their bodies and faces. When one woman jokingly called out to “give Mang0 water” another participant in the background wrote it off, announcing that he’s “seen Mang0 ten times drunker than this!” I’m noting this instance specifically, as in the aftermath of the event, Mang0 would go on to write on X (formerly Twitter) that “Everyone has coddled me for so long and kinda looked the other way when it came to my drinking.”

The moment that most shocked and worried many viewers (including myself), however, came about during a BAC (Blood Alcohol Content) check. Mang0, over the course of the evening, had managed to hit a BAC of 0.32. A BAC between 0.30 and 0.40 is where we see alcohol poisoning develop, and any BAC over 0.40 is considered lethal. Knowing this, Mang0 should have been immediately cut off and carefully watched to determine if he needed potential medical intervention. Ludwig, however, had a different plan, and excitedly announced the BAC level to the other contestants, being received with cheers and applause. He then proceeded to cheer “let’s up those numbers!” With one streamer in the room, Doug Doug, voicing dissent and concern for the health dangers, but such issues fell on deaf ears.

To say the event did not go as planned would be an understatement. The consequences of Mang0’s intoxication and resulting behavior were his removal from his e-sports team and banishment from future Ludwig events, as well as any harmed personal/professional connections he may face now or in the future. Additionally, it’s important to acknowledge a consequence of whatever trauma the women who were sexually harassed at the event may have sustained. The question that cropped up, however, came to placement of blame. The internet divided itself into two main groups: those who blamed Ludwig and those who blamed Mang0.

Binge Drinking:

            Before we dive into the question of who is responsible for what, let’s establish what the issue and danger is. Binge drinking is defined by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) as “a pattern of drinking alcohol that brings blood alcohol concentration (BAC) to 0.08% or higher. For a typical adult, this pattern corresponds to consuming five or more drinks (male) or four or more drinks (female) in about two hours.” This event, therefore, livestreams and normalizes binge drinking for the sake of content that is often consumed by younger audiences who may not recognize the danger associated with this type of behavior. Binge drinking is a known health danger in the United States, with the numbers to back it up. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that between 2020 and 2021, approximately 178,000 deaths were found to be the result of alcohol, with 1/3 of the incidents being specifically due to binge drinking.

Blame:

            Back to the question of responsibility, as someone who works within the substance use disorder field, I would offer that the blame extends to both parties, not one or the other. Those who put the blame on Ludwig alone are allowing inexcusable behavior (sexual harassment) to be explained through intoxication. Whilst it is good to be empathetic towards those struggling with substance use disorder, accountability needs to be enforced, otherwise one can fall into enabling behavior (something that’ll be key to Ludwig’s relationship to blame here).

            However, we also cannot fully put the blame on Mang0 for his extreme intoxication. Ludwig knowingly invited him to an event with free alcohol supplied to contestants at will, encouraged further drinking when he was at dangerous BAC levels, and never made attempts to cut him off or remove him from the event to our knowledge. Knowing this, the question isn’t really who is to blame, it’s how much do we acknowledge enabling behavior as an active role in the story of substance use disorder?

Enabling:

            It’s easy to pinpoint the obvious problematic enabling behaviors like buying drugs for a person in your life struggling with SUD (Substance Use Disorder), but enabling can also be:

-        Reassuring the person with SUD that their substance use isn’t that bad.

-        Using in the presence of or with the person with SUD.

-        Telling the person with SUD that it’s okay to drink/use drugs on certain days, during social gatherings, or for special events.

-        Asking or encouraging others to be silent about the person with SUD’s substance use.

-        Making excuses to others about the impaired behavior of the person with SUD when they were using substances.

If we look at these listed enabling behaviors, they describe the reactions and decisions made during the Beerio Kart event by Ludwig and others. There is an inherent danger to telling a person with alcoholism or who displays behavior indicative of substance use disorder that their drinking is a superpower they can utilize in feats of excessive use. You are normalizing, romanticizing, and encouraging a behavior that the individual simply cannot control and may not be able to stop of their own will, leading to serious health consequences.

The Future Generation:

            So, Ludwig is not a great friend here…why do we care? Influencers have become a kind of role model to youth and emerging adults; their behavior is to be emulated and looked up to. If this kind of enabling goes unacknowledged or is written off, then we have a potentially significant audience of young people who don’t recognize the impact that their behavior can have on someone who is struggling. There is a responsibility we as people should have towards our greater community, a level of empathy and desire to do the right and kind thing simply for the sake of it. This blog functions not only as a critique of Beerio Kart and the behavior displayed, but also as a call to action to any influential adults out there: be the role model who encourages acts of empathy and kindness, even when it’s difficult, the next generation is looking at you.