Ask Lemmy

Because as an adult, you can simply choose whether to use drugs/alcohol and it's not a big part of your identity like it was as a teen.

I knew two straight edge kids in highschool. They both died of overdoses shortly after highschool.

Drugs are such a chore. You try them, then you get addicted to them, then you end up in an endless pursuit of extra money to keep funding the addiction in addition to all of your other basic survival expenses. It's a maniacal existence. From what I've observed. And I'm not interested in any of that maddening mayhem.

Call me straight-edge if you need to label everything. But I'm not interested in labels either.

We found out acid is all fun no downside

A lot of straight edge teenagers either lose their edge (leave alternative subcultures) or quit going straight (start using psychoactive substances). That said a lot of punks wind up sober and at that point can be considered straight edge.

So where are they? The sort of places alternative folks gather when not consuming substances. They're at an anarchist books to prisoners program, or food not bombs, maybe one is in the band at a small punk show you're going to. Hell maybe it's even one of your coworkers.

Subcultures are really easy to see in high school because teenagers often don't like to code switch and they've got little filtering. Add in that its easier to be sober when you're a teenager and it feels rebellious and like you're saying fuck you to the man. Meanwhile at 30, especially if you're deep in alternative subcultures, you've probably learned the demons your friends are trying to drown in whiskey. You may have friends who had the whole Pat the Bunny arc. Loudly announcing your sobriety and acting like it's super cool is one thing at 16 and another thing when someone you know just fell off the wagon.

Oh also as adults a lot of them are more annoying about being vegan than being sober.

This is the first time I have ever heard the term. I think.

I'm not really into punk scenes or anything similar, but I feel like most young people now that would be straight edge are not adopting the aesthetic because they're more conservative.

I mean they may not know what straight edge means, but there are a shit-ton of people who don't do drugs or alcohol..

To quote NOFX:

It's not the right time to be sober, now the idiots have taken over.

So does straight edge strictly refer to not doing drugs? If that's the definition, then I'm a straight edged person... Hell, I don't even drink and I work for a Scottish company where all my co-workers drink like fish.

I'm not religious, it has just always seemed dumb to me that people felt they needed to be inebriated to have a good time. Maybe this is just the normal for them so they don't know any different? But doesn't that seem pretty stupid? Anyways, I was stubborn in college and resisted peer pressure and by the time I didn't care anymore, I just never saw the need to start drinking (or doing drugs). But I'm not here preach, I don't really care what you do as long as it doesn't affect me (i.e. drunk driving).

I'm a CTO for a midsized company. I have three kids and I've been happily married for over 25 years. Between my friends, there are more people who don't drink than those who do, but at work I'm definitely the oddball... But I'm also old enough that I don't really give a shit what other people think so I'm perfectly happy going along and being the guy who doesn't drink.

I was agreeing with you cause I haven't really seen or used my straight edge since high school. Here I am thinking I don't even have a ruler. Then I read the comments. I guess it's not the literal straight edge.

What the heck is straight-edge even

Considering all the straight edge people I know seemed more into it to hate drugs and drug users more than about keeping a "straight edge", they probably got absorbed into the manosphere somewhere.

I wasn't really around when being straight-edge was an identity but honestly I think you don't hear about it as much today because its a horrible time to be sober 24/7. Can't imagine raw dogging this shit. Props to anyone who can though.

The 3 straight edge kids I knew all became public school teachers

I mean, I never really heard about straight edge anyway. It was something someone would talk about every once in a while 15 years ago. My guess, though -

Straight edge started off as a cool way to say "I'm a drug addict in recovery", which was cloaked in a thin veil of justification about how taking care of your mind and body was the first best step towards dismantling oppressive systems of power.

But pretty quickly, the term got co-opted by teens who were scared to drink at parties because their mom might get mad, and/or Tumblr-style online activists who base their whole identity around vices they don't engage in. Which kinda kills any amount of cool the term had to begin with.

And of course, there is the very obvious fact that billions of people around the world regularly consume moderate amounts of drugs and alcohol on a reasonable schedule, while continuing to function in their roles as workers, hobbyists, friends, partners, parents, and yes, activists. Having a couple beers every other Saturday isn't the reason Trump won the election. And even if you don't like the hangover - or just don't like alcohol - there are plenty of other drugs you can take recreationally with the same or different effects which give you less of a hangover.

Finally, it just isn't that hard to say "nah, I'm good" when someone offers you a beer or whatever. You don't need to come up with a special word, make it part of your identity, or get tattoos about it. Outside of a social scene where intentionally self-destructing is seen as virtuous, everyone understands that some people sometimes just don't want to indulge for any number of reasons.

I used to be straight edge (or queer edge?), but gave up a few years ago. I need my vices just so I don't feel dead inside 24/7.

The movement started in the early 80s by Ian Mackaye from the straight edge band Minor Threat?

Imma be honest, the only time I ever heard straight-edge was in a song

Still here some 30+ years later. For a lot of people it was a passing phase and there was a lot of tough-guy bullshit that I think many people who felt marginalized bought into. But not everyone...

I read an interview one time (I think with one of the guys from Snapcase) that SE is just the beginning. If all you did was apply that label to yourself but not use that as a stepping stone for anything else in your life, then what good was it. That resonated with me a lot.

I don't really go around advertising SE because I'm a middle-aged dude at work or at his kid's volleyball game and I don't really define myself by one label or lifestyle choice anymore. Being punk/alt/whatever at almost 50 looks different than it did at ages 16-22.

I'm grateful for the HC/punk family I grew up with and the memories of that scene I have and that I was able to avoid some of the pitfalls around me in my younger days.

Maybe once you grow up you become first a Sober person, then a Teetotaler.

Briefcases. Once briefcases no longer became practical, laptop satchels had a moment, but then the straight-edged kids realised that backpack was just superior in every way, so they begun to one-strap it out of convenience, and once you carry a backpack with one strap, that's a slippery slope to being chill

I'm still here!

I was straight edge but as a method to avoid drugs and alcohol as a youth. Around 18 I gave that up as did most of the edge kids I knew. I think out of the ones I still know only one maintains edge.