Ask Lemmy

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.

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. drink 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 less people who drink than those who don't, but within my work environment, I'm definitely an 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.

Davey Havok is still out there, somewhere

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..

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

To quote NOFX:

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

Used to go to the Cuckoo's Nest.

What the heck is straight-edge even

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.

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

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.

Sadly, every single straight-edge person I knew (a grand total of 5 people) later became a drug addict. Two of them died of overdoses. This was two decades ago at least and I really haven't heard anyone use the term in at least 10.

Straight edge people have been bred out of the gene pool by sex having druggies

They're still around. I see them at hardcore shows

They grew up

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

I'm not especially familiar with the term, but I do know quite a lot of people who go to raves sober, as well as a more widespread sentiment of "if you have to drink to have a good time, it's not a good time". Some of these people do consume intoxicating substances like alcohol occasionally, but it feels like they have a healthy attitude towards it, even if they're not strictly "straight-edge"

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.

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.

I have never heard this phrase before but... I listen to hardcore, don't do tobacco or recreational drugs, only drink non-alcoholic beverages (<= 0.3% ABV), don't cook meat at home & basically live on a low-meat diet... so hol up (insert shocked Pikachu face)

I'm not into punk though so I guess that disqualified me

I'm still here!

I work with three of them. Two fell off the wagon, and the third is one of the nicest people I know.

Still some around in the metalcore scene.

Rise Against is still active ...