Where'd all the straight-edge people go?

[arsonbutcute@lemmy.dbzer0.com]

My Sociology teacher in highschool was straight edge.

The said it was the straight edges or the crust punks and he was uncomfy in itchy clothes.

[blarghly@lemmy.world]

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.

[anarchistartificer@slrpnk.net]

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"

[softestsapphic@lemmy.world]

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

[zod000@lemmy.dbzer0.com]

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.

[twice_hatch@midwest.social]

I wasn't officially in the scene but these days I'm a lower-middle-class miserable loner so it could be worse

[sharkfucker420@lemmy.ml]

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.

[asafum@feddit.nl]

I don't have a choice. Alcohol gives me insomnia and weed gives me super intense panic attacks. CBD stopped working so I just stopped everything.

Yes, it sucks very very much.

[sharkfucker420@lemmy.ml]

That sounds awful I'm sorry. Funny enough weed is the only thing that actually works for my DSPD with any consistancy.

[asafum@feddit.nl]

Thanks! To be honest it isn't alllllll terrible, it's kinda cool having dreams again lol when I smoked I either never had them or the short term memory loss just made me forget I had them.

[schwertimstein@lemmy.dbzer0.com]

what does it mean?

[rbwells@lemmy.world]

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

[whaleross@lemmy.world]

It was an international thing but there was a very big sXe scene in Umeå. If you're into 1990s punk and hardcore you may be familiar with Refused.

[zannsolo@lemmy.world]

I think it was amped

[edge004@lemmy.zip]

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

[blady_blah@lemmy.world]

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.

[vandals_handle@lemmy.world]

Used to go to the Cuckoo's Nest.

[yardy_sardley@lemmy.ca]

Davey Havok is still out there, somewhere

[vex_detrause@lemmy.ca]

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.

[agit68@lemmy.zip]

Ian has always had the position it was a personal choice. Not some dogmatic bullshit. They were just kids who wanted to get into shows.

The song straight edge was just his personal opinion. Bands like SSD (Society System Decontrol) took it a little further. And then the NYHC scene in the mid to late 80's took it even further. That's how you ended up with Earth Crisis and victory records in the 90's.

He doesn't really like being tied to the straight edge movement.

The documentary "Salad Days" has a great interview with him about it

He also has a good interview in this book:

Sober Living for the Revolution: Hardcore Punk, Straight Edge, and Radical Politics

https://pmpress.org/index.php?l=product_detail&p=162