Felt like they were on the rage as I was finishing high school, but now they’re nowhere to be seen.

I’d wager most of you haven’t even heard the term ‘straight-edge’ in months, or possibly years.

  • chunes@lemmy.world
    60·
    15 days ago

    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…

  • dumbass@aussie.zoneEnglish
    41·
    15 days ago

    To quote NOFX:

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

    • whaleross@lemmy.world
      372·
      15 days ago

      People that listen to hardcore that abstain from drugs and alcohol and commonly also from eating meat. They were easily recognizable by having painted a large sXe with a marker on their hand and maybe some additional letters on top and bottom for their particular flavour of Straight Edge. Here in Sweden they were quite common amongst punk rockers from the mid eighties up to late nineties.

      See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straight_edge

      • pdxfed@lemmy.world
        11·
        15 days ago

        Thank you for the link. I’d heard of “straight laced” but never straight edged: punk was a bit before my time and I was out off by the general punk aesthetics when I was younger, only to realize I would have gotten on famously with punks over politics and many other things.

        Having read the wiki, it sounded reasonable until it got to no caffeine, hard stop.

      • Valmond@lemmy.world
        4·
        15 days ago

        That’s wild. I lived there during that timeframe and I have never seen the tattoo, neither even heard of those metalheads.

        Maybe it was a regional thing? I mean in Sweden.

    • nanoswarm9k@lemmus.orgEnglish
      6·
      15 days ago

      Also,

      Folks who put the bar “no alcohol” (common at 18+ or family shows) permenant marker X’s across their own hand-back; punk and adjacent subcultures

      Some folks were on the wagon. Some folks wanted to not become their parents too quick. Some folks were young and new to everything else, and felt not ready for drugs yet. Some were physically or ideologicaly sensitive.

      Some still are, from the little popups.

  • Sanctus@lemmy.worldEnglish
    221·
    15 days ago

    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.

    • Norin@lemmy.world
      3·
      15 days ago

      Legitimately, the straight edge people I knew in high school are all republicans now.

    • Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      2·
      15 days ago

      I was straight edge when I was in school! I hit 20 and decided to try every drug. It was awesome.

    • Zannsolo@lemmy.world
      7·
      15 days ago

      I knew a few straight edge people in the punk scene that were also super Christian. Back in the early 2000s. One of them was in a band that had songs on an Xbox snowboarding game I really liked his music but he ditched the band to be a worship leader.

      • gon [he]@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        2·
        15 days ago

        Nah, it’s just my name! I am a big fan of HxH, though, and used to have a Gon Freecss profile picture for the longest time.

    • DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social
      01·
      14 days ago

      Okay but why, acid is basically risk free

      Except if you have unmanaged blood pressure problems I think but it helps manage it as long as a dose won’t pop your skull off

      • gon [he]@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        0·
        14 days ago

        Why would I take acid, though? Do you live your life on why-nots?!

        I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I don’t drink coffee and avoid caffeine in general… Why would I do fucking acid? Plus, surely that’s expensive, no? I’ve never actually encountered any acid IRL so I’ve no idea how hard it might be to find, would I to look.

          • gon [he]@lemmy.dbzer0.com
            1·
            13 days ago

            I’m not sure what you mean LOL

            Not sure how you got that idea from what I wrote, but drugs are actually legal to buy and consume where I live. Doing acid wouldn’t get me in trouble with the authorities! Well, unless I had a really bad trip and did illegal things, I guess, but I doubt that’s likely.

  • grumpo_potamus@lemmy.world
    9·
    15 days ago

    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.

  • tetris11@lemmy.ml
    8·
    15 days ago

    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

  • YoFrodo@lemmy.world
    8·
    15 days ago

    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.

  • Yeller_king@reddthat.com
    6·
    14 days ago

    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.