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.
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.
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.
That sounds awful I’m sorry. Funny enough weed is the only thing that actually works for my DSPD with any consistancy.
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.
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
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.
by teens who were scared to drink at parties because their mom might get mad
I’ve never felt so seen (scene?).
Seriously, though, I fell victim to a lot of DARE propaganda, and I avoided alcohol (and other drugs) for a looong time. I never considered myself “straight edge” because it sounds so cringe, but I guess I fit the definition at the time.
Now, I partake in moderation, and it’s not really a problem.
I wasn’t officially in the scene but these days I’m a lower-middle-class miserable loner so it could be worse
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”
The 3 straight edge kids I knew all became public school teachers
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.
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.
To quote Leftover Crack:
And all the boys in the straight-edge scene are in the basement huffing gasoline
To quote 3Oh!3:
X’s on the back of your hands, wash them in the bathroom to drink like the band
And to think they retired in 2024. 4 decades of no sobriety
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
What the heck is straight-edge even
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.
Hey it’s me I’m in this picture
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.
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.
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.
Somebody who believed the D.A.R.E. officer.
An old fashioned type of razor.
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.
Legitimately, the straight edge people I knew in high school are all republicans now.
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 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.
I was straight edge when I was in school! I hit 20 and decided to try every drug. It was awesome.
Are they out in search of compasses?
