The "I Didn't Comment in Another Thread" Thread

[Ryujin]

It feels like drinking culture in U.S. continually gets less manageable. It's like the reputation, and the continual restrictions, just begs people to go wild. It is very chicken and egg if the restrictions cause folks to go wild, or folks going wild causes the restrictions?

"Forbidden Fruit" issue. Make things taboo and people go nuts to get it.Make it a part of everyday life and there's no real excitement at breaking the non-existent rules.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I have approximately three Zoomer friends, but they're all shockingly skilled, smart, and deeply moral people. They're still kids, but they impress the hell out of me.

Yeah, I work with a staff of coworkers who haven't been alive as long as I've been working -- and it's great. We're all constantly teaching each other new things, often things that the person teaching is taking for granted, not realizing that we've each got assets we're not even aware of.

 

[billd91]

It feels like drinking culture in U.S. continually gets less manageable. It's like the reputation, and the continual restrictions, just begs people to go wild. It is very chicken and egg if the restrictions cause folks to go wild, or folks going wild causes the restrictions?

Is it really less manageable? Surveys are showing that Millennials drink less than Gen X, and Gen Z drinks less than the Millennials. Or do you think that the drinking culture that's out there is getting more extravagant... or something?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

To be fair, 21 is ridiculously high as a drinking age limit.

It's tied up with the lack of good public transportation in most of the US. Being able to drink in Europe at a low age makes more sense, since drunken 16 year olds aren't getting behind the wheel of the car; they're just climbing into a bus or train to get home.

Unilaterally lowering the drinking age in the US without simultaneously building out public transportation -- expensive, given how US cities tend to be built around the assumption of cars and suburbs -- would be problematic, to say the least.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Yep, context is important. Mostly I'm pushing back against some comments I read in Another Thread^TM that started to reek of elitism. Really gate-keepy stuff like "If you've never programmed a VCR, don't talk to me about D&D. I already know more than you" or whatever.

VCRs were terrible and no one should feel smug about having any percentage of their memory tied up with knowing anything about them.

 

[Ondath]

It's tied up with the lack of good public transportation in most of the US. Being able to drink in Europe at a low age makes more sense, since drunken 16 year olds aren't getting behind the wheel of the car; they're just climbing into a bus or train to get home.

Unilaterally lowering the drinking age in the US without simultaneously building out public transportation -- expensive, given how US cities tend to be built around the assumption of cars and suburbs -- would be problematic, to say the least.

I actually hadn't considered that aspect at all.

... You really can't do anything without a car in the US, can you?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

You really can't do anything without a car in the US, can you?

Only in a select few cities.

 

[Maxperson]

I actually hadn't considered that aspect at all.

... You really can't do anything without a car in the US, can you?

And to make matters worse, the car industry went out of its way to make sure that you couldn't. Here in Los Angeles the car industry bought out a very, very good public transit system in 1945 and then dismantled it so that people would have to buy cars. I don't know if they did that in other cities, but if they did it here I don't see why they wouldn't have done it elsewhere.

 

[Scribe]

It's tied up with the lack of good public transportation in most of the US. Being able to drink in Europe at a low age makes more sense, since drunken 16 year olds aren't getting behind the wheel of the car; they're just climbing into a bus or train to get home.

We didnt bus in Canada, we just walked.

That did lead to a death of one of my classmates though, as he got drunk and froze to death.

 

[Ryujin]

I actually hadn't considered that aspect at all.

... You really can't do anything without a car in the US, can you?

Generally speaking, in North America, mass transit isn't great and distances are much greater. A company i worked for was hosting people from the government of Cuba and I had to explain to them why Lunch in Niagara Falls and dinner in Montreal, wasn't workable.