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 mean they may not know what straight edge means, but there are a shit-ton of people who don’t do drugs or alcohol…
I don’t do either but I don’t call myself straight edge because everyone I knew who did was an asshole.
To quote NOFX:
It’s not the right time to be sober, now the idiots have taken over.
And to think they retired in 2024. 4 decades of no sobriety
To quote 3Oh!3:
X’s on the back of your hands, wash them in the bathroom to drink like the band
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.
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.
From you link:
While the commonly expressed aspects of the straight edge subculture have been abstinence from alcohol, nicotine, and illegal drugs, there have been considerable variations. Disagreements often arise as to the primary reasons for living straight edge.
Wouldn’t having to justify why you’re making a choice to someone be anti-punk in general? If someone is disagreeing with you for you choosing to be “straight edge” shouldn’t the punk response to them be: “Fuck you”?
Additionally, if someone that is “straight edge” is telling someone else they should also be straight edge, isn’t the response to them also “Fuck you”?
I would agree completely. But you know when kids have discovered politics they are righteous and annoying as fuck for a while until they gain other perspectives and learn to humble down. I know i was one back when the dinosaurs roamed.
Somebody who believed the D.A.R.E. officer.
An old fashioned type of razor.
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.
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.
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.
Imma be honest, the only time I ever heard straight-edge was in a song
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.
SSX Tricky
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.
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
I’m still here!
HxH username? (If not, ignore me, if so, nice!)
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
Some people don’t want to try it. I love acid, and I think a lot of people could use it, but for some people it doesn’t sound like something they’re interested in so no harm done by them not doing it.
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.
Oh, you’re scared of trying new things that might get you in trouble, that’s fair, police states and whatnot
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.
The movement started in the early 80s by Ian Mackaye from the straight edge band Minor Threat?
Sure did. X
Disclaimer: I was never straight-edge then, but was definitely picking up what Minor Threat and Fugazi were putting down.
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.
We found out acid is all fun no downside
Shrooms are even better!
Eh, I don’t care for the taste or chance of getting them mixed up with very, very unfun mushrooms but it’s the same idea in the end.
I prefer the come down of shrooms myself. Plus the communing with nature lol. Acid is a lot of fun too mind you :)
Wait till you hear of Syd Barrett.
Uh huh, I know what the kinds of people who believe in reefer madness think of a guy who definitely did more and had more mental trauma going on than LSD.
I also know he died at 60 of pancreatic cancer and not an OD.
Apart from the awkward social encounters with normies.
Fuck em, they suck.
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 work with three of them. Two fell off the wagon, and the third is one of the nicest people I know.
Rise Against is still active …