I only know a couple of people my age (~ 22) who don't drink.

It's almost frowned upon by some people here to not drink. Many of my friends drink most nights of the week and drink more than the binge threshold.

But fuck it, things aren't going to change much here. It's just a shame that some people get ruined by it. It's a big part of UK culture.

I stayed in the US for only a few weeks, but I got the impression that it was very different in this respect from home. As soon as I arrived, my Dad insisted on finding the nearest off-license.

Rodabod wrote:It's almost frowned upon by some people here to not drink. Many of my friends drink most nights of the week and drink more than the binge threshold.

Almost? When i spent a week in Ireland, some of the American family i was staying with (my girlfriend's godfamily was having a wedding) and i went out for steak on a Friday night, and i didn't feel like drinking. When when everyone else in the party ordered their beers, and i ordered tea, i was given an incredulous look by the waitress and she gave me shit until i ordered a gin and tonic. It's one of my favorite memories from the week.

endofanera wrote:Naw, that assumption is pretty much bullshit. A visit to almost any city in the US would make this abundantly clear. Youve been here, right?

Yep, over 10 times.

endofanera wrote:I really can't see where you'd draw that conclusion based on the four pages of discussion here. I havent heard any of the non-drinky USers on this thread imply anything even remotely moral about their decision. Ive heard a lot of health reasons for not drinking, and a few folks expressing concern with their ability to handle alcohol in a responsible fashion or a way they find pleasant, and even a few expressing dislike of the booze's flavor or effects, but there's been nothing "moral" in any of these decisions.

I should have been a little clearer; it’s not really this board but a cultural difference in general. Like the way on every mainstream US drama as soon as someone has a drink you know something bad is going to happen to them. The best satire of this is that Simpson episode where Marge has a glass of wine in the late morning and the “dan dan daaaa!!!!” music kicks off.

endofanera wrote:As I stated earlier, I dont drink, largely for health reasons. I often think drinking (or more precisely, the way I see most folks drink) is pretty stupid, but I ascribe no element of morality to their or my decision. Neither is right nor wrong. It would be silly to think otherwise. No one Ive met yet in my travels around the US, drink-o-phile or not, has been that silly.

I think the only reasonable conclusion you could draw is that Europeans are simply more stupider than United Statesians.

Not really, there is nothing more healthy about not drinking. It all depends on what you define as drinking. When I consume alcohol it’s usually wine with food. I’d drink beer to the point of being drunk around once every two weeks and even then not to a crazy excess. Apart from the UK, this is would be the average drinking habit of most of Europe. My Italian wife and her friends would never have more than four drinks when they go out on a weekend. I guess it has to do with cultural perceptions of how alcohol is used. In Europe it is usually drank with a meal over an evening, in the UK and US more people use drinking as ends unto itself.*


*Contains sweeping generalisations, and conjecture.

endofanera wrote:I think the only reasonable conclusion you could draw is that Europeans are simply more stupider than United Statesians.

Man I hate to say it, but I'm with Gramsci.

Moreover, I haven't drunk alcohol in 2006. I'm dead proud.

si-maro wrote:Man I hate to say it, but I'm with Gramsci.

Moreover, I haven't drunk alcohol in 2006. I'm dead proud.

No need to hate it, just relax and go with the flow of Gramscian righteousness

Gramsci wrote:Not really, there is nothing more healthy about not drinking.

well...alcohol is not a benign substance

drinking in extreme moderation--one or two drinks a day--nothing wrong with it for most people, and evidence suggests there may be minor health benefits

beyond this kind of very moderate drinking, one's health worsens as one drinks more and more to excess. drinking to the point of drunkenness is plainly unhealthy.

i'm not passing judgement on it. i enjoy being around people who are having a good time, and if they're drunk, that's fine. i have a wide variety of alcohol in my house for the express purpose of accommodating my drinking friends.

but i venture to suggest that when most people think about not drinking anymore, usually they have started thinking along these lines b/c they drink to excess. which is an unhealthy thing to do, enjoyable as it may be. and 'unhealthy' is putting it kindly for a lot of people.

tmidgett wrote:

Gramsci wrote:
Not really, there is nothing more healthy about not drinking.

well...alcohol is not a benign substance

drinking in extreme moderation--one or two drinks a day--nothing wrong with it for most people, and evidence suggests there may be minor health benefits

beyond this kind of very moderate drinking, one's health worsens as one drinks more and more to excess. drinking to the point of drunkenness is plainly unhealthy.

i'm not passing judgement on it. i enjoy being around people who are having a good time, and if they're drunk, that's fine. i have a wide variety of alcohol in my house for the express purpose of accommodating my drinking friends.

but i venture to suggest that when most people think about not drinking anymore, usually they have started thinking along these lines b/c they drink to excess. which is an unhealthy thing to do, enjoyable as it may be. and 'unhealthy' is putting it kindly for a lot of people.

You've kind of missed my point. Yes, getting drunk in unhealthy, but a glass of wine with a meal isn't.

Wine with food is how a vast majority of Europeans drink. What you seem to be missing is that they aren't drinking for the "alcohol effect", they are drinking for taste. Matching the food and wine is a great pleasure for many people. I think the European way of drinking falls a little flat on most Americans and the English because they have very little in the way of a culture of food, certainly not in the same way as Italians or the Spanish.

You seem to only look at drinking an alcoholic drink for the purpose of the intoxicating effects. Think about a fine cheese, it is thought of in a very similar way to a good wine by many Europeans.

Gramsci wrote:
Wine with food is how a vast majority of Europeans drink. What you seem to be missing is that they aren't drinking for the "alcohol effect", they are drinking for taste. Matching the food and wine is a great pleasure for many people. I think the European way of drinking falls a little flat on most Americans and the English because they have very little in the way of a culture of food, certainly not in the same way as Italians or the Spanish.

You seem to only look at drinking an alcoholic drink for the purpose of the intoxicating effects. Think about a fine cheese, it is thought of in a very similar way to a good wine by many Europeans.

A good whine is enjoyed anywhere. It is however a fact that many southern europeans have a distaste for drinking only to get drunk. I always thought that it was because the southern folks are more "loose" of character, while "we" (n-w europeans I mean, and our canadian/north american counterparts) might need a drink or two to "loosen up", being "stuck in our head" as we are.

Alcohol and suicide rates may well suggest that there is tad more of the melancholy in the people of the grim germanic plains.

Don´t forget scandinavians. The biggest drinkers I ever witnessed. And the russians. By god, those russians.