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Comment by rjzzleep | Hacker News Reader

> Maybe the normalisation of alcohol at a younger age would help reduce it as it wouldnt seem like such a forbidden fruit.

Yeah. I don't believe that for a second. Much more interesting is how well you fare against peer pressure, how much of a social animal you aim to be, and whether your family was doing it.

If we could argue like that I would just argue the exact opposite based on my experience. The forbidden fruit we seem to have in common. The distinguishing factor here seems to be that you were in a toxic environment and I was busy pestering people on IRC.

There was a lot more porn available in that environment, so that's my burden to bear.

Let's at least stop pretending that if there were no limits on anything in the world, everything would be great and amazing.

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Anecdote but by 12 I had a favorite wine category and by 16 a favorite beer. Growing up, my dad drank every day with dinner, and the value of taste and enjoyment was what I learned out of wine & beer, along with the knowledge that too much starts to impair me. But this discovery was well before my driving days and within my own family, it wasn't something I had to covet, hide then binge on in secrecy, without social feedback.

I was not quite 18 when I first got really drunk… at a relative's wedding. I learned that impaired senses wasn't something I enjoyed and only got drunk one other time in my life. Also social feedback has kept that particular event alive in the family.

But my drinking style isn't condusive to getting drunk, as I savor my drinks really slowly, and for the most part, with meals.

This is a French perspective, though. I've had a very hard time conveying this idea to people here in the US because it seems ingrained in many people's minds that the only purpose of alcohol is to get drunk, so either you party or you abstain: no middle ground. Things are starting to change a bit, moderate drinking with the goal of savoring is gaining more acceptance and—most importantly—good drinks are appearing but it's a slow process.

I think that the normalization of alcohol at a younger (early college) age would help.

My experience in college is that it's not hard at all to find alcohol, but only in an environment where drinking is the main activity. It's much easier for me to go out and get drunk in a group than get a drink with a meal in the U.S. Having spent time with lower drinking ages, it's much easier to drink without getting drunk.

This is certainly a reflection on how I grew up (especially seeing how my parents treat alcohol), but I think the culture would be better if it was legal to drink earlier.

Anecdotally, I grew up in the UK, where they are very strict regarding underage drinking (18 is the legal age). Worked in a small town in Austria in my early 20s and noticed that kids in the 15 - 18 year age range were generally allowed to drink (at an outdoor pub / concert venue) without too much hassle. They definitely did it more moderately than kids in the same age range in the UK.

Thats true, I thought I always heard binge drinking was a bigger issue in America v Europe where its not as strict. Never looked into the data though so I could be completely wrong

Depends, my parents were always conservative.

Another friend was allowed to do whatever he wanted.

When it was a lot of fun, he stayed. Other times, he went home early.

I stayed till I was allowed too and tried to make it longer also.

It depends on personality also ofc, but when I was a student. It was new to me. Ofc, I stayed a hell of a lot longer than my friend the first year consistently.

Corporations won't survive then.

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