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Comment by kelnos | Hacker News Reader

> My experience was before lived in Asia (USA only) I thought drinking was bad (bar fights, drunk driving deaths, etc...)
Wow, I guess I just don't hang out with the same kinds of people you do (USA as well). I don't think I've ever witnessed a bar fight, and no one I know has been involved in a drunk driving crash (on either side of it). And yet I've done plenty of drinking (I don't remember much of my 30s because of it, sadly).

Instead, drinking around food was a place to get to know people.*

I agree that alcohol is a good social lubricant, and sure, it can be an aid (or even a shortcut) to social bonding. But this article made me believe that, in some East Asian cultures, alcohol is pretty much required to get them to communicate effectively about certain things. That seems... not particularly safe or healthy, not just physically, but emotionally too.

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It's the same in Denmark. It's basically required to get Danes to open up emotionally but it's destructive because the emotional opening-up doesn't carry over back across the veil to sobriety.

For a people who were once Vikings, they're incredibly non-confrontational. If you have a difficult conversation with them and they're sober there's a high chance they simply never speak to you again.

I don't really think alcohol is the answer to constructing a society, especially given its other negative health effects.

> I don't think I've ever witnessed a bar fight, and no one I know has been involved in a drunk driving crash

I grew up drinking and lived in alcohol culture(s). At 25 I moved to another state, didn't drink and mostly circulated in non-drinking circles.

Before 25 I saw plenty of alcohol fueled fights. They weren't in bars but neither was I. I've been on both sides of drunk crashes (not driving) as were (possibly most of) my friends. As for family & friends, they ranged ~evenly from non-drinkers to heavy.

After 25 I saw few drinking related issues. I knew vastly more non-drinkers after 25 and can't recall any being hit by drunk drivers (unlike before 25).

> I've been on both sides of drunk crashes (not driving) as were (possibly most of) my friends.

That is a crazy statistic that would be a clear signal for me to move away.

It describes much of American suburbia, regrettably... I grew up in South eastern Pennsylvania and it seemed more like 'when' not 'if' people would get a DUI.

When there's not much to do and you live in an area designed for cars, a shocking amount of people will just not give AF and drink drive. Can't afford cabs but can afford the bar.

I’ve experienced the same in Australian suburbia. Awful drinking culture and pre-Uber taxi unreliability means a lot of people drink and drive.

It is more common in low socio-economic areas but still existing in all classes. Hell, our state treasurer lost his job after hitting multiple cars on his way home. https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/troy-b...

I grew up in an isolated location with a big drinking culture. As a youngster I wasn’t aware that there were places to move to without this problem. You could choose to avoid the drinking culture, but that was basically social suicide in both University and in Industry.

Plus there should be some fraction of people, even in Japan, capable of talking frankly and directly to each other, without needing alcohol...

Or is that somehow discouraged too?

I think the social norms are such that doing that while not specifically in a socializing event is low-class. Probably it's fine between peers in a blue-collar environment, or in high school.

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