Straight Edge

~ Clarissa

Yeah, but how many were on anti-depressants, Adderall, fentanyl, or cross-sex hormones?

I’m not sure if the dude who posted this is a comedian or a recluse.

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Published by Clarissa

17 thoughts on “Straight Edge”

  2. You ignore the most significant factor – better than the combined dubious pleasures of alcohol, cigarettes and marijuana – smartphones.

    Besides, the use of alcohol, cigarettes and marijuana usually happens outside house within a group of friends. If many modern teens socialize mainly online after school hours, where would they find marijuana?

    I think he is correct that there is a certain cultural / social trend even w/o anti-depressants.

    Just one of many articles:

    People Have Been Having Less S**—whether They’re Teenagers or 40-Somethings

    Among the young, social media, gaming and “rough s**” may contribute to this trend

    Between 2009 and 2018, the proportion of adolescents reporting no sexual activity, either alone or with partners, rose from 28.8 percent to 44.2 percent among young men and from 49.5 percent in 2009 to 74 percent among young women. 

    FU: We need more studies to tell us why. But for young people, computer games, increasing social media use, video games—something is replacing that time. During that period from 2009 to 2018, different types of social media emerged. This is always evolving, especially for younger people.

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      1. Well, also the nearly universal use of both HBC and antidepressants is not doing any favors for anybody’s libido. It’s a wonder to me why pharmaceuticals are not cited more often in discussions of why the hell we are raising generations of sexless marshmallows.

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        1. It’s rare that one can even come across a discussion of how antidepressants depress libidos. People who take them know but either refuse to make the connection or prefer not to talk about it.

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          1. With HBC it’s at least acknowledged enough to be a running joke: “How does the Pill keep you from getting pregnant? It makes you fat, bloated, and removes your libido.”

            SSRIs… that’s even more insidious, as it often does not take away desire, just the ability. And then everyone’s too embarrassed to talk about it.

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            1. …and PARENTS get suckered into this because “your kid will kill himself!” while people clearly haven’t looked at the stats. How many teenagers actually committed suicide before there were meds? Compare that just for a tiny minute with how many are on the meds to prevent them doing so.

              That is bollocks.

              We’re medicating adolescence, some of the sexual damage of those drugs will be permanent, and people are delaying learning how to manage their emotions until well into adulthood, if ever.

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        2. Seems to be a design feature not a bug — given the number of drugs which dampen libido and can cause weight gain besides HBC and anti-depressants. But I thought it was mostly women who took both?

          That doesn’t really explain young men. There’s allergy medications, steroid medications, anti-anxiety medications, anti-convulsants, anti-psychotics, which can also cause libido issues and/or weight gain issues.

          Maybe allergy medications are something healthy people take, but otherwise? Besides the effects of the drugs themselves it could be a chicken egg situation. Is the libido depressed because of the drugs used to treat the conditions and/or is it the result of the conditions themselves?

          Weight gain isn’t really discussed either.

          We don’t discuss pharmaceuticals because then we’d have to discuss changing the immediate environments so people could move more, change habits, get more sleep, or stop medicating their feelings so much and there’s little to no political interest in doing this.

          Let’s not pretend a general increase in libido wouldn’t be a political problem for many actors in a system.

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          1. I agree with everything except for one thing. There should be a point where individual responsibility kicks in. People medicate their feelings because it’s easy. They have bad habits because it’s enjoyable. Nobody can change it for them. I personally would support large-scale pharmaceutical bans but it’s not going to happen. We will have start to make these decisions for ourselves.

            For instance, I’ve had no painkillers for my injury and as a result I’m already driving. I haven’t medicated the symptoms away and could gauge my state realistically from them. Today, I felt pain at work and instead of taking meds I realized I needed to stop, go home, lie down and put ice on the foot. We need to accept that this is normal and not carrying Tylenol in one’s bag like many people do.

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  3. I’m not sure what’s worse, kids doing drugs and drinking or being addicted to smartphones. I’ve watched movies set in the 70s like Detroit Rock City or The Stoned Age where teenagers casually drink beer and smoke marijuana, but they actually do interesting stuff and seem more independent than modern teens.

    In Detroit Rock City, four teenage boys bust their friend out of reform school and drive from Cleveland to Detroit to see a KISS concert. They’re driving a Volvo owned by one of their mothers and their parents don’t mind they’re driving to a rock concert in Detroit, throughout the movie many of the teen characters drink and smoke. In The Stoned Age, two teenage boys cruise suburban Los Angeles looking for a party in order to drink and hook up with girls, which is portrayed as normal weekend activity. In both movies, the teen characters may be using substances, but they drive, are interested in girls, and go places. Today’s parents would be terrified of their kids driving and going to parties and concerts on their own

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  5. The term “straight edge” was born in the US early 1980s hardcore punk scene (though elements can be traced back to 1970s hard rock). I always assumed it was youth rebellion – rejecting their parents’ casual attitude toward tobacco and alcohol usage. The term is usually credited to the group Minor Threat which was musically pretty typical of the times:

    was going to put a youtube link here but… wordpress in its quest to eliminate online commentary doesn’t seem to like the idea, so it may or may not appear….

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