Of course lots of people never drink. I was speaking to the mind of someone who would repeat that aphorism.
I hardly ever drink. The only times I drink are Jewish holidays where it’s part of the holiday, like Passover or Purim.
I have run into people who espoused this attitude, and they meant it. It has not, unfortunately, gone the way of the dodo.
My sense is that it’s sometimes cultural. I used to work with a lot of former Soviets, and the idea of not drinking was a concept that had to be explained to most of them. It was unthinkable, socially. You get together with friends, you have a meal, and you do lots of toasts with vodka. It’s just what you do, and they were very suspicious about people who didn’t partake.
But I’ve also seen this from Americans, and it was similar. They seemed to take it as an unwillingness to socialize on their terms.
I’m not much of a drinker. In social situations I’ll usually have one beer, switch to water or soda and then strategically fail to notice any disparaging looks.
My dad has used that exact phrase. He also said not to trust somebody who is left handed. Actually, he has said a lot of goofy things. But then he is drunk. He admits to that proudly. Alcoholics have to go to meetings…:smack:
My main reason for not drinking is that I get an instantaneous headache from many wines, don’t like the taste of some other drinks, and since I’ve never needed anybody’s permission or chemical aides to “let my hair down”, I really don’t see the point in going on a quest to find something that I can drink and which doesn’t taste like ent piss*. I will try low-alcohol local drinks, but that’s “try”: my last alcoholic drink was half of a half-pint of cider in Glasgow (2009 if I’m not mistaken), the previous one half a lager in Prague (2004 I think).
My mother finally stopped trying to push drinks on me on the day that she understood that I really. Do not. Feel better. When I’ve had a little to drink. In fact, I feel [sesame street]wooorse[/ss]. But that was after more than 15 years of “no, Mom, I don’t want any… damn, I said I didn’t want it!”
I think a lot of people have very serious problems understanding that when other people say our tastes differ from theirs, it’s not some kind of stupid joke. We actually do like different things. And some of us even have different reactions to the same substances!
- Not a typo. I don’t like woodsy tastes.
“Never trust a man who wears a bow-tie”
“Never trust a man who can’t drive”
My mum would occassionally come out with those and a couple of others I can’t remember, in retrospect I’m not entirely sure if she was being tongue-in-cheek or not. 
Oh and she doesn’t drink, and as far as I’m aware never has. My dad would only drink on special occassions.
I don’t know what that is…but that reminds me of a girl in high school, whom I’ve mentioned quite a few times on this board. She was, and is, a knockout–in more ways than one. She once told me that sake tasted like dishwater. I should have asked her how she knew. 
I trust them well enough to drive me home from the bar!
There’s also the attitude of “If you don’t drink then you’re interfering with my enjoyment of my drink.”
The comedian Iliza Shlesinger goes further with this idea in a bit based on the notion that if she’s with a guy who isn’t drinking as much as she wants to drink, then he is foregoing the possibility of fooling around with her later in the evening.
If we break down this attitude it seems to rely on several assumptions:
-
Iliza will be more likely to fool around when she has consumed X amount of alcohol.
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If Iliza’s male companion consumes <X amount of alcohol then Iliza will fail to consume X amount of alcohol.
They kind of are a bit. Drunk people want to be surrounded by equally drunk people so they can’t tell how stupid they are acting.
This explanation seems most fitting. And the obverse is true, too.
I know people who don’t drink because they simply don’t like the taste. And I know people who will have one drink, but no more. But people in this first group don’t mind hanging around with people who drink - at BBQs or out to dinner, for example.
But I also know some who don’t drink because they view alcohol as evil; typically, they are highly religious and their church promotes teetotaling. Some think everyone who does drink, even a little, has a “drinking problem”. To these people, people who drink are not part of their comfortable world, and therefor not trustworthy.
I don’t mind those in the first group, but don’t really care to be around those in the second.
My great-uncle was a farmer from the South. My father was from Chicago. Pretty much everyone in my mother’s family thought my father was a book-smart heathen who never did real work. I’m pretty sure if my father had never drunk anything stronger than lemonade, my great-uncle would have gotten on him for putting sugar in it.
Did their disagreement ever get serious? I mean, a confrontation?
I think this overlooks late 19th-early 20th century concerns with excessive drinking that fueled the Prohibition movement (it wasn’t just religious sanctimony). A lot of lives were seriously damaged or ended by alcohol.
Mrs. J. and I used to be the target of not-so-subtle digs from my father about us being “teetotalers” when we didn’t join in drinking cocktails or wine when we were out at dinner together. I got the idea he felt defensive, as though we were passing an unfavorable judgment on him which was certainly not the case. Other drinkers probably have a similar sense of unease, along with the idea that you’re not one of the gang unless you drink with them.
On the subject of passing judgment, you should see physicians’ medical histories/workups of patients which include social histories. No matter how little or much patients acknowledge drinking, the reports tend to make them sound like at least incipient drunkards.* For that reason, I’m content to report being a non-drinker, not bothering to mention the end-of-week ceremonial margarita or occasional beer.**
*true, a lot of people downplay the extent of their drinking, including the classic “officer, I just had two beers”.
**my internist once mentioned to me during a checkup that lab work backed up my statement that I didn’t drink, seeing that I had a normal serum GGT (typically elevated in drinkers).
From time to time we hear about rock musicians who overdose on some drug–heroin, cocaine, etc. (cases in point: Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix…)
So far as I know, Keith Moon of The Who is the only rock performer who has drunk himself to death.
Have there been other well-known ones?
Bon Scott.
Isn’t it?
Ok, they unreasonably take it as an unwillingness to socialize on their terms.
Amy Winehouse reportedly died of alcohol poisoning.
Not to my knowledge. We rarely saw my great-uncle, and my father’s way of dealing with my mother’s family was to be polite for about five minutes and then simply disappear until it was time to leave.
That’s probably better than spoiling for a fight, from what you’ve told me.