I see no reason why not. I more or less agree with those posts and I leave at at “no thanks” unless pushed further. The problem is most people are curious.
“No thanks” gets “Why not?”
“I don’t drink” gets “why”
“I don’t like the taste” gets “Oh but in this drink you cant even taste it” (Which has thus far been complete bullshit on every drink I’ve tried) and is followed up with everyone at the table trying to get you to taste that drink they love that they are convinced you can’t even taste the alcohol in. Which then forces me to explain that while the taste is certainly unpleasant I also don’t have any interest in using mind altering drugs. Which might come off as a tad assholeish but I don’t go there unless forced to begin with. And even after that many people continue to try and push it.
There’s the problem. It aint 1 in 100. It’s more like 1 in 10 or so. And climbs considerably as the night goes on. And they’re not all assholes. Most of them are normal decent people most of the time but just seem to get weirded out by non-drinkers for some reason.
That’s fucking weird dude! And it doesn’t sound like you are doing much socializing anyway.
Here’s the deal. Doesn’t really matter if you are drinking or not. Going to a bar, club or party where alchohol is served is a social activity. People generally are there with the intent of socializing with their friends or meeting new people. Most of the time, they are also there to drink because it lowers inhibitions and makes the socializing and meeting new people easier.
Quite frankly a lot of people in a bar or club don’t look like they are having a particularly good time, whether they are drinking or not. Most of them just look like they are standing around trying to look cool when they are really shy, bored or just trying to figure out who looks like someone worth striking up a conversation with.
Now I don’t give a shit if a person drinks or not. I also don’t care if they are having a good time. But if you don’t drink, don’t like talking to people who are drinking and Pit them for their drinkig, what the hell are you doing in a place where most people come to drink?
Is it most, or is it 10% of people who will bother you about not drinking? 90% of people leave you alone, but most people won’t drop it? Whichever characterization of yours I pick, it’s still an exaggeration. I haven’t come across someone who probed a non-drinker or tried to get him to drink since college. And everyone in college is a d-bag.
If people persist in saying that you won’t be able to taste the alcohol in their drink, bet them $20 that you can tell the difference between their drink and a virgin version of it. They’ll either shut up, or you’ll make a cool $20.
You could also try the raised eyebrows, look of stunned/disbelieving/contemptuous amusement, the exaggerated, “Trust me, I can tell,” but that may not work, and it definitely won’t earn you the money.
Again with the strawmen, man. I didn’t say they weren’t being judgmental pricks in this thread. I disagreed with you painting them as coming across as people who’d fly off the handle at a face-to-face offer of beer. If any of them had ended with “…and I’d tell them that if they tried to push the demon drink on me!” or something like that, I’d be right there with you. I just don’t like people being painted as completely classless jerks merely because they have strong opinions that go against the norm.
Sounds like you’ve never been to Chicago. Try ordering a hot dog without all the crap they pile on it here, and more importantly without mustard, and a lot of place look at you like you just climbed on the counter, dropped trou and took a dump on their counter.
There is a piece of advice that you get as an adoptive interracial family. And that is when a question is intrusive, your response isn’t an answer but a “why do you ask?” If the person professes simple curiosity, you can then answer some version of “MYOB” (I like “I prefer not to share that.”) Sometimes people have a valid reason for asking … “my best friend is going into rehab, I thought you might be in recovery.” (In the case of adoption its often “I was thinking about adopting.”)
This applies to anywhere in life where people as intrusive or impertinent questions. You don’t need to answer them and often “why do you ask?” clues them into curiosity isn’t a reason that really deserves an answer unless the person feels like sharing.
You know, not everybody drinks until they vomit. Most people I know have a couple or three drinks and call it a night. Some people will drink until they stagger but they have problems. When I worked in a bar I would say that 90% of the drinkers had 1-3 drinks, another 5% had 3-5 drinks, and the remaining 5% had issues. Since it was also not a very classy bar, I would say it typified most of the population of the city. The average guy stopped in after work on the way home to have a drink or two, maybe play a bit of pool or darts, chill out and relax from the days work. Very few people pulled up and made a home in there like Norm in Cheers, spending the entire evening from work until closing time.
I have never drunk until I was sick, blacked out or pulled a train in a bar.
Bloody hell! I was answering the guy who seemed to think that drinking was some sort of profound experience and you needed some sort of spirit guide to reach the enlightening experience, nothing more.
Sorry for not answering for a while, computer issues
I’ll say this once more, and I don’t care if anyone believes it or not:
I don’t have, and haven’t had, bad experiences with alcohol. This is all about the taste and the fact that it’s pushed on me. However, I’ll apologize if anyone got the impression that I’m some kind of anti-alcohol elitist. Clearly I come off as that in my first post, but this is the Pit so I felt it was appropriate to use some not-so-nice language So go ahead, make assumptions about my motives, you’re wrong. Its not your fault you’re wrong, my post made it seem a lot worse than it was, but you’re wrong, so get over it.
And by the law of averages, yes, SOME of you people making these wrong assumptions about my anti-alcoholism ARE alcoholics and just won’t admit it. You simply want to feel superior in your drunkeness so you find someone who doesn’t drink, who doesn’t care to drink, and dislikes drinking and automatically assume something’s wrong with that person.
And for the record, the people in that other post did come off as alcoholics.
Also for the record, “Hey, buddy, can I get you a beer?” isn’t “pushing drinks on you”. That person is trying to be nice to you and he probably doesn’t give a shit what you think of the taste.
The problem I can see in this situation is that, to me at least, alcohol doesn’t have a taste. I’m not denying that people may not like the taste of alcohol, but to me the taste is in the delivery mechanism - rum tastes very different to vodka, to wine, to beer, to Mike’s Hard Lemonade, to cider etc. I can’t find a common taste running through them.
So it seems reasonable to me that if someone doesn’t like the taste, there may be alcoholic beverages out there they do like the taste of. If someone tells me they don’t drink, I’d leave it at that. But saying “I don’t drink, I don’t like the taste of alcohol” at least triggers some inquisitiveness in me, hence leading to the “have you tried…” question. Actually, I probably wouldn’t ask that - but I would probably continue the discussion a little further, though not in a “have a drink” kind of way. It just intrigues me that someone finds alcohol itself has a taste.
That’s what I’m saying, though. If you say anything other than “No thanks,” then it’s not their fault if they want to keep the conversation going, whether you say “I don’t like the taste” or “Beer ran over my dad with a truck.”
So go ahead, make assumptions about my motives, you’re wrong. Its not your fault you’re wrong, my post made it seem a lot worse than it was, but you’re wrong, so get over it.
You simply want to feel superior in your drunkeness so you find someone who doesn’t drink, who doesn’t care to drink, and dislikes drinking and automatically assume something’s wrong with that person.