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>Furthermore, the European youth, especially in Italy, are more likely to live at home for many more years. That probably limits illegal drug use. I don't thi

by jaclaz 4y ago

>Furthermore, the European youth, especially in Italy, are more likely to live at home for many more years. That probably limits illegal drug use. I don't think so, in the sense that while technically living at home, it is not like in Italy young people are not usually completely free to do whatever they want, in theory I would hypothetically link a bigger drug consumption to unemployment and poverty, but given the much higher unemployment rate (and high percentage of people living near or under the poverty line) in Italy when compared to the US, this seems a false link. I believe there is something more "cultural" about this, and somehow it is changing (for the worse) in latest years, besides drugs even excessive drinking, that appears to be common in the US, used to be rare here in Italy, now it has necome more common.

culopatin 4y ago
The cultural aspect definitely shapes both the meaning of living at home in Italy vs US and why people in the US tend to look for these psychedelic escapes more than others. As a US alien I noticed that drug use is way more normalized and less scary than where I was. Everyone knows someone who does/did hard drugs or someone who’s a functioning alcoholic. That was not the case for me at all before coming to the us. A 15yo that smokes weed is a given in the US. “Well yeah of course that happens”. It’s like when a kid says “well everyone is doing it” but at a society level. I also think Americans are more lonely and the parental figures are usually seen more negatively than in countries like Italy where mama is sacred and the grandma is god. In the US you can be at a party with people you barely know and they’ll be talking shit about their parents nonchalantly and you’ll have people agreeing like “FACTS”. Even in comedy, how many comedians use their bad parents to make people relate to them and laugh? That cultural difference makes living at home in Italy much different than living at home in the US. You don’t want to disappoint that Italian mama, but in the US is whatever, parents suck and I’ll do what I want.

by jaclaz 4y ago

culopatin 4y ago

The cultural aspect definitely shapes both the meaning of living at home in Italy vs US and why people in the US tend to look for these psychedelic escapes more than others. As a US alien I noticed that drug use is way more normalized and less scary than where I was. Everyone knows someone who does/did hard drugs or someone who’s a functioning alcoholic. That was not the case for me at all before coming to the us. A 15yo that smokes weed is a given in the US. “Well yeah of course that happens”. It’s like when a kid says “well everyone is doing it” but at a society level. I also think Americans are more lonely and the parental figures are usually seen more negatively than in countries like Italy where mama is sacred and the grandma is god. In the US you can be at a party with people you barely know and they’ll be talking shit about their parents nonchalantly and you’ll have people agreeing like “FACTS”. Even in comedy, how many comedians use their bad parents to make people relate to them and laugh? That cultural difference makes living at home in Italy much different than living at home in the US. You don’t want to disappoint that Italian mama, but in the US is whatever, parents suck and I’ll do what I want.