The pattern of teasing people with minor ad hominem “attacks” about the people who aren’t aligning themselves with a group’s behavior and opinions is just a common defense pattern of people and groups, common to more serious alcoholics and drug users, and younger students and older people on any number of subjects and opinions. It’s worth developing the skill of discerning what part of such defensive comments is just defensiveness. Usually most or all of it is mainly a comment on the speaker’s own soreness from being polarized in that group’s perspective, and/or is a defensive reflection of criticisms the group receives from the outside.
I’ve been around drinking groups and it seems to me that unless you can immerse yourself in the group and its mindset(/delusion?), from my own perspective, it’s generally a huge annoying waste of time except just for spending time becoming more attached and familiar with them. It involves hours of hanging around in noisy places with semi-drunk people who all feel a need to act like what they’re doing and saying is interesting and cool and hip and fun and sophisticated, even though often I can hardly make out the words people are saying unless they are very loud and at the right pitch to penetrate the noise, and then unless I’m also somehow really tuned into them, I think what they have to say is generally empty and annoying in one flavor or another, unless I luck out and find someone whose drunk personality I actually find fairly entertaining, which is rare, and more likely if I’ve drunk a bit too much. I understand the appeal if you find people you like and find entertaining and non-boring when they’re drunk, and if when sober you find that experience worth the rather large investment in time and money and energy and health impact.
It tends to be a pretty high impact in all those ways, especially when they keep talking about little more than their addiction even during the day.
Almost all such groups though I’ve decided are not worth my time, unless they only do it rarely and/or they’re functional and precious outside the drunk state. Even then, I tend to usually not join them on their nights of hanging around in bars.
Oh, and as for why young adults (especially in the USA) often seem obsessed with drinking culture, I’d say it’s because it’s a new option for them, and seen as adult and edgy and cool and mainstream. The image is supported by TV and movies and advertisements, which present staged scenes where people are drinking and smiling and being attractive and wealthy and carefree and apparently saying endless really witty things to each other and liking each other and being oh so happy. So exploring the new option of going to bars and hanging around trying to achieve that seems valid – at least a fair chunk of the culture seems to buy it.
And yes, there is also the very strong US culture bias towards extroversion and social interaction, which tries to shame introverts and make social interaction always a positive thing and doesn’t really get introverts. That meshes pretty well with righteously validating the endless empty drunken hangout experience.
I tend to prefer one or two occasional glasses of wine in a quiet place with a few interesting people.
Of course, that’s my perspective talking, and I’m starting to show my ad hominem biases…
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