[chrisseaton]

21 seems absolutely crazy to me. Three years into adulthood! Three years into dating and relationships where you can’t have a glass of wine with dinner on a date? Maybe it’s unhealthy but I can’t imagine the first three years of university without going out for a drink in a pub or bar at all. Are people graduating from high school and not able to celebrate with a glass of Champagne? If you don’t go to university are you going to work socials as a full adult having to explain that you can’t drink yet?

[shados]

I don't have any issues with 18 as drinking age (that was the legal age where I grew up), but if you can't even imagine a world where alcohol isn't linked to dating and school, and where its possible to celebrate without requiring what is a pretty dangerous drug (lets get real here), there are bigger issues than the age where it's allowed.

[true_religion]

It’s not that they can’t imagine it, it’s that they can’t imagine the illegality.

Like I can imagine romance without candlelit dinners, but if you told be that couples dining together was now illegal without a chaperone, then I would act shocked.

[dragonwriter]

> 21 seems absolutely crazy to me. Three years into adulthood! Three years into dating and relationships

Perhaps occasionally the second, but legal adulthood and the beginning of dating aren't things that are all that normally linked.

> Maybe it’s unhealthy but I can’t imagine the first three years of university without going out for a drink in a pub or bar at all.

Neurotoxins are not exactly an essential companion piece to education. Also, there's a pretty big gap between not being able to do something in practice and not being legally allowed to do it. Fake IDs that are sufficient to pass casual review in a drinking establishment are not uncommon for American youth.

> Are people graduating from high school and not able to celebrate with a glass of Champagne?

People are graduating that would t be allowed to do that with a drinking age of 18, too.

> If you don’t go to university are you going to work socials as a full adult having to explain that you can’t drink yet?

No, because everyone understands, and “work socials” with alcohol are a far from universal thing in the US, anyhow.

[saagarjha]

And you still don’t have to drink at events that serve alcohol, anyhow.

[foota]

Fwiw, you don't have to explain, everyone understands.