October 28, 2025
Bring back weird, or just ban lead?
The Decline of Deviance
Is Gen Z too good now? Blame lead, parents, and boring vibes
TLDR: The article says mischief is fading—teens drink, smoke, fight, and hook up less—sparking a brawl over why. Commenters blame everything from leaded gasoline to Millennial parenting, while others roast the methods and the definition of "weird," splitting the room between "good riddance" and "we need more rebels."
Adam Mastroianni says deviance is down: teens drink, smoke, fight, and fool around far less than the 90s, pointing to a culture-wide retreat from mischief. The comments immediately turn it into a forensics lab. Robocat calls out 'using averages to chase outliers,' sparking a nerdy slap-fight over methods. RajT88 drags in the internet’s favorite culprit: leaded gasoline—yes, the same theory tied to the crime drop—while noting teen births don’t neatly follow the script. Mempko goes full rallying cry: in an 'authoritarian push,' we actually need more deviants (cue the nervous laughter).
Then the definition police arrive. Watwut says teen drinking was never 'weird,' it was ‘normal and ignored,’ so calling sobriety a loss of weirdness is moving the goalposts. Meanwhile, dauertewigkeit crowns Millennial parents the secret sauce: well-rounded kids who lift, code, and color inside the lines—a gym-bro valedictorian era. The thread oscillates between sociology lecture and comedy roast, with wink-nudge jokes about 'bring back weird' (not lead, please) and memes about the last authentic deviant being your weird uncle with a Camaro. The only consensus? Something big changed—and nobody agrees whether we should celebrate it, fix it, or let the freak flag fly.
Key Points
- •The article argues that deviant behavior has declined across society, not just in isolated domains.
- •Using CDC YRBS data, it shows U.S. high school students are far less likely than in the 1990s to drink alcohol, smoke, have sex, fight, or use various drugs.
- •The author claims these trends began well before widespread social media and the modern internet era.
- •He contends the phenomenon is culture-wide and has both positive and negative implications.
- •The article suggests the disparate trends may share a single underlying cause, though it is not specified in the excerpt.