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Yes, that's the stereotypical idea. Like, I don't drink until I shit myself, but then again I have two small kids, and I've cut back on my drinking radically.
There has existed a constant low-level campaign to make Finns drink in a "more European way" (ie. more on the weekdays, less binging on weekends) or reduce alcohol use in general. (mandatory Polandball comic) I don't think the "European way" has ever took hold, but alcohol use is generally down, especially among the youth, possibly because they don't want to repeat the cultural patterns of the older generations.
"Finnish drinking culture" is a very vast topic, is there something more specific you want to know about it?
Thanks for the reply.
I suppose what I'm most interested in in global drinking cultures is what behaviors besides the drinking itself are permissible, and what style of drinking is most common versus most shunned. In Japan, for example, salarymen going crazy fairly regularly, falling asleep in public places etc. is completely ok. Although I've never been, I would surmise that breaking out a beer at work, however, might be a pretty big transgression.
In the part of the U.S. I'm most familiar with, there are smaller signals. My dad will never drink beer out of a bottle, he always wants to pour it in a glass. He will, however, drink a can of beer without a second thought. There's a funny scene early in the book Knockemstiff where an obvious raging alcoholic talks about how once you start drinking from the bottle, you're a real "wino," so he never drinks directly from the bottle...he then proceeds to take the glass ash trash out of his car (ashtrays in cars were glass way back when) and drink from that at a drive in movie.
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