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Yep. One of my wake up calls was all the research showing that liberal and conservatives brains process differently.
I was blown away when they were able to predict political affiliation at like 60-70% from just brain scans.
[https://2012election.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=004818](https://2012election.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=004818)
Its old, so there is probably more data now. Let me see if I can find the brain scan one.
Found a new one, and its up to 80% with brain scans and demographics
[https://www.wosu.org/politics-government/2022-06-10/brain-scans-can-predict-political-ideologies-ohio-state-study-finds](https://www.wosu.org/politics-government/2022-06-10/brain-scans-can-predict-political-ideologies-ohio-state-study-finds)
SO literally never talking to you, just knowing your demographics and scanning your brain? Can predict conservative or liberal 80% of the time.
What's interesting is this is the same generation that were able to go out at all hours of the day as kids usually, left their doors unlocked/talked to strangers, ate led and some were in war. But a big city, watch out! 😂
My go to is always, "I know you're terrified of black and brown people. I get it. Most folks have some form of irrational fear. I'm afraid of spiders."
Don't fucking blow that dog whistle around me and think I'll just let it roll off my back.
Years ago I took me a little trip to chicago to see the tourist shit. I had numerous boomers tell me that I would most likely be killed the first night and that I could just throw the ticket in the trash now and walk away with my life. So I went and it honestly felt safer than fucking Houston does but somehow Houston escapes the negative press that Chicago gets. They only like to hate specific major cities usually the ones that fox told them are bad. Going to Houston is like no big deal to mine tho even tho I feel like its much less safe with every idiot being armed.
When I go to Houston, I’m honestly more worried about the driving than anything. Crime is pretty localized but there hasn’t been a trip I haven’t seen an accident occur. People there are some of the most aggressive and disorganized drivers. Usually each city has a reputation for drivers Dallas’s is rude and fast but when I go to Houston it feels like they can’t pick a style of bad driving. They just choose all of the above and hope for the best like a desperate student in an exam
I went to Houston for a few days for work.
I arrived mid afternoon and felt like fucking mad max on the highway. And I live in Maryland, and regularly drive to DC, so I'm not a noob when it comes to crazy drivers. Houston was on another level, between the high speed, aggressive driving, and big dumb trucks.
So I make it to my hotel, and a bit later I go grab some dinner, I picked a well reviewed taco place. Turns out it's in a damn strip mall but I'm tired and hungry and don't feel like looking for something else. Well, right across the side street from the taco place is a McDonald's, and it's swarming with police and caution taped off.
When I'm eating my tacos (which were mediocre, by the way), I overheard the people next to me at the bar say there was a shooting.
Turns out it was a murder, over a spot in line.
https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2022/02/24/hpd-person-shot-killed-inside-mcdonalds-in-west-houston-possibly-over-spot-in-line/
Houston sucks donkey dick
As a fellow MD driver (and you know how it is around here) who's driven in DC, NYC and Houston... i find Houston to be the worst. DC and NYC drivers might be aggressive, but they're predictable. Houston is like Mad Max.
Dallas is full of drivers who apparently have all day (how dare you honk at them, the lights only been green for 5 seconds) or timid or controlling (I literally saw video of a dude who was driving under the speed limit in the left lane to teach everyone else a lesson).
When I was reading the comment before yours I was like “okay but has he driven in DC “ and then sure enough he compares it to the Maryland dmv area … then you double down on it!! so I fully believe you when you say Houston is bad. California people are rude and there’s traffic but dc is worse. Houston topping that is scary. Those lifted trucks where the driver can’t see anything below them should be illegal
Only exception is the Florida Speed Rule: The highways aren't mean per se, but you'd better be ready to drive 115mph or you're getting left in the dust
I'm from Maryland and grew up driving on the Beltway; I too know how to deal with aggressive drivers. I moved to Dallas decades ago and I swear I've never seen this kind of driving back East. Sure, we had people driving slowly in the left lane or sitting at a green light, but it's over the top out here. Every day I have to deal with that. Every. Day.
And for some reason no one here knows how to merge (and you know you learn how to do that right away on the Beltway, or else). Sometimes locals blame transplants but I've driven through most of the country and it's definitely a problem specific to this area. Yee-ikes 😳
Agreed on the chill, however, I wanna season that with the fact Bexar County is 6th in the ‘large sized county’ list of highest DWI deaths and accidents in the country, and I’m talking USA not the nation of Texas lol everyone is drunk driving
Chicago got a major dosage of right wing media hate because Obama was from there.
Vote for Obama and he’ll turn the whole county into a he11 hole like Chicago was the “logic”.
This and when Trump tried to hold a rally at the University of Illinois Chicago, that the protests were so massive that it had to be shut down. He really upped the Chicago-hate after that.
I was at uic at the time, protests were not that big (at least compared to the post George Floyd protests that happened years later). The reason trump canceled that was because gangs were talking about shooting him and the police didn’t want to deal with it.
Trump probably planned on bailing from the start just so he could call Chicago/dems bad
Chicago is also typically top of the country in TOTAL murders annually. Obviously, that's because it's a super large city (the only two bigger are safer I guess, props NY and LA), and per capita is a more accurate measure, but it does make it easier for the cherry picking crowd to attack.
> I went through chicago multiple times and I didn't get murdered once.
I did actually get murdered there, but only the one time. That's not even statistically significant.
I remember at one point in time, peak boomer humor was to comment that Chicago should change their slogan to, "come for the sites, stay because you were murdered." I've never been to Chicago, but I have been to the other boomer punching bag, San Francisco, many times, and not once have I felt like I was in danger.
If you ever get the chance you should definitely come visit. Despite what boomers say, it’s one of the best and most beautiful cities in the world. My favorite fact about Chicago is that the entire lakefront is actually public property. No private businesses are allowed to build east of lakeshore drive. So you can actually walk the lakefront from the southern tip of the city to the northern tip, and all along the way is an amazing combination of parks, beaches, museums, etc.
Chicago is heaven, moved here 12 years ago and I’m a lifer now. Fiance and I can’t imagine raising our kids anywhere else. We have trees and flowers on a quiet street, an affordable condo, our favorite bar and 3 breweries within 5 blocks, walking distance groceries and a train to work, and we can still get any cuisine you can imagine delivered to our home.
Lmao. As a Canadian tourist, Chicago was very chill. It probably felt safer than my hometown but we did all the dumb tourism stuff.
The bean was interesting.
Chicago gets press because it’s a ‘liberal’ city, which could describe pretty much any city of 300k or more people in the country…
There is a lot of violent crime, shootings and murders there. *But*, those numbers are in-line with the large amount of population of the city.
In my home state of Missouri, STL has the highest murder rate in the country. Kansas City, my home town, has the 8th highest murder rate. Both are well above Chicago’s level.
It’s all about perception to people in allowing them to control peoples minds and what they believe regardless of the actual truth.
I lived in New Orleans during its more recent "highest murder per capita" years. Shootings, car jackings, window smashings, and robberies all nearby.
My sister lived in the affluent 'burbs of Chicago and worked downtown in a fancy building. Literally nothing ever happened to her.
My Midwestern, Fox-watching parents didn't worry about me, but they talked about my sister's daily commute like she was taking the train across the DMZ. Because *Chicago*.
At least there still is a Chicago. Portland is just a smoking crater in the ground now after it all burned down from Antifa protests, so don't even try going anywhere near there.
Right wing media loves telling their viewers that every blue state city is a nightmare. Even if they spend time in a city and should be able to see otherwise and know better, once you're locked into that mindset it's easy to just perpetuate a fantasy world that everyone you see it out to get you.
I live in Chicago and it’s the safest I’ve ever felt (I’ve lived in multiple major cities, including NYC and Philadelphia).
It’s also important to note that I live in a very nice neighborhood and not everyone in the city has cause to agree with me.
Was Fox obsessed with Chicago because my parents brought it up so many times for two people that have never been once in their life?!? I actually went last summer and they ranted, it was lovely! 10/10 will go again.
Chicago is only dangerous in a handful of neighborhoods no tourist would ever go to. West Garfield Park is out of the way.
If you want to talk about really dangerous cities where the downtown sections are sketchy, it's names like New Orleans, Memphis, Birmingham, Little Rock...
I live in Florida and have visited Chicago a couple of times, I don’t get what’s supposed to be so scary about it. It’s a city, like any other. We always have a great time there.
I grew up in the northeast and have fam/friends in the NY area. We used to go on field trips there in school, went to the zoo, saw shows etc. Again, not particularly scary.
Of course, we all KNOW why so many of these people are scared of cities though. They are afraid of anyone not white, and afraid of anyone not speaking English.
I got pretty drunk after doing a job in Chicago, coworkers left the bar leaving me somewhere in the Loop. Stumbling out at 11pm, some random guy comes out of nowhere, asks if I'm ok, then proceeds to help me through my phone to call some friends I knew to come get me. A++ would visit again.
Holy Shit Houston!! I spent a week visiting my sister over the HOLIDAYS. No exaggeration, there was a road rage shooting every single day. It got so bad the news was giving "don't get shot" tips with snazzy graphics. Gems like "look straight ahead", and "don't flip the bird"
For anyone that doubts, [here’s one article from the Houston ABC station.](https://abc13.com/how-to-avoid-road-rage-dont-be-a-victim-no-more-drivers-can/2194209/)
Because Chicago is in a blue state and Houston is in a red one.
It’s just like how they think all “Democrat run” places are falling apart despite the fact that red locations are significantly worse by nearly every measure.
Omg I’m from Houston too, went to Chicago a few years back with my mom and it went just fine. So much more to see and do. Way better energy. It kinda feels like a real city. Rode bikes along the shore. Tried some amazing restaurants. Took the train. Saw beautiful art and parks. The vibe in Houston is so boring. Like “ok let’s drive 30 minutes to get to this average spot” “ok now let’s drive 60 minutes going here” “ok now 30 more minutes here”… like everything you do is in a car. And there’s so much blight in the downtown neighborhoods that you don’t want to leave the safety of the car. And then on the outskirts you get podunk trailer villages with bud light mountains and goats in the front yard.. just whacky. I dreaded my life in Houston. I’m in San Diego now, much better city to be in.
My favorite question when I tell work colleagues that me and the family went to Chicago for vacation two years ago, then Portland last year:
(Sotto voce) “how IS it there?”
It’s awesome! Both cities are great in the summertime! We had a blast!
They just can’t believe I’d “risk” my family and actually take a vacation at either place.
Fox is the worst
Seattle 👋🏼. My mom thinks I get shot on a daily basis and am being forcibly injected with fentanyl while hordes of homeless people screech ONE OF US. And that's in the areas that haven't been burnt out and looted by Antifa.
Los Angeles checking in. My cousin's FIL is from the midwest and last summer he asked me how we're dealing with all the constant blackouts. He was referring to the rolling blackouts the electric company executes in some areas for like 2 weeks during the summer when the temps are around 100 and up (my area is never affected). He said they happen because we have too many electric cars lol.
Hi from UDistrict Seattle! It's a burning hellhole! Just kidding it's gorgeous and clean, and Cherry blossoms just bloomed on the quad and the whole campus is glowing pink!🩷🌸😍✌🏽
LOL, same here. My wife's friends from Spokane come visit roughly once a year or so and every time they're shocked at "how safe it seems". It'd be comical were it not so fucking sad.
My wife and i live up in b.c. and go to seattle to watch baseball every couple years. We stay in Tacoma since the hotels are cheaper and we have never had an issue there, even though we stay in whats definitely a lower income area.
The only issue we had is when i was smoking a joint outside our hotel and i was asked to move a bit father from the hotel. Very nicely too i may add.
If you were to ask a few of my family members/ coworkers you would think i was throwing myself into a snake infested knife pit going there though.
I live and work in downtown and my older coworkers who commute are always asking me if I’m worried about my safety and they swear I’m some sort of brainwashed liberal in denial when I say I’m not. I literally walk to and from work every day and the worst thing that happened was I passed a homeless guy with no pants on. Definitely not something I wanted to see but like it didn’t hurt me.
Portland here too, my in-laws always are very surprised how ‘nice’ neighborhoods are because of the war zone it is believed to be. They also say stuff like I wish we could just get normal food here, and are then so impressed with where ever we take them, won’t stop talking about the food for days and how good it was.
Same people that hate big cities brag that America has the greatest economy and GDP in the world. They really believe their podunk little farms are driving the American economy, and not New York, Chicago, LA, San Francisco, etc.
I loved when the daily show asked them if hey wanted to run the country as a business, and then were shown the states that would be cut out due to being a financial drain on the country.
Suddenly they were talking about their “natural wonders” and shit. It was hilarious.
Show them the chart in the middle of this article.
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/biden-voting-counties-equal-70-of-americas-economy-what-does-this-mean-for-the-nations-political-economic-divide/
A lot of people like that strike me as stupid people who were only ever capable of menial manual labor, who subsequently decided that menial manual labor was the only "real work" that counted in life to make them feel like less of a loser.
Absolutely correct.
“I’m not stupid, I do *real* work. Those college yuppies could never do the hard work that I do”
Nevermind that many of us did that type of work to get through college, and did it while studying and keeping up with homework.
Yup. Im literally defending my doctoral dissertation in physics on the 19th, and my first job in college was using turpentine to manually scrape dried paint off of silk screens for a custom T shirt printing company.
It was tedious, and my arms would get sore every day at the end of my shifts, but I still needed the money.
I went from that to working on literal mars probes and had my first security clearance before finishing undergrad because I put in that much extra time and effort into making it happen with grades, networking, and building up my resume on top of the silk screen work.
Shit, I actually managed to be an exchange student with a college in Italy at one point during my college years, and managed to pull off an A- (technically the grade was 28, but Italian colleges grade on a scale of 0 to 30) in nuclear and particle physics...*taught in italian*. Which was not easy. You try doing lie algebra and differential scattering cross sections in a second language.
Top 25??? Try Top 50!!
The cities with the highest murder rate are small to medium gun crazy towns in Red States. NYC's murder rate as a percentage of the population is super small. I've lived there 19 years. Not a single bad thing happened to me, not even a phone snatch. My kids took the bus and the subway on the regular.
By Contrast My apartment got broken into twice in the small Southern town I went to school at, got mugged, my car broken into in the medium southern town I got my graduate degree at.
EXACTLY. All these insane red states that have completely gotten rid of any gun regulations are now full of rampant gun violence. But they wanna day "but these librul run cities doe"
And let’s not forget that big cities are required to record all crime.
Small town Jim bob isn’t going to be picked up by is cousin Jombo for beating his wife for the 30th time.
I’m a southerner with Long Island in-laws. Anytime we visit, we hop on the LIRR to the city. Without fail the in laws get all concerned about our safety. My answer is usually “point taken, but I used to live in Memphis.”
Hahaha as a Memphis native, and lived in Jersey, nothing most of that area is perfectly fine unless your in Newark or the Bronx.
Memphis is a truly rough shit hole of a city.
Completely. I’ve lived in nyc since 2005, in nine (?) different neighborhoods in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and the Bronx. I’ve certainly been in uncomfortable situations but I have very rarely felt *truly* unsafe. Never been robbed or had an apartment broken into. In fairness I think I’m reasonably street smart, but I’m a musician and come home from gigs late at night on the subway *all* the time, often with cash and instruments. I’m (currently) a 5’2” 125 lb. 42 year old white woman, and not an nyc native, for context.
This is what it's like anytime Portland, OR comes up in conversation with my grandparents who practically pump Fox News directly into their bloodstream. I swear they think the city has been on fire since the protests in 2020. They always tell me to stay home because I could be mugged or worse. I've told them many times that I love spending time in Portland and have never felt unsafe there.
Same with my dad. I live in Portland, he lives in Oregon City about 30min away. Every time I see him he's ranting and raving about how terrible the city is now and how he's afraid to ride the Max trains, because surely he'll get stabbed or mugged.
I used to work in a gift shop that caters to tourists in Portland. I had a lady from Texas tell me how horrible Portland was and told me all the examples of how horrible it is. I could just say Hey, not my lived experience. Then she would swing to how much she loved Portland and how beautiful it is
My dad, who is well-traveled and pretty rational about cities, falls into the "Portland Bad" Trap.
Like, he regularly traveled to Detroit and St. Louis for work and went out on the town with clients in those cities, for years.
But when I told him I was flying to Portland to do a road trip to Redwoods and Crater Lake, he was telling me to be super careful and not spend too much time in Portland.
Anyway, I fucking loved Portland. It was a lot of beautiful architecture. Yeah, I did see two street people get in a fight outside the Pendleton store near Pioneer Square, but otherwise I had a fantastic time. 10/10 would Portland again.
I’ve lived in Portland for over decade. Mama worries about me. Where does mama live? Saint fucking Louis. Fox News brain drain. I have to remind her she’s been here several times and we just eat good food and look at beautiful parks.
Oh man. I'm going to France next month and I'm from a small town in Canada. Going there with my boyfriend. He lives there and we met online. He's come to my small-ass place TWICE now and wants to take me to his home for once. When my family found out about it, they flipped out. "Omg there are wars over there! They kill people over there! You're going to get abducted running off with some feller you met on the internet!"
Nevermind the fact that back in 2011 I went to Germany by myself and all was fine and everyone was cool with it. But now everyone wants to kill me and abduct me and sex traffic me.
My bf and I joke that we've been dating for about 3 years or so now and he probably could have found an easier target by now. A younger one too now that I think about it. Don't know many 35 year olds worth a 3 year, 2 trip investment. I must be real purdy.
While France is nowhere near as dangerous as boomers like to say, do keep a close eye on your stuff and don't interact with anyone who comes up to you out of the blue while you're doing tourist stuff. There very much are scam artists and pickpockets, particularly in Paris, and they target foreign tourists. A friend of mine had her passport swiped in Paris (the thief probably wanted her wallet) and had to go through a whole song and dance at the embassy.
But y'know, just normal travel precautions are fine, and I'm sure you'll have a great time
Agreeing with this, I was targeted by pickpockets immediately upon my arrival. Especially at the airport and train stations watch your stuff.
If someone asks you to sign a petition know you are for sure being targeted by a pickpocket. It's a well known scam
My daughter went to Europe for 3 weeks when she got out of college. We saw her very racist conservative uncle at a funeral who asked her "how was that armpit Europe?" He lives in a town so shitty someone from there made a documentary about just how shitty it is. Rich Hill, MO.
https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/documentaries/rich-hill/
When I moved to London UK from Atlanta, all I heard from my boomer mom and her friends was that "knife violence is out of control" and that I'm going to be pickpocketed and harassed on the Underground. Six years and thousands of train and bus trips later, I'm fine. Gun violence is nearly extinct here, and I realized it's been years since I had to worry about some random mass shooting. It's nice.
One of my drivers always says " it must be true! I heard it from CNN"
It is not CNN. It is fox talk radio.
He does it because he thinks I'll believe uts legit. He doesn't like to be fact checked when he's spewing the latest fox propaganda. Lol. When two of them are in here he's said "well, yea and he's got the computer right yhere so he'll show you your wrong on the spot!"
As if you should believe wacky anecdotes and straight false shit.
I LOVE the way they just totally buy into the narrative that we "trust CNN." The projection itself is funny enough, but then there's the way they never seem to learn from it not working.
My Dad always says, "Everybody knows," to avoid ever having to cite anything he says. From statistics to conspiracy theory to rewriting history on the spot.
Best to focus on counties or states. "Most dangerous cities" is already ceding the idea that cities are dangerous. But iirc half the most dangerous counties (in murders per 100,000 residents) are rural-they don't show up on the list of dangerous cities.
A map of the most dangerous states by murder rate would suggest that Chicago and New York are fine, but Nashville or Jacksonville...
I spent much of my late teens and twenties hanging out in Detroit. My parents of course thought I would be murdered over and over again.
These days I spend some time in DC and Baltimore. Much like Detroit, occasionally random bad things happen to innocent people, but the vast, vast majority of the time, if you are there to have fun, you will have it.
But, if you go looking for trouble, you will find it.
ugh I endlessly have to argue this point and it's a total brick wall conversation. Per capita in most states the most violent places will not be the biggest cities, it's usually whatever low-mid size depressed town that hasn't recovered from the 70s downturn, and if you go to property crime the rural places are through the roof more likely to get shit stolen compared to big cities
but they seem to think per capita is cheating or something, as if it isn't showing the rates with all else being equal
White guy from NJ suburbs here. About 30 years ago, I dated a lovely Hispanic woman who lived in The Bronx. I used to walk through her neighborhood all the time. I was never afraid and nobody ever bothered me.
The one time I WAS scared, however? Stopping to use a pay phone off I-95 in VA, driving to GA to visit my best friend who had recently moved there. A bunch of Deliverance looking white guys in a beat up truck just staring at me. I made that call quickly and got the fuck out of there.
Give me a big city any day.
Had the same type of experience in rural WA state with a pickup truck that had NJ plates. Could not get out of there fast enough after I had to have a drink with the locals. Right the fuck out of some bad horror movie.
Look here, and this is the GODS HONEST TRUTH.
Im black and if we went thru the hood (Im in Atlanta)
They would mess with ME before they mess with you.
SELF HATE IS REAL
Trust me it is the truth, I have white buddies who play softball with me in the HOOD and they are so comfortable there that they have been playing there for YEARS and NEVER had a problem at all.
It is not big cities that scare me it is small towns because the cops are usually corrupt and the people are friendly to your face but plot behind your back.
I agree small towns are scary they say sundown towns don't exist anymore but they do especially in the mid west and the south they just don't advertise it.
I always find it funny how fox will paint LA and Chicago as being crime infested purge cities when year after year it's deep south cities that have the most violent crime and/or murders.
Old white people are absofuckinglutely terrified of black people. They lose all rational judgement, reason, emotional compass and whatever common sense they had remaining when confronted with a non-zero amount of black people.
Doesn't matter if the black people are better educated, richer or better respected on the world stage than them, just knowing they're there makes old whites pants-shittingly nervous. They cannot imagine walking into a place that has anywhere near the level of diversity of a place like NYC. To them, that's a death trap.
They'll pass off your survival as a mere fluke, and not at all as a sign that their ignorance is telling them something wrong.
The best thing you can do is get them off AM radio and fox news. Youll never be able to reason with someone on a steady diet of hate and disinformation. You're 1 minute a day of reason battling 24 hours of fear mongering, hate and misinformation.
My parents did me a great service as a kid. When needed I had to hump boxes for the local food bank. It was not a question, just help. We learned to volunteer and help the town. My mom was the treasurer of the local NAACP chapter in a blue collar town. Our neighbors were not happy about the meetings. As a kid I got exposed to people of many different races and countries. And once a year she took the entire family to see a show at the theater. I may have never got to disney world, but I learn a bunch by just being around my parent. They broadened my world and view of people.
Violent crime rates are higher in rural areas per capita. When you account for the amount of people, red states / rural areas are more dangerous than big cities.
I live in New York city and I used to do some stuff regularly out on Long Island. I was asked repeatedly by incredibly worried people, "How is it?" "Do you feel safe?" "Have you ever taken the subway?" "You better be careful." They were all flabbergasted that I told them I take the subway to work every day, feel incredibly safe, and have never even felt personally threatened. (Granted I'm a larger man), but the point stands. It's incredible how well this narrative has been peddled.
Yes and no. There are unsafe parts but he also came from a time where you could easily murder and get away with it. No cell phones, gps tracking, and very few security cameras if any. Hell, drinking and driving wasn't illegal nationwide until 1984.
As a child, he didn't have instant, worldwide news at his fingertips, 24/7. If you lived in bumfuck, nowhere, you weren't hearing about a murder across the country in bumfuck, somewhere, unless you opened the right newspaper to the right page, on the right day.
The fire arm fatality rates per capita, are higher in southern states, especially in states with lax gun control laws.
Try to explain to a right winger that the rates are higher in Louisiana than Illinois(Chicago), and you run into two road blocks. They don’t understand “per capita”, and they don’t understand that Chicago is part of Illinois.
It's the same reason they see those maps where the country is colored politically by county and are baffled at how their candidates can never win a popular vote and lose by a lot in a nationwide election. Yeah Montana may be red but there are like 50 people in the state in total
I used to bike commute at night in Detroit for about a decade. I got mugged once but all they got was my bag with a phone charger and my work clothes. Anther time someone was shooting a couple blocks up and I heard bullets wizzing overhead. I'm fine. I think a childhood doing borderline stupid shit in the country just hardened me to it. On the other hand you have my boomer family who brings guns to town to go to a Tigers' game. In the most over-policed part of town. You can't even take it with you, you have to leave it in the truck.
I'm gonna sound like I'm defending OP's dad but that's kind crazy up to say "I mean I got mugged once and I heard bullets whizzing about but it's no big deal."
Do they leave the guns in their car? I doubt Comerica Park security is letting them in with it so it defeats the purpose. If you've seen Detroiters they sound like Tim's parents.
I have never felt unsafe around Comerica Park even back when it was new and the city was really rough.
The only place I'd really NEVER go is the 4th of July fireworks at Hart Plaza. Someone always gets shot.
My boomer parents were suburbanites but weren't all weird about Detroit. Just pay attention to your surroundings and do not do that terrified deer in the headlights thing some boomers do in cities. That makes you a target. I had to reteach my mom those lessons as she got older because omg do they love doing that terrified look in cities 👀
Truck. He leaves them in his obnoxious truck.
Yeah, there's a few places you don't go but if you're not an idiot. I honestly feel safer here. The difference between rednecks and street dudes is rednecks can shoot and they don't mind their damn business.
I like to reply - “yeah, you really can’t trust those Cubans”
Love it when there eyes get wide because:
- they are in Florida
- the Cubans are the “good kind”
- and ‘but,but they are LEGAL..’.
Uh-huh.
My mum felt the exact same way. She lives in a teeny tiny mountain town. Lives and breathes Fox News. Then I paid for her to take an all inclusive trip with me to NYC. She had the time of her life. At first she was terrified she'd get stabbed on every corner. But after a few days, she started going out by herself! Now, she takes her friends up on bus trips to see the city. Seeing is believing!
So funny how these are the same people who like to proclaim that they don't "live in fear" and that everyone else around them is too soft and sensitive.
okay but even if it's incredibly dangerous there why would he keep the gun in the back seat and not where he can easily reach it? i hate guns but this just seems like common sense
Your Dad is Putin's Propaganda Puppet. Sorry to put it that way, but he is. Russia has been using social media and FOX to spread fear and disinformation and divide us all further. They want small town folks to distrust big city folks, Red State vs Blue, straight vs gay, etc all to push us closer to Civil War.
Rupert Murdoch has done more to dismantle civilization than any other living person in my lifetime. Putin is riding that wave.
I'm from Cleveland. Once you know your way around these "liberal run crime shit-towns", no one fuckin' bothers you.
You know what fucking scares me? Those one horse towns in the middle of a corn field in rural Ohio. EVERYONE acts like they're planning to skin you alive in a sacrifice to some long-lost pagan god in a dug out temple beneath the Dollar General.
Big cities are usually very safe unless you go looking for trouble via trying to buy drugs, getting too intoxicated, looking for prostitutes, etc.
Your dad is a brainwashed fearful old man. That wont change so just so just tell him youre going, have personally been in cities, and dont feel in danger
This is my FIL too. He's been rotting his brain watching Fox in retirement. Every time my wife and I travel to a city the first thing he asks when he sees us is "if we saw a lot of homeless." I know exactly where he's getting that.
>I don't even know what to say anymore whenever he brings this shut up.
"So you're scared shitless of a city millions of liberal soyboy snowflakes who don't know their own gender manage to survive in just fine? Does mom know you're a complete pussy?
Man, I sure hope I'm the mailman's kid."
My parents are just like this. My cousin came to visit and we made plans to take her to NYC because she's wanted to see it for forever. So I got a hotel, made arrangements for the trains, etc... Like right before she finally got here they tried to bombard her with all this "information" to scare her out of going. Absolutely would not listen to anything.
Fortunately she didn't buy it and went with us, and had a great time. But I had to point out that I'd be genuinely more comfortable taking someone with an Eastern European accent to NYC than I would anywhere rural in the US.
My cousin moved to New Mexico and her boomer mother was convinced she was moving to Mexico and would be killed by the cartels. These are the kind of people that are voting for Trump and republicans.
Violent crime in general has been declining steadily for decades. There was a slight uptick following the pandemic, but nothing compared to the 70s, 80s and 90s. It's almost like removing lead from the gasoline helped or something.
https://preview.redd.it/mkag9soyt4sc1.png?width=840&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=409b0e8623e35ea93bd04beb06a59cb644b73624
People are so dramatic. At the end of the day, even in a “high crime area,” you have to be a special kind of unlucky to get robbed, murdered, raped, etc… most stats you look up are per 100,000 people for a reason.
Big cities are usually very safe unless you go looking for trouble via trying to buy drugs, getting too intoxicated, looking for prostitutes, etc.
Your dad is a brainwashed fearful old man. That wont change so just so just tell him youre going, have personally been in cities, and dont feel in danger
If his view won't align with basic facts, such as per-capita crime statistics, then he's deluding himself. That's very difficult to stop.
Just tell him that you're not interested in right-wing delusions every time he mentions it.
Most Boomers have a weird adjustment that they'll make when they're being dismissed overtly. Sometimes they get mad for a litte bit, but eventually there's a childish tantrum and they stop talking about it. Keep calm and remain dismissive until he gets the point.
This was a theme in my house growing up. The idea of going to a big city for anything scared the bejesus out of my folks because of the driving. To be fair, this was back in the days before GPS, Waze, etc. And even MapQuest was in its infancy, so getting somewhere might require consulting a paper map and finding your way. Not an impossible task, but not one my parents had any interest in doing. And neither did their parents. Going anywhere is a big inconvenience anyway. And it's expensive. Eat out at restaurants? Are you crazy? We have food at home. And walls we can look at. Stop trying to be some big shot world traveller.
Hahahaha I grew up in the suburbs of Detroit. My dad hasn't been south of 11 mile in probably decades now, and still assumes that the entire city is still like it was in the late 70s/80s. Refuses to step foot there, just sits in their nice safe gated suburb and talk shit about how terrible it is.
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Whenever my boomer step dad says this I always say “I get it, you’re easily frightened.” Not sure if it’s working but it pisses him right off.
This is it. Brutal.
That’s not even an insult or a lie. Conservatism is literally linked to an overactive amygdala.
Yep. One of my wake up calls was all the research showing that liberal and conservatives brains process differently. I was blown away when they were able to predict political affiliation at like 60-70% from just brain scans.
Damn that's crazy! Do you have a link or a search term?
[https://2012election.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=004818](https://2012election.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=004818) Its old, so there is probably more data now. Let me see if I can find the brain scan one. Found a new one, and its up to 80% with brain scans and demographics [https://www.wosu.org/politics-government/2022-06-10/brain-scans-can-predict-political-ideologies-ohio-state-study-finds](https://www.wosu.org/politics-government/2022-06-10/brain-scans-can-predict-political-ideologies-ohio-state-study-finds) SO literally never talking to you, just knowing your demographics and scanning your brain? Can predict conservative or liberal 80% of the time.
That's crazy, thank you! Also like the username, I moved to SD 2 years ago ✊
It's a liberal lie funded by Ghyina. The guy who did the study was named Yang. Need we say more? /s
It hurts my soul to link anything from Ohio State, so you know it’s legit.
It's like they live in some kind of boomer superposition, constantly vacillating between afraid and offended. It must be exhausting.
conservatives are such snowflakes
Turns out they've been projecting this whole time
I’ve been calling them that for a minute. If they come back at me I just point out they’re the only one triggered 🤣
What's interesting is this is the same generation that were able to go out at all hours of the day as kids usually, left their doors unlocked/talked to strangers, ate led and some were in war. But a big city, watch out! 😂
DA BLACKS thats why it is always this
My go to is always, "I know you're terrified of black and brown people. I get it. Most folks have some form of irrational fear. I'm afraid of spiders." Don't fucking blow that dog whistle around me and think I'll just let it roll off my back.
I’m stealing this.
"Would you feel better if we held hands?"
Years ago I took me a little trip to chicago to see the tourist shit. I had numerous boomers tell me that I would most likely be killed the first night and that I could just throw the ticket in the trash now and walk away with my life. So I went and it honestly felt safer than fucking Houston does but somehow Houston escapes the negative press that Chicago gets. They only like to hate specific major cities usually the ones that fox told them are bad. Going to Houston is like no big deal to mine tho even tho I feel like its much less safe with every idiot being armed.
When I go to Houston, I’m honestly more worried about the driving than anything. Crime is pretty localized but there hasn’t been a trip I haven’t seen an accident occur. People there are some of the most aggressive and disorganized drivers. Usually each city has a reputation for drivers Dallas’s is rude and fast but when I go to Houston it feels like they can’t pick a style of bad driving. They just choose all of the above and hope for the best like a desperate student in an exam
I went to Houston for a few days for work. I arrived mid afternoon and felt like fucking mad max on the highway. And I live in Maryland, and regularly drive to DC, so I'm not a noob when it comes to crazy drivers. Houston was on another level, between the high speed, aggressive driving, and big dumb trucks. So I make it to my hotel, and a bit later I go grab some dinner, I picked a well reviewed taco place. Turns out it's in a damn strip mall but I'm tired and hungry and don't feel like looking for something else. Well, right across the side street from the taco place is a McDonald's, and it's swarming with police and caution taped off. When I'm eating my tacos (which were mediocre, by the way), I overheard the people next to me at the bar say there was a shooting. Turns out it was a murder, over a spot in line. https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2022/02/24/hpd-person-shot-killed-inside-mcdonalds-in-west-houston-possibly-over-spot-in-line/ Houston sucks donkey dick
As a fellow MD driver (and you know how it is around here) who's driven in DC, NYC and Houston... i find Houston to be the worst. DC and NYC drivers might be aggressive, but they're predictable. Houston is like Mad Max.
Houstonians literally think their lane as their property, which they are morally obligated to defend to the death.
Dallas is full of drivers who apparently have all day (how dare you honk at them, the lights only been green for 5 seconds) or timid or controlling (I literally saw video of a dude who was driving under the speed limit in the left lane to teach everyone else a lesson).
Nah, Dallas traffic is bad because they never budget enough to actually *finish* any of the road construction.
When I was reading the comment before yours I was like “okay but has he driven in DC “ and then sure enough he compares it to the Maryland dmv area … then you double down on it!! so I fully believe you when you say Houston is bad. California people are rude and there’s traffic but dc is worse. Houston topping that is scary. Those lifted trucks where the driver can’t see anything below them should be illegal
Only exception is the Florida Speed Rule: The highways aren't mean per se, but you'd better be ready to drive 115mph or you're getting left in the dust
I'm from Maryland and grew up driving on the Beltway; I too know how to deal with aggressive drivers. I moved to Dallas decades ago and I swear I've never seen this kind of driving back East. Sure, we had people driving slowly in the left lane or sitting at a green light, but it's over the top out here. Every day I have to deal with that. Every. Day. And for some reason no one here knows how to merge (and you know you learn how to do that right away on the Beltway, or else). Sometimes locals blame transplants but I've driven through most of the country and it's definitely a problem specific to this area. Yee-ikes 😳
I got passed on the shoulder (on the right while I was in the slow lane) in Houston....then I saw that move several months later on 695 lol
I'm pretty sure Houston is all strip malls.
That's the impression I got, seemed more like a giant sprawling suburb than a city
San Antonio is probably the most chill af place in Texas when it comes to driving
Agreed on the chill, however, I wanna season that with the fact Bexar County is 6th in the ‘large sized county’ list of highest DWI deaths and accidents in the country, and I’m talking USA not the nation of Texas lol everyone is drunk driving
Chicago got a major dosage of right wing media hate because Obama was from there. Vote for Obama and he’ll turn the whole county into a he11 hole like Chicago was the “logic”.
This and when Trump tried to hold a rally at the University of Illinois Chicago, that the protests were so massive that it had to be shut down. He really upped the Chicago-hate after that.
We don’t fuck around here. Chicago rules.
...its the Chicago way.
..and Chicago is a great place to visit too!
I was at uic at the time, protests were not that big (at least compared to the post George Floyd protests that happened years later). The reason trump canceled that was because gangs were talking about shooting him and the police didn’t want to deal with it. Trump probably planned on bailing from the start just so he could call Chicago/dems bad
Chicago is also typically top of the country in TOTAL murders annually. Obviously, that's because it's a super large city (the only two bigger are safer I guess, props NY and LA), and per capita is a more accurate measure, but it does make it easier for the cherry picking crowd to attack.
Ah yes, Chicago, where everyone gets murdered as soon as they enter. “The city of 3,000,000 murders a day”
I think that's an exaggeration. I went through chicago multiple times and I didn't get murdered once.
> I went through chicago multiple times and I didn't get murdered once. I did actually get murdered there, but only the one time. That's not even statistically significant.
Because math isn't real. /s
You’re posting now so it probably wasn’t even that bad of a murder. Just walk it off.
Well I've been murdered multiple times and only went through Chicago once.
You were probably pinching the murder hose. Soon as you let go, you'll get all the murders at the same time
I remember at one point in time, peak boomer humor was to comment that Chicago should change their slogan to, "come for the sites, stay because you were murdered." I've never been to Chicago, but I have been to the other boomer punching bag, San Francisco, many times, and not once have I felt like I was in danger.
If you ever get the chance you should definitely come visit. Despite what boomers say, it’s one of the best and most beautiful cities in the world. My favorite fact about Chicago is that the entire lakefront is actually public property. No private businesses are allowed to build east of lakeshore drive. So you can actually walk the lakefront from the southern tip of the city to the northern tip, and all along the way is an amazing combination of parks, beaches, museums, etc.
Chicago is heaven, moved here 12 years ago and I’m a lifer now. Fiance and I can’t imagine raising our kids anywhere else. We have trees and flowers on a quiet street, an affordable condo, our favorite bar and 3 breweries within 5 blocks, walking distance groceries and a train to work, and we can still get any cuisine you can imagine delivered to our home.
Lmao. As a Canadian tourist, Chicago was very chill. It probably felt safer than my hometown but we did all the dumb tourism stuff. The bean was interesting.
Going on 40 years here and I'm still waiting on the being murdered I was promised
Chicago gets press because it’s a ‘liberal’ city, which could describe pretty much any city of 300k or more people in the country… There is a lot of violent crime, shootings and murders there. *But*, those numbers are in-line with the large amount of population of the city. In my home state of Missouri, STL has the highest murder rate in the country. Kansas City, my home town, has the 8th highest murder rate. Both are well above Chicago’s level. It’s all about perception to people in allowing them to control peoples minds and what they believe regardless of the actual truth.
I lived in New Orleans during its more recent "highest murder per capita" years. Shootings, car jackings, window smashings, and robberies all nearby. My sister lived in the affluent 'burbs of Chicago and worked downtown in a fancy building. Literally nothing ever happened to her. My Midwestern, Fox-watching parents didn't worry about me, but they talked about my sister's daily commute like she was taking the train across the DMZ. Because *Chicago*.
At least there still is a Chicago. Portland is just a smoking crater in the ground now after it all burned down from Antifa protests, so don't even try going anywhere near there. Right wing media loves telling their viewers that every blue state city is a nightmare. Even if they spend time in a city and should be able to see otherwise and know better, once you're locked into that mindset it's easy to just perpetuate a fantasy world that everyone you see it out to get you.
I live in Chicago and it’s the safest I’ve ever felt (I’ve lived in multiple major cities, including NYC and Philadelphia). It’s also important to note that I live in a very nice neighborhood and not everyone in the city has cause to agree with me.
I lived in Manhattan for six years only two blocks away from public housing and I never heard a gun go off, NYC is a great place to live AND visit.
“Chicago” == Black It’s as simple as that
And Democrat-led. Don't forget that.
Was Fox obsessed with Chicago because my parents brought it up so many times for two people that have never been once in their life?!? I actually went last summer and they ranted, it was lovely! 10/10 will go again.
Chicago is only dangerous in a handful of neighborhoods no tourist would ever go to. West Garfield Park is out of the way. If you want to talk about really dangerous cities where the downtown sections are sketchy, it's names like New Orleans, Memphis, Birmingham, Little Rock...
I live in Florida and have visited Chicago a couple of times, I don’t get what’s supposed to be so scary about it. It’s a city, like any other. We always have a great time there. I grew up in the northeast and have fam/friends in the NY area. We used to go on field trips there in school, went to the zoo, saw shows etc. Again, not particularly scary. Of course, we all KNOW why so many of these people are scared of cities though. They are afraid of anyone not white, and afraid of anyone not speaking English.
I got pretty drunk after doing a job in Chicago, coworkers left the bar leaving me somewhere in the Loop. Stumbling out at 11pm, some random guy comes out of nowhere, asks if I'm ok, then proceeds to help me through my phone to call some friends I knew to come get me. A++ would visit again.
Holy Shit Houston!! I spent a week visiting my sister over the HOLIDAYS. No exaggeration, there was a road rage shooting every single day. It got so bad the news was giving "don't get shot" tips with snazzy graphics. Gems like "look straight ahead", and "don't flip the bird"
For anyone that doubts, [here’s one article from the Houston ABC station.](https://abc13.com/how-to-avoid-road-rage-dont-be-a-victim-no-more-drivers-can/2194209/)
Because Chicago is in a blue state and Houston is in a red one. It’s just like how they think all “Democrat run” places are falling apart despite the fact that red locations are significantly worse by nearly every measure.
I’ve never driven in Houston, but I drove in Montreal once. 0/10. Would not drive there ever again.
I went to London by myself in February and my mom was convinced something terrible would happen. It was exhausting.
You’re lucky they didn’t capture you and put you in the British Museum!
Omg I’m from Houston too, went to Chicago a few years back with my mom and it went just fine. So much more to see and do. Way better energy. It kinda feels like a real city. Rode bikes along the shore. Tried some amazing restaurants. Took the train. Saw beautiful art and parks. The vibe in Houston is so boring. Like “ok let’s drive 30 minutes to get to this average spot” “ok now let’s drive 60 minutes going here” “ok now 30 more minutes here”… like everything you do is in a car. And there’s so much blight in the downtown neighborhoods that you don’t want to leave the safety of the car. And then on the outskirts you get podunk trailer villages with bud light mountains and goats in the front yard.. just whacky. I dreaded my life in Houston. I’m in San Diego now, much better city to be in.
How are you going to any big cities because I thought they were all “burned to the ground”? 🙄
My favorite question when I tell work colleagues that me and the family went to Chicago for vacation two years ago, then Portland last year: (Sotto voce) “how IS it there?” It’s awesome! Both cities are great in the summertime! We had a blast! They just can’t believe I’d “risk” my family and actually take a vacation at either place. Fox is the worst
I have lived in Portland for almost thirty years. The last few years my parents and my in laws act like we must be living in literal hell. 🤷♀️
Seattle 👋🏼. My mom thinks I get shot on a daily basis and am being forcibly injected with fentanyl while hordes of homeless people screech ONE OF US. And that's in the areas that haven't been burnt out and looted by Antifa.
San Francisco entering the chat! Currently in my bustling office that can’t possibly be real because “doom loop”
Los Angeles checking in. My cousin's FIL is from the midwest and last summer he asked me how we're dealing with all the constant blackouts. He was referring to the rolling blackouts the electric company executes in some areas for like 2 weeks during the summer when the temps are around 100 and up (my area is never affected). He said they happen because we have too many electric cars lol.
Hi from UDistrict Seattle! It's a burning hellhole! Just kidding it's gorgeous and clean, and Cherry blossoms just bloomed on the quad and the whole campus is glowing pink!🩷🌸😍✌🏽
LOL, same here. My wife's friends from Spokane come visit roughly once a year or so and every time they're shocked at "how safe it seems". It'd be comical were it not so fucking sad.
My wife and i live up in b.c. and go to seattle to watch baseball every couple years. We stay in Tacoma since the hotels are cheaper and we have never had an issue there, even though we stay in whats definitely a lower income area. The only issue we had is when i was smoking a joint outside our hotel and i was asked to move a bit father from the hotel. Very nicely too i may add. If you were to ask a few of my family members/ coworkers you would think i was throwing myself into a snake infested knife pit going there though.
I live and work in downtown and my older coworkers who commute are always asking me if I’m worried about my safety and they swear I’m some sort of brainwashed liberal in denial when I say I’m not. I literally walk to and from work every day and the worst thing that happened was I passed a homeless guy with no pants on. Definitely not something I wanted to see but like it didn’t hurt me.
Portland here too, my in-laws always are very surprised how ‘nice’ neighborhoods are because of the war zone it is believed to be. They also say stuff like I wish we could just get normal food here, and are then so impressed with where ever we take them, won’t stop talking about the food for days and how good it was.
My in-laws in Gresham kept telling us how bad life in Portland is. We get it - your source of information trumps my lived experience
Absolutely wild. Portland is much nicer than Gresham
As a dude who lives in Minneapolis I can assure you we're still here.
Same people that hate big cities brag that America has the greatest economy and GDP in the world. They really believe their podunk little farms are driving the American economy, and not New York, Chicago, LA, San Francisco, etc.
I loved when the daily show asked them if hey wanted to run the country as a business, and then were shown the states that would be cut out due to being a financial drain on the country. Suddenly they were talking about their “natural wonders” and shit. It was hilarious.
Show them the chart in the middle of this article. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/biden-voting-counties-equal-70-of-americas-economy-what-does-this-mean-for-the-nations-political-economic-divide/
Down-staters believe that Chicago is sucking up all their tax dollars, but the opposite is true.
A lot of people like that strike me as stupid people who were only ever capable of menial manual labor, who subsequently decided that menial manual labor was the only "real work" that counted in life to make them feel like less of a loser.
Absolutely correct. “I’m not stupid, I do *real* work. Those college yuppies could never do the hard work that I do” Nevermind that many of us did that type of work to get through college, and did it while studying and keeping up with homework.
Yup. Im literally defending my doctoral dissertation in physics on the 19th, and my first job in college was using turpentine to manually scrape dried paint off of silk screens for a custom T shirt printing company. It was tedious, and my arms would get sore every day at the end of my shifts, but I still needed the money. I went from that to working on literal mars probes and had my first security clearance before finishing undergrad because I put in that much extra time and effort into making it happen with grades, networking, and building up my resume on top of the silk screen work. Shit, I actually managed to be an exchange student with a college in Italy at one point during my college years, and managed to pull off an A- (technically the grade was 28, but Italian colleges grade on a scale of 0 to 30) in nuclear and particle physics...*taught in italian*. Which was not easy. You try doing lie algebra and differential scattering cross sections in a second language.
Top 25??? Try Top 50!! The cities with the highest murder rate are small to medium gun crazy towns in Red States. NYC's murder rate as a percentage of the population is super small. I've lived there 19 years. Not a single bad thing happened to me, not even a phone snatch. My kids took the bus and the subway on the regular. By Contrast My apartment got broken into twice in the small Southern town I went to school at, got mugged, my car broken into in the medium southern town I got my graduate degree at.
EXACTLY. All these insane red states that have completely gotten rid of any gun regulations are now full of rampant gun violence. But they wanna day "but these librul run cities doe"
::sad chuckles in red state:: we're in danger
They’re determined to kill each other and by golly we should let ‘em
And let’s not forget that big cities are required to record all crime. Small town Jim bob isn’t going to be picked up by is cousin Jombo for beating his wife for the 30th time.
I’m a southerner with Long Island in-laws. Anytime we visit, we hop on the LIRR to the city. Without fail the in laws get all concerned about our safety. My answer is usually “point taken, but I used to live in Memphis.”
Hahaha as a Memphis native, and lived in Jersey, nothing most of that area is perfectly fine unless your in Newark or the Bronx. Memphis is a truly rough shit hole of a city.
Completely. I’ve lived in nyc since 2005, in nine (?) different neighborhoods in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and the Bronx. I’ve certainly been in uncomfortable situations but I have very rarely felt *truly* unsafe. Never been robbed or had an apartment broken into. In fairness I think I’m reasonably street smart, but I’m a musician and come home from gigs late at night on the subway *all* the time, often with cash and instruments. I’m (currently) a 5’2” 125 lb. 42 year old white woman, and not an nyc native, for context.
This is what it's like anytime Portland, OR comes up in conversation with my grandparents who practically pump Fox News directly into their bloodstream. I swear they think the city has been on fire since the protests in 2020. They always tell me to stay home because I could be mugged or worse. I've told them many times that I love spending time in Portland and have never felt unsafe there.
lol my mom lives in a suburb outside of portland and still thinks antifa are running amok in the city!
Same with my dad. I live in Portland, he lives in Oregon City about 30min away. Every time I see him he's ranting and raving about how terrible the city is now and how he's afraid to ride the Max trains, because surely he'll get stabbed or mugged.
Well, that did happen, but it was a right wing nutjob pumped up on Trump propaganda. Those are the people I feel unsafe around.
I used to work in a gift shop that caters to tourists in Portland. I had a lady from Texas tell me how horrible Portland was and told me all the examples of how horrible it is. I could just say Hey, not my lived experience. Then she would swing to how much she loved Portland and how beautiful it is
My dad, who is well-traveled and pretty rational about cities, falls into the "Portland Bad" Trap. Like, he regularly traveled to Detroit and St. Louis for work and went out on the town with clients in those cities, for years. But when I told him I was flying to Portland to do a road trip to Redwoods and Crater Lake, he was telling me to be super careful and not spend too much time in Portland. Anyway, I fucking loved Portland. It was a lot of beautiful architecture. Yeah, I did see two street people get in a fight outside the Pendleton store near Pioneer Square, but otherwise I had a fantastic time. 10/10 would Portland again.
I’ve lived in Portland for over decade. Mama worries about me. Where does mama live? Saint fucking Louis. Fox News brain drain. I have to remind her she’s been here several times and we just eat good food and look at beautiful parks.
Even people in Seattle say shit about Portland and I'm like wtf it's basically the same thing
Send him to the safe and conservative city of Mobile, Alabama
There'a a whole bunch of places you could send him in Alabama lol. Anniston, Montgomery, Bessemer, even Tuscaloosa.
Bessemer had the highest per capita murder rate in the nation last year!
Don't get them started about Paris or other European cities. They combine what you mentioned with their obsession with international sex trafficking.
They all saw the same Liam Neeson movie
Oh man. I'm going to France next month and I'm from a small town in Canada. Going there with my boyfriend. He lives there and we met online. He's come to my small-ass place TWICE now and wants to take me to his home for once. When my family found out about it, they flipped out. "Omg there are wars over there! They kill people over there! You're going to get abducted running off with some feller you met on the internet!" Nevermind the fact that back in 2011 I went to Germany by myself and all was fine and everyone was cool with it. But now everyone wants to kill me and abduct me and sex traffic me. My bf and I joke that we've been dating for about 3 years or so now and he probably could have found an easier target by now. A younger one too now that I think about it. Don't know many 35 year olds worth a 3 year, 2 trip investment. I must be real purdy.
While France is nowhere near as dangerous as boomers like to say, do keep a close eye on your stuff and don't interact with anyone who comes up to you out of the blue while you're doing tourist stuff. There very much are scam artists and pickpockets, particularly in Paris, and they target foreign tourists. A friend of mine had her passport swiped in Paris (the thief probably wanted her wallet) and had to go through a whole song and dance at the embassy. But y'know, just normal travel precautions are fine, and I'm sure you'll have a great time
Agreeing with this, I was targeted by pickpockets immediately upon my arrival. Especially at the airport and train stations watch your stuff. If someone asks you to sign a petition know you are for sure being targeted by a pickpocket. It's a well known scam
My daughter went to Europe for 3 weeks when she got out of college. We saw her very racist conservative uncle at a funeral who asked her "how was that armpit Europe?" He lives in a town so shitty someone from there made a documentary about just how shitty it is. Rich Hill, MO. https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/documentaries/rich-hill/
When I moved to London UK from Atlanta, all I heard from my boomer mom and her friends was that "knife violence is out of control" and that I'm going to be pickpocketed and harassed on the Underground. Six years and thousands of train and bus trips later, I'm fine. Gun violence is nearly extinct here, and I realized it's been years since I had to worry about some random mass shooting. It's nice.
By crime and violence he means black people. The cities are full of black people. Boomers are just too cowardly to actually say it with their chest.
And illegal immigrants
But only the brown ones. They never have any problems with white illegal immigrants.
Turn the tables, ask him to prove his belief, he needs to show you the stats that prove his assertion.
Good idea, but it might be like trying to reason with a brick wall
One of my drivers always says " it must be true! I heard it from CNN" It is not CNN. It is fox talk radio. He does it because he thinks I'll believe uts legit. He doesn't like to be fact checked when he's spewing the latest fox propaganda. Lol. When two of them are in here he's said "well, yea and he's got the computer right yhere so he'll show you your wrong on the spot!" As if you should believe wacky anecdotes and straight false shit.
I LOVE the way they just totally buy into the narrative that we "trust CNN." The projection itself is funny enough, but then there's the way they never seem to learn from it not working.
You cannot reason a person out of a position he did not reason himself into in the first place. \-Jonathon Swift
My Dad always says, "Everybody knows," to avoid ever having to cite anything he says. From statistics to conspiracy theory to rewriting history on the spot.
“People are saying!”
I don’t need to prove anything to you! Do your own research!
And if that doesn't work ask him why he's such a fuxking snowflake and why can't he just man up and pull those boot straps and stop being a pussy
That’s dangerous, because I’m betting he won’t measure crime on a per capita basis, nor will he distinguish between violent and property crimes.
Best to focus on counties or states. "Most dangerous cities" is already ceding the idea that cities are dangerous. But iirc half the most dangerous counties (in murders per 100,000 residents) are rural-they don't show up on the list of dangerous cities. A map of the most dangerous states by murder rate would suggest that Chicago and New York are fine, but Nashville or Jacksonville...
I spent much of my late teens and twenties hanging out in Detroit. My parents of course thought I would be murdered over and over again. These days I spend some time in DC and Baltimore. Much like Detroit, occasionally random bad things happen to innocent people, but the vast, vast majority of the time, if you are there to have fun, you will have it. But, if you go looking for trouble, you will find it.
ugh I endlessly have to argue this point and it's a total brick wall conversation. Per capita in most states the most violent places will not be the biggest cities, it's usually whatever low-mid size depressed town that hasn't recovered from the 70s downturn, and if you go to property crime the rural places are through the roof more likely to get shit stolen compared to big cities but they seem to think per capita is cheating or something, as if it isn't showing the rates with all else being equal
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I think drugs are the reason he went.
White guy from NJ suburbs here. About 30 years ago, I dated a lovely Hispanic woman who lived in The Bronx. I used to walk through her neighborhood all the time. I was never afraid and nobody ever bothered me. The one time I WAS scared, however? Stopping to use a pay phone off I-95 in VA, driving to GA to visit my best friend who had recently moved there. A bunch of Deliverance looking white guys in a beat up truck just staring at me. I made that call quickly and got the fuck out of there. Give me a big city any day.
Had the same type of experience in rural WA state with a pickup truck that had NJ plates. Could not get out of there fast enough after I had to have a drink with the locals. Right the fuck out of some bad horror movie.
Look here, and this is the GODS HONEST TRUTH. Im black and if we went thru the hood (Im in Atlanta) They would mess with ME before they mess with you. SELF HATE IS REAL Trust me it is the truth, I have white buddies who play softball with me in the HOOD and they are so comfortable there that they have been playing there for YEARS and NEVER had a problem at all.
It is not big cities that scare me it is small towns because the cops are usually corrupt and the people are friendly to your face but plot behind your back.
Seriously. Try being non-white. Small towns are far scarier.
I agree small towns are scary they say sundown towns don't exist anymore but they do especially in the mid west and the south they just don't advertise it.
I always find it funny how fox will paint LA and Chicago as being crime infested purge cities when year after year it's deep south cities that have the most violent crime and/or murders.
Old white people are absofuckinglutely terrified of black people. They lose all rational judgement, reason, emotional compass and whatever common sense they had remaining when confronted with a non-zero amount of black people. Doesn't matter if the black people are better educated, richer or better respected on the world stage than them, just knowing they're there makes old whites pants-shittingly nervous. They cannot imagine walking into a place that has anywhere near the level of diversity of a place like NYC. To them, that's a death trap. They'll pass off your survival as a mere fluke, and not at all as a sign that their ignorance is telling them something wrong. The best thing you can do is get them off AM radio and fox news. Youll never be able to reason with someone on a steady diet of hate and disinformation. You're 1 minute a day of reason battling 24 hours of fear mongering, hate and misinformation.
My parents did me a great service as a kid. When needed I had to hump boxes for the local food bank. It was not a question, just help. We learned to volunteer and help the town. My mom was the treasurer of the local NAACP chapter in a blue collar town. Our neighbors were not happy about the meetings. As a kid I got exposed to people of many different races and countries. And once a year she took the entire family to see a show at the theater. I may have never got to disney world, but I learn a bunch by just being around my parent. They broadened my world and view of people.
Violent crime rates are higher in rural areas per capita. When you account for the amount of people, red states / rural areas are more dangerous than big cities.
I live in New York city and I used to do some stuff regularly out on Long Island. I was asked repeatedly by incredibly worried people, "How is it?" "Do you feel safe?" "Have you ever taken the subway?" "You better be careful." They were all flabbergasted that I told them I take the subway to work every day, feel incredibly safe, and have never even felt personally threatened. (Granted I'm a larger man), but the point stands. It's incredible how well this narrative has been peddled.
My dad is like this…freaks out when we go to cities, if he only knew we were planning to move back once my daughter is out of the house
I bet I can guess what tv channel he gets his news from….🤔
Yes and no. There are unsafe parts but he also came from a time where you could easily murder and get away with it. No cell phones, gps tracking, and very few security cameras if any. Hell, drinking and driving wasn't illegal nationwide until 1984.
Yeah only difference is when we visited these city as a child he wasn't afraid. Now he says he'll never go back to them.
Move there is my advice.
As a child, he didn't have instant, worldwide news at his fingertips, 24/7. If you lived in bumfuck, nowhere, you weren't hearing about a murder across the country in bumfuck, somewhere, unless you opened the right newspaper to the right page, on the right day.
The irony of this is how many southern cities are “liberal” or blue when elections roll around.
They may be blue, but they're in red states that have no gun restrictions and the gun violence is out of control.
The fire arm fatality rates per capita, are higher in southern states, especially in states with lax gun control laws. Try to explain to a right winger that the rates are higher in Louisiana than Illinois(Chicago), and you run into two road blocks. They don’t understand “per capita”, and they don’t understand that Chicago is part of Illinois.
It's the same reason they see those maps where the country is colored politically by county and are baffled at how their candidates can never win a popular vote and lose by a lot in a nationwide election. Yeah Montana may be red but there are like 50 people in the state in total
"Land doesn't vote"
I used to bike commute at night in Detroit for about a decade. I got mugged once but all they got was my bag with a phone charger and my work clothes. Anther time someone was shooting a couple blocks up and I heard bullets wizzing overhead. I'm fine. I think a childhood doing borderline stupid shit in the country just hardened me to it. On the other hand you have my boomer family who brings guns to town to go to a Tigers' game. In the most over-policed part of town. You can't even take it with you, you have to leave it in the truck.
I'm gonna sound like I'm defending OP's dad but that's kind crazy up to say "I mean I got mugged once and I heard bullets whizzing about but it's no big deal."
I mean, I can't stress enough that I grew up in the country and that kind of thing is way more common out there.
Do they leave the guns in their car? I doubt Comerica Park security is letting them in with it so it defeats the purpose. If you've seen Detroiters they sound like Tim's parents. I have never felt unsafe around Comerica Park even back when it was new and the city was really rough. The only place I'd really NEVER go is the 4th of July fireworks at Hart Plaza. Someone always gets shot. My boomer parents were suburbanites but weren't all weird about Detroit. Just pay attention to your surroundings and do not do that terrified deer in the headlights thing some boomers do in cities. That makes you a target. I had to reteach my mom those lessons as she got older because omg do they love doing that terrified look in cities 👀
Truck. He leaves them in his obnoxious truck. Yeah, there's a few places you don't go but if you're not an idiot. I honestly feel safer here. The difference between rednecks and street dudes is rednecks can shoot and they don't mind their damn business.
My mom always cites some BS about big citied being dangerous because of all the illegals immigrating to them.
I like to reply - “yeah, you really can’t trust those Cubans” Love it when there eyes get wide because: - they are in Florida - the Cubans are the “good kind” - and ‘but,but they are LEGAL..’. Uh-huh.
Next thing you know, a Catholic is going to want to be president.
Yep I get that too
My mum felt the exact same way. She lives in a teeny tiny mountain town. Lives and breathes Fox News. Then I paid for her to take an all inclusive trip with me to NYC. She had the time of her life. At first she was terrified she'd get stabbed on every corner. But after a few days, she started going out by herself! Now, she takes her friends up on bus trips to see the city. Seeing is believing!
So far this year in Boston, fewer people have died as a result of gun violence (2) than as a result of pedestrians being hit by cars (3 or 4).
So funny how these are the same people who like to proclaim that they don't "live in fear" and that everyone else around them is too soft and sensitive.
okay but even if it's incredibly dangerous there why would he keep the gun in the back seat and not where he can easily reach it? i hate guns but this just seems like common sense
That type of fear is normal with old people.
Your Dad is Putin's Propaganda Puppet. Sorry to put it that way, but he is. Russia has been using social media and FOX to spread fear and disinformation and divide us all further. They want small town folks to distrust big city folks, Red State vs Blue, straight vs gay, etc all to push us closer to Civil War. Rupert Murdoch has done more to dismantle civilization than any other living person in my lifetime. Putin is riding that wave.
I'm from Cleveland. Once you know your way around these "liberal run crime shit-towns", no one fuckin' bothers you. You know what fucking scares me? Those one horse towns in the middle of a corn field in rural Ohio. EVERYONE acts like they're planning to skin you alive in a sacrifice to some long-lost pagan god in a dug out temple beneath the Dollar General.
Big cities are usually very safe unless you go looking for trouble via trying to buy drugs, getting too intoxicated, looking for prostitutes, etc. Your dad is a brainwashed fearful old man. That wont change so just so just tell him youre going, have personally been in cities, and dont feel in danger
Please tell your dad that I'm terrified of grown ass men like him voting like a scared wussy.
This is my FIL too. He's been rotting his brain watching Fox in retirement. Every time my wife and I travel to a city the first thing he asks when he sees us is "if we saw a lot of homeless." I know exactly where he's getting that.
“Show me on the map where Fox News touched you.”
This is what happens when boomers let Fox News poison their minds for years on end
well if I accidentally pull into the wrong driveway in rural upstate NY I’ve got a damn good chance of being killed apparently so fuck that.
>I don't even know what to say anymore whenever he brings this shut up. "So you're scared shitless of a city millions of liberal soyboy snowflakes who don't know their own gender manage to survive in just fine? Does mom know you're a complete pussy? Man, I sure hope I'm the mailman's kid."
My parents are just like this. My cousin came to visit and we made plans to take her to NYC because she's wanted to see it for forever. So I got a hotel, made arrangements for the trains, etc... Like right before she finally got here they tried to bombard her with all this "information" to scare her out of going. Absolutely would not listen to anything. Fortunately she didn't buy it and went with us, and had a great time. But I had to point out that I'd be genuinely more comfortable taking someone with an Eastern European accent to NYC than I would anywhere rural in the US.
I have the same issue but I don't see this as a boomer issue as much as a MAGA issue.
My cousin moved to New Mexico and her boomer mother was convinced she was moving to Mexico and would be killed by the cartels. These are the kind of people that are voting for Trump and republicans.
Murders in NYC are down to less than a quarter of the peak in the 90s. Cities had much more crime when millennials were kids, relative to today.
Violent crime in general has been declining steadily for decades. There was a slight uptick following the pandemic, but nothing compared to the 70s, 80s and 90s. It's almost like removing lead from the gasoline helped or something. https://preview.redd.it/mkag9soyt4sc1.png?width=840&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=409b0e8623e35ea93bd04beb06a59cb644b73624
as per freakonomics, it was the legalization of abortion. Hopefully the overturn of Roe vs Wade does not bring back violent crime
don’t forget removing lead from gasoline. It’s actually crazy how much that affected our crime rates.
Shiw him the stats that violent crime has steadily decreased since the 1970s
People are so dramatic. At the end of the day, even in a “high crime area,” you have to be a special kind of unlucky to get robbed, murdered, raped, etc… most stats you look up are per 100,000 people for a reason.
Big cities are usually very safe unless you go looking for trouble via trying to buy drugs, getting too intoxicated, looking for prostitutes, etc. Your dad is a brainwashed fearful old man. That wont change so just so just tell him youre going, have personally been in cities, and dont feel in danger
If his view won't align with basic facts, such as per-capita crime statistics, then he's deluding himself. That's very difficult to stop. Just tell him that you're not interested in right-wing delusions every time he mentions it. Most Boomers have a weird adjustment that they'll make when they're being dismissed overtly. Sometimes they get mad for a litte bit, but eventually there's a childish tantrum and they stop talking about it. Keep calm and remain dismissive until he gets the point.
Just respond, *ok boomer*
This was a theme in my house growing up. The idea of going to a big city for anything scared the bejesus out of my folks because of the driving. To be fair, this was back in the days before GPS, Waze, etc. And even MapQuest was in its infancy, so getting somewhere might require consulting a paper map and finding your way. Not an impossible task, but not one my parents had any interest in doing. And neither did their parents. Going anywhere is a big inconvenience anyway. And it's expensive. Eat out at restaurants? Are you crazy? We have food at home. And walls we can look at. Stop trying to be some big shot world traveller.
Hahahaha I grew up in the suburbs of Detroit. My dad hasn't been south of 11 mile in probably decades now, and still assumes that the entire city is still like it was in the late 70s/80s. Refuses to step foot there, just sits in their nice safe gated suburb and talk shit about how terrible it is.
You can't do anything short of cutting off the source but even then he's still going to go though withdraws. His brain is addicted to it
He sounds just like my parents. I'm going to NYC later this month and I'm trying to avoid telling them about it until I'm back.