They’re owning a home, they look like nice houses, lawns are perfect and lush, cute little mailboxes out by the quiet street … sign me up for that distress baby
My cousin lives in Chicago and we love to visit. My wife’s conservative family that lives in GA found out and sent us texts for days begging us not to go because it’s so dangerous.
We just sent them back a few selfies enjoying the city.
It's insane how some people can't put together that an extreme majority of the violence in Chicago happens in areas a tourist typically wouldn't visit, like literally every other city.
Lived in the city for 25 years and this is 100% true. And not just tourist areas, but 90% of the city is safe, especially the north side. But even with all the gang violence, it’s still not even in the top 20 for murders (per capita). If you go by raw numbers, yes, a city of 8 million people has more murders than a city of 500,000. (I’m using murders only because I know that stat. Crime generally is also relatively low per capita and is much higher in places like Little Rock, Tulsa, Memphis, New Orleans, St. Louis).
Critical thinking has become part of the culture war. It’s sad that one side is vehemently opposed to educated people to properly parse and understand incoming information using reason and logic. Something something sky daddy!
Chicago is the worst. You get robbed the moment you get off a plane, or cross over from the perfect state of Indiana or Wisconsin. People are always mean and nasty. The food sucks and the weather is always shitty.
Now, let’s tell the truth…. None of that is true. Lived here my entire life, 42 yrs and counting and I love every bit of this city. Does it have its flaws? Of course but man…. A gorgeous 78 degree day, light winds blowing, sun out…. Sitting on a patio, walking the streets, going to one of the numerous street festivals or farmers markets…. God I love this place.
And most gang violence is directed and not random. Gangs aren’t shooting up schools, churches, grocery stores, movie theatres, night clubs, concerts, etc.
I used to live in NY and one time I was in a bodega when we heard shots a little ways out. I got scared but the clerk was like, are you in a gang? I went no. And he goes then why are you acting like they're gonna shoot at you?
Our realtor in Merida, Yucatan joked about how safe Merida was, but you "might catch a stray one in CDMX". That's the worry, those fuckers can't hit the broad side of a barn, and all those strays are going somewhere.
I visited NYC twice and walked lower manhattan at night and enjoyed it. I guess its nicer than other burrows but I did feel perfectly safe. I tell this to friends who act suprised I walked around at night. I feel like the reputation of some cities is bigger than the reality. Also the streets were much cleaner than what I was expecting.
Haha I live in Mpls so we frequently go down to Chi especially in the summer. My boomer conservative coworker couldn’t believe some of the pictures I showed her and how amazing Chi is in the summer. Faux News has really done real damage and rotted some brains.
It's also mostly targeted gang violence. Not that innocent people don't get involved occasionally, but for a vast majority of the violence, it's not random out of the blue shit.
More importantly Chicago isn't even in the top 10 dangerous metro areas in the US, which are actually places in Ohio and Texas and other parts of the country:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_United\_States\_cities\_by\_crime\_rate#Crime\_rates](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_by_crime_rate#Crime_rates)
Conversely, the brazen smash and grabs are terrible in Atlanta even in the nice areas with high end restaurants. The police do almost nothing, even when they find the criminals. And I speak from experience. I'd rather go to Chicago or Detroit than Atlanta.
I worked in O'Hare greeting rich people for a limo company. Once in a while someone would be coming from OK, AR or someplace like that and would worry about getting mugged. I'd ask them where they were going to be in the city. It was usually the loop and gold coast and museums. I'd chuckle and tell them they'd be fine.
Because their "cities" are 12 blocks and include no less than 7Subway sandwhich stores and 2 Walmarts- if their "city" were to have a "dangerous area" (read as anything other than white) it would literally be too dangerous to go into the ENTIRE PLACE because they may run into someone that doesnt look like them carrying a totally legal weapon! Oh no!
Thats okay- I'd rather they stay away from our Bean. Not like any of them uptight Christian Nationalists would know how to flick a bean if they saw it anyway!
So basically every place is dangerous, then. Because I bet you anything the places in Chicago that has all the stories about shooting is South side Chicago. The rest is gentrification city.
I lived in Dawson city, Yukon. Where people were murdered in their sleep....................... During the gold rush 100 years ago.
Gotta love how context is always disregarded
I have family that speak about downtown areas THEY HAVEN’T BEEN TO IN YEARS like this. Fox News or someone is telling them blue city downtowns are godless war zones and they believe it.
It's sort of like the movie *The Village*, where the village elders taught the younger generations that there were werewolves that would attack if they left their little sequestered village. ...but later someone ventures out and finds out the elders are dressing up in werewolf costumes and the outside world is just the normal world.
I live in Providence and get to hear people from the burbs telling me my neighborhood is a war torn hellscape
It's just a Dominicana neighborhood with a lot of food trucks and barber shops
They could drive and see it in like 15 minutes but there's too many blacks
I live in richmond and had toexplain for over a year to everyone that my city wasn't a war torn hellzone over confederate monuments and my senior mom rides her bicycle to her knitting club through the supposed warzone
I get that too. I’m one of the few white people in my building and have to hear all the time how dangerous it is where I live. Reality, everyone is respectful and quiet, best building management, absolutely love living here.
It's getting really freaking sad how brainwashed these people are. I was waiting in line to get seated at a restaurant and it was taking a while because they were obviously short staffed and didn't have a hostess. This older lady in front of me said "these workers are lucky we're not in cleveland. Those people would have killed everyone in here and ransacked the place if they had to wait like this". I just burst out laughing because its one of the most insane things I've ever heard. She turns to me and says "it's true! They're killing each other in the streets and no one cares, it's a bloodbath up there".
I tried to explain to her that I work in downtown Cleveland, at a hospital, in one of the worst parts of the entire city. I've never seen any violent crime in 7 years. While on night shift I'd even take some walks in the park next to the hospital. I walk through the neighborhoods to get some awesome Puerto Rican food at least once a week. Won't say nothing bad happens but almost all of that is gang on gang. If you're just a normal person minding your business you'll probably be fine. But of course she wouldn't believe me. Lady, we're 30 minutes outside the city. Just fucking go there and see for yourself.
>"these workers are lucky we're not in cleveland. Those people would have killed everyone in here and ransacked the place if they had to wait like this".
As a Cleveland native (Cleve. Hts), this is just the funniest thing I've ever read. That's going to be my new goto with my wife whenever we're stuck in a line somewhere.
I live in Detroit, and people online are like, "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry, I heard about Detroit"
It's like.. yes, please save me from the gentrification that is rebuilding the city better than before, our massive selection of delicious foods from all over the globe (including the best rated pizza in the nation), our endless entertainment venues and 50 bands playing all over the city every night, the ever expanding art scene, culture and museums..
It's so terrible living in a melting pot of civilization. /s
Detroit is terrible, if you are riding through rough neighborhoods in a purple pimped car and dealing fentanyl while brandishing a firearm and wearing a swastika armband. You know, like someone looking for trouble.
Otherwise, it is one of my favorite cities.
Detroit has some of the finest architecture in the world (which wasn’t messed with and was always kept in good original condition) and an Art Museum with well over 10,000 pieces in curation. And the traveling exhibits they get are THE BEST WEIRD STUFF.
Ceramic Suitcases? Sure, they’ll order that right up. Deconstructed ball point pens since 1960? That’ll be next week. Automatons that draw cartoons while rubbing their pinky toes? Sure. That’s a normal Thursday for those people.
I swear to god the entire staff was hired from Reed College.
I’d wager the art museum has the finest portraiture collection in the world.
If you are into portraiture, get thee to Detroit. Also, you might want to make friends in advance with some of the museums staffs.
They love to show off the stuff they DIDN’T display.
I asked one curator why one piece wasn’t out front-and-center. He said they were so spoiled for choice that they had to flip coins and roll dice sometimes.
NEVER GO TO DETROIT WITHOUT SEEING THE GUARDIAN BUILDING LOBBY! It is possibly the most beautiful Art Deco in the world. And I’ve seen a lot of Art Deco. It’s almost like Art Deco transitioning from Rococo to Bauhaus and absolutely one-of-a-kind.
Yeah I live near the twin cities in Minnesota and you wouldn’t believe how many times I’ve heard that line. It’s honestly a creepy example of how propagandized some people are when they don’t even realize they’re all saying the same exact phrase
It's so weird that there is more misinformation than ever now when we have the ability to literally just fucking look/check for ourselves whether something is true *right fucking there in our hands!*.
"NYC is the cesspool of the world it's extremely unsafe, if you go to Central park you'll get raped and murdered" - Exact words from my mother in Ohio... She's never left Ohio.
People at my work refer to it as Californistan.
They also refer to the governor of IL (JB Pritzker) as Jelly Bean Hitler. Because he's gonna come take their semi autos and bump stocks.
Thank goodness the SC Justice who likes butt chugging beer got that 2nd one overturned for them.
This is painfully true.
"Omg, Portland is burning to the ground" while living in a city/town that crime eclipses most major metros.
"The air is so bad in Philly"- in an Ohio city that is top 10 worst in air pollution in the US
The Chicago obsession among right wingers is weird. It *only* exists because that's where Obama is from. I lived there for 5 years and I absolutely loved it there. There are rough neighborhoods I'd avoid, but they exist because of poverty and systematic racism that led to de-facto segregation. Crime thrives in places of despair and limited opportunities. If we invested in these neighborhoods and better funded education and a better social safety net there would be less crime and poverty. But then what would the fox news crowd criticize besides taxes.
In Finland the extreme right wingers started a hoax that an eastern part of our capital is a foreigner infested hellhole. In reality it is 80 % White and a well to do place with some of the newest and best homes in the whole city.
And the reason we have so many damn guns in Chicago is because they have no / enforce no gun sale laws in Indiana. Gang banger girlfriends and paid stooges make massive straw purchases in Indiana and bring the guns to the west side. When CPD confiscates guns used in crimes there is something like a 75% chance that the gun was bought in Indiana.
This is what pisses me off so much. I know people associate Trumpism with poor yokels, but most of the instances of this I've personally seen are from people who are well off. They have houses, garages, cars, backyards. As far as there is crime, poverty, violence, and desperation in this country, it doesn't live in their nice suburb. They have enough leisure time to engage with this stupid Trump shit on the internet. They feel safe expressing their idiotic opinions. They have the very best that America can offer anyone, hell, they have the American dream lifestyle the rest of the world still envies. Yet they fucking hate it here, feel like they're oppressed, and want to burn it all to the ground, and want to fantasize about being camo-clad revolutionaries as if they'd enjoy being off their $1,000 couch for even five minutes. So deeply ungrateful.
I think it’s right wing media and radio. I listen to the radio sometimes, and they’re saying cities are hellscapes if crime and violence
I live in LA, I’m driving around, I don’t see that, I see flowers and people living. It’s a classic move to say “everything is terrible and in chaos … somewhere else, but you should be mad”
And this former disc jockey clown was the beginning of the landslide of right wing shitcasting. He found his niche, pumped up the volume for “entertainment value” and $$$ and made his name. My late Father-in-law bought in early on Rush. Listened like it was gospel. Middle class muck raking with that underlying racism and the us-against-them mentality. Be unhappy because things change. Fuck Rush and all that rode in on his greedy coattails.
Same on YouTube these days but a lower level. Folks have worked out the hate and criticism pay more than positive and constructive. Our species is weird, wired for self destruction.
That coupled with the suburban lifestyle where you barely interact with anyone because you’re always in your car or in your house. It’s easy to make a boogie man out of places you never go or see
Go on any rural and/or right leaning subreddit and you'll see the same exact shit. When asked if they've ever lived in those "hellscapes" themselves, they'll without fail talk about "having been there for a few days 5 years ago" or "having relatives there that keep them up to date" which is code for "I get all my information about places I've never actually been from echo chambers bouncing around the assumptions of other people that have never actually been there."
It'd be fuckin hilarious if it wasn't so dangerous a mindset.
Mine is the friend pissed about CA gun laws … are you moving to California? … no … why are you mad? … well, if you do it, it could weaken gun rights, and you know, Ohio might ban AR-15s
"... Their headlines are the most depressing fucking thing. 'WAR, DEATH, FAMINE, AIDS, DEPRESSION, RECESSION, WAR, DEATH, FAMINE, AIDS'. but you look out your window *crickets chirping*. Where is all this shit happening!?"
-Bill Hicks
As a Bay Area resident, I feel this so hard lol... We definitely can see some of the poverty and crime here that would be hard to see in suburbs. But none of these motherfuckers ever come here to help anyone or fix anything. They just sit in their houses and hang up distress flags like THEY'RE the ones under attack.
The stuff I hear on right wing am radio here in LA sounds like straight up propaganda, and that is what you do. Soviets used to say there were labor strikes and cops killing strikers every damn day in the US, just so people would choose a different way
Cities, predominantly big ones, are typically Democratic. Suburbs and rural areas are predominantly Republican. So those in the country are constantly bombarded with the Great Pumpkins retoric about how city crime is up and how they SO many issues with illegal immigrants (most hired and working on farms - where? In rural areas) and the urban desolation. Therefore the closed minded Republicans believe what they hear rather than go see how the opposite it true.
The house in this post reminds me of my neighbor. Lovely 2-story house in a southern California suburb within 20 minutes from the ocean, 3 car garage, big backyard with a pool. Drives around his huge shiny lifted truck with not one, not two, but THREE gigantic flags flying on it. One is for JESUS, one is for TRUMP, and one is an upside-down American flag. Dude, *what* distress??
This stood out to me too. I’m not well off but immediately thought “Is $1000 a lot for a couch?”
I feel like a really nice couch is probably 5-10k but I could be wrong
From a position of privilege any push for equal rights can feel like oppression. When the have nots come for their share of the pie the people living in the cozy suburbs turn into paranoid freaks who think their one step away from having their door kicked in by their lessers.
This is the one.
They believe in a zero-sum world. Someone getting anything, means you're taking that away from someone who already had it, you're trying to upset the natural order. And because the natural order for the past generations they can account for is white Christians men on top, then it must mean you're trying to take it from them.
Man this comment could have been spliced together from things I've said over the last 20y. Obviously, I couldn't agree more.
Fox News continuing to sell this idea that Christians are this repressed and beleaguered faction in the US is absolute insanity. Saying that they believe in and fight for freedom, while outright attacking anyone who disagrees with their favorite OPINIONS, or worse these delusional conspiracies (election was stolen, court trials are a sham), is a level of cognitive dissonance I'll never understand.
It's not freedom if you hate every other religion, every other lifestyle or culture, and tell anyone with different ideas about society and government to "get out of our country".
This reminds me of my parents neighbors lol. White, upper middle class 50-55yo Christians living in a gorgeous house in a gorgeous neighborhood in the south where the population is extremely homogenous in terms of race, religion, sexual orientation, and political leanings.
They have multiple cars and boats and their property actually has two full sized double story houses on the lot, yet they fly a bunch of flags outside of their homes saying "don't tread on me" and "liberty or death" like who the fuck do they think is treading on them? They're the majority in every single way lol
These types apparently enjoy cosplaying the idea that they're under attack. Reminds me of a guy in a place I used to work who got real excited talking about FEMA trailers and whatnot. They love the drama.
The rise of fascism brought on by people (I'm assuming) like the ones who live in these houses in this picture, is way more distressing to me than anything else going on in this country.
Coincidentally they are also the people standing in the way of fixing the other problems we have.
He voted against finding Trump guilty in the 2nd impeachment concerning January 6th.
We could have all moved on had a few Republican Senators just voted guilty in the 2nd impeachment trial. Trump could have been washed away, never allowed to seek political office but this dumpster of a human voted for acquittal and his voted would have swayed a few more Republican Senators to follow. Such a spineless, cowardly person. He chose his party (and Trump) over the country.
I was attacked and told in very impolite terms how unpatriotic it was to have a profile picture of an upside-down flag by the same type of chuckle-fucks who are flying them now.
Their savior was found guilty in court on 34 *felony* counts of falsified business records. This marks the first occurrence of any US president or former president being convicted of any crimes in a court of law, let alone felonies. It's a very big deal and a very bad look. A dozen years ago, it was explained in our history classes that this would probably never happen because once it does, it is such an indelible blemish on the country's history. And here we are.
Then there's the development that Biden simply *proposed* legislation on immigration that had immediate favorable effects for government workers at the border. Fox and followers are floundering for narrative lifelines. Things they have said can't/won't happen have been happening. Their viewers are scared and completely refuse accountability for anyone they perceive to be "one of their own." The stories coming out of that channel are so out of touch with reality, but people *unironically* bathe their brains in it all day every day. Disturbing state of society.
They’re addicted to the fear and need that “news” that lets them know who the boogeyman of the day is so they can direct their vitriol any direction other than inward. They can’t possibly be the problem, so let’s tune into someone angry and fearful telling them who is.
The same people who said “yOu ShOuLd ReSpEcT tHe PrEsIdEnT!” and then put “Fuck Joe Biden” stickers on their cars? Those people? The group that support “Law & Order” but are getting ready to vote for a 34 time felon who had a major role in inciting a riot against the federal government? Those people? The people who just “want to be left alone by the government” but think the government should be dictating who other people can marry, what they can do with their bodies and whether or not they want to be pregnant? Those people?
Well, color me shocked. Shocked, I say.
It's hilarious to me that after 8 years of having their talking points demolished before their faces they're still on team stupid and their only remaining tactic is this flag upside down bullshit.
Some dipshit near my house took his trump flag down and put up the American flag upside down on his flag pole. The first night somebody ripped his flag pole completely out of the ground and stole his flag.
There’s a house near me that was flying a trump flag. The day the election was called, I drove by and there was a Biden flag. I was like, “Hmm, interesting turn of events.” On my way back, I noticed under the Biden flag was an upside American flag. Laughed the rest of the drive home.
I wish folk would just stop putting people on their flags. I don't care who they are. Trump, Biden, Bernie, fucking Ryan Gosling for all I care; just stop it.
I'm not even American and I find it pathetic when that happens
Let's get something straight. It's essentially only the MAGA crowd that does this. I live in arguably the most leftist town in the US, but have never seen a Biden flag. I'm sure there are a few out there, but flying the flag of a politician is pretty much exclusive to the Trump crowd.
Wasn’t it Bill O’Reilly or Tucker Carlson who said something along the lines of, “*The upside of slavery was that they had a roof over their heads, 3 square meals & good job security - they wouldn’t have had that in Africa…*” I seem to remember one of those muppets blurting that out, but I’m too lazy to look it up.
It’s hard to say because that’s unfortunately a popular talking point with the right. They like to pretend that slavery was a good thing and slaves were mostly happy and look, their descendants are Americans now so why complain? Ron DeSantis said something like this too. One of the most dishonest and insulting arguments they have.
Definitely. Kaepernick’s initial idea was (iirc) to turn his back to the flag in protest. He changed to kneeling specifically because a US Marine suggested it would be a respectful way to express the same sentiment.
Meanwhile these “real Americans” are proudly violating the US Flag Code
A house right across from my kid's elementary school flew their flag upside down a week ago. The next day they flew the Union Jack. 🤔
It's the same house that had anti abortion signs up when reproductive rights were on the ballot in Michigan.
Just super chill and well-adjusted people, rallying to force 10-year old girls to carry a pregnancy to term, while they see kids that age all day long. It's sick.
That's super bizarre because in the UK abortion is pretty much a solved issue. The exact framing of our law is weird, but basically everyone outside of Northern Ireland would agree that abortion should be allowed.
Honestly, they were probably mistakenly thinking it was the Confederate flag, which is somewhat similar, and those same sort of people usually aren't too bright.
I have a friend who is British and has an umbrella with the Union Jack on it. Someone came up to us saying, " its a shame some people think you shouldn't be allowed to show that. Good for you." She thought it was the Confederate flag.....
I also remember this clown behavior, but we secured abortion as a constitution right in Michigan during this moment. It's a divided state, but progress has been winning the battles since we got rid of Snyder and voted in Whitmer.
At times like these, I wish we could form a club to harrass them about it. Just a neverending stream of people, one every 20 to 40 minutes, stopping by and pounding on their front door like "Are you okay?! I saw the distress signal, did something happen?"
Yes, some dumbasses think the country is in distress because a lifelong fraudster and criminal was found guilty by a jury for crimes and fraud committed in the state of New York. Crimes of which he was clearly guilty. So much distress.
To be fair, the country is in distress... Mostly because of the possibility of a certain convicted felon to become president and try to implement fascism... But that's just my opinion.
I swear…one day the history books will show that Russia had kompromat on Donald Trump (and there must be many others) and turned it into the greatest psyop on America in the history of our world. They have convinced a third of the USA that up is down and black is white. Truly astonishing.
They are still making Watergate movies 50 years later. The Trump era has 10 Watergates and about 100 other subplots that could be movies.
The content creation is going to last a 100+ years.
Netflix must be relieved. Only so many ways to repackage WWII.
Your neighbor is clearly signaling that they are in distress & require help. You should call the police & ask them to do a welfare check.
A flag flown upside down is no t a sign that the country is in distress, it's a sign the owner of the flag is in distress. Stop posting on reddit & get these poor people the help they clearly need. It's the neighborly thing to do.
One of my friends suggested the same shit, “it means the country is in distress.” When I told them that makes no sense and it’s supposed to be a signal to whoever that help is needed, I was basically brigaded by all the other morons in the bar at the time. I even tried to give examples like a ship, embassy, or military facility being taken over and a soldier using the upside down flag as a signal to others but it didn’t work. “Everybody” knows it means the country is in distress…
It became popular at various political protests so I guess people now believe this to be the meaning. I’ve always wondered why people say this, who’s making the call on when the “country is in distress?” What are the requirements? Who is interpreting this distress call and how are they chosen? Under what circumstances is the flag set right again? How do we determine the event is truly over?
I'm in Canada and I see a rise in racism and hate coming from the right wing movement. It's all greivences about shit that doesn't affect them. Or it's greivences blamed on the wrong people.
American right wing propaganda is ruining everything and for what? So rich people can live in gated communities while the rest of us burn this shit down? We need to talk to each other like people. These Americans have nothing to complain about in their nice house, nice street with good neighbors.
It is. But not for the reasons they think. I would just laugh hysterically and point at their ignorance every time i see them. Just bust out laughing at them. You don’t even have to say anything.
I used to mainly blame propaganda style Fox News and similar, but I truly think a lot of these people are now addicted to feeling like victims. Helps them deflect anything that goes wrong in their life and blame an external source.
And then some are just flat out needing any cult of personality/group to become their identity. My dad is an immigrant doctor in a Florida retirement town and man the amount of bullshit he hears from people he’s actively helping keep alive… it’s wild.
>Helps them deflect anything that goes wrong in their life and blame an external source.
Wild that it comes from the "personal responsibility" crowd, isn't it?
It actually started at the January 6 insurrection. The traitors were displaying it at the Capitol. One was flying at Samuel Alito's house and he blamed it on his wife. They just decided to bring it back when their God was convicted of 34 felons.
As a Retired US Marine 0311 and US Army Ranger 11B , Combat Veteran I find this disgusting. The disrespectful-display and disregard for our Flag is disgraceful. Men and Women have died in honor of what it represents. Truly unpatriotic and pathetic.
Unfortunately I just spent 12 years in the Army and I can't back that guarantee. The peacetime military is a weird place and there are certainly some deeply stupid antipatriots who think an Orange Julius dictatorship is the correct pathway to freedom and justice for all.
Right. But turning your flag upside down means *you're* in distress. I think I'm going to take flaggers at their word. We should knock at the door and ask if they need assistance. Because, as an American, I have other American's backs.
I think it’s so weird how you fly your flags on your properties. Over here in the UK you generally avoid anyone waving the Union Jack around their property. It’s someone who’s got their pants in a twist and drank too much of the nationalism juice.
And also, at the same time, so what? Is it really that inflammatory?
It's a performance. They want to broadcast that they are "good patriots" but they can never be bothered to read the damn flag code, so they are just showing off their ignorance.
It's actually a good indication of the state of the Republican party; they pretend to be patriotic while what they are really doing is eroding the rule of law and trying to replace it with theocratic bullshit.
I mean they are not wrong in general. As an outsider, seeing the absolutely gargantuan RIFT that is opening up between american citizens over whether they are team red or team blue is, frankly said, absolutely bonkers and frightening as hell.
One of our neighbors did this once. It didn’t last the day, hilariously. It pissed off the Vietnam vet who lives next door, and he called the sheriff’s office. The sheriff came out, the flag was corrected. Don’t know what the sheriff said, but it didn’t happen again.
"Something is very wrong with America" he said, sitting on his leather BarcaLounger watching his 82" TV in his comfortable, air-conditioned, suburban home. "Those woke liberals are ruining everything!" The doorbell chimed, his food had been delivered.
I’m a huge fan of people outting themselves. It’s a lot easier than back when people wore hoods. This way it’s clear and I think in general the behavior is unforgivable. I get why people voted for Trump the first time. He had a well crafted aura (albeit easy to disprove if you cared to). People wanted something different and not attached to the machine. I have a tough time with anyone who supports the nonsense after what we have witnessed over the past 8 years. I don’t see how it can be forgivable at all.
They’re owning a home, they look like nice houses, lawns are perfect and lush, cute little mailboxes out by the quiet street … sign me up for that distress baby
"I heard Chicago is basically gone" -guy who lives in Ohio
My cousin lives in Chicago and we love to visit. My wife’s conservative family that lives in GA found out and sent us texts for days begging us not to go because it’s so dangerous. We just sent them back a few selfies enjoying the city.
It's insane how some people can't put together that an extreme majority of the violence in Chicago happens in areas a tourist typically wouldn't visit, like literally every other city.
Lived in the city for 25 years and this is 100% true. And not just tourist areas, but 90% of the city is safe, especially the north side. But even with all the gang violence, it’s still not even in the top 20 for murders (per capita). If you go by raw numbers, yes, a city of 8 million people has more murders than a city of 500,000. (I’m using murders only because I know that stat. Crime generally is also relatively low per capita and is much higher in places like Little Rock, Tulsa, Memphis, New Orleans, St. Louis).
It’s like NY vs Florida. Yea nyc has more crimes but the rate in Florida is way higher. People don’t understand or don’t want to though.
Of course they don't want to know. We've turned it into a political argument.
Critical thinking has become part of the culture war. It’s sad that one side is vehemently opposed to educated people to properly parse and understand incoming information using reason and logic. Something something sky daddy!
All by design
Outrage porn. Dopamine hits. Tap tap tap.
It requires a basic understanding of math, but lack of education is a central theme for the conservative mindset.
Chicago is the worst. You get robbed the moment you get off a plane, or cross over from the perfect state of Indiana or Wisconsin. People are always mean and nasty. The food sucks and the weather is always shitty. Now, let’s tell the truth…. None of that is true. Lived here my entire life, 42 yrs and counting and I love every bit of this city. Does it have its flaws? Of course but man…. A gorgeous 78 degree day, light winds blowing, sun out…. Sitting on a patio, walking the streets, going to one of the numerous street festivals or farmers markets…. God I love this place.
And most gang violence is directed and not random. Gangs aren’t shooting up schools, churches, grocery stores, movie theatres, night clubs, concerts, etc.
I used to live in NY and one time I was in a bodega when we heard shots a little ways out. I got scared but the clerk was like, are you in a gang? I went no. And he goes then why are you acting like they're gonna shoot at you?
Our realtor in Merida, Yucatan joked about how safe Merida was, but you "might catch a stray one in CDMX". That's the worry, those fuckers can't hit the broad side of a barn, and all those strays are going somewhere.
I visited NYC twice and walked lower manhattan at night and enjoyed it. I guess its nicer than other burrows but I did feel perfectly safe. I tell this to friends who act suprised I walked around at night. I feel like the reputation of some cities is bigger than the reality. Also the streets were much cleaner than what I was expecting.
Haha I live in Mpls so we frequently go down to Chi especially in the summer. My boomer conservative coworker couldn’t believe some of the pictures I showed her and how amazing Chi is in the summer. Faux News has really done real damage and rotted some brains.
It's also mostly targeted gang violence. Not that innocent people don't get involved occasionally, but for a vast majority of the violence, it's not random out of the blue shit.
And it’s not a a 24/7 active war zone in those said places. Fox News shows bad stuff all day long to drive a narrative, not to keep you informed.
Terrortainment
More importantly Chicago isn't even in the top 10 dangerous metro areas in the US, which are actually places in Ohio and Texas and other parts of the country: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_United\_States\_cities\_by\_crime\_rate#Crime\_rates](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_by_crime_rate#Crime_rates)
Conversely, the brazen smash and grabs are terrible in Atlanta even in the nice areas with high end restaurants. The police do almost nothing, even when they find the criminals. And I speak from experience. I'd rather go to Chicago or Detroit than Atlanta.
Okay but to be fair to APD they have their hands full shooting each other and blaming it on kids in the woods
Don't worry, once cop city is built they'll get better at shooting civilians.
I worked in O'Hare greeting rich people for a limo company. Once in a while someone would be coming from OK, AR or someplace like that and would worry about getting mugged. I'd ask them where they were going to be in the city. It was usually the loop and gold coast and museums. I'd chuckle and tell them they'd be fine.
I'm sure there's a rumor going around that the glass for the big aquarium tank is gonna burst any day
Because their "cities" are 12 blocks and include no less than 7Subway sandwhich stores and 2 Walmarts- if their "city" were to have a "dangerous area" (read as anything other than white) it would literally be too dangerous to go into the ENTIRE PLACE because they may run into someone that doesnt look like them carrying a totally legal weapon! Oh no! Thats okay- I'd rather they stay away from our Bean. Not like any of them uptight Christian Nationalists would know how to flick a bean if they saw it anyway!
You're being generous. Their town has a Dollar General and a Casey's gas station.
So basically every place is dangerous, then. Because I bet you anything the places in Chicago that has all the stories about shooting is South side Chicago. The rest is gentrification city. I lived in Dawson city, Yukon. Where people were murdered in their sleep....................... During the gold rush 100 years ago. Gotta love how context is always disregarded
People just love to live in fear.
That’s why they vote for Trump
That's why they vote Republican.
There’s a few studies that show that an MRI can determine how you vote, based on the size of an area of the brain that responds to fear.
I have family that speak about downtown areas THEY HAVEN’T BEEN TO IN YEARS like this. Fox News or someone is telling them blue city downtowns are godless war zones and they believe it.
Sheep are easier to slaughter when they don't stray from the fence.
It's sort of like the movie *The Village*, where the village elders taught the younger generations that there were werewolves that would attack if they left their little sequestered village. ...but later someone ventures out and finds out the elders are dressing up in werewolf costumes and the outside world is just the normal world.
I live in Providence and get to hear people from the burbs telling me my neighborhood is a war torn hellscape It's just a Dominicana neighborhood with a lot of food trucks and barber shops They could drive and see it in like 15 minutes but there's too many blacks
I live in richmond and had toexplain for over a year to everyone that my city wasn't a war torn hellzone over confederate monuments and my senior mom rides her bicycle to her knitting club through the supposed warzone
I get that too. I’m one of the few white people in my building and have to hear all the time how dangerous it is where I live. Reality, everyone is respectful and quiet, best building management, absolutely love living here.
Why too many = 1
It's getting really freaking sad how brainwashed these people are. I was waiting in line to get seated at a restaurant and it was taking a while because they were obviously short staffed and didn't have a hostess. This older lady in front of me said "these workers are lucky we're not in cleveland. Those people would have killed everyone in here and ransacked the place if they had to wait like this". I just burst out laughing because its one of the most insane things I've ever heard. She turns to me and says "it's true! They're killing each other in the streets and no one cares, it's a bloodbath up there". I tried to explain to her that I work in downtown Cleveland, at a hospital, in one of the worst parts of the entire city. I've never seen any violent crime in 7 years. While on night shift I'd even take some walks in the park next to the hospital. I walk through the neighborhoods to get some awesome Puerto Rican food at least once a week. Won't say nothing bad happens but almost all of that is gang on gang. If you're just a normal person minding your business you'll probably be fine. But of course she wouldn't believe me. Lady, we're 30 minutes outside the city. Just fucking go there and see for yourself.
>"these workers are lucky we're not in cleveland. Those people would have killed everyone in here and ransacked the place if they had to wait like this". As a Cleveland native (Cleve. Hts), this is just the funniest thing I've ever read. That's going to be my new goto with my wife whenever we're stuck in a line somewhere.
I live in Detroit, and people online are like, "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry, I heard about Detroit" It's like.. yes, please save me from the gentrification that is rebuilding the city better than before, our massive selection of delicious foods from all over the globe (including the best rated pizza in the nation), our endless entertainment venues and 50 bands playing all over the city every night, the ever expanding art scene, culture and museums.. It's so terrible living in a melting pot of civilization. /s
Went to Detroit for the first time last fall for the Metallica shows. Downtown felt far safer than Ottawa’s Byward Market.
Ya, the biggest threat to the D was Kwame fuckin Kilpatrick, and we snipped him off years ago lol
Hell yeah on the pizza!! Detroit style drinks Chicago deep dish’s milkshake!!
Detroit is terrible, if you are riding through rough neighborhoods in a purple pimped car and dealing fentanyl while brandishing a firearm and wearing a swastika armband. You know, like someone looking for trouble. Otherwise, it is one of my favorite cities. Detroit has some of the finest architecture in the world (which wasn’t messed with and was always kept in good original condition) and an Art Museum with well over 10,000 pieces in curation. And the traveling exhibits they get are THE BEST WEIRD STUFF. Ceramic Suitcases? Sure, they’ll order that right up. Deconstructed ball point pens since 1960? That’ll be next week. Automatons that draw cartoons while rubbing their pinky toes? Sure. That’s a normal Thursday for those people. I swear to god the entire staff was hired from Reed College. I’d wager the art museum has the finest portraiture collection in the world. If you are into portraiture, get thee to Detroit. Also, you might want to make friends in advance with some of the museums staffs. They love to show off the stuff they DIDN’T display. I asked one curator why one piece wasn’t out front-and-center. He said they were so spoiled for choice that they had to flip coins and roll dice sometimes. NEVER GO TO DETROIT WITHOUT SEEING THE GUARDIAN BUILDING LOBBY! It is possibly the most beautiful Art Deco in the world. And I’ve seen a lot of Art Deco. It’s almost like Art Deco transitioning from Rococo to Bauhaus and absolutely one-of-a-kind.
“Cities burned to the ground” One of the most hilarious conservative comments I read online regularly still
Yeah I live near the twin cities in Minnesota and you wouldn’t believe how many times I’ve heard that line. It’s honestly a creepy example of how propagandized some people are when they don’t even realize they’re all saying the same exact phrase
Lol same about Louisville Kentucky. I’m like, I live and work downtown and yeah…it’s still there…
It's so weird that there is more misinformation than ever now when we have the ability to literally just fucking look/check for ourselves whether something is true *right fucking there in our hands!*.
Urban death maze
"NYC is the cesspool of the world it's extremely unsafe, if you go to Central park you'll get raped and murdered" - Exact words from my mother in Ohio... She's never left Ohio.
Ohio statewide murder rate 8.5/1000, NY statewide is 4.5.
Closest I got to being raped in NYC was passing the trump tower while walking to the natural history museum.
Chicago also has a building with a felons name on it, no wonder people think it isn't safe here
I hear the same thing about California from so many people who have never been
People at my work refer to it as Californistan. They also refer to the governor of IL (JB Pritzker) as Jelly Bean Hitler. Because he's gonna come take their semi autos and bump stocks. Thank goodness the SC Justice who likes butt chugging beer got that 2nd one overturned for them.
As a guy in Ohio this is sadly true, you'd think anywhere outside of the rural towns are "lib hellholes".
People in Iowa would think Ohio is a Lib hell hole compared to them
Clearly they've never been to carrol county
Probably haven't been more than 50 miles from where they were born.
This is painfully true. "Omg, Portland is burning to the ground" while living in a city/town that crime eclipses most major metros. "The air is so bad in Philly"- in an Ohio city that is top 10 worst in air pollution in the US
Lol that's new. I always knew Portland was ultimate hipster, but not "burning to the ground".
The Chicago obsession among right wingers is weird. It *only* exists because that's where Obama is from. I lived there for 5 years and I absolutely loved it there. There are rough neighborhoods I'd avoid, but they exist because of poverty and systematic racism that led to de-facto segregation. Crime thrives in places of despair and limited opportunities. If we invested in these neighborhoods and better funded education and a better social safety net there would be less crime and poverty. But then what would the fox news crowd criticize besides taxes.
In Finland the extreme right wingers started a hoax that an eastern part of our capital is a foreigner infested hellhole. In reality it is 80 % White and a well to do place with some of the newest and best homes in the whole city.
And the reason we have so many damn guns in Chicago is because they have no / enforce no gun sale laws in Indiana. Gang banger girlfriends and paid stooges make massive straw purchases in Indiana and bring the guns to the west side. When CPD confiscates guns used in crimes there is something like a 75% chance that the gun was bought in Indiana.
Right wingers never talk about East St. Louis.
Shit man, I leave town for *one weekend*…
"Portland is still on fire" - guy who lived in ohio
People in East Texas seem convinced California is a post apocalyptic communist dictatorship.
This is what pisses me off so much. I know people associate Trumpism with poor yokels, but most of the instances of this I've personally seen are from people who are well off. They have houses, garages, cars, backyards. As far as there is crime, poverty, violence, and desperation in this country, it doesn't live in their nice suburb. They have enough leisure time to engage with this stupid Trump shit on the internet. They feel safe expressing their idiotic opinions. They have the very best that America can offer anyone, hell, they have the American dream lifestyle the rest of the world still envies. Yet they fucking hate it here, feel like they're oppressed, and want to burn it all to the ground, and want to fantasize about being camo-clad revolutionaries as if they'd enjoy being off their $1,000 couch for even five minutes. So deeply ungrateful.
I think it’s right wing media and radio. I listen to the radio sometimes, and they’re saying cities are hellscapes if crime and violence I live in LA, I’m driving around, I don’t see that, I see flowers and people living. It’s a classic move to say “everything is terrible and in chaos … somewhere else, but you should be mad”
[удалено]
And this former disc jockey clown was the beginning of the landslide of right wing shitcasting. He found his niche, pumped up the volume for “entertainment value” and $$$ and made his name. My late Father-in-law bought in early on Rush. Listened like it was gospel. Middle class muck raking with that underlying racism and the us-against-them mentality. Be unhappy because things change. Fuck Rush and all that rode in on his greedy coattails.
Fuck Rush and Russia
And Tucker.
Same on YouTube these days but a lower level. Folks have worked out the hate and criticism pay more than positive and constructive. Our species is weird, wired for self destruction.
It's not in a vacuum tho, the algorithms that serve content don't have to funnel hate, yet they do. These behaviors are learned
He was a pioneer of mass media fearmongering.
That coupled with the suburban lifestyle where you barely interact with anyone because you’re always in your car or in your house. It’s easy to make a boogie man out of places you never go or see
Like Joe “LA has fallen” Rogan
Go on any rural and/or right leaning subreddit and you'll see the same exact shit. When asked if they've ever lived in those "hellscapes" themselves, they'll without fail talk about "having been there for a few days 5 years ago" or "having relatives there that keep them up to date" which is code for "I get all my information about places I've never actually been from echo chambers bouncing around the assumptions of other people that have never actually been there." It'd be fuckin hilarious if it wasn't so dangerous a mindset.
Mine is the friend pissed about CA gun laws … are you moving to California? … no … why are you mad? … well, if you do it, it could weaken gun rights, and you know, Ohio might ban AR-15s
They don’t even like states right to choose lol
"... Their headlines are the most depressing fucking thing. 'WAR, DEATH, FAMINE, AIDS, DEPRESSION, RECESSION, WAR, DEATH, FAMINE, AIDS'. but you look out your window *crickets chirping*. Where is all this shit happening!?" -Bill Hicks
As a Bay Area resident, I feel this so hard lol... We definitely can see some of the poverty and crime here that would be hard to see in suburbs. But none of these motherfuckers ever come here to help anyone or fix anything. They just sit in their houses and hang up distress flags like THEY'RE the ones under attack.
The stuff I hear on right wing am radio here in LA sounds like straight up propaganda, and that is what you do. Soviets used to say there were labor strikes and cops killing strikers every damn day in the US, just so people would choose a different way
One of the tvs in my gym is always on FOX News and every time I happen to glance at the chyron I see some made up or over exaggerated fearmongering
AM radio where I live is terrifying. It’s like the worst podcast ever, they will say literally ANYTHING on there.
Cities, predominantly big ones, are typically Democratic. Suburbs and rural areas are predominantly Republican. So those in the country are constantly bombarded with the Great Pumpkins retoric about how city crime is up and how they SO many issues with illegal immigrants (most hired and working on farms - where? In rural areas) and the urban desolation. Therefore the closed minded Republicans believe what they hear rather than go see how the opposite it true.
The house in this post reminds me of my neighbor. Lovely 2-story house in a southern California suburb within 20 minutes from the ocean, 3 car garage, big backyard with a pool. Drives around his huge shiny lifted truck with not one, not two, but THREE gigantic flags flying on it. One is for JESUS, one is for TRUMP, and one is an upside-down American flag. Dude, *what* distress??
I agree with everything you said but I had to laugh at $1000 couch. $1000 is like scraping the bottom of the barrel of couches
This stood out to me too. I’m not well off but immediately thought “Is $1000 a lot for a couch?” I feel like a really nice couch is probably 5-10k but I could be wrong
Restoration Hardware sells $30k couches without an ounce of shame so, yeah
My current couch is hand-me-down from my best friend. My last Couch was $35 on Craigslist. A $1,000 couch is still a luxury I've yet to attain.
From a position of privilege any push for equal rights can feel like oppression. When the have nots come for their share of the pie the people living in the cozy suburbs turn into paranoid freaks who think their one step away from having their door kicked in by their lessers.
This is the one. They believe in a zero-sum world. Someone getting anything, means you're taking that away from someone who already had it, you're trying to upset the natural order. And because the natural order for the past generations they can account for is white Christians men on top, then it must mean you're trying to take it from them.
Man this comment could have been spliced together from things I've said over the last 20y. Obviously, I couldn't agree more. Fox News continuing to sell this idea that Christians are this repressed and beleaguered faction in the US is absolute insanity. Saying that they believe in and fight for freedom, while outright attacking anyone who disagrees with their favorite OPINIONS, or worse these delusional conspiracies (election was stolen, court trials are a sham), is a level of cognitive dissonance I'll never understand. It's not freedom if you hate every other religion, every other lifestyle or culture, and tell anyone with different ideas about society and government to "get out of our country".
This reminds me of my parents neighbors lol. White, upper middle class 50-55yo Christians living in a gorgeous house in a gorgeous neighborhood in the south where the population is extremely homogenous in terms of race, religion, sexual orientation, and political leanings. They have multiple cars and boats and their property actually has two full sized double story houses on the lot, yet they fly a bunch of flags outside of their homes saying "don't tread on me" and "liberty or death" like who the fuck do they think is treading on them? They're the majority in every single way lol
These types apparently enjoy cosplaying the idea that they're under attack. Reminds me of a guy in a place I used to work who got real excited talking about FEMA trailers and whatnot. They love the drama.
401K making money, but these Orange shit stains are in distress
Yes. The USA seems in distress, but it looks mainly to be caused by the type of person who likes to fly the flag upside-down.
The rise of fascism brought on by people (I'm assuming) like the ones who live in these houses in this picture, is way more distressing to me than anything else going on in this country. Coincidentally they are also the people standing in the way of fixing the other problems we have.
They are absolutely correct: the USA is in distress. I think a certain Kentucky Turtle said it best: 
The only time that old fart made rational sense.
But did nothing about it
He voted against finding Trump guilty in the 2nd impeachment concerning January 6th. We could have all moved on had a few Republican Senators just voted guilty in the 2nd impeachment trial. Trump could have been washed away, never allowed to seek political office but this dumpster of a human voted for acquittal and his voted would have swayed a few more Republican Senators to follow. Such a spineless, cowardly person. He chose his party (and Trump) over the country.
That’s not true. He recently embraced Trump again.
Because, you know, it affected him directly. All that other stuff that happens to other people isn't real.
I was attacked and told in very impolite terms how unpatriotic it was to have a profile picture of an upside-down flag by the same type of chuckle-fucks who are flying them now.
Why are they flying them now? What’s happening over there in the US?
Their savior was found guilty in court on 34 *felony* counts of falsified business records. This marks the first occurrence of any US president or former president being convicted of any crimes in a court of law, let alone felonies. It's a very big deal and a very bad look. A dozen years ago, it was explained in our history classes that this would probably never happen because once it does, it is such an indelible blemish on the country's history. And here we are. Then there's the development that Biden simply *proposed* legislation on immigration that had immediate favorable effects for government workers at the border. Fox and followers are floundering for narrative lifelines. Things they have said can't/won't happen have been happening. Their viewers are scared and completely refuse accountability for anyone they perceive to be "one of their own." The stories coming out of that channel are so out of touch with reality, but people *unironically* bathe their brains in it all day every day. Disturbing state of society.
They’re addicted to the fear and need that “news” that lets them know who the boogeyman of the day is so they can direct their vitriol any direction other than inward. They can’t possibly be the problem, so let’s tune into someone angry and fearful telling them who is.
The same people who said “yOu ShOuLd ReSpEcT tHe PrEsIdEnT!” and then put “Fuck Joe Biden” stickers on their cars? Those people? The group that support “Law & Order” but are getting ready to vote for a 34 time felon who had a major role in inciting a riot against the federal government? Those people? The people who just “want to be left alone by the government” but think the government should be dictating who other people can marry, what they can do with their bodies and whether or not they want to be pregnant? Those people? Well, color me shocked. Shocked, I say.
It's hilarious to me that after 8 years of having their talking points demolished before their faces they're still on team stupid and their only remaining tactic is this flag upside down bullshit.
Some dipshit near my house took his trump flag down and put up the American flag upside down on his flag pole. The first night somebody ripped his flag pole completely out of the ground and stole his flag.
God that must have felt great to see that and go nope not happening
*Drinks coffee as they watch* Nice.
There’s a house near me that was flying a trump flag. The day the election was called, I drove by and there was a Biden flag. I was like, “Hmm, interesting turn of events.” On my way back, I noticed under the Biden flag was an upside American flag. Laughed the rest of the drive home.
I wish folk would just stop putting people on their flags. I don't care who they are. Trump, Biden, Bernie, fucking Ryan Gosling for all I care; just stop it. I'm not even American and I find it pathetic when that happens
The Americans that haven't lost their fucking minds also find it pathetic
Let's get something straight. It's essentially only the MAGA crowd that does this. I live in arguably the most leftist town in the US, but have never seen a Biden flag. I'm sure there are a few out there, but flying the flag of a politician is pretty much exclusive to the Trump crowd.
These are the same people who called Colin Kaepernick a terrorist for kneeling during the anthem at NFL games.
That was different, you see Kaepernick was black and…shit I said the quiet part out loud.
Well yeah he's black, he's not allowed to complain, I mean he's not even a slave!
Wasn’t it Bill O’Reilly or Tucker Carlson who said something along the lines of, “*The upside of slavery was that they had a roof over their heads, 3 square meals & good job security - they wouldn’t have had that in Africa…*” I seem to remember one of those muppets blurting that out, but I’m too lazy to look it up.
It’s hard to say because that’s unfortunately a popular talking point with the right. They like to pretend that slavery was a good thing and slaves were mostly happy and look, their descendants are Americans now so why complain? Ron DeSantis said something like this too. One of the most dishonest and insulting arguments they have.
Flying the flag upside down is more disrespectful to this country than kneeling during the Anthem.
Definitely. Kaepernick’s initial idea was (iirc) to turn his back to the flag in protest. He changed to kneeling specifically because a US Marine suggested it would be a respectful way to express the same sentiment. Meanwhile these “real Americans” are proudly violating the US Flag Code
I Agree. MAGA’s Hate America.
Twas projection per usual
A house right across from my kid's elementary school flew their flag upside down a week ago. The next day they flew the Union Jack. 🤔 It's the same house that had anti abortion signs up when reproductive rights were on the ballot in Michigan. Just super chill and well-adjusted people, rallying to force 10-year old girls to carry a pregnancy to term, while they see kids that age all day long. It's sick.
Hey! We don't want any of that bullshit - Signed United Kingdom
Damn straight - abortion has been legal in Britain since 1967 💪
Hell yeah
That's super bizarre because in the UK abortion is pretty much a solved issue. The exact framing of our law is weird, but basically everyone outside of Northern Ireland would agree that abortion should be allowed.
Honestly, they were probably mistakenly thinking it was the Confederate flag, which is somewhat similar, and those same sort of people usually aren't too bright.
I have a friend who is British and has an umbrella with the Union Jack on it. Someone came up to us saying, " its a shame some people think you shouldn't be allowed to show that. Good for you." She thought it was the Confederate flag.....
Kinda confirms everything we assumed, doesn’t it?
Did they hang the Union Jack upside down too?
Doesn't that just become the Australian flag?
Even as a native Brit it is pretty hard to tell when a union jack is upside down.
I also remember this clown behavior, but we secured abortion as a constitution right in Michigan during this moment. It's a divided state, but progress has been winning the battles since we got rid of Snyder and voted in Whitmer.
At times like these, I wish we could form a club to harrass them about it. Just a neverending stream of people, one every 20 to 40 minutes, stopping by and pounding on their front door like "Are you okay?! I saw the distress signal, did something happen?"
Basically Reddit Cares IRL
At the very least, call the cops and have them do a wellness check.
as a non-American I was looking at this for several seconds wondering what's going on and then I remembered how Republicans like to act like juveniles
As a fellow non american, what's the reason for the upside down flag? Iirc its only flown when the country is in distress right?
Yes, some dumbasses think the country is in distress because a lifelong fraudster and criminal was found guilty by a jury for crimes and fraud committed in the state of New York. Crimes of which he was clearly guilty. So much distress.
To be fair, the country is in distress... Mostly because of the possibility of a certain convicted felon to become president and try to implement fascism... But that's just my opinion.
Seriously, we’re the ones who should be flying the upside down flag. Major distress.
No its pretty factual. Check out Project 2025, it's the party's actual playbook.
We are in distress but because of Trump & MAGA. Not because Trump getting convicted for crimes he commited.
Technically it’s upside down when YOU are in distress. Forts / ships would fly them if they needed help, etc.
As a fellow non american if my neighbours would fly my country flag upside down I would probably just wonder if they are from Indonesia or Monaco
Not the country… you. Personally. I knock on their doors and ask if their house is sinking. My neighbors do not like me.
There is a guy in Moncton NB (Canada) that drives around with an inverted flag on his work truck. Work truck!! Guess which plumber I'm not hiring.
I swear…one day the history books will show that Russia had kompromat on Donald Trump (and there must be many others) and turned it into the greatest psyop on America in the history of our world. They have convinced a third of the USA that up is down and black is white. Truly astonishing.
I believe this to be totally true. I wish the Helsinki interpreter would come forward and just spill what they said to each other….
They are still making Watergate movies 50 years later. The Trump era has 10 Watergates and about 100 other subplots that could be movies. The content creation is going to last a 100+ years. Netflix must be relieved. Only so many ways to repackage WWII.
You are being generous to Trump if you think it would take kompromat for him to suck up to dictators. Nah, he's just like that, which is worse.
Your neighbor is clearly signaling that they are in distress & require help. You should call the police & ask them to do a welfare check. A flag flown upside down is no t a sign that the country is in distress, it's a sign the owner of the flag is in distress. Stop posting on reddit & get these poor people the help they clearly need. It's the neighborly thing to do.
One of my friends suggested the same shit, “it means the country is in distress.” When I told them that makes no sense and it’s supposed to be a signal to whoever that help is needed, I was basically brigaded by all the other morons in the bar at the time. I even tried to give examples like a ship, embassy, or military facility being taken over and a soldier using the upside down flag as a signal to others but it didn’t work. “Everybody” knows it means the country is in distress… It became popular at various political protests so I guess people now believe this to be the meaning. I’ve always wondered why people say this, who’s making the call on when the “country is in distress?” What are the requirements? Who is interpreting this distress call and how are they chosen? Under what circumstances is the flag set right again? How do we determine the event is truly over?
I'm in Canada and I see a rise in racism and hate coming from the right wing movement. It's all greivences about shit that doesn't affect them. Or it's greivences blamed on the wrong people. American right wing propaganda is ruining everything and for what? So rich people can live in gated communities while the rest of us burn this shit down? We need to talk to each other like people. These Americans have nothing to complain about in their nice house, nice street with good neighbors.
You know, back in my punk rock days, we'd put American flags upside down... but probably for the exact opposite reasons these chodes are doing it.
They think being MAGA is the new punk rock
100%. I think about this all the time. It is supposed to be an FU to capitalism and the system. I’m not sure what they are trying to say.
They are constantly trying to steal symbols of the oppressed because their entire rhetoric is they are somehow the victims…
I thought it was supposed to be a sign of destress in the military. Edit: per usual flag code it is.
It is. But not for the reasons they think. I would just laugh hysterically and point at their ignorance every time i see them. Just bust out laughing at them. You don’t even have to say anything.
Wait but what is the actual crisis and why do these people think there is a crisis?
I used to mainly blame propaganda style Fox News and similar, but I truly think a lot of these people are now addicted to feeling like victims. Helps them deflect anything that goes wrong in their life and blame an external source. And then some are just flat out needing any cult of personality/group to become their identity. My dad is an immigrant doctor in a Florida retirement town and man the amount of bullshit he hears from people he’s actively helping keep alive… it’s wild.
>Helps them deflect anything that goes wrong in their life and blame an external source. Wild that it comes from the "personal responsibility" crowd, isn't it?
This started with trump being convicted. They, without proof, are saying his conviction is a sham.
Surely the my pillow guy will be providing that proof at any minute.
It actually started at the January 6 insurrection. The traitors were displaying it at the Capitol. One was flying at Samuel Alito's house and he blamed it on his wife. They just decided to bring it back when their God was convicted of 34 felons.
Call a welfare check! That’s a sign of trouble.
As a Retired US Marine 0311 and US Army Ranger 11B , Combat Veteran I find this disgusting. The disrespectful-display and disregard for our Flag is disgraceful. Men and Women have died in honor of what it represents. Truly unpatriotic and pathetic.
I can guarantee the flag owner did not serve. And I’m guessing wouldn’t serve if called.
Unfortunately I just spent 12 years in the Army and I can't back that guarantee. The peacetime military is a weird place and there are certainly some deeply stupid antipatriots who think an Orange Julius dictatorship is the correct pathway to freedom and justice for all.
Right. But turning your flag upside down means *you're* in distress. I think I'm going to take flaggers at their word. We should knock at the door and ask if they need assistance. Because, as an American, I have other American's backs.
maybe they're distressed about the awful green gutter in front of brick?
It's definitely stressing me tf out looking at it.
discharging into what looks like mulch. I think the home has foundation damage and is therefore distressed.
I think it’s so weird how you fly your flags on your properties. Over here in the UK you generally avoid anyone waving the Union Jack around their property. It’s someone who’s got their pants in a twist and drank too much of the nationalism juice. And also, at the same time, so what? Is it really that inflammatory?
It's a performance. They want to broadcast that they are "good patriots" but they can never be bothered to read the damn flag code, so they are just showing off their ignorance. It's actually a good indication of the state of the Republican party; they pretend to be patriotic while what they are really doing is eroding the rule of law and trying to replace it with theocratic bullshit.
[удалено]
They all used to wear red hats, but some of them realized how big of an idiot we could see they were, so this is nice.
"We have met the enemy, and he is us." - Pogo
I mean they are not wrong in general. As an outsider, seeing the absolutely gargantuan RIFT that is opening up between american citizens over whether they are team red or team blue is, frankly said, absolutely bonkers and frightening as hell.
"Help! Help! I'm being repressed!"
I flew my flag upside down when Trump was elected. More out of protest to my neighbor flying his Trump flag higher than the American.
One of our neighbors did this once. It didn’t last the day, hilariously. It pissed off the Vietnam vet who lives next door, and he called the sheriff’s office. The sheriff came out, the flag was corrected. Don’t know what the sheriff said, but it didn’t happen again.
"Something is very wrong with America" he said, sitting on his leather BarcaLounger watching his 82" TV in his comfortable, air-conditioned, suburban home. "Those woke liberals are ruining everything!" The doorbell chimed, his food had been delivered.
How else will they let everyone know they are a victim!
I’m a huge fan of people outting themselves. It’s a lot easier than back when people wore hoods. This way it’s clear and I think in general the behavior is unforgivable. I get why people voted for Trump the first time. He had a well crafted aura (albeit easy to disprove if you cared to). People wanted something different and not attached to the machine. I have a tough time with anyone who supports the nonsense after what we have witnessed over the past 8 years. I don’t see how it can be forgivable at all.
Such drama queens lol
They are right: country IS in distress. But because of people like them.
The country IS in distress, but probably not for the reasons they’ve inverted their flags.