5 ms·

That article struck a chord with me. I live in a city, but I am not of a city. The no-car, 600-square-foot-apartment, minimalist, trendy-restaurant, latest-so

by shaftoe 10y ago

That article struck a chord with me. I live in a city, but I am not of a city. The no-car, 600-square-foot-apartment, minimalist, trendy-restaurant, latest-social-justice-fashion people that surround me feel like a gang of condescending children. They wave policies with reaching consequences like foam fingers at a sports game. They are mugged and then bend themselves into a pretzel to avoid describing the attacker as black and explain the crime as a symptom of economic injustice. They pretend like Hillary doesn't have 20 years of corrupt history and an attitude that approximates the worst of European nobility. I don't like Trump, but sometimes a giant orange middle finger is needed to break out of a rut.

nommm-nommm 10y ago
Does this actually happen? It sounds like a total caricature of what someone thinks city folk are like. I mean, I spent the majority of my life in cities of different sizes and also have friends across the entire Northeast and I travel a lot. Nothing like this actually happens. My extended family are casual racists and complain a lot about Puerto Ricans. Hillary was widely unpopular with everyone I know, liberal, conservative, and moderate. I don't know a single minimalist but know a lot of people who complain they are poor while buying a bunch of junk. When my house was broken into by unknown assailants a friend of mine said "It must be niggers." Nobody really goes around talking about political policies very much, it's almost never a topic of conversation. We are generally just a bunch of normal people and none of us actually do that stuff. We have different culture and mostly different activities than rural Americans but we are not at all like you describe. We do go to restaurants, coffee shops and bars a lot but never because it's trendy. Actually now that I think of it that wasn't big in one of the cities I lived in. >They are mugged and then bend themselves into a pretzel to avoid describing the attacker as black This is absurd and nobody is bending anything. People i know who got mugged said "I got mugged." I do admit i never heard "I got mugged by a black man" but probably because that information isn't entirely relevant but no bending like a pretzel. Unless you believe bending like a pretzel means "not bitching endlessly about an entire race because of the actions of on person."
- shaftoe 10y ago
  My caricature is more aimed at urban 20-something hipsters I know, not anyone in a city. My comment about mugging and race is from repeatedly watching people try to describe criminals in a politically correct way. "20s black guy in athletic gear" makes a lot of people uncomfortable to say when describing a criminal to watch for.
- DougN7 10y ago
  For a great example of pretzel bending, watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfO1veFs6Ho https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfO1veFs6Ho This is obviously a different topic, but it's a great example of how far SJW and political correctness have gone.
- christophilus 10y ago
  It does happen. This almost perfectly describes my experience living in Durham, NC (the most liberal city in NC, by most counts).
- sk5t 10y ago
  The caricature has some grounding in truth. For example, the crime reports in university news services, where those schools sit in rough areas of town, are comically vague. "Male in a hoodie and jeans"... okay then.
JamisonM 10y ago
I don't like Trump, but sometimes a giant orange middle finger is needed to break out of a rut. These are generally the sentiments that are comforting but do not actually make any practical sense. Policies matter, decisions that will make things worse now will in fact make things worse now. The only people with the luxury of being able to think "it needs to get worse before it can get better" or some approximation of that are people with enough economic and social security to be unlikely to be harmed by the "getting worse". To me that is real smugness.
- jessaustin 10y ago
  If the unprivileged had believed that same pablum the Democrats have been feeding them for decades, they would have voted for Clinton like they voted for Obama (in e.g. Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Florida), and she would have won the election. They can see the rut they're stuck in, even if others can't.
chimprich 10y ago
> The no-car, 600-square-foot-apartment, minimalist, trendy-restaurant, latest-social-justice-fashion people that surround me feel like a gang of condescending children. Your complaint is about people who you feel are condescending, yet you are describing them as children? EDIT: Since I've already been downvoted, perhaps I need to say that I'm pointing out the inherent contradiction in this statement.
- benmcnelly 10y ago
  I upvoted you, since I think it's a fair question :) I may be miss reading it, but it is probably not meant to be condescending - They are noticing someone's behavior and use a commonly understood proverbial phrase or idiom to describe it. In this case "gang of condescending children" might have been better stated as "childish attitude and groupthink" as it is meant to portray them as behaving with mentality of elitism that feeds off other people around them who echo and embolden their thoughts, making it very easy for them to dismiss others and their views unilaterally instead of reasoned and compassionate objective reasoning. This statement might also be used like this - "So when Billy and his friends came back to town from their freshman semester and humanities 101, they were all too eager, like a gang of condescending children, to argue with Billy's WW2 veteran grandpa about how wrong he was about how the world worked and how much more they knew about it."

by shaftoe 10y ago

nommm-nommm 10y ago

Does this actually happen? It sounds like a total caricature of what someone thinks city folk are like. I mean, I spent the majority of my life in cities of different sizes and also have friends across the entire Northeast and I travel a lot. Nothing like this actually happens. My extended family are casual racists and complain a lot about Puerto Ricans. Hillary was widely unpopular with everyone I know, liberal, conservative, and moderate. I don't know a single minimalist but know a lot of people who complain they are poor while buying a bunch of junk. When my house was broken into by unknown assailants a friend of mine said "It must be niggers." Nobody really goes around talking about political policies very much, it's almost never a topic of conversation. We are generally just a bunch of normal people and none of us actually do that stuff. We have different culture and mostly different activities than rural Americans but we are not at all like you describe. We do go to restaurants, coffee shops and bars a lot but never because it's trendy. Actually now that I think of it that wasn't big in one of the cities I lived in. >They are mugged and then bend themselves into a pretzel to avoid describing the attacker as black This is absurd and nobody is bending anything. People i know who got mugged said "I got mugged." I do admit i never heard "I got mugged by a black man" but probably because that information isn't entirely relevant but no bending like a pretzel. Unless you believe bending like a pretzel means "not bitching endlessly about an entire race because of the actions of on person."

shaftoe 10y ago
My caricature is more aimed at urban 20-something hipsters I know, not anyone in a city. My comment about mugging and race is from repeatedly watching people try to describe criminals in a politically correct way. "20s black guy in athletic gear" makes a lot of people uncomfortable to say when describing a criminal to watch for.
DougN7 10y ago
For a great example of pretzel bending, watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfO1veFs6Ho https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfO1veFs6Ho This is obviously a different topic, but it's a great example of how far SJW and political correctness have gone.
christophilus 10y ago
It does happen. This almost perfectly describes my experience living in Durham, NC (the most liberal city in NC, by most counts).
sk5t 10y ago
The caricature has some grounding in truth. For example, the crime reports in university news services, where those schools sit in rough areas of town, are comically vague. "Male in a hoodie and jeans"... okay then.

JamisonM 10y ago

I don't like Trump, but sometimes a giant orange middle finger is needed to break out of a rut. These are generally the sentiments that are comforting but do not actually make any practical sense. Policies matter, decisions that will make things worse now will in fact make things worse now. The only people with the luxury of being able to think "it needs to get worse before it can get better" or some approximation of that are people with enough economic and social security to be unlikely to be harmed by the "getting worse". To me that is real smugness.

jessaustin 10y ago
If the unprivileged had believed that same pablum the Democrats have been feeding them for decades, they would have voted for Clinton like they voted for Obama (in e.g. Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Florida), and she would have won the election. They can see the rut they're stuck in, even if others can't.

chimprich 10y ago

> The no-car, 600-square-foot-apartment, minimalist, trendy-restaurant, latest-social-justice-fashion people that surround me feel like a gang of condescending children. Your complaint is about people who you feel are condescending, yet you are describing them as children? EDIT: Since I've already been downvoted, perhaps I need to say that I'm pointing out the inherent contradiction in this statement.

benmcnelly 10y ago
I upvoted you, since I think it's a fair question :) I may be miss reading it, but it is probably not meant to be condescending - They are noticing someone's behavior and use a commonly understood proverbial phrase or idiom to describe it. In this case "gang of condescending children" might have been better stated as "childish attitude and groupthink" as it is meant to portray them as behaving with mentality of elitism that feeds off other people around them who echo and embolden their thoughts, making it very easy for them to dismiss others and their views unilaterally instead of reasoned and compassionate objective reasoning. This statement might also be used like this - "So when Billy and his friends came back to town from their freshman semester and humanities 101, they were all too eager, like a gang of condescending children, to argue with Billy's WW2 veteran grandpa about how wrong he was about how the world worked and how much more they knew about it."