>> I’m taking them all at face value, unless there is evidence to the contrary. > Statements like these remind me of the old saying from a bygone age "only a f

>> I’m taking them all at face value, unless there is evidence to the contrary. > Statements like these remind me of the old saying from a bygone age "only a fool would take anything posted here as fact." Anonymous internet posts have no bar for entry and as such, should be treated with extreme skepticism. Sure but then you have to take literally every post with extreme skepticism. If you pick and choose, then you are simply deluding yourself. If you don’t pick and choose but assume everyone is lying, then you end up in a uselessly paranoid position. This is why I take the statements at face value for the purpose of the conversation. And as I have said elsewhere - people sharing their actual experiences is very different from a distant person saying it’s all a GOP plot. For what it’s worth, I have lived in SF, and the East bay, as well as Europe, and SF is not as bad as the GOP would like to claim, but frankly who cares. Nothing is as bad as the GOP claims. What does seem true to me is that SF and the Bay Area in general does have serious problems and some things have been getting worse for a while. E.g. homelessness. There simply weren’t the same tent cities all over the bay 20 years ago. My point is that this has nothing to do with the GOP meme. Introducing that is literally a way to distract from what is actually going on.