3 ms·

It doesn't have to be that dangerous to be scary for adults or inappropriate for children. I once went to SF Opera and my kid saw a guy brandishing a knife and

It doesn't have to be that dangerous to be scary for adults or inappropriate for children. I once went to SF Opera and my kid saw a guy brandishing a knife and muttering to himself. Why would I raise my family in this kind of place? I have never been to North Dakota, but would every place there necessarily have the same level of concern with homeless, street drug use, naked guys on the street, rampant theft? To be fair, most of Peninsula is pretty clean and safe, if only someone can afford the house prices.

wolverine876 3y ago
I love these horror stories. I spend almost my entire life in cities, in all sorts of neighborhoods, and never see this stuff. It's pretty amazing. I see people muttering to themselves (no weapons), but they are harmless - less than harmless, they are the most vulnerable. I've never had a problem with an apparently unhoused person - they are just people, like you. (An unhoused person brandishing a weapon would be arrested or shot instantly. They have no rights at all and are brutally overpoliced - I've heard a police officer coach a room on what to say to get someone arrested. They are humans who are trying to survive; they aren't crazy and don't want to be attacked by police.) Crime and drug use are issues in rural areas as much as urban. The post-pandemic crime increase, at least according to ~1 year old FBI or DoJ data, is as much rural as urban and everywhere in the country. The lower population density means you'll see less of everything - bad, good, criminals and restaurants and neighbors. Also, not much opera.
- cat_plus_plus 3y ago
  Ok, that settles it! Since I have never personally experienced police brutality, racism or sexism, I am going to be as dismissive when someone tells me of their personal experiences as you are of my account of an SF guy muttering with a knife. Alternatively, you could consider that you might have some special circumstances. For example, since you always lived in cities, you may have intuitions about where and when to go or not to go, and how to act to discourage troublemakers from approaching. You may just look not as the type to mess with. Or you might have just been lucky so far.
  - wolverine876 3y ago
    People deploy personal experience like a trump card, especially like issues on this. An urban friend and I laugh about the ultimate trump card people try to play - human feces, a blatent attempt to arouse maximal emotions of disgust, and bypass any rationality (how do you know it's human? How closely did you examine it :D ? Did you take it home at test it?). Again, never seen it myself - as far as I know!. Right? It's rude to question someone's personal experience; that's what makes it such an awesome trump card. But I'm also not going to stand quietly any more and let the disinformation BS pass. I don't know your experience. I know cities, and it's very hard to believe most of these reports on HN are true. > police brutality, racism or sexism A great signal of this stuff, the equivalency facade. Those things are the powerful abusing the vulnerable, a serious concern that oppresses and kills people. The vulnerable discomfitting the powerful - with human feces! - y'know, suck it up buttercup. Not a crisis. > you may have intuitions about where and when to go or not to go, and how to act to discourage troublemakers from approaching. Actually, my well-developed intuition is that you can go anywhere, talk to anyone, and you'll be fine. People live in these neighborhoods their whole lives are 99% are fine. I mean, read the room a little - whatever neighborhood you're in, if someone looks like they are upset or busy, don't be some rude idiot. Just be a human being. Don't look tense and people won't be afraid of you and react badly. Act nervous and they'll be nervous. > You may just look not as the type to mess with. Actually, people talk to me all the time. It's just people.
    - cat_plus_plus 3y ago
      Yeah ignoring people's personal experiences is how you got a Trump card and will probably get it again in '24. Goes both ways, communist dictatorships certainly got their fuel from out of touch elites. But your insistence that others should scrutinize things on streets that look like human feces rather than enjoying clean streets is telling.

wolverine876 3y ago

I love these horror stories. I spend almost my entire life in cities, in all sorts of neighborhoods, and never see this stuff. It's pretty amazing. I see people muttering to themselves (no weapons), but they are harmless - less than harmless, they are the most vulnerable. I've never had a problem with an apparently unhoused person - they are just people, like you. (An unhoused person brandishing a weapon would be arrested or shot instantly. They have no rights at all and are brutally overpoliced - I've heard a police officer coach a room on what to say to get someone arrested. They are humans who are trying to survive; they aren't crazy and don't want to be attacked by police.) Crime and drug use are issues in rural areas as much as urban. The post-pandemic crime increase, at least according to ~1 year old FBI or DoJ data, is as much rural as urban and everywhere in the country. The lower population density means you'll see less of everything - bad, good, criminals and restaurants and neighbors. Also, not much opera.

cat_plus_plus 3y ago
Ok, that settles it! Since I have never personally experienced police brutality, racism or sexism, I am going to be as dismissive when someone tells me of their personal experiences as you are of my account of an SF guy muttering with a knife. Alternatively, you could consider that you might have some special circumstances. For example, since you always lived in cities, you may have intuitions about where and when to go or not to go, and how to act to discourage troublemakers from approaching. You may just look not as the type to mess with. Or you might have just been lucky so far.
- wolverine876 3y ago
  People deploy personal experience like a trump card, especially like issues on this. An urban friend and I laugh about the ultimate trump card people try to play - human feces, a blatent attempt to arouse maximal emotions of disgust, and bypass any rationality (how do you know it's human? How closely did you examine it :D ? Did you take it home at test it?). Again, never seen it myself - as far as I know!. Right? It's rude to question someone's personal experience; that's what makes it such an awesome trump card. But I'm also not going to stand quietly any more and let the disinformation BS pass. I don't know your experience. I know cities, and it's very hard to believe most of these reports on HN are true. > police brutality, racism or sexism A great signal of this stuff, the equivalency facade. Those things are the powerful abusing the vulnerable, a serious concern that oppresses and kills people. The vulnerable discomfitting the powerful - with human feces! - y'know, suck it up buttercup. Not a crisis. > you may have intuitions about where and when to go or not to go, and how to act to discourage troublemakers from approaching. Actually, my well-developed intuition is that you can go anywhere, talk to anyone, and you'll be fine. People live in these neighborhoods their whole lives are 99% are fine. I mean, read the room a little - whatever neighborhood you're in, if someone looks like they are upset or busy, don't be some rude idiot. Just be a human being. Don't look tense and people won't be afraid of you and react badly. Act nervous and they'll be nervous. > You may just look not as the type to mess with. Actually, people talk to me all the time. It's just people.
  - cat_plus_plus 3y ago
    Yeah ignoring people's personal experiences is how you got a Trump card and will probably get it again in '24. Goes both ways, communist dictatorships certainly got their fuel from out of touch elites. But your insistence that others should scrutinize things on streets that look like human feces rather than enjoying clean streets is telling.