Whatever weirdness you've seen in recent years is symptomatic of much larger issues that seem to be hard for you to focus on. The world is more chaotic. But it's not people being "antisocial" that's the driver here. That's the *effect* of a larger instability.

These all do seem like catastrophic, world-ending problems, it's true.

Sure. And some of the things you proposed as solutions I think are fine. But you continually insist on advancing the narrative about cities that conservatives use instead of an accurate one.

And the last name Aho is pronounced one way where I'm from (the funniest possible way) but closer to the Twin Cities I've heard people insist on a soft "ah" sound

They accent the BY??? Wait'll I tell the Ahos about this.

(From Embarrass btw. Which is it's own whole conversation.)

And we've talked to you about pissy Paris and the bs around shoplifting. You might also want to think about Tokyo from the perspective of any woman who actually lives there. Not so safe!

You can always interpret what you see in a way that leads you to false conclusions. Especially if you read propaganda that reinforces your biases. You are proof of that. But don't expect me to validate your misconceptions.

You're just telling us you had some personal experiences and chose to believe inaccurate and bigoted narratives that validated your biased personal feelings about those experiences. And other people have reacted in similar ways, which you apparently think renders your inaccurate thoughts accurate.

It's not a statistically sound observation. It's anecdotal. It's vibes.

Viiiiiiiiiiiiiiiibes

Yeah definitely everything in stages. I'm still not finished going through stages I don't think and I'm over 50.

My parents were both old school Roosevelt-era labor libs (long story), and my dad at some point started getting all these left-leaning mags. I remember reading Chomsky and bell hooks in Z magazine in like 1989.

There were probably two main stages to me "getting political": absorbing my parents' (pretty good overall) influence, and realizing that Clinton sucked.

Lol I corrected that typo! Why did that useless link remain???

I was hip to Reagan being terrible when he was elected, buuuut I also got really addicted to horse-race electoral politics at a really young age, which has its drawbacks

Hey everyone: for the next few years, I’m gonna need you to not say the obvious (“Trump won’t allow it”) when I say “we should try to do something.”

We should try to do something.

Your entire argument boils down to:
You: [makes assertion]
Us: That's a false assertion
You: Ah, but people believe it! Checkmate!

I would quibble that people hated *what they were told* about it, which is a distinction that matters.