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I've heard so many Americans, including my dad, repeatedly claim that America is the best place to live. And here we have a nurse, a woman who job is no less than saving lives, who is also doing her part to address the birthrate crisis, and on top of that is doing the environmentally conscious thing by riding a bike. And this is how she is treated.
I used to think that I got treated badly in the US because I was a nerdy, low-status white male. But maybe America is just an absolutely horrible place to live? So please tell me, freedom-loving patriot who waves the flag. Why should anyone live in America?
Because everywhere else is vastly worse for the vast majority of people.
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I'm an American. I've never seen something like this in person. In a nation of hundreds of millions of people you can find endless, but actually quite rare, examples of anything.
This is just the macro version of something all Americans have to deal with on a daily basis.
Daily? Nah. I live in a city of 250K people and have literally never been harassed here. Again, this is purely about where someone elects to live.
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I'm am American. I don't deal with even the mildest version of this almost ever, much less daily. My unfortunate interactions with racial politics are rare and have no negative impact on me. Occasional HR BS, very rare mentions of white privilege. No attacks or "canceling" or anything.
As a white guy I'm actually pretty well treated.
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Viral social media shaming leading to getting fired is like being struck by lightning. It shouldn't much effect your evaluation of quality of life in the USA, any more than mass school shootings should.
To be honest, I've felt like that poor nurse most of my life, and not just around black men. (And obviously without the viral social media component, thank god.) What I'm trying to say is, life in America is constant charade of being accosted by one group or another, people I call moralists, people who try to use the latest morality to scam you or manipulate you.
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The United States is a big place. I've been around the world a decent bit, including to places that I think are absolutely lovely on their own terms, but there's nowhere I'd rather be than a moderate-sized Midwestern American city. Take your pick - Lincoln, Grand Rapids, Madison, Duluth, whatever, these are all nice. The combination of extremely high earnings potential, freewheeling American culture, tremendous food and drink options, relatively low taxes, and so on are just too much to beat for me. I don't think it's necessarily great for everyone, but as an unironic freedom-loving patriot, I always feel happy to come home to the good ol' US of A. Japan is great to visit, but it's stultifying. Much of Europe is nice, but it's so goddamned poor. Australia and Ireland are legitimately pretty close, I think I just like the States better because it's home, but I can see the case.
Is New York City the best place to live? No, it's a filthy shithole run by corrupt scum. You should expect to be accosted by Jordan Neely, taxed aggressively to support parasites, and treated like you're the asshole for thinking that bodegas don't make it all worthwhile. But you don't actually have to live in New York City unless you insist on working a specific sort of finance or law.
Seconded. Perhaps I've become too accustomed to vice in America, but in Japan the rampant alcoholism among professionals getting hammered on a Monday night was especially offputting, combined with the gambling dens and maid cafes/strippers on every corner of Tokyo. I'd consider Canada, but there's nowhere to live outside Toronto and Vancouver unless your quebecois is impeccable and for our profession it's boring as hell.
You guys all seem to take this as a given, but again - I've lived in large American cities for over a decade now and I've had literally zero problems. I'll spare you the gory details, but I used to get obnoxiously drunk and walk 4-5 miles across downtown to get home at 2-3am on a fairly regular basis. I've been taking public transit both ways for my daily commute for the last two years without ever witnessing anything close to the Jordan Neely incident, and at least for one of those years, wasn't living in the greatest neighborhood. Ditto for my wife.
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The only thing I, and I guess most other posters from outside the US, know about Duluth doesn't make it sound a good city to live in while male.
Can you elaborate? Are you confusing it with Minneapolis by chance? If actually really enjoy Minneapolis as a city to visit, but I can't recommend moving there due to the recent changes. Duluth, on the other hand, is pretty much delightful and I'm not sure what commonly known thing would make it seem not great for white men.
For any men: Duluth Model. Crap, now that I think about it, I'm not even sure it's called that because it originated in the city. That was low effort and generally un-Motte of me, I apologize.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duluth_model
The name does come from the city.
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Yeah, I was forced to work in a different industry hub, the one with all the electrons. It was, as you say, a filthy shithole. Then I tried other parts of the USA, and they were better, but not actually livable I'd say. It's hard to live under this constant umbrella of what I call moralism. Since leaving the US bubble I feel free for the first time in my life, free from people policing my life, my sexuality or my opinions on some racial nonsense. I can actually have a life, go to the amusement park with my girlfriend, that kind of thing. And yeah, this country is a "filthy shithole" in a more literal sense (dirt poor), but I guess I just tolerate a somewhat lower standard of living. It's not the stone ages or anything, just the streets are fucked up, the shower sucks, the wifi sucks. But I'm not being treated like shit by everyone, like this poor nurse! That more than makes up for it!
I’ve also had the distinct pleasure of working in the city you referenced.
The homeless there are awful, but to me they weren’t the worst of it.
I spent a lot of time around rich and powerful people there, and I’d be amazed if they didn’t have the highest number of psychopaths per capita. The whole place seethed with demonic energy, and I routinely saw extremely depraved behavior from supposedly high class people.
Who knew a collective obsession with acquiring and wielding power and secrecy whilst leveraging it to enrich yourself would produce a whole class of devilspawn?
It was a relief to leave that place behind.
Have you spent much time around DC?
Hyup. Way, way too much. Absolutely soul destroying city.
Very physically beautiful in parts, for sure.
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What are you talking about here, if you can share?
A lot of this stuff might not seem that bad in isolation just written down, but keep in mind many of these were all compounded together and the specific way these actions have more menace when someone very powerful is committing them, often strung together.
Keep in mind this was all in public or semi-public settings
Public sex
Galavanting around in public with clearly underage prostitutes
Extreme levels of drunkenness, like drinking until you piss yourself and pass out in a pool of vomit
Extreme levels of illegal drug use out in the open
Credible threats of physical violence, including threatening to have people killed
Continuous severe verbal harassment for 20+ minutes, screaming at the top of their lungs
Sexual blackmail
Extreme acts of conspicuous consumption
Pretty blatant acts of corruption
That about sums it up. Like I said, written down doesn’t seem like much but when the powerful and rich indulge in depravity they tend to go hard, and it’s different when a bum does it in the street because a bum (probably) couldn’t ruin your life if they were dead set on it.
If you’ve ever seen the second season of White Lotus, they pretty much captured a milder version of the dynamic I’m talking about.
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Hell, I'd go to the US if there was an obvious and reasonably fast route with my current credentials. I settled for the UK in the interim. America's still where it's at, and a lot of the people decrying it's downfall need to step outside and see what the rest of us live with for a bit.
I'd rather have bad roads and bad wifi than bad people.
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