Burst
El Dandy
*inarticulate squawking*
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Post by Burst on Dec 10, 2015 18:30:25 GMT -5
Sorry, it's another vent thread.
I'm getting tremendously annoyed with the sort of smug, condescending attitude that I keep seeing towards any city located between basically Philadelphia and Los Angeles. Invariably the article writers or whomever are based out of New York, LA, San Francisco, or Seattle, and invariably they write as if they couldn't believe why anyone would willingly live somewhere other than NYC or LA.
I've seen it in all sorts of different flavors. An article on Grand Rapids' ArtPrize event which, in between obligatory disses at Amway and the DeVos family, basically came off like "Aww, look at the cute widdle Gwand Wapids thinks they're a BIG city nowww!" Or on Airliners.net when any city that's not already an airline hub but ESPECIALLY Midwestern cities like Columbus or Indianapolis don't 'deserve' to have more direct flights or transatlantic flights because "Midwestern cities are dying anyway".
Or today, reading an article about how we should just Ban Cars, not just in cities, but everywhere, regardless of how impossible it would make life basically, well, anywhere outside of the four cities already mentioned. But that's okay, rural people could share "a small pool of autonomous electric vehicles" for anything that we might need.
It's basically as if 95% of these writers forgot that there's a world outside of the Williamsburg vegan hipster coffee shop they typed the article in.
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Post by The Booty Disciple on Dec 10, 2015 18:44:52 GMT -5
I get a fair amount of that from the hipster, wannabe-Bohemians here in Denver.
I grew up on a town of 1,500 (one thousand five hundred) people in rural Wyoming, fifty miles from everywhere. The nearest Walmart was 100 miles away. For over a decade my little town did not have a hospital, the nearest being 50 miles away.
To say that their idea of pooling an automobile is ludicrous and insulting is an understatement.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 10, 2015 19:07:59 GMT -5
It just sounds like you're reading stupid shit.
I've never really heard or read this kind of stuff before other than in movies when there's a character playing a caricature of a "hollywood exec" or "NY stock broker" and talking about how the "flyover states" don't matter.
And I say this as someone who works in SF and lives in Oakland, but its all pretty much the same stuff where ever you go. Every medium to large sized city has a decent local art & music scene.
really, the music scene in SF is actually kind of shitty right now because rent is so high everywhere that most small venues can't keep their doors open.
But yeah, it just sounds like you're reading a bunch of stupid stuff. I LIVE in and around one of the top 3 snobbiest cities and I've never read or even really heard people talk like that. Most people just complain about gentrification and the high cost of living out here.
Edit: If anything, most of the articles I read and chatter I hear is from people wishing they could move to smaller, but still cool type cities in the midwest/south because they hate the hassle of being in the "city."
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Post by Ishmeal Loves Kaseyhausen on Dec 10, 2015 19:28:51 GMT -5
What you describe, I have only heard in the media, and at that, in media that has the same slant as you do. I personally have never seen or heard anyone refer to middle America in that vein, but I live in a suburb of Albany, NY, so its not exactly an area brimming with those types.
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Sephiroth
Wade Wilson
Surviving
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Post by Sephiroth on Dec 10, 2015 19:34:05 GMT -5
 Merry Christmas! |
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BRV
Bill S. Preston, Esq.
Wants him some Taco Flavored Kisses.
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Post by BRV on Dec 10, 2015 19:39:36 GMT -5
What really gets my goat is when I read an article about somebody from Alabama doing something racist or someone from Florida doing something stupid, it invariably turns to, "Typical Florida!" or "Typical Alabama!" It's so impossibly smug. Wherever you're from, whether it's New England, the Great Lakes states, or the West Coast, your home state - hell, probably your home town - has its share of racists and idiots. Stop pretending that's a mentality that's exclusive to anywhere south of the Mason-Dixon Line.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 10, 2015 19:49:06 GMT -5
Check your privelage, brah.
Middle America is Nazi Germany.
If you were in a cultural hub like New York or Low Angeles, then maybe, just maybe, you would see why you just don't "get it."
Why rant? You're running out of ears.
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Post by Giul T. on Dec 10, 2015 20:07:08 GMT -5
Check your privelage, brah. Middle America is Nazi Germany. If you were in a cultural hub like New York or Low Angeles, then maybe, just maybe, you would see why you just don't "get it." Why rant? You're running out of ears. Nah, mate. I prefer High Angeles. |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 10, 2015 20:20:52 GMT -5
Check your privelage, brah. Middle America is Nazi Germany. If you were in a cultural hub like New York or Low Angeles, then maybe, just maybe, you would see why you just don't "get it." Why rant? You're running out of ears. Nah, mate. I prefer High Angeles. Auto-correct = the biggest heel that could ever exist. You could cut an off the cuff, heartfelt thirty minute promo that he could ruin by simply botching one word. |
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Post by Red Impact on Dec 10, 2015 20:31:40 GMT -5
Nah, mate. I prefer High Angeles. Auto-correct = the biggest heel that could ever exist. You could cut an off the cuff, heartfelt thirty minute promo that he could ruin by simply botching one word. "In anybody else's hands, this is just a microphone, in my hands, it's a pie bomb ... Damn it!" " |
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Sephiroth
Wade Wilson
Surviving
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Post by Sephiroth on Dec 10, 2015 21:55:10 GMT -5
What really gets my goat is when I read an article about somebody from Alabama doing something racist or someone from Florida doing something stupid, it invariably turns to, "Typical Florida!" or "Typical Alabama!" It's so impossibly smug. Wherever you're from, whether it's New England, the Great Lakes states, or the West Coast, your home state - hell, probably your home town - has its share of racists and idiots. Stop pretending that's a mentality that's exclusive to anywhere south of the Mason-Dixon Line. Given the number of headlines out of Florida... |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 10, 2015 22:17:19 GMT -5
It just sounds like you're reading stupid shit. I've never really heard or read this kind of stuff before other than in movies when there's a character playing a caricature of a "hollywood exec" or "NY stock broker" and talking about how the "flyover states" don't matter. And I say this as someone who works in SF and lives in Oakland, but its all pretty much the same stuff where ever you go. Every medium to large sized city has a decent local art & music scene. really, the music scene in SF is actually kind of shitty right now because rent is so high everywhere that most small venues can't keep their doors open. But yeah, it just sounds like you're reading a bunch of stupid stuff. I LIVE in and around one of the top 3 snobbiest cities and I've never read or even really heard people talk like that. Most people just complain about gentrification and the high cost of living out here. Edit: If anything, most of the articles I read and chatter I hear is from people wishing they could move to smaller, but still cool type cities in the midwest/south because they hate the hassle of being in the "city." Living near Cleveland, I get articles in my Facebook feed often about people moving from Chicago and NYC to Cleveland because it's got the stuff to do without being so crowded and people who aren't so angry. There was even that 30 Rock episode about fleeing to the Cleve, it was funny but there was some accuracy to it, before I even started hearing about that trend. |
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Dragonfly
Samurai Cop
...is no Barry Windham.
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Post by Dragonfly on Dec 10, 2015 22:28:01 GMT -5
What really gets my goat is when I read an article about somebody from Alabama doing something racist or someone from Florida doing something stupid, it invariably turns to, "Typical Florida!" or "Typical Alabama!" It's so impossibly smug. Wherever you're from, whether it's New England, the Great Lakes states, or the West Coast, your home state - hell, probably your home town - has its share of racists and idiots. Stop pretending that's a mentality that's exclusive to anywhere south of the Mason-Dixon Line. I grew up in rural Western Pennsylvania, but moved to Atlanta with my wife in 2008. We have been through almost the entire south since then. I can tell you that I, as an openly transgender woman, have experienced far less bigotry and hatred here (even in such far flung places and rural Alabama and Western Kentucky) than I do back home. It's a night and day difference. |
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Post by monstermike87 on Dec 11, 2015 1:56:35 GMT -5
I lived in Milwaukee for years and it was a black hole for art and music. Same as Chicago. The weird thing about the midwest is that the smaller cities are way more liberal and arts centered than the largest ones. It's just weird.
Hell, the one time I went to Grand Rapids I was like "Wow, the punk scene here cares about each other! I'd love to live here." I lived in Milwaukee at the time and was watching everyone shit on each other. So yeah, I guess us midwesterners are weird.
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Post by Raskovnik on Dec 11, 2015 2:23:15 GMT -5
As someone who has spent time living in the Midwest and the South, no way would I ever willingly do it again, and that's coming from someone who is a total introvert and doesn't visit coffee shops nor needs to be out and about doing things in the city. The best thing about the experience is it showed me what little things I need and want in life and how to appreciate them, after knowing the absence of them. I pray that circumstances never force me back to either region again. Nothing about it jived with me at all. I'm not trying be smug or condescending about it, though. Like, I don't write articles about it. It's just a dark period of my life I try to avoid referencing.
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Post by Cyno on Dec 11, 2015 2:35:28 GMT -5
One of the most sophisticated and worldly people I know is from Omaha, Nebraska, so I don't really get that.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 11, 2015 2:40:11 GMT -5
It's not even a US thing. Every Country has two or three big famous cities that are the places that only matter and the rest don't count. Like the Canadian equivalent of LA or NYC is Toronto or Vancouver or sometimes Montreal. Than I'm guilty of this sometimes but dismissing anyone who is pretentious or smug is from those cities or belongs there or everyone there is.
But as Numero99 pointed out, any city with a decent population has a pretty decent arts and entertainment, nightlife, and food scene. Some cities are completely underrated especially the college cities or some are completely overrated due to high living costs and banking on a past reputation.
Also I believe if you don't seek it, it's shitty. Some places will be easier to seek out if it's a bigger meteroplotian city with a high population density like NY where you barely need a car. But yeah I get what you mean sometimes. I hate the attitude of since this city isn't like my city, your city is shit.
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Post by Alice Syndrome on Dec 11, 2015 4:04:25 GMT -5
Nah, mate. I prefer High Angeles. Auto-correct = the biggest heel that could ever exist. You could cut an off the cuff, heartfelt thirty minute promo that he could ruin by simply botching one word. like when someone posts what could be an interesting thread, but it's ruined because they made a typo in the title and everyone starts making jokes about Rice Flair or whatever |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 11, 2015 4:09:12 GMT -5
Auto-correct = the biggest heel that could ever exist. You could cut an off the cuff, heartfelt thirty minute promo that he could ruin by simply botching one word. like when someone posts what could be an interesting thread, but it's ruined because they made a typo in the title and everyone starts making jokes about Rice Flair or whatever Aw, c'mon. Hate the concept if you must, but Rice Flair is eternal. Woo! |
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Sparkybob
King Koopa
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Post by Sparkybob on Dec 11, 2015 8:46:02 GMT -5
We NY just call you folks south Canada.
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