On stormfront you’ll read in massive subs such as r/soccer that Paris has a pocket of safety surrounded by pure crime. They’ll say shit like, “I went to Vienna and Budapest and not once did I feel unsafe”
You ‘felt’ unsafe? Are you just shitting your pants everytime you encounter an Arab or someone with slightly more melanin content? Like, almost every city I’ve ever been to where people say it’s unsafe is just a place with more minorities and I’ve never once felt unsafe.
Edit: check out this thread
https://old.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/y2uwg0/psg_ultras_hunted_down_and_attacked_with_a_knife/is51xl8/
Yes, but I also think sometimes the 'crime' they're talking about isn't racialized but instead a gut reaction to being forced to see the outcomes of the economic precarity we all exist within. Which is to say they're also complaining about having to look at homeless people
this for sure, seeing a homeless person isnt 'crime' but to them it is. I dont even think they realize theyre doing it most of the time, its just that the news and the national conversation has conflated the two since 1980, so what do most of them know? See a homeless person, thats crime, be very scared now.
Yes, and even just referring to Chicago pejoratively has become a racist dogwhistle.
I’ve never been to Chicago but I’ve lived in Michigan and have heard the way people talk about Detroit. After visiting detroit I realize libs straight up just don’t like seeing decay and poor people. They think it’s an aberration and that their comfortable lifestyles are the norm while thses people must be doing something obviously wrong.
I walked around Detroit late at night after a show. Picture an urban sprawl with French gothic architecture, run down suburban homes, and black homeless people everywhere. Not onve did I feel threatened. I imagine since Chicago has more wealthy people still living there the sentiment that it’s crime infested is exacerbated ten fold
Yeah I've been to Detroit it's.... just a normal place. But some poor people and black people live there so ooh scary supposedly.
You might appreciate this article: https://thecolumn.substack.com/p/people-feel-unsafe-because-visible
They constantly wave around this site like it's some kind of crucifix against evil http://heyjackass.com/
99.9% of the time
there are certain streets in the city that you absolutely shouldnt walk down with 500 dollars strapped to your forehead but even as a very small woman ive only been verbally harassed despite walking around a fairly large city somewhat regularly
if youre friends with homeless people it makes your walk nicer, had one guy i know yell at a guy for harassing me once, bought him a burger a week or two later lmao
in general i think being a mugger probably isnt worth it these days because so many people carry credit cards only now. so if someone mugged me theyd get my shitty old 100 dollar phone which probably isnt worth the effort. not signed in or have credit cards set up on my phone either so all theyd get out of it are phone numbers if they get past the lock screen. pick pockets are more likely so if you walk with your hands in your pockets youre fine. someone might break into your car if your car is one of the easier ones to break into without needing to smash windows. but like... dont have anything obvious for them to grab and theyll ignore it because they only do quick glances. having a shitty working class car is in your favor
you absolutely shouldnt walk down with 500 dollars strapped to your forehead
redditor: ok i shouldnt have done that but this is victim blaming
90% of the redditors that get mugged are probably running around in gucci clothes with 1000 dollar watches, a designer fedora, a tesla with 3 laptops in it, and a fat wallet sticking out of their asshole and doing a :shocked-pikachu: when they get mugged
To quote someone I saw on :reddit-logo: University of Chicago students have the most muggable faces.
The person also claimed to be a mugger in Chicago.
there are certain streets in the city that you absolutely shouldnt walk down with 500 dollars strapped to your forehead
There are streets you shouldn't walk down with a croissant strapped to your forehead but French goblins gonna ohohohoho
if youre friends with homeless people it makes your walk nicer
Yeah being a shelter worker, it's nice seeing friendly faces whenever I go to the rougher parts of town.
Anyways I don't trust outsider opinions on cities. After 2020 I kept telling family that my city wasn't actually burning down in riots and nobody would believe me. People get wild ideas about places they don't live in.
Lol yeah this is so true. My parents will tell me about how my city is unlivable and crime infested wastelands. I have literally walked down the street in the worst parts of my city and haven't had any problems
Yeah, scams seem much more viable. I've had people attempt to scam me a whole bunch of times (The fare of the train literally JUST went up? I regularly take it, how come I've never heard of this? And how come it happens so much JUST to you?), but I've never thought anyone wanted to mug me.
Also, like, asking for 2.50 for train fare when you're actually panhandling is barely a scam.
I seem to recall reading that per capita, military bases have far more violent crime committed than the worst neighborhoods of any US city. So statistically, you are much more likely to be assaulted walking through Fort Hood at midnight than you are anywhere else, basically
With the added fun that the perpetrators will be completely ignored by the legal system
Domestic abuse is almost certainly under-reported because MPs cover it up. But the most dangerous thing to be by far is a woman on board a US Navy ship, where something like 10% of women per year are assaulted. Men have it a bit better, at 2.5% percent, but that's still an extremely high number.
That's also bad but I'm thinking of cases where military has gone off base and literally murdered people and had the case just go away because they were special forces
thank u mr president. Just think it’s such a blatantly obvious dogwhistle people would stfu about it by now but i guess nazism is growing at a rapid pace :shrug-outta-hecks:
The dog whistles are becoming fog horns at this point
When people talk about the allies treatment of Germany post-WW1, I compare it to the treatment of Afghanistan currently, and guess what? Even though they hate Biden they'll still support what was done to Afghanistan post-war, even though they're comparable: 'The Taliban are opening training camps', right but one of the complaints of Germany was that they were required to reduce their military as well along with their spending on it, 'The Taliban has to pay money for the harm they caused', the Germans were also required to pay reparations for the harm they caused, etc etc.
There's only one reason they stand up for Germany and not Afghanistan
and it's the okay/not okay emote (with lighter skin tones being okay, darker not okay) we have but can't find at this moment.::us-foreign-policy:
(Thanks to @Azarova for the heads up!)
I remember some guy on 4chan writing a racially motivated rant about every South African city was an actual warzone with military escorts and a ton of gullible westerners believed it.
Like South Africa is very unsafe, but cities aren't warzones. Especially the parts that tourists are visiting, they're probably the safest areas in the country.
I guess the culture shock of seeing every "middle class" suburban home behind electrified fencing and barbed wire, with alarms connected to private security, is massive. Also the culture shock of our extreme abject poverty that falls mostly along racial lines.
Anecdotally my fem friends have talked to me about dealing with way more people catcalling/following them in specific cities and neighborhoods which is definitely a valid reason to feel unsafe. The difference is they don't use that experience to justify being racist - I'm certain this is not what chuds have in mind when they talk about 'safety'.
I visited Paris once a long time ago. Everyone was just kind of generically an ill tempered dick. The only people who were nice to us were the people, presumably immigrants, who ran the kebab shop near our hotel.
Everyone was just kind of generically an ill tempered dick.
this is france
visit czechia and all of the grandmas will say youre cute out of a 3 story window. i dont know why the french are so weird, maybe its because their food sucks or something idk
As a contrabassist, I’ve always wanted to visit prague and the czech republic because prague is like the Mecca of classical string instruments (and, well, people seem super hot there) but I’ve heard some ridiculous shit about antizyganim in Czechia and, well, I look kind of Roma so I’m scared shitless of ever traveling there.
theres definitely issues but in prague youll be fine. its definitely not as diverse as other cities though which has its own host of problems (re: ive heard about people staring a lot because they almost never see black people).
new bit: taking colloidal silver to turn yourself blue and refer to yourself as a person of color
New bit: Dealing with the crushing reality that you are getting older, always getting older, and that whatever deep-seated insecurities you hope to suppress by being a weird hateful loser online are only metastasizing, warping you into something almost certain to die alone and afraid, having never known love. You are running out of time.
friendly fire goddamn, i know you’re responding to the bait but there’s no need to do me like this
I went back and forth on adding "hateful" as a qualifier because using it on these types by itself is lib shit that will only provoke a :yes-chad:, but I think there's enough other vitriol on there that I can add an anti-friendly fire caveat without watering it down lol.
But even before that, I recognize your username and I don't think any of it applies to you:soviet-heart:
:meow-hug:
but I’m still a loser and will likely die alone :shrug-outta-hecks:
Nah if you see a humanistic goal beyond just yourself, and have comrades that you struggle with, you are part of an ever-renewing braid of rope. If you live for others, you can understand yourself as a piece of a puzzle that has the capacity to experience things.
Chuds don't have this.
I went to Prague too on that same trip. Beautiful city, but we got scammed by someone claiming to be a subway ticket inspector.
thats a common scam they target people that dont speak czech and cant read the signage easily
in general i strongly suggest, whenever you visit a smaller country with a small language, learn the words required for signage. you can probably get by on that 99% of the time because in prague a lot of people speak english because its an international attraction
Yeah I learned from that experience and when I went to Russia (not a small country, but definitely not English friendly) I learned to read Cyrillic and some basic vocabulary. Really helped us because none of the fucking signs were in English, even in Moscow.
Still keen to go check out Czechia again some day though.
visit the mountains in spring! its very very pretty. id suggest north west of the country near karlovy vary they have a bunch of springs and old ass alcohol distilleries, lots of beer, local spirits, and so on. its only really known to czechs and germans so its not super crowded usually. the spas are fun
well, in paris there are soldiers standing around in uniform, with big guns. that made me feel unsafe.
This is similar to the american conservative beliefs about europe being overrun with muslim immigrants and all the major cities having huge "no go zones" where the police won't go because the violent muslims enforce their own sharia law or something
I only know one guy who thinks like that personally, in the rare instances that it gets brought up i always point out that he works with people from europe, do they agree that there is sharia law there? never get a direct answer to that but it makes him think. oh, and i always explain the concept of 'no go zone' being more like a difference between american policing and european policing, where american cops would go be the biggest oppressive assholes they possibly could in an area where the locals dislike them, and european cops have perhaps slightly more sense about not needlessly antagonizing a populace that doesn't trust them. *Edit and I guess that euro cops aren't decked out like gi joe and given the explicit state backing to just start blasting any time they get upset
europe being overrun with muslim immigrants and all the major cities having huge “no go zones” where the police won’t go because the violent muslims enforce their own sharia law or something
DID YOU KNOW THAT PORTLAND IS JUST A PILE OF SMOULDERING RUBBLE NOW :frothingfash:
european cops have perhaps slightly more sense about not needlessly antagonizing a populace that doesn’t trust them
not even a little bit I once knew some cops who would brag about waking up early to prevent people in minority areas from being able to sleep by making loud noises
i just assume they are talking about these places as loci of financial crime, organized crime, widespread scams, and police corruption and i will be purposely obtuse about it to make them exasperated and just say the racist thing they so desperately want to say.
the city i grew up in is much larger than the one i live in, and i hate going back because the amount of unhinged psycho police, religious grifting, and brazen political corruption is unsettling. the people who live there seem to have made some appearance of peace with it by using tunnel vision, but i'm too much of a stubborn asshole to look away.
there are parts of town in my former city that i avoid, not because i am afraid of poor people, but i am sure as shit afraid of catching a stray from the cops that overpolice these places and don't appreciate looky-loos. i have never felt so unsafe in a poor neighborhood as when a cop is mean mugging me with his hand on his gun.
Granted, this was several years ago when I was working in France and traveling around on my vacation, but Vienna then felt way more like a small pocket of safety surrounded by pure crime than Paris did. You step off the Ringstrasse and straight into an entirely different economic strata. I usually traveled with my friend, and being two short women wandering around Paris felt fine, but we were looking over our shoulders walking to our hostel in Vienna. :shrug-outta-hecks:
That's cause Vienna is a real city, Paris is for rich people and tourists
That makes sense. It's also funny because I live in an area that people are convinced is a war zone (and yeah, the crime rate is relatively high, but we're not dodging bullets daily), but it's home and normal to me, so I don't worry. I suppose there's something about being in an unfamiliar place that makes things feel more dangerous.
When I was in Vienna a few years back, I wandered every direction and suburb all day for a week without any worry or bad feelings. Maybe I was just lucky, but I'm also not sure what's the issue with just being in a 'different economic strata'. Quite a few European cities have visibly run-down areas, but I was never anywhere that felt unsafe.
Well, we had chatted with some locals at dinner who were very "oh no be careful" when we told them where we were staying, so we were definitely primed to view our surroundings with suspicion.
I actually donty think so. I say this because you get the same thing in cities where poverty isn't especially racialized.
Fear of crime is just part of the firmament of right wing thought. It has its own self-reaffirming engine, as if a right wing government is in power they are being as cruel to the poor as possible (good), but if anything other than pure cruelty is the governing factor then in their minds we're not being tough enough on crime, therefore crime must be getting worse. Actual crime statistics don't matter, the logic sustains itself independently.
Furthermore, media is always incentivized to sensationalize individual acts of crime, which essentially just is a way to hack human psychology because we struggle to think about proportionality in general.
This all serves as the basic reactionary playbook that gets activated whenever an alternative to unadulterated cruelty is being considered, and is very effective at preventing any "progressive" municipal politician from holding office for long.
I actually donty think so. I say this because you get the same thing in cities where poverty isn’t especially racialized.
On r/soccer, I think Rome might be referred to as one of those cities without a significant minority population that is known for stabbings and crime, so you might have a point.
