they are just performatively shitting their pants about cities to demonstrate to each other how much they hate minorities

I live in a city, work in a suburb. I talk up every scary think I see (litter, unmowed lawns, tents with people in them, just EXISTING without paying a landlord or anything) to my conservative coworkers. Whatever I can do to keep them out of the one cool city in this state is worth it in my eyes

I've lived in a big city for years now. Never seen anybody get mugged, or shot, or carjacked, despite doing activist work that often has me visiting poor minority neighborhoods.

But any time I visit the small town where I grew up there's always someone or another acting like I came back from a fucking warzone lmao

I used to do the same in San Francisco before Covid, and I would constantly hear supposed "war stories" about the city that came straight from right wing rags and social media. Don't even get me started on the amount of San Francisco Copapologa mansplained (or womansplained sometimes) to me over so many years.

In my experience cities are way more dangerous because of dumbest car drivers constantly running red lights and almost hitting pedestrians. It felt terrible walking everywhere and trying to dodge cars, and I avoided riding a bicycle there as they frequently put bike lanes between car lanes and I had other bikers warn me about them having highest bicycle fatality rates in the country that year.

Cities where I live are just a scheme to get as many poor people ran over by giant confederate-flag waving trucks as possible

I live in a city and routinely leave my door unlocked, I've never felt even remotely unsafe- I go visit someones house in the suburbs and they've got cameras on their door, deadbolt locks, and a security system.

I'm more likely to die getting run over by a car than by a home invasion

My city has serious issues, but I also recognize racist Republican policies that have deliberately hamstrung it while diverting all its generated tax revenue to the suburbs. Dems tend to do slightly more than the bare minimum around here, so it's why I sometimes leave them out on criticism on local politics.

I guess it depends on where you live. I'd choose my small rural town over Guatemala City any day. That place is a hellhole that most everybody living there wants to leave.

Chicago's alright. The hot dogs could be described as a warzone, but I like them for it.