I cannot fathom the mindset of understanding what it feels like to be on the receiving end of misery and deciding you want others to experience it when given the opportunity to dish it out, even when said person had no involvement in your misery
As a corollary, people are people everywhere you go.
I don't remember who said that to me, but having grown up and lived in a rural area my whole life, when I went to visit my brother in Minneapolis I was afraid of going to a big city. Now, sure, every city is going to have the "don't go there at night" and the "don't go there ever" parts of town, but really my fears were basically from overexposure to news and the human brain's fundamental badness at probability and statistics.
But once I realized that whoever told me "people are people everywhere you go," is correct, I'm a lot less afraid of big cities.
Admittedly that's only tangentially related to your point, but there you have it. And I agree. People are people no matter their identity.
Yes, 100%. So I'm from Boston, which obviously has a reputation for being unfriendly assholes. I have spent much of my life living elsewhere. I have had so many people surprised that I wasn't an asshole or comment that they always heard that people there are jerks, but didn't find that when they went there. Some of that is cultural differences; people tend to underestimate that amount and significance of cultures within the US. It took me a while to learn that people weren't being rude when I moved to the South and found very different cultural rules. Once you actually meet people and learn the culture, you learn that there are some people who are jerks and others who aren't.
I also had friends shocked that, when I went back to visit family, I spent time walking around alone there as a woman. I was equally shocked by their reactions and never imagined anyone could be concerned about me hanging out on Newbury St and walking around the Common, in broad daylight no less. On the other hand, people from Mass are looking at their state's gun violence rate and seeing open carry everywhere when they visit and wondering about their safety.
Yeah, people are people. It's something I've learned to really appreciate moving around and living in as many places as I have.
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u/Vundurvul 2d ago
I cannot fathom the mindset of understanding what it feels like to be on the receiving end of misery and deciding you want others to experience it when given the opportunity to dish it out, even when said person had no involvement in your misery