It's not just exclusive to women, it's a 'coping mechanism' to I guess deal with stress and make a narcissistic statement about how you're never too old to explore your own childhood. It also could be that they feel like they're still living in their childhoods even though they're now adults well over the age of 18 and so they immersive themselves in pokemon, marvel movies, and shite like that.
Off topic but I've always been fascinated by gritty 70s and 80s NYC thanks to movies like The Warriors and Taxi Driver.
I don't think I would want to live there, but I do think it'd be interesting to be able to visit, as someone that saw it firsthand, am I stupid for feeling that way?
Well, I'm not going to knock you because there's plenty of things I have a romanticized view of in other locales that people would probably laugh at me for. As someone who was there when it was gritty, no, you'd probably not want to visit there. Someone here said that it makes a great backdrop for a movie and that's 100% correct. While it's great to see gritty NYC, it's not a playground. When you're in the middle of it and it's unsafe it's a shitty feeling. Remember, this is the late 70s/early 80s. No cell phones or anything like that. You get jumped, you're on your own. While it's great to look back, and yes in my memory it does seem romanticized, honestly I miss the character but I don't miss how dangerous and filthy things were. Burned out cars, destroyed buildings. The Lower East Side used to look like Beirut. Getting jumped in the street. Getting jumped on the train. You were always checking everything out all the time - always one eye on what you're doing and one eye on your surroundings.
That story I told with the tacos, I left some details out for brevity. But what fully happened was the dude pulled out the gun and fired some shots randomly up in the air and people started scattering. But some guy clocked him in the jaw hard and he doubled over and dropped the gun on the ground. Everyone was still scattering but there was this kid in the middle of the gang fight - man, he had to be like 11 or 12. And he just reaches down and grabs the gun and then takes off like everyone else. In seconds everyone was gone. I was eating with my friend Mike at a table in front of the window and my friend turns to me and says, "Yo, did you see that?" and I said, "Yeah, that kid took the gun. That's fucked up." Then we both got some more tacos.
Back then on 2nd avenue, it'd be littered with homeless people. What they would do is put down blankets and lay out whatever shit they found in the garbage and they'd try to sell it for a few bucks. It was like a demented flea market. You'd be weaving around filthy homeless people while you walked on 2nd ave and they'd be trying to sell you a broken answering machine, or one shoe.
So I went with a friend to eat at this place Velselka which is old world Russian food. Really cheap - and this was like '82 or '83 - you could eat a meal for pocket change. And on 2nd avenue you have all these homeless people but you also have the pimps. Just like in the movies- all these black guys in three piece suits and canes and giant floppy hats. They'd be standing next to their cars, and their suits would match the color of their car like teal or purple.
So this homeless guy gets up from his blanket, and he's probably drunk so he stumbles and bangs into the side of one of the pimp's cars. In an instant the pimp grabs the homeless guy by his neck, picks him up and slams him down on the hood of the car. He's got the homeless guy on his back, one hand on his neck, and he reaches behind him and pulls out a gun and puts against the homeless guy's head. Meanwhile I'm eating potato pancakes and cabbage soup and watching this shit through the window. He screams at the homeless guy, "DID YOU TOUCH MY MOTHERFUCKIN' CAR?" while he's holding the gun to his head.
All of a sudden, half the homeless people jump up from the blankets and rush the pimp and surround him and they all pull out guns and badges on chains around their necks and point their guns at the pimp. Turns out half the homeless people in doorways and on the sidewalk were undercover cops. This pimp is looking around surrounded by like 5 or 6 guys in rags with badges all pointing guns at him screaming, "Drop the fucking gun, now!" He put the gun on the ground and they rushed him and handcuffed him. A cruiser came in and off he went. Then they all just kind of disappeared. Crime was so bad in that area of the lower east side they had undercover cops posing as homeless people. Shit still makes me laugh to this day. The look on that pimp's face surrounded by hobos with guns.
Another time I went with a buddy Dave to Rivington and Stanton to buy some heroin. Or maybe it was angel dust - I can't even remember anymore. I didn't do any drugs (my older brother died of a cocaine overdose so I ended up pretty straight edge because of that) but my buddy did and he used to bring me with him in case he got zoned out or got high, he depended on me to make sure he got back home. So what you'd do is you'd go to the apartment building on Stanton, and the dealer would be up on a high floor and he'd lower a basket on a rope. You'd put the money in the basket, and he'd pull it up, then lower the basket with the heroin in it.
So my buddy gets his stuff and we start walking. And we get like two blocks away and my buddy is kinda zoned out and preoccupied and not paying attention and all of a sudden two junkies grab me and my buddy just keeps walking. He's so out of it he doesn't even realize I'm not with him anymore. And one of the junkies puts a knife in my back and is like, "Yo, give me the shit". Man, I can still feel that damn knife even now while typing this. And I'm like, "I don't have any shit - all I got is money!" and he's like, "Just give me whatever the fuck you have." I reach in my pocket and pull out whatever cash I had and hand it to the other junkie and then they both just bolt.
Back then that neighborhood was rife with thieves because if you were over there chances are you were either going to buy drugs or you bought drugs so that meant you either had money or drugs on you. It was almost certain you'd get robbed at some point. The whole thing took like 10 seconds. I ran and caught up to my friend who was still fucking out of it and walking and he goes, "Oh, where'd you go?" and I was like, "Asshole, I just got robbed". Then we made it to the train and that was that. The funny thing is that I don't use a wallet at all. And it's all from growing up like that because you'd get robbed so much and all they wanted was the money that there was no reason to keep a wallet because they're just gonna toss the wallet in the sewer once they take the cash. It took me once losing my social security card, family pictures, credit cards, etc to decide to stop using a wallet. It was less painful just to hand the wad over.
Ok last one for now because I'm getting tired of typing lol...
I was up on 42nd and 8th avenue one night, which was really shit back then. And I'm walking along 8th and this black guy comes out of a doorway in a windbreaker and sweatpants and steps in front of me looking to start shit. I go to move around him and he starts saying, "Yo, are you a fucking cop?" That's it, I know everything's about to go to shit. They know you're not a cop but for some reason back then that was how black people always started shit with you - by accusing you of being a cop. I had a buddy who worked for ma bell back then, the telephone company, and he told me that they'd do that shit to the whole crew trying to fix telephone lines in the ghetto. Pushing the workers and saying, "Yo, you a cop?" until the workers would just pack everything up and abandon the site and leave the ghetto with fucked up telephone service.
So I push past him but he moves with me and says, "Yo, you a fucking cop?" and I keep ignoring him so he opens his windbreaker and he has a gun in the waist of his sweatpants. So I stop and go, "No I'm not a fucking cop. What the fuck do you want?" and he says, "Yo, my boys think you're a cop. You need to come with me so you can tell them yourself that you're not a cop."
Man I have no idea what his intentions were or if there was any "boys". Probably just to rob me and maybe shoot me. All I know is I'm not going anywhere with this motherfucker and his gun. Back then I had this black friend, Tony, he told me once, "You know what scares the shit out of black people? Crazy people. If a black dude ever fucks with you, just start acting crazy and they'll run". In an instant I heard that in my head. I dropped to the ground and proceeded to fake what is probably to this day, the greatest epileptic seizure in the history of the world. I was flopping around like a fish on that piss and shit covered sidewalk, spitting foam everywhere and grunting.
The black dude was like, "What the fuck are you doing? What the fuck is wrong with you?" and he just turns and runs like a bat out of hell. Holy shit, I couldn't believe it worked. As soon as he turned the corner, I got up and fucking bolted for the station and got my ass on the A train. Shit, I was on edge the whole ride home and everything smelled like piss.
old days on New York. And I’m sad to say we’re seeing them again. Rudy did some amazing things, and turned NYC back into not just the wealthiest but the safest city in America if not the world. Love him or hate him Bloomberg largely followed up on that and kept it on a sound fiscal footing. Both were helped by having a George Pataki, as Governor. He may be dull, but he righted the states finances. Such that it’s taken two terms of deBlasio and Cuomo to undo it all. New York now looks like it’s 1974 again. The parasites are back in charge and killing the host.
I’ve got a good friend. A black man who grew up in Brownsville. A true hood rat. He thanks Rudy for saving his life. Stop and Frisk turned his neighborhood from a nightly shooting gallery, into someplace safe to live. The Community Policin
True - I always forget about Pataki because Giuliani was so omnipresent, but Pataki was pretty good as well. As for Bloomberg, I'm kinda mixed on him because all he cared about was upping his wealth like a motherfucker and he used NYC to do it. Why do you think he fought for a third term? From the minute he got in he handed out permits and building contracts to his buddies like they were fucking candy. The city became the overdeveloped nightmare it is now - NYC never had the amount of new construction going on that he did. Plus he did a lot of stupid shit like the bike lanes against the curbs and making cars park out in the street.
But really, people complain that the city is unaffordable and lost its charm with the disappearance of a lot of the weird bars and quirky stores (hell, I used to live in "Love Saves the Day" although I never bought anything) and the loss of the mom and pop stores in lieu of endless overpriced condos and duane reades and 7-elevens. That shit is all from Bloomberg's overdevelopment to overflow his own coffers.
Or I don't know...maybe Bloomberg was just the absurd conclusion of Giuliani making Manhattan safe.
Suffice to say it might be more dangerous now because back in the 70s and 80s everything looked like shit - all bombed out and burned and destroyed so you kinda knew you were in for some bad shit. Now it's turning bad but everything's overdeveloped and nice so people aren't gonna realize how bad shit is where they are.
I am glad I did, in like 1992. Walked through a pair of shoes all over Manhattan. St. Marks was still gritty, the Bowery as well, and just walking with no agenda going wherever was tons of fun. I do remember as soon as we got through Penn Station and up on the city sidewalks one of the first things that happened was some black dude with a rag around his hand, all bloody, asked us where the hospital was. Cause he just got shot.
I also remember the dude I went with getting taken for $100 by the three-card monty guys, I should have never suggested that we watch rubes get taken lol. Came back with new jewelry from Trash & Vaudeville and an Escher print from some off-the-beaten-path art space. Good times - and you're not wrong for wanting to have seen it yourself.
Not trying to knock it but by '92 the city was already easily a magnitude safer than it had been a decade before. The LES was still somewhat gritty but it really wasn't overly dangerous. If you lived it in the 70s and 80s when it was actually gritty and dangerous, there's no way you want to go back to that. By the 90s it was just gritty enough to be exciting but not gritty enough to be dangerous. By '95 it was almost a playground. Any real New Yorker would be the first to say they don't wanna go back.
I actually belong to this Native New Yorker's club that only allows people born in NYC as members - you have to fill out a questionnaire about what hospital you were born in, and what high school you went to, and you have to answer some questions about NYC specific things that you'd only know if you grew up here in the 70s and 80s. Once a month we get together in a bar that's owned by a native new yorker and everyone hangs out. It's actually got a sizeable amount of members and the age of the members range from about late 40s to 70s. This club's been around decades.
It's a mish mash of members - a lot of musicians, artists, writers but also a lot of other types of people. Designers, manufacturers, etc. The whole point of it is to half reminisce at the get togethers about all the places that existed that don't anymore, places to perform or hang at, and all that good stuff and the other half is to network with other NYC born people for business. For example, as a musician if I need tour shirts, there's a chick in the club who owns a T-shirt manufacturing company so I'd use her to have my shirts made for the tour. If someone needed live music for a party, they'd hire me, and so on.
Anyway, even though we love talking about the "bad old days" and telling stories and complaining about how NYC has lost its character, it's almost universal that no one wants to go back to 70s/80s NYC. After we trade stories and you're hearing the 15th story about how someone got jumped or robbed eventually someone says, "wow, it kinda sucked back then, didn't it?"
Sounds like a false positive. Georgia seems to be getting a fuckload of bad tests lately, including my sister. She called the other day letting me know she'd be going into self-isolation since she tested positive despite no symptoms, then two days later was re-tested and came out all clear.
Hell yeah, take it back to the DOS 6.22/Windows 3.1 days. 99% of end users today would shit their pants if they had to deal with DOS.
What are they gonna do? Shoot into more random cars occupied by black kids? They gonna scream hysterically to start blasting every white sedan that comes near the next group of them being speds on the interstate?
Police tried to create a barrier.
Black man broke the law and drove around the barrier.
Black man killed your friend.
Police responded, fast and tried to save her life.
Fuck the police, abolish them, Black Lives Matter.
She's just hoping the guy will lose his temper and yell something like "YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU LOUDMOUTHED CUNT!" so she can play the victim.
I don't know how the guy doesn't snap, I would absolutely snap in that situation with someone yelling at me so loudly and shrilly about something so asinine and the results wouldn't be pretty.
Police tried to create a barrier.
Black man broke the law and drove around the barrier.
Black man killed your friend.
Police responded, fast and tried to save her life.
Fuck the police, abolish them, Black Lives Matter.
The doublethink of claiming you don't need police to protect you and that calling the police on a poor BIPOC is sentencing them to death but then screaming that police need to protect you from being tossed around like bowling pins on the interstate and calling them on said black man. Because black lives matter, apparently.
K-Netz still manage to get offended by the Rising Sun imagery. That's what I kinda love about it. They're basically the Korean equiv of SJWs. Naver spergs out if they see a red sun.
K-Netz still manage to get offended by the Rising Sun imagery. That's what I kinda love about it. They're basically the Korean equiv of SJWs. Naver spergs out if they see a red sun.
The thing that cracks me up is how the Rising Sun isn't generally seen as controversial in the West while the Swastika isn't generally seen as controversial in Asia.
View attachment 1432287View attachment 1432286View attachment 1432288View attachment 1432289View attachment 1432290
The goalposts just keep moving. What they need to do is put more money towards the police department so that they can research less lethal methods for interactions with criminals and use some of the money to go towards counseling for police officers (since PTSD is not an uncommon occurrence in that field). Those two things would really help (as well as more accountability). Activists have a habit of going with what sounds good rather than what actually makes a difference. Posts like these are why I don’t trust modern activism.
The reason they are moving the goalposts is that what they really mean to say is that the only way to root out “anti-blackness” is to discriminate against white people. They are having to do this in steps, but if you just go ahead and replace “anti-blackness” with “whites” and “anti-racist” with “blacks” it is a lot more honest and clear. It is the true goal and message, the layers of makeup are just gradually coming off as they feel more radicalized and emboldened.
WHAT?
in a bucket