Brain damage doesn’t cause conservatism. I had a TBI as a teenager and went far left. My experiences in trying to get treatment completely radicalized me.

Classic George w bush moment

Please read up on how Portugal solved their drug problem.

But do they have mint chocolate chip and can I get it in a sugar cone with rainbow sprinkles please

None

No, they just died

You keep using left and liberal like they’re interchangeable when they absolutely aren’t.

In 2016 the left went for Bernie sanders, who had an economic populist platform that spoke to the grievances that came from 2008. The democrats - liberals - kneecapped him and shunned his supporters.

It’s the liberals who took minorities for granted and are now turning on them now that they’re no longer useful. It’s the liberals who thought they could just run on demographics and identity politics alone and not bother with a real platform other than “we’re not trump”. I find it pretty offensive that you lump the mythical “left” in this country with liberals. There’s very few actual leftists and whole lot of liberals who think they’re left because they want to reform capitalism with social democracy instead of overthrow it like it deserves to be.

I’d be considered a somewhat anti immigration leftist, because I work in an industry that undercuts local labor and imports cheaper J1s and H1Bs. During covid, instead of a merit raise of 10-50 cents we got a three dollar + raise because they couldn’t import foreign labor for cheap. Tight immigration used to be a somewhat left wing stance, economic protectionism. Loose immigration just benefits business owners and fucks over labor. Obviously we’re a nation of immigrants and we need immigration but we also need to clamp down hard on businesses who take advantage of cheap labor to fuck over American labor like myself. I hate that the immigration conversation focuses on “illegals” and not on businesses fucking over American labor by hiring cheaper legal and illegal labor instead.

And I think race is overplayed of an issue when it comes to immigration. A large quantity of immigrants coming in are not English speakers, most are Spanish speakers. I’m from NY originally and I’ve been gone for almost a decade living in the whitest state ever and I had to go home to take care of my mom - I heard almost entirely Spanish being spoken many places instead of English. When I grew up it was English 90% of the time and now it’s Spanish probably 40-50% of the time. That’s culturally shocking and it’s fair for English speakers to be irritated by it and feel like they’re being replaced. I have a ton of respect for people who speak more than one language but due to a brain injury I’m not capable of it despite trying. It’s crazy to see how much my hometown changed in the decade I’ve been gone. It’s unrecognizable.

Also it shouldn’t be controversial to say certain places are getting completely overwhelmed by immigrants. Of course the liberals will paint you as a rAcIsT for saying so but look at how hard they lost this election to see how tired people are of their bullshit.

We have a racist history that bleeds into the present day no doubt but not everything is because of race.

Yeah they realized they’re not invincible. I’m 50/50 about him being the guy. Part of the story checks out (his backstory) and part doesn’t (such a clean kill and getaway and then get caught in bumblefuck pa at a McDs?)

Well I definitely don’t have that lol

It’s not hilarious, it’s sad :(

I’ve never been to Detroit but I’m from NY and lived in a “scary” part of NYC that my pearl clutching wealthier suburban family did not approve of…

So long as you mind your business, don’t dress flashy, and pay attention to your surroundings (ie, don’t walk around with your head glued to your phone and headphones blaring) you should be fine, like any other city in this world.

As a woman when I lived in NYC the one unsettling thing is catcalling, idk if that’s a thing in Australia but I imagine (some) men are the same everywhere in the world. Best to ignore it and move on.

Most people are just trying to go about their day and like you don’t want any problems. The reputation of American cities being violent hell zones is almost entirely fabricated and the violence that does exist are mostly between people who already know each other / gang shit.

The shit suburbanites say about urban areas is mostly the product of white flight and redlining, look up those two phrases to read up on the history of racism in housing. “Dangerous cities” is often just a dog whistle for “minorities live there”.

Edit: also, especially coming from Australia during your (hot af) summer, do prepare for extreme cold. That’s the biggest risk to you. The cold is not an exaggeration. If you’re unfamiliar with dressing for extreme cold I can give you some tips…

No it doesn’t. I had a TBI and went further left.