[lindseymysse]

I grew up in an ultra-conservative church called the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, that uses techniques like this: https://www.lutheranforum.com/blog/mobbing-systemic-spiritua... to enforce it's very narrow, literal interpretation of the bible. Yes, of course they are physically and sexually abusive, and they use mobbing techniques against 5-11 year olds. Of course they idolized Reagan like a god, also.

I live in LA now and ride the bus through South Central, and I've lived there and I have found that place far more welcoming to me than I ever did back in Montana.

So, YMMV and the grass is always greener. But I'm a lot happier in the poor parts of LA than I ever was in Billings, Montana.

[Diederich]

Wow that's rough, sorry you went through that growing up.

South central has enormously improved since the late 70s up through the early 90s. As a kid, I was personally shot up a couple of times from the street. Crack houses were everywhere, and the gangs were pretty terrifying.

[lindseymysse]

I had two guns in my face by the time I left Elementary school, and I remember police officers marching down my block with rifles. People in Montana are armed to the teeth and often times drunk / high on meth. Houses were blowing up because they were meth factories on my block. There were drive bys in the 90's.

The predators in the elementary school are allowed to prey. While I don't want to discount how bad things were in South Central back then, a lot of white people crime is swept under the rug and a lot of crime in ethnically diverse neighborhoods is splashed on front page news.

[Diederich]

Thank you for illuminating that, it's important.