[malandrew]

Strawman much?

I don't understand how you can get "America sucks" from from my comments. I love this place. All the stuff you said sucks are things that suck in lots of other countries too. Why am I going to get upset about phenomena that's happening everywhere? The things I like about America are those things that are unique to America.

> being lonely is a function of your political affiliation (this was absolutely amazing to see - wow)

I was pointing out correlation. I didn't imply causation. You're reading causation into what I wrote. Loneliness or just general unhappiness is far less prevalent amongst those that lean conservative and very conservative. It's probably something worth investigating to figure out why this correlation exists.

> Tokio Japan - has kids riding metro by themselves, you should look it up.

Glad you brought this up. It was something I was thinking about when I wrote my comment. Japan has exactly that which the US has lost a LOT of in the past 30+ years. It's a highly cohesive, high trust culture.

You should go and look up the research of Robert Putnam, who has done the largest, most comprehensive longitudinal studies of the decline of civic engagement.

If you're so unhappy in the US, why are you here? Why not move back to wherever you're happier that has culture when you think the US has no culture? Reading between the lines, it sounds like you haven't made an effort to assimilate into the culture and that has colored your experience and negative view of America.

I'm not going to disagree that America is sick, but it has the potential to get healthy again and that starts with changes that prioritize increasing the quality of life for those already here, whether they were born here or became naturalized citizens. And the prioritization of finding commonality between those that are Americans by birth or chose to become America because they believe in its potential as a nation.

[bdangubic]

If you're so unhappy in the US, why are you here? Why not move back to wherever you're happier that has culture when you think the US has no culture?

my wife likes money. she said 2 more years and then we are out to retire. I have been begging my wife to move for the last 11 years since my kid has been born as I consider the worst thing I ever did as a father was to subject her childhood to this environment. she is old enough now and has traveled all over the world that now she is doing more begging than I am. america is perfect place to make a boatload of money if you put in hard hard work but all else is really bad and we make excuses because money is sooooo great

[malandrew]

Got it. Wish you the best. Wish you had had a better experience here like I have. Only thing I can surmise is that you ended up in some cities in your list that left a lot to be desired. Denver is the only place on that list I'd ever consider living in. I'm unfamiliar with Fayetteville, AR, so no thoughts there, but I'd never want to live in DC, Chicago or St Louis.

What was your favorite city out of all those and what was your least favorite?

Are you and your wife from the same country? Did you meet in the US or came here together?

[anonzzzies]

I must admit; you actually try to convey why the US is great besides making money (or, as many maga idiots cite; gun ownership and 'freedom'. Kudos for that; you cited 0 things I would personally be interested in; we have bbqs and national holidays; both are nice the first time and then, well, not so much. The rest shows that you over sampled the koolaid and actually believe trump is going to make things 'even better' and believe that all systemic issues are wokeness and weakness. I hope you are really very rich as hard times coming, but then again, you did want those; president musk said; things will become much worse and people will need to tighten their belts before it becomes better. Which is code for my mate trump and our other mates will rob everything (mostly in terms of removing all regulatory oversight, rich/company taxes etc) in the coming 4 years and someone else can take over that turd while we go make more money after that. And smart people like you who got a chance actually think that they mean this is for the country and the people.

I digress; there is no culture except maybe the idiotic focus on sports (watching that is; everyone still obese!), although that's no different in AUS and for a large extent the UK, so actually, nope.

Disclaimer; lived and worked in the US; left the first time trump got the presidency.

[malandrew]

> you cited 0 things I would personally be interested in

what things are you interested in that are cultural?

> as hard times coming

This wouldn't surprise me, but unless it happens in 2nd to 4th year of his presidency, it's almost certainly going to be the bipartisan drunken sailor spending of Congress since the pandemic our country likely had a hand in causing.

Between accelerating national debt and our disastrous Ukraine war banking policies and international asset seizures that have undermined dollar supremacy, I'm expecting hard times unless we get a Milei-style intervention to course correct.

> Disclaimer; lived and worked in the US; left the first time trump got the presidency.

Hope that's working out for you. It's working out here for me.

[anonzzzies]

> Hope that's working out for you. It's working out here for me.

Well, that is all that matters. We both will be dead soon anyway, so picking where to sit it out is important.

[bdangubic]

What was your favorite city out of all those and what was your least favorite?

Washington DC - by far. I have been everywhere in the US as well except for Alaska, for business and pleasure. Washington DC is the only place that has some form of a soul :)

Are you and your wife from the same country? Did you meet in the US or came here together?

I am from Serbia, my wife is from Croatia. We met in Washington DC. We came under different circumstances, I came to play basketball and my wife came as a refugee.

[malandrew]

First of all, I want to say, I'm sorry for what our government did to your countries. Absolutely shameful. (This goes for pretty all the wars the US has been involved with in the 20th century, but especially those since Kennedy was assassinated).

I've always been curious about Washington DC. I've visited twice. Seems like it attracts a lot of the best people from all over the globe but the worst people from within the United States.

One of my biggest wishes for the US is to decentralize pretty much all the functions that Washington DC does today. In its current form, it doesn't exist to further the best interests of the United States. It only functions to further the best interest of itself. Classic case of the Shirky Principle applied to a city.

Curious to hear more about the soul you're talking about? My guess is it has more to do with the foreign presence in that city than the domestic presence.

[FireBeyond]

> I was pointing out correlation. I didn't imply causation. You're reading causation into what I wrote. Loneliness or just general unhappiness is far less prevalent amongst those that lean conservative and very conservative. It's probably something worth investigating to figure out why this correlation exists.

I think this is disingenuous. You also heavily implied that feminism is at the root of many women's issues. You can't then pull it back and say "Oh, I didn't mean that, you just assumed that". So what -did- you mean?

You also blatantly ignore that conservative and very conservative community have a stigma against mental health issues. While someone "investigates" this, they should probably also investigate whether it is actually the case or whether conservatives with mental health issues are more likely to leave them untreated or deny their existence.