I remember taking our kids there for a vacation. We were walking down the sidewalk and people were stepping over a person laying there. My kids were really taken back by it as we all were. We stopped and tried to bring the person to consciousness and we were treated horribly by people passing by for stopping to check on the person. We called 911 and a rescue squad came and revived the person that was dying. We have never been back after that experience. How could people become so cold to the life that is around them that is dying. They are so concerned with controlling the world outside of San Francisco that they have died to the world they live in.
We had a similar experience spending 5 weeks in SoCal in 2019. Someone yelled at my then 5 year old son he was “wasting his time” pulling plastic bags and trash out of the LA River in Long Beach with a stick. He screamed back “that sea turtle I just saved doesn’t think so!” 😂. The homeless people everywhere was the most upsetting. Never seen anything like it (and we spend a week in the Caribbean every year). The smog, smoke, litter, and human suffering on the streets was tough to process, and not just for our kids, for us as well. We spent the whole time wondering where the heck all the community organizations were. The indifference to the suffering we saw still bothers me. We came home and stepped up our involvement with the organizations at that help people here not end up like that.
Thank you. He is a sweet kid. 💓. He gets that the fact that one person can’t fix everything is not an excuse for any one person to do nothing. And he loves nature and critters and ecology.
He was offered a job as a youth ambassador at The Aquarium of the Pacific while we were there because he knew more about ocean critters and ecosystems than most of the volunteers and some of the employees. An assistan director tracked us down one day to make the offer normally only open to kids 12 and up.
He also got into a cute debate with one volunteer. He told her the aquarium shouldn’t be promoting near shore tide turbines because they destroy “important near shore habitat where 90% of ocean life lives.” 😂. If you’ve ever met a little kid with an odd encyclopedic knowledge of some specific subject, that’s my son. He knows more about Paleontology and ecology and biosystems than 99.9% of adults, but is almost entirely uninterested in archeology because that’s “human stuff.” He also thinks the climate alarmist are “not very smart” because they are promoting stuff that “doesn’t really work” but does destroy natural habitats. 🤦♀️
The problem is he’s far more interested in building bio systems than human political systems 😂🤣😂. From Covid he learned “a lot of adults aren’t very smart. They don’t know the definition of aerosol.” 🤦♀️
If there's a silver lining to this, liberal types do not procreate at replacement values. The hope is that many of the woke ideals will be phased out from sheer lack of people.
I think that dopey little girl from Queens--the one who does skin-care and make-up videos when she's not in the roaming the House--said she "can't" have children b/c of global warming or the climate crisis or systemic racism.
LOL, pretty sure I read that Prince William in the UK has commented on how overpopulation is a problem for the Earth... and then has proceeded to have 3 children.
Leftists aren't exactly known for practicing what they preach...
But yes, overall, millennials & gen Z are having fewer kids.
So long as those of us who aren't woke resist sending our kids to college where they'll be indoctrinated! Considering how terribly most colleges continue to treat students wrt Covid restrictions, the decision is actually easy.
The problem isn't exclusively universities and you can still be non-woke and get a degree. Ideally the more rationale people who are having children at replacement value (or at all for that matter) are raising their kids with moral values so come college time they've hopefully had 18 years of good parenting to avoid the pitfalls of wokeness. I know it's not easy but to your point, it's integral we remove these people from power and remove corporate media's influence.
Also agreed, but I imagine it's tough. I'm white & have a white son who's also straight*. I'd hate to send him someplace where these immutable characteristics make him a default villain! & to pay thru the nose for it?! No thanks!
I also don't think it's worth the money to go elsewhere but community college the 1st year or 2. Plus kids are more impressionable at 18 and 19 anyway.
*Have we hit the point where using the term "straight" to mean "heterosexual" is offensive?? (Since it implies homosexuality & bisexuality are somehow "crooked"/ abnormal)? I haven't heard that yet, but it wouldn't surprise me. My mark words - this Hussy is calling it!
Auburn rocks!!! For the sake of both my son and daughter we won’t look on universities with an out of control number of girls > boys. It’s correlated to wokeness and disliking boys, which does neither of my kids any good. Auburn is one of the few at 50/50.
In the last 2 years at least 3 kids (that I know of) from my kids private k-12 school that were each accepted to at least one Ivy League school turned down the Ivy schools for Auburn. Paying for college wasn’t an issue for any of them. All of them felt going to top conservative private k-12 school that focuses on merit, challenges students, and demands good character had helped prepare them for life with a strong work ethic. They wanted a school to help them thrive in their future endeavors, not tell them they sucked, teaching them to be entitled, and focused on left wing activism. They didn’t think the remaining and quickly dying gatekeeping for opportunities from the Ivy schools was worth the trade off. They are also all still unvaccinated to this day and thrilled with their decision.
My youngest is unvaccinated. He attends private Episcopal school in Austin with vaccination rate of 94%. He really pressured me to get vaccinated but now that a peer has been suffering from seizures - to the point he can no longer drive - crickets on the whole subject. Never considered female - male ratio in college process. Great insight. Always enjoy your comments!
Eeekkk. My kids go to a Christian school. No official vax rate because the headmaster sent out an email the day of the first EUA saying no mandates and it was none of the parents business what children, teachers, or staff choose to be vaxxed. 😂. They have stuck with it too. Based on the unofficial survey from my kids and their friends it appears around 10% in 2nd grade and 15% in 5th. I think it might actually be lower in the high school because without pressure they quickly saw their buddies having all kinds of issues. Plus the whole high school was already naturally immune.
The high schoolers at public and other private (even Private Christian) schools in our area had immense pressure to get vaccinated, though no where I know if is even 75%, so I can’t imagine the pressure your son was under.
My logic may be flawed, but my reason in the ratio is first, what’s normal/ healthy. It’s not healthy to have 68% or 70% girls, for either the girls or boys. Second kids hear stories from older kids. If a school treats boys like crap, they aren’t telling their friends to come a lot. It goes hand in hand with wokeness. So if a school has a reasonable ratio we hope it correlates to reasonable policy implementation and is hopefully driven from the real recruiting - which is materially peer to peer.
He attends an private Episcopal school. Christian but no grace given to the unvaccinated. I can't speak to lower school but the high school is almost completely vaccinated and many are boosted. He had to be tested twice a week because he was not vaccinated. My sanity has been preserved by following Alex and a few others on Substack. I read comments like yours and don't feel alone, because my choices are completely out of step with those of the other parents. Needless to say, my husband and I are not vaccinated.
The disdain for children exhibited by Covidians has been particularly awful. There was a post on Reddit's Lockdown Skepticism, I believe on Fauci saying kids as young as 2 had to wear masks, even outdoors for summer camp, back in June 2021. Fauci laughed when questioned about it. (I was skeptical, but watched the video. Yep, the man def laughed.)
The top comment was,
"Fuck them kids.
-CDC"
Yup. Although it's both profane & grammatically incorrect, that phrase perfectly encapsulates the CDC's attitude towards America's children.
Used to be my favorite city in the country. What a sad reality it is when policy and lifestyle in a big city squeezes out any room for little people. Well written, Alex.
As a lifer Chicagoan…I think The Windy City is on its heels with their violence problem and mayor who is hell bent on destroying all that is beautiful and hopeful there too.
Last year, here in Melbourne the most locked down city in the world, I was out for a ride during my hour of daily freedom one day last year. Suddenly I almost burst into tears and was not sure why, I then realised I had heard the laughter of the children of essential workers at a local school. After months of trying to keep the spirits of my locked-down kids up and that laughter cut to my core. I always pause at that spot when I go for a ride now to remember that laughter, to remember what they stole from us, the non essential ones.
Children's laughter is one of the best sounds on the planet. Here's to wishing for you that your experience and memory of that moment can push you to advocate for children. Somehow our 1st world nations have forgotten their worth and this needs to change.
Here in my town, the public school that draws students from all backgrounds in the district is looking to expand. This is being met with push back from neighbors. The minute you ask them why they hate to hear the sound of children's laughter, it literally breaks them toward wanting the expansion. Keep up the good effort!
This is what decades of early sexualization and promotion of constant sex with anyone and everyone does to a community. Before the accusation flies, I’m not talking about gay people. Sexual orientation has nothing to do with early sexualization or endless casual sex. I’m also not talking about college kids experimenting a few times. I’m talking about the gender and sex ideologies that promote focus on the use of genitals for “physical pleasure” from a very young age. I’m talking about promoting the theory that sex is simply an activity for physical pleasure and promoting the fallacy it’s easy to separate emotional relationships from sex.
For decades, far longer than places like NYC, places like San Fransisco and Seattle have been telling kids to experiment with sex in endless casual relationships, to “explore” having multiple partners at once, to get as many abortions as necessary to maintain the lifestyle, and to reject the nuclear family structure that has been most successful for thousands of years across hundreds of cultures around the world.
The woke culture has been around longer than me and has long promoted to have sex with everyone, which may sound fun at 20, but particularly for women, the longer the endless streams of casual sex partners go on, the more damaging it is. A few abortions and being used as a blow up doll a decade or two doesn’t often result in women with stable mental health or committed relationships and children by 40. Certainly very conservative religions often separate from reality the other direction, but at least pro-creation is part of the goal. Reducing the number of babies and functioning families seems to be a major goal of wokeism. It shouldn’t be shocking it’s achieving that goal.
Add to that San Fransisco expensive, many communities more flush with drugs than kids, schools that teach 5 year olds it’s cool to sterilize themselves on the alter of woke fantasies around gender, and no one should be surprised that people who do want children aren’t sticking around San Fransisco that has been damaging kids and discouraging having children for 50 years.
100% accurate. And now with crap hole shows like Euphoria, I am appalled and losing hope. I heard a million families took their kids out of public schools last year to homeschool them because their eyeballs threw up when they saw what their kids were learning, and not learning (Like reading, math, etc.). I see 2 extremely parallel societies already formed. We fled Chicago last year for Florida and I'm not looking back.
I also live in a state getting slammed by people from blue states. Please, please, please don't ruin our states. Vote for freedom and against taxes, illegal aliens and big government.
Since both parties basically support all three (although only one is frank about it), you can't vote against them. It is similar with peace: it is never on the ballot.
They may say they support all three, but dem actions speak louder than words. (record setting illegal alien invasion, ministry of misinformation and looking the other way when highly credentialed scientists/doctors get cancelled.)
I work with a few people that live there. Every time I ask they say it's great! Love living there. But anyone who doesn't live there says it's a living hell just to drive through. What is this strange disconnect?
Just think of the movie “the hunger games” the elites living in beautiful homes, not even required to make the daily commute to there offices anymore,with great views. Being shuttled to and fro by Uber and Lyft servants to nice places where they are served on by the masked peasants. Meanwhile like Alex said the streets are devoid of life besides homeless junkies and prostitutes. They avoid seeing what’s right in front of them....on purpose.
A friend recently spent two years in San Francisco. At first she loved it. Then the complaints started, but she still loved it. And finally she hated it and moved away. I think everyone has a little disconnect between their vision of a place (or thing or person), but if they aren't stubborn about it eventually reality cracks through. Maybe the people who say they love it are determined to live in the best place ever and can't admit it's not. I say this because I could see how terrible it was long before my friend realized that what she was saying about it wasn't favorable.
Is it a coincidence that the same evolution in thinking can be applied to the American University experience? As a Freshman you love it; by the time you finish your Junior year you can’t wait to get the hell out? Will Disneyland succumb to this phenomenon?
Good question. I didn't go to a US university, but this also happened to me now that you mention it. The similarity is that both SF and college are pumped up (Disney, too). So disenchantment will eventually hit. With almost anything we esteem actually. But under the disenchantment is there a solid core that makes it worth staying?
I think that's right. It's young highly online people who are attracted by the online glamour.I know many of them now transitioning to marriage and kids. Eventually they can't shut out reality. Some stay local in the burbs, they may have family roots here. The rest are heading for the exits.
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” is the opening line of Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities. The phrase suggests an age of radical opposites taking place at the same time as during the French and American revolutions in the book. The duality and paradox of different realities occurring simultaneously is quite common throughout history. We are fortunate to be the ones to have the luxury of observing it from our perches.
I have been here 4 years, soon to leave, and never figured out the appeal. I was told upon my arrival, "you'll see, the people who complain about SF don't live here." Actually no, nearly everyone I have met through work or my kids' school has a nuanced view and many are making plans to leave.
What the locals seem to cling to is "if everyone hates it why is it still the most expensive place"? But that's mostly because it's so badly underbuilt. Places like Park City and Sun Valley are reaching similar property values, that's mainly because you can't build anywhere in those areas any more.
It's still a ghost town out there like Alex says. I work near the 4th street Caltrain, foot traffic during rush is maybe 5% of what it used to be. Long term this town is in real trouble.
Businesses are fleeing - PayPal announced they are closing their downtown offices. The circle will close and all of San Francisco will be swallowed in liberal misery
I lived in SF 1973-76. As a gay man, it was a dream. Lots of other gay men going about life and having fun. But after about a year, I realized that it was all a facade. People that could not leave “The City” and it was all too incestuous. I worked in the East Bay, so I had friends outside “The City”. Eventually, it all came to a halt, I had to leave. So I went to Colorado and then to Utah (this was 1976 remember - quite the culture shock from SF). I settled in Salt Lake, got a job and went to Graduate School. One night, coming home from my classes, I found my roommate sitting watching the TV news, and he was watching a report on the “Gay Plague”. The centers for this? SF, NYC, and LA. Since I traveled for my work, I did end up in the Bay Area occasionally. When I was there, I went to my old stomping grounds in the Castro and the Haight, and, they were shadows of their former selves. The point? SF has been dying for years. The digital revolution and the wealth created by Silicon Valley have done an excellent job of hiding this. But eventually, the truth comes out, and it is coming out now in the Bay Area. The people “in power” have the means to avoid the worst of the consequences. The people who really pay for this are the middle class and the poor. And it is not just SF. I have lived in LA for 35 years, and it is becoming a shithole too (for many of the same reasons). It is sad, but the “California Dream” is becoming a nightmare.
Many years ago I read a biography of Mark Twain. Twain had spent some time in SF. The book noted 'Frisco even in the 19th century had a "gay edge" to it. The book was controversial because it suggested Twain may have had "tendencies".
Another factoid. My mother was born and raised in San Francisco. But she didn't stay.
This may not be a fair question, and I certainly don't want to be impertinent, but because I appreciate your comment, I wanted to ask what you thought about the premise of Alex's comment,
It’s a “Fair Question”. I think he is correct, in general. I am not sure which part of the city he was in, but there are schools in SF, so there are children there. But are there enough children to replace the existing adults? I would say no. The cost of living there is high and it takes a lot of resources to raise children (not that I know this from personal experience). The point I was attempting to make was that SF has been dying for years. From at least the AIDS Tsunami that swept over the city in the 1980s. But with the incredible wealth that was created in the Bay Area from Silicon Valley and the Venture Capitalists that lived there, it masked a lot of the problems. But now, we are seeing that even that wealth cannot shield people from the realities of what is happening. SF is just the proverbial “tip of the iceberg”. Hope I answered your question / comment.
In many parts of the North East, the absence of children is heavily felt as well. I have the greatest respect for working moms who manage to juggle everything but I am grateful to be home with my kids while they are little (in no small part because of making do with less house and fewer things and vacations). We have many children in our neighborhood but between childcare and over-scheduling, not to mention all the unwarranted paranoia from child abductions in the 80s and 90s, children aren't playing outside anymore and I don't think it bodes well for the next generation. Happy mine are outside and free to be kids, just be sure to slow down when you get to my end of the street!
“ making do with less house and fewer things and vacations” - sounds like my childhood (b. 1959) and everyone else I know my age. There was less emphasis on “things” and more on the importance of family than it seems these days. Fine, I’ll shut my OK Boomer mouth now.
We sucker punched kids over this pandemic and showed them that they are not valued in society.
A second thing we do here is hyper protect kids to where they are afraid of any sort of risk. In other 1st world countries, the risk is known and inherent and not all bubble wrapped. We need to get back to this. Do dangerous things, thoughtfully/safely.
Exactly. We always talk about cost benefit with our kids. I was a whitewater River guide on the New and Gauley in WV in undergrad, so they know mommy is always up for a physical adventure. We are far more conservative with money than playing.
We always say if you might hurt yourself seriously and it’s not any fun it’s probably a bad idea. If it’s really fun with some risk, mitigate the risk but don’t miss out on the phone. Dead is bad, so is an empty life.
Recently it’s coming back to haunt us. 😏 Our daughter is 10, but looks 14 or 15, and she’s beautiful and spunky and has dimples and it’s terrifying. She got my thirst for risk, but I’d like to lock her in her room until she’s 30. 😂. I threaten her with a LoJack or solitary at home from time to time and she always responds with my own words “mom, a risk free life isn’t much of a life at all. There is no such thing as zero risk. You can’t put a tracking device in me or lock me up because then I wouldn’t learn how to grow up and take risks and have fun!” 😭😭😭
I had been going to San Fran frequently since 1993. I went there in 2017. Stayed in the Mission. Place was repulsive. I will never go back. My friends whose place I stayed in on that visit moved to Florida mid-pandemic. Heartbreaking what these inveterate, self-destructive and misguided Elites are doing to our country and the World for that matter.
Try reading Victor Davis Hanson. He's CA born & bred, highly thoughtful & brilliant. He's one best and most prolific current day original writers. He speaks often of the downfall of CA with a historical reference.
I remember taking our kids there for a vacation. We were walking down the sidewalk and people were stepping over a person laying there. My kids were really taken back by it as we all were. We stopped and tried to bring the person to consciousness and we were treated horribly by people passing by for stopping to check on the person. We called 911 and a rescue squad came and revived the person that was dying. We have never been back after that experience. How could people become so cold to the life that is around them that is dying. They are so concerned with controlling the world outside of San Francisco that they have died to the world they live in.
We had a similar experience spending 5 weeks in SoCal in 2019. Someone yelled at my then 5 year old son he was “wasting his time” pulling plastic bags and trash out of the LA River in Long Beach with a stick. He screamed back “that sea turtle I just saved doesn’t think so!” 😂. The homeless people everywhere was the most upsetting. Never seen anything like it (and we spend a week in the Caribbean every year). The smog, smoke, litter, and human suffering on the streets was tough to process, and not just for our kids, for us as well. We spent the whole time wondering where the heck all the community organizations were. The indifference to the suffering we saw still bothers me. We came home and stepped up our involvement with the organizations at that help people here not end up like that.
Your kid sounds absolutely fantastic. We need MORE kids just like him!
Thank you. He is a sweet kid. 💓. He gets that the fact that one person can’t fix everything is not an excuse for any one person to do nothing. And he loves nature and critters and ecology.
He was offered a job as a youth ambassador at The Aquarium of the Pacific while we were there because he knew more about ocean critters and ecosystems than most of the volunteers and some of the employees. An assistan director tracked us down one day to make the offer normally only open to kids 12 and up.
He also got into a cute debate with one volunteer. He told her the aquarium shouldn’t be promoting near shore tide turbines because they destroy “important near shore habitat where 90% of ocean life lives.” 😂. If you’ve ever met a little kid with an odd encyclopedic knowledge of some specific subject, that’s my son. He knows more about Paleontology and ecology and biosystems than 99.9% of adults, but is almost entirely uninterested in archeology because that’s “human stuff.” He also thinks the climate alarmist are “not very smart” because they are promoting stuff that “doesn’t really work” but does destroy natural habitats. 🤦♀️
Our country will need leaders like your son!
The problem is he’s far more interested in building bio systems than human political systems 😂🤣😂. From Covid he learned “a lot of adults aren’t very smart. They don’t know the definition of aerosol.” 🤦♀️
WHERE IS NANCY PELOSI??!!!!
Unfortunately I think she just bought a mansion on the coast in Florida. 😂
With “dark money” pilfered from American taxpayers …
Why - you need a stock tip?
They were all at a save-the-earth rally to ban plastic straws.
Funny Juan.... sounds like you were describing zombies. Hmmmmmmm.
If there's a silver lining to this, liberal types do not procreate at replacement values. The hope is that many of the woke ideals will be phased out from sheer lack of people.
I think that dopey little girl from Queens--the one who does skin-care and make-up videos when she's not in the roaming the House--said she "can't" have children b/c of global warming or the climate crisis or systemic racism.
That's fine with me.
LOL, pretty sure I read that Prince William in the UK has commented on how overpopulation is a problem for the Earth... and then has proceeded to have 3 children.
Leftists aren't exactly known for practicing what they preach...
But yes, overall, millennials & gen Z are having fewer kids.
A little girl named Sandy, from Westchester, ahem.
…..but she can fly private🙄
Perhaps see has a winter vagina and doesn't want to admit it.
So long as those of us who aren't woke resist sending our kids to college where they'll be indoctrinated! Considering how terribly most colleges continue to treat students wrt Covid restrictions, the decision is actually easy.
The problem isn't exclusively universities and you can still be non-woke and get a degree. Ideally the more rationale people who are having children at replacement value (or at all for that matter) are raising their kids with moral values so come college time they've hopefully had 18 years of good parenting to avoid the pitfalls of wokeness. I know it's not easy but to your point, it's integral we remove these people from power and remove corporate media's influence.
"The problem isn't exclusively universities"
Agreed, but it's a big problem.
"you can still be non-woke and get a degree."
Also agreed, but I imagine it's tough. I'm white & have a white son who's also straight*. I'd hate to send him someplace where these immutable characteristics make him a default villain! & to pay thru the nose for it?! No thanks!
I also don't think it's worth the money to go elsewhere but community college the 1st year or 2. Plus kids are more impressionable at 18 and 19 anyway.
*Have we hit the point where using the term "straight" to mean "heterosexual" is offensive?? (Since it implies homosexuality & bisexuality are somehow "crooked"/ abnormal)? I haven't heard that yet, but it wouldn't surprise me. My mark words - this Hussy is calling it!
Auburn used to have an 80% acceptance rate. Last year it was 21%. The shift is underway.
Auburn rocks!!! For the sake of both my son and daughter we won’t look on universities with an out of control number of girls > boys. It’s correlated to wokeness and disliking boys, which does neither of my kids any good. Auburn is one of the few at 50/50.
In the last 2 years at least 3 kids (that I know of) from my kids private k-12 school that were each accepted to at least one Ivy League school turned down the Ivy schools for Auburn. Paying for college wasn’t an issue for any of them. All of them felt going to top conservative private k-12 school that focuses on merit, challenges students, and demands good character had helped prepare them for life with a strong work ethic. They wanted a school to help them thrive in their future endeavors, not tell them they sucked, teaching them to be entitled, and focused on left wing activism. They didn’t think the remaining and quickly dying gatekeeping for opportunities from the Ivy schools was worth the trade off. They are also all still unvaccinated to this day and thrilled with their decision.
My youngest is unvaccinated. He attends private Episcopal school in Austin with vaccination rate of 94%. He really pressured me to get vaccinated but now that a peer has been suffering from seizures - to the point he can no longer drive - crickets on the whole subject. Never considered female - male ratio in college process. Great insight. Always enjoy your comments!
Eeekkk. My kids go to a Christian school. No official vax rate because the headmaster sent out an email the day of the first EUA saying no mandates and it was none of the parents business what children, teachers, or staff choose to be vaxxed. 😂. They have stuck with it too. Based on the unofficial survey from my kids and their friends it appears around 10% in 2nd grade and 15% in 5th. I think it might actually be lower in the high school because without pressure they quickly saw their buddies having all kinds of issues. Plus the whole high school was already naturally immune.
The high schoolers at public and other private (even Private Christian) schools in our area had immense pressure to get vaccinated, though no where I know if is even 75%, so I can’t imagine the pressure your son was under.
My logic may be flawed, but my reason in the ratio is first, what’s normal/ healthy. It’s not healthy to have 68% or 70% girls, for either the girls or boys. Second kids hear stories from older kids. If a school treats boys like crap, they aren’t telling their friends to come a lot. It goes hand in hand with wokeness. So if a school has a reasonable ratio we hope it correlates to reasonable policy implementation and is hopefully driven from the real recruiting - which is materially peer to peer.
He attends an private Episcopal school. Christian but no grace given to the unvaccinated. I can't speak to lower school but the high school is almost completely vaccinated and many are boosted. He had to be tested twice a week because he was not vaccinated. My sanity has been preserved by following Alex and a few others on Substack. I read comments like yours and don't feel alone, because my choices are completely out of step with those of the other parents. Needless to say, my husband and I are not vaccinated.
No, they're importing their children.
A valid philosophy. Unfortunately, it's generational in duration. And the US (and California) won't last long enough to see its results.
Liberals have made it very clear that they don’t like children. They themselves act like children- they can’t stand the competition from real kids!
Interesting theory.
The disdain for children exhibited by Covidians has been particularly awful. There was a post on Reddit's Lockdown Skepticism, I believe on Fauci saying kids as young as 2 had to wear masks, even outdoors for summer camp, back in June 2021. Fauci laughed when questioned about it. (I was skeptical, but watched the video. Yep, the man def laughed.)
The top comment was,
"Fuck them kids.
-CDC"
Yup. Although it's both profane & grammatically incorrect, that phrase perfectly encapsulates the CDC's attitude towards America's children.
"No, for whatever reason, the pretty girls and boys here seem particularly unable to pair off and take the final step into adulthood."
um, after seeing one parade, you will figure it out
Used to be my favorite city in the country. What a sad reality it is when policy and lifestyle in a big city squeezes out any room for little people. Well written, Alex.
As a lifer Chicagoan…I think The Windy City is on its heels with their violence problem and mayor who is hell bent on destroying all that is beautiful and hopeful there too.
She’s well on her way. The violence is directly proportional to her hair loss.
Tim Dillon refers to her as a character out of a '40s Dick Tracy/Batman comic book Rogues Gallery. The New Penguin.
Last year, here in Melbourne the most locked down city in the world, I was out for a ride during my hour of daily freedom one day last year. Suddenly I almost burst into tears and was not sure why, I then realised I had heard the laughter of the children of essential workers at a local school. After months of trying to keep the spirits of my locked-down kids up and that laughter cut to my core. I always pause at that spot when I go for a ride now to remember that laughter, to remember what they stole from us, the non essential ones.
It's incredible what these 2 years have done to us.
That's heartbreaking.
So sorry for you and all Aussies.
Children's laughter is one of the best sounds on the planet. Here's to wishing for you that your experience and memory of that moment can push you to advocate for children. Somehow our 1st world nations have forgotten their worth and this needs to change.
Here in my town, the public school that draws students from all backgrounds in the district is looking to expand. This is being met with push back from neighbors. The minute you ask them why they hate to hear the sound of children's laughter, it literally breaks them toward wanting the expansion. Keep up the good effort!
This is what decades of early sexualization and promotion of constant sex with anyone and everyone does to a community. Before the accusation flies, I’m not talking about gay people. Sexual orientation has nothing to do with early sexualization or endless casual sex. I’m also not talking about college kids experimenting a few times. I’m talking about the gender and sex ideologies that promote focus on the use of genitals for “physical pleasure” from a very young age. I’m talking about promoting the theory that sex is simply an activity for physical pleasure and promoting the fallacy it’s easy to separate emotional relationships from sex.
For decades, far longer than places like NYC, places like San Fransisco and Seattle have been telling kids to experiment with sex in endless casual relationships, to “explore” having multiple partners at once, to get as many abortions as necessary to maintain the lifestyle, and to reject the nuclear family structure that has been most successful for thousands of years across hundreds of cultures around the world.
The woke culture has been around longer than me and has long promoted to have sex with everyone, which may sound fun at 20, but particularly for women, the longer the endless streams of casual sex partners go on, the more damaging it is. A few abortions and being used as a blow up doll a decade or two doesn’t often result in women with stable mental health or committed relationships and children by 40. Certainly very conservative religions often separate from reality the other direction, but at least pro-creation is part of the goal. Reducing the number of babies and functioning families seems to be a major goal of wokeism. It shouldn’t be shocking it’s achieving that goal.
Add to that San Fransisco expensive, many communities more flush with drugs than kids, schools that teach 5 year olds it’s cool to sterilize themselves on the alter of woke fantasies around gender, and no one should be surprised that people who do want children aren’t sticking around San Fransisco that has been damaging kids and discouraging having children for 50 years.
100% accurate. And now with crap hole shows like Euphoria, I am appalled and losing hope. I heard a million families took their kids out of public schools last year to homeschool them because their eyeballs threw up when they saw what their kids were learning, and not learning (Like reading, math, etc.). I see 2 extremely parallel societies already formed. We fled Chicago last year for Florida and I'm not looking back.
I also live in a state getting slammed by people from blue states. Please, please, please don't ruin our states. Vote for freedom and against taxes, illegal aliens and big government.
The ones fleeing will vote red the ones coming because of a relocation for their job are the crazy libs.
Since both parties basically support all three (although only one is frank about it), you can't vote against them. It is similar with peace: it is never on the ballot.
They may say they support all three, but dem actions speak louder than words. (record setting illegal alien invasion, ministry of misinformation and looking the other way when highly credentialed scientists/doctors get cancelled.)
I work with a few people that live there. Every time I ask they say it's great! Love living there. But anyone who doesn't live there says it's a living hell just to drive through. What is this strange disconnect?
Just think of the movie “the hunger games” the elites living in beautiful homes, not even required to make the daily commute to there offices anymore,with great views. Being shuttled to and fro by Uber and Lyft servants to nice places where they are served on by the masked peasants. Meanwhile like Alex said the streets are devoid of life besides homeless junkies and prostitutes. They avoid seeing what’s right in front of them....on purpose.
Add in a little Fahrenheit 451 and you are Spot On
A friend recently spent two years in San Francisco. At first she loved it. Then the complaints started, but she still loved it. And finally she hated it and moved away. I think everyone has a little disconnect between their vision of a place (or thing or person), but if they aren't stubborn about it eventually reality cracks through. Maybe the people who say they love it are determined to live in the best place ever and can't admit it's not. I say this because I could see how terrible it was long before my friend realized that what she was saying about it wasn't favorable.
Is it a coincidence that the same evolution in thinking can be applied to the American University experience? As a Freshman you love it; by the time you finish your Junior year you can’t wait to get the hell out? Will Disneyland succumb to this phenomenon?
Good question. I didn't go to a US university, but this also happened to me now that you mention it. The similarity is that both SF and college are pumped up (Disney, too). So disenchantment will eventually hit. With almost anything we esteem actually. But under the disenchantment is there a solid core that makes it worth staying?
I think that's right. It's young highly online people who are attracted by the online glamour.I know many of them now transitioning to marriage and kids. Eventually they can't shut out reality. Some stay local in the burbs, they may have family roots here. The rest are heading for the exits.
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” is the opening line of Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities. The phrase suggests an age of radical opposites taking place at the same time as during the French and American revolutions in the book. The duality and paradox of different realities occurring simultaneously is quite common throughout history. We are fortunate to be the ones to have the luxury of observing it from our perches.
I heard Victor Davis Hanson say this on his podcast several months ago.
Valuable insight, Tychik.
I have been here 4 years, soon to leave, and never figured out the appeal. I was told upon my arrival, "you'll see, the people who complain about SF don't live here." Actually no, nearly everyone I have met through work or my kids' school has a nuanced view and many are making plans to leave.
What the locals seem to cling to is "if everyone hates it why is it still the most expensive place"? But that's mostly because it's so badly underbuilt. Places like Park City and Sun Valley are reaching similar property values, that's mainly because you can't build anywhere in those areas any more.
It's still a ghost town out there like Alex says. I work near the 4th street Caltrain, foot traffic during rush is maybe 5% of what it used to be. Long term this town is in real trouble.
That's insightful, thanks.
Businesses are fleeing - PayPal announced they are closing their downtown offices. The circle will close and all of San Francisco will be swallowed in liberal misery
https://techcrunch.com/2022/04/27/paypal-shuttering-its-san-francisco-office/
Same with Seattle and Amazon leaving downtown.
I lived in SF 1973-76. As a gay man, it was a dream. Lots of other gay men going about life and having fun. But after about a year, I realized that it was all a facade. People that could not leave “The City” and it was all too incestuous. I worked in the East Bay, so I had friends outside “The City”. Eventually, it all came to a halt, I had to leave. So I went to Colorado and then to Utah (this was 1976 remember - quite the culture shock from SF). I settled in Salt Lake, got a job and went to Graduate School. One night, coming home from my classes, I found my roommate sitting watching the TV news, and he was watching a report on the “Gay Plague”. The centers for this? SF, NYC, and LA. Since I traveled for my work, I did end up in the Bay Area occasionally. When I was there, I went to my old stomping grounds in the Castro and the Haight, and, they were shadows of their former selves. The point? SF has been dying for years. The digital revolution and the wealth created by Silicon Valley have done an excellent job of hiding this. But eventually, the truth comes out, and it is coming out now in the Bay Area. The people “in power” have the means to avoid the worst of the consequences. The people who really pay for this are the middle class and the poor. And it is not just SF. I have lived in LA for 35 years, and it is becoming a shithole too (for many of the same reasons). It is sad, but the “California Dream” is becoming a nightmare.
@John,
Many years ago I read a biography of Mark Twain. Twain had spent some time in SF. The book noted 'Frisco even in the 19th century had a "gay edge" to it. The book was controversial because it suggested Twain may have had "tendencies".
Another factoid. My mother was born and raised in San Francisco. But she didn't stay.
This may not be a fair question, and I certainly don't want to be impertinent, but because I appreciate your comment, I wanted to ask what you thought about the premise of Alex's comment,
It’s a “Fair Question”. I think he is correct, in general. I am not sure which part of the city he was in, but there are schools in SF, so there are children there. But are there enough children to replace the existing adults? I would say no. The cost of living there is high and it takes a lot of resources to raise children (not that I know this from personal experience). The point I was attempting to make was that SF has been dying for years. From at least the AIDS Tsunami that swept over the city in the 1980s. But with the incredible wealth that was created in the Bay Area from Silicon Valley and the Venture Capitalists that lived there, it masked a lot of the problems. But now, we are seeing that even that wealth cannot shield people from the realities of what is happening. SF is just the proverbial “tip of the iceberg”. Hope I answered your question / comment.
In many parts of the North East, the absence of children is heavily felt as well. I have the greatest respect for working moms who manage to juggle everything but I am grateful to be home with my kids while they are little (in no small part because of making do with less house and fewer things and vacations). We have many children in our neighborhood but between childcare and over-scheduling, not to mention all the unwarranted paranoia from child abductions in the 80s and 90s, children aren't playing outside anymore and I don't think it bodes well for the next generation. Happy mine are outside and free to be kids, just be sure to slow down when you get to my end of the street!
“ making do with less house and fewer things and vacations” - sounds like my childhood (b. 1959) and everyone else I know my age. There was less emphasis on “things” and more on the importance of family than it seems these days. Fine, I’ll shut my OK Boomer mouth now.
We sucker punched kids over this pandemic and showed them that they are not valued in society.
A second thing we do here is hyper protect kids to where they are afraid of any sort of risk. In other 1st world countries, the risk is known and inherent and not all bubble wrapped. We need to get back to this. Do dangerous things, thoughtfully/safely.
Exactly. We always talk about cost benefit with our kids. I was a whitewater River guide on the New and Gauley in WV in undergrad, so they know mommy is always up for a physical adventure. We are far more conservative with money than playing.
We always say if you might hurt yourself seriously and it’s not any fun it’s probably a bad idea. If it’s really fun with some risk, mitigate the risk but don’t miss out on the phone. Dead is bad, so is an empty life.
Recently it’s coming back to haunt us. 😏 Our daughter is 10, but looks 14 or 15, and she’s beautiful and spunky and has dimples and it’s terrifying. She got my thirst for risk, but I’d like to lock her in her room until she’s 30. 😂. I threaten her with a LoJack or solitary at home from time to time and she always responds with my own words “mom, a risk free life isn’t much of a life at all. There is no such thing as zero risk. You can’t put a tracking device in me or lock me up because then I wouldn’t learn how to grow up and take risks and have fun!” 😭😭😭
I regret not having more children.
Well written, wow.
He really captured the poignancy.
Yes. Underneath his carefully crafted snarky persona, lies an extremely gifted writer.
Nicely put. "Crafted"...:)
Good luck today Alex!! We are all rooting for you! ❤️
I had been going to San Fran frequently since 1993. I went there in 2017. Stayed in the Mission. Place was repulsive. I will never go back. My friends whose place I stayed in on that visit moved to Florida mid-pandemic. Heartbreaking what these inveterate, self-destructive and misguided Elites are doing to our country and the World for that matter.
By 2030, you'll be homeless and eating worms to survive....assuming you survive the clot shots.
And on special days, CK_ it could be chocolate covered or fried worms. For a treat.
And you’ll like it.
The last paragraph... some of the best thinking and writing I’ve seen in a VERY long time! Thanks for sharing!
Try reading Victor Davis Hanson. He's CA born & bred, highly thoughtful & brilliant. He's one best and most prolific current day original writers. He speaks often of the downfall of CA with a historical reference.
Agree! He’s truly brilliant!
One of the missing pieces to Ayn Rand’s work... what I’ve read... no children.
It takes a little patience, but if you wait a generation they'll all be gone. Won't that be nice.