IGX

I live in a small town with a lot of hostility. Lots of keep out signs and fences and dogs inside the fences. Lots of neighborhood watch signs. A lot of cop activity too but that's everywhere now. It seems that people want to have some kind of community activities but they hate and fear each other. It doesn't help that everyone seems to be really far out there politically, far left or MAGA. It seems to me that we should have a sense of community since it's kind of isolated but that doesn't seem to be the case. I've had some conversations with people who are way more socially connected and their impression is largely the same as mine.

What's the local mood where you are?

Things seem pretty good here. Stopped watching or reading the news at the turn of the year, so maybe things are worse, but not being informed about it. Also this site is the last social media form am currently using, so that probably helps.

About six months ago, read an article about how, over the past decade, the average American’s weekly time with friends slipped from 10 hours to 3-4. Immediately set up a weekly hangout with two buddies — last week it was The Whale, the week before it was The Shining, this week it’s a sleepover and pastry mission. Then made a list of potential friends and reached out to them too. That was intimidating to start, but it’s turned out well!

There does seem to be a lot of potential darkness (like you mentioned), so looking at it as a challenge to turn up the brightness.

I live in a pristine little slice of heaven in middle of nowhere Oregon. I must be an extreme outlier, because I've lived here for 19 years without incident. The springs/summers here are idyllic.

It's been pretty nice here overall lately. People will say hello if I do first. There are a lot of parks. There are organized youth soccer games as well as pick up games for kids from elementary school on up without adult supervision. There are basketball pickup games for kids with no adults around. I even saw a girl about ten years old shooting hoops. One of the nicest parts of my childhood was going to the elementary school yard to play sports with my friends. It wasn't organized. No adults were around. I was out of the house in the summer during the morning, afternoon and evening until dark.

Not bad.

Police who attend the same dojo say they are handling about double of daily calls today as before 2020 and Covid.