Coming from the Midwest I don’t think I ever felt uncomfortable expressing any emotions. I could kind of rattle off whatever I wanted to say without too much thinking.
But having lived in Los Angeles for roughly 10 years now I’m afraid to be open at all. When I first came here I was accused of hacking people’s credit cards twice because here knowing about computers means you’re a hacker. I learned to keep my mouth shut and become a robot; toxic/fake positivity is everywhere here and if you don’t play along then you’re quickly cast aside.
Wait, you think the midwest is nice for real? That was not my experience at all. I got a lot of nice polite words to your face with a lot of being nasty when your back was turned. Not everyone was that way of course, but it was the very large majority
Yeah I’m experiencing the complete opposite here. I remember being able to discuss actual topics and not talking shit every time someone turns their back in the Midwest. I don’t remember the last time I felt I could actually be myself here (California).
As someone who has lived in the Midwest, the biggest distinction is if I’m in a city, a suburb, or rural town. People in cities can’t emotionally afford to be genuine to everybody they meet. Rural folk are suspicious of outsiders, but will help you hide a body if you’re in the group. Suburbians can be a happy medium, at least in my experience.
I can believe it a bit. I feel like LA gets influenced quite a lot culturally from Hollywood, and it’s morphed into a lot of fakeness, a competitive atmosphere, and lots of people trying to front being wealthy or coming from money.
I don’t think that’s everyone, but some of my friends that moved to LA struggled with the clicky-ness of the place and another I visited had friends that all were money focused and wanting to flex their wealth or their family’s wealth.
Coming from the Midwest I don’t think I ever felt uncomfortable expressing any emotions. I could kind of rattle off whatever I wanted to say without too much thinking.
But having lived in Los Angeles for roughly 10 years now I’m afraid to be open at all. When I first came here I was accused of hacking people’s credit cards twice because here knowing about computers means you’re a hacker. I learned to keep my mouth shut and become a robot; toxic/fake positivity is everywhere here and if you don’t play along then you’re quickly cast aside.
I spent some time in the midwest and you nailed it exactly. People in the midwest aren’t nice, they’re fake nice.
Sounds like they meant LA was worse
Yes, initially I found Los Angeles much nicer but after time felt it was much more fake. You can’t really speak your mind here.
Wait, you think the midwest is nice for real? That was not my experience at all. I got a lot of nice polite words to your face with a lot of being nasty when your back was turned. Not everyone was that way of course, but it was the very large majority
Yeah I’m experiencing the complete opposite here. I remember being able to discuss actual topics and not talking shit every time someone turns their back in the Midwest. I don’t remember the last time I felt I could actually be myself here (California).
As someone who has lived in the Midwest, the biggest distinction is if I’m in a city, a suburb, or rural town. People in cities can’t emotionally afford to be genuine to everybody they meet. Rural folk are suspicious of outsiders, but will help you hide a body if you’re in the group. Suburbians can be a happy medium, at least in my experience.
I can believe it a bit. I feel like LA gets influenced quite a lot culturally from Hollywood, and it’s morphed into a lot of fakeness, a competitive atmosphere, and lots of people trying to front being wealthy or coming from money.
I don’t think that’s everyone, but some of my friends that moved to LA struggled with the clicky-ness of the place and another I visited had friends that all were money focused and wanting to flex their wealth or their family’s wealth.