<p>Why do threads like this become a rehash of political perspectives? It’s disheartening. </p>
<p>The number of glib responses restates the obvious: that no one listens, just talks.</p>
<p>I have to stop even reading threads like this because attempts to contribute facts are merely excuses for people to show they have no interest in discussing facts but instead in saying what they believe. </p>
<p>Really. Why the heck do any of you care where a person chooses to live? Surely people have their reasons for their choices. I can point to a new paper that says, for example, that people move to high cost locations because those provide a level of “amenities” - which is a defined term that includes a lott - AND the growth in those amenities has exceeded what the rather complicated mathematical model says should happen if life were as simple as we might imagine. The implication, to be clear, is that people make choices, yes personal choices, that we can examine in the aggregate but which don’t matter at all when it comes to your personal choice and, guess what, many of those choices may surprise you or me or even all of us. </p>
<p>But I would bet $1000 that no one would read that paper. Or that no one would read the paper - dismissed out of hand - by the Boston Fed that looks at different social spending rates in New England. Why? Because people would rather say what they want to believe and because actual research takes time and requires an open mind.</p>
<p>In another thread, I saw a person ask about a throat spray which claims to be effective “medicine”. In less than 5 minutes, I found out it is your basic advertising lie; the product is nothing but the same stuff you find in any mouthwash and can be sold because it is listed as safe by the FDA. The marketers slide past the truth that it is useful in small but meaningful ways against basic bacterial infections like gingivitis but that it does nothing about viruses. Anyone take the time to research things rather than repeat what websites say? </p>
<p>Anyone tell you that Hitler confiscated guns? It’s a total lie, one btw that the Aryan Nation, not a friend to Jews, has been getting right for decades (because they refer to Weimar, which had very strict gun regulation, as “Jewish” because some Jews were involved). But you’ll hear it and many will repeat it. I saw in the last gun thread a reference to a very large number of gun uses to protect individuals and checked the source only to discover - duh - that it was a complete distortion of a paper that actually said essentially the opposite. Anyone bother to check sources?</p>
<p>In my marriage, I try to remember my wife doesn’t need to hear every day the same exact things. I try to find new things to talk about and ways to surprise her. I vary things. Why? Here’s a great life lesson: I had 2 cats who were brothers and they fought every day. Over 12 years they worked on moves, changing them, trying to take the other by surprise. They could fight because they trusted the other would never cause actual harm. They worked at their moves and that worked on their relationship. Even when one was near death, he used his light weight to spring a new move on his brother by leaping into his face and winning that round. </p>
<p>We all need a cat to fight with. But that requires work. Instead we say a bunch of stuff over and over and over without variation. These conversations are not as advanced as 2 cats fighting because the cats actually work at finding something new to say. Just repeating your beliefs is like being a lazy cat who does the same fighting move each time.</p>
<p>At its best the internet is a place where cats can fight because no one can actually be harmed. But we demonstrate daily that cats get life more than people do. They try. We just talk, talk, talk because the only effort we want to make is to repeat what we believe.</p>
Meaning people of many colors, not just one. Many cultures, not just one. Many religions (or NO religions) and not just one way to worship, or not. Many cuisines, and not just European-based.</p>