I don't want to talk about Aldean's "Small town" lyrics or video.
I do want to point out (again) that the homicide rate in GOP "small town" counties, is higher than that in Dem "big town" counties. š¤”
A white person in a red county has about as much chance of being shot as a Black person in a blue county.š¤”
(I don't know how much you know about crime in the USA, but if you have as much risk of being a victim of anything as Black people? That's not good).
The secret to not being shot in the United States is:
* Be white
* Be in a big blue city
I think it's hilarious how white folk from small towns think of New York as a dangerous place.
If you visit NYC from rural America, your chances of being shot just went *down* significantly.
If you look at victim stats, in general you see that:
* Black people shoot Black people.
* White people shoot white people.
* White people in blue counties don't point guns at each other very often.
* White people in red counties point guns at each other way too often.
That vigilante justice in red counties is often expressed by someone pulling a gun on you after a perceived traffic slight.
You can flee SF for TX because seeing homeless people scares you, but you ain't ready to see guns pulled at a fender bender, or because someone merged.š¤·šæāāļø
Fox News tells you that blue counties and states are more dangerous. But Fox News isn't real. You know this. Stop pretending that you don't know this.
Ignore the racist framing, and look at who gets shot, where, and why.
Please enjoy this Pulitzer prize winning documentary about how that small town vigilante justice works out for folks in reality.
@mekkaokereke
Truth. And Sopranos.
I thought it was a little goofy and over the top until the arrest at the end, and then I thoughtā¦ yup, that tracks.
Not enough people got shot in the end.
my friend splits her time between an urban hospital and a rural one, and yesterday we were all talking about a homicide that happened last week at the urban hospital
Another friend asked if she'd feel safer working full time at the rural hospital
She said, are you kidding me? At the rural hospital they had daily armed anti-mask protests, people trying to break into the icu with ivermectin smoothies. It's way safer in the city
@mekkaokereke @drwho Okay, so I just happened to be looking US News Best States Ranking so I looked this up, and... guess what? [edit - apologies, I missed Idaho] Only ONE red state in the top 10 for lowest crime rates.[/edit]
New Hampshire is Purple - probably Maine too, so those 2 are splits. But the rest of those 10 lowest crime states are blue.
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/rankings/crime-and-corrections
@mekkaokereke I recently almost got in a screaming match with my dad about this.
I gave up because he rarely leaves South Phoenix and I know talk radio (same code as Fox and he doesnāt have cable) will repeat the meme to him tomorrow.
Definitely good to have stats handy for next time I talk to him or anyone else though.
@eyebrowsgerri @mekkaokereke To his credit he listens and accepts reason but when I go home (weāre 2000 miles apart) he usually goes back to his routine and gets brainwashed again.
Other relativesā¦ less so on the listening part.
I do think my lecture about Jan 6 stuck at least (I live just outside DC so it was extra real).
Sometimes āthe news isnāt reporting this because of a vested interest by their ownersā does get through if that helps because it plays the game.
@mekkaokereke a couple things
1. Fox didnāt create it. Itās been a general sentiment in rural America as long as Iāve been alive
2. Thereās some law of large numbers effects here too. Tens of thousands of small towns means that if 1% are dangerous thatās going to fill up the āmost dangerous placesā list real fast. That doesnāt necessarily mean itās dangerous to live in a small town though, or that it isnātā¦
Still, most people donāt seem to be aware that the most dangerous places are rural
I remember looking at the murder rate last year and being shocked how it shook down, big cities are nowhere near the top. Like this top of the google search for State by State 2023 Murder rate https://besttoppers.com/murder-rate-by-state/
You're pretty wrong.
There have been some highway shootings in the bay area over the past few years, and that is so abnormal that it's making national news and is shocking. In Houston that type of shooting doesn't even always make the local news, let alone national news.
Road rage shootings are rare in Oakland. People in Oakland typically shoot each other for a reason.
It's very hard for people to accept that there are more random road rage shootings in Texas than Oakland.
I'm very proud of you! ššæ
I've lived in Houston too. And I know that the city of Houston alone, has about the same amount of road rage shootings as LA, SF, San Diego, Oakland, Sacramento, San Jose, Temecula, Riverside, *combined*. In fact, Houston has as many road rage shooting deaths as the *entire state* of California, including our small towns.š¤”
But sure, Oakland scary!
Yes, there are knuckleheads everywhere, including Oakland. But be realistic.
It has been said that every 17 hours, a person is shot during a road rage incident in the United States. Few are surprised by the surge in road rage violence given the ongoing pandemic and the stern gun culture; road rage shootings are already an...
OK that I agree with 100%.
People in normal countries look at us US folk saying things like, "Sure Oakland is shooty, but Texas is much more shootier! Houston is the shootiest!"
Normal people are wondering why any of us shoot each other in traffic. Like, why is this even a thing?
There are whole nations that go an entire year with zero road rage shootings.
ā„ļø That sucks. I want us to be better, and I want everyone to feel safe.
That's why I push so hard for us to focus on what really works to decrease violence, and to move away from the things that make it worse. Systemic racism makes us all less safe, and increases violence and shootings.
We've been able to reduce the number of shootings in the supposedly worst, most hopeless areas, several times in recent history. We know what works.
mekka okereke 
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