In this post about why some guy hates San Francisco — it’s fascinating to me how passionate people can get about their love or hate of cities, almost as fascinating to me as crazy sports fans whose loyalty to their team exceeds the outer bounds of sanity — there’s this hilarious comment from an old SNL episode:
In San Francisco last week, a birthday party for one of the area’s leading political figures, attended by the city’s Mayor, Sheriff, and members of the board of supervisors, culminated with a performance in which a dominatrix used a razor blade to carve a satanic star into the back of her male partner, then urinated on him, before finally sodomizing the man with a liquor bottle. After learning of the incident from press reports, San Franciscans expressed shock and outrage that the liquor bottle was not recycled.
Indeed. Chris Daly, take it away….
I think there’s something inherent in fanaticism about /anything/, even in the things I personally advocate, that tweaks me because extreme advocacy is usually paired with an utter inability to listen to any data to the contrary.
That said, I love SF and anyone who says anything to the contrary is just plain dumb. 😉
You appear to have given the strange post a new lease of life!
I recently visited San Francisco and I came away with quite a few realizations. The main thing I saw was that most San Franciscans are uptight about their relaxed nature (this rant only applies to the upper-class people I visited in the city). They go to extremes to appear easy going. Here are some examples:
In order to look trendy or hip, adults spend tons of money on pieces of art. Nearly every single house I visited featured some kind of artwork. Also, if you go to someone’s house and don’t recognize the artwork or haven’t heard of the artist it either means you aren’t cool enough to be in the know or the owners of the artwork aren’t rich enough to afford “real” art. It seems that if you don’t have substantial art in your house, you obviously aren’t wealthy enough.
Everyone shops at Whole Foods and belongs to a gym. If you aren’t healthy, you aren’t cool. Physical appearance is so big on this seemingly carefree and accepting atmosphere. There are no fat people though. Obesity is basically shamed in San Francisco. Because if you’re fat you’re probably eating unhealthy. And if you’re unhealthy it’s because you can’t afford expensive wholesome food or a trainer. Thus, you can’t truly be healthy and in the fitness world unless you have the funds to do so.
Everyone suddenly buys a Prius to appear environmentally friendly. Before, all the CEOs and mainstream business persons were driving around in luxury sedans and sports cars, but as soon as the whole hybrid craze took off it suddenly became uncouth to do so. So now everyone drives around in a Prius, a standard car for now. But pretty soon the real competition will come as to which hybrid car you’re driving, meaning it will once again become a sign of class as to the expense of the car you’re driving. Because the Prius is the generally accepted hybrid, this competition for car price hasn’t taken off yet. But once other companies get involved in the hybrid movement (which they already are), I believe San Francisco will be the battleground for this new market.
Many kids have had psychologists. In this easy going world the parents want to make sure that their kids are “normal” and don’t have any psychological problems. Thus, they send their kids to a psychiatrist more than they send them to a park. If you have psycho or disruptive kids, you obviously aren’t wealthy enough to afford psychologists to give them medication to calm them down.
Many kids get braces at an early age. As I mentioned before, appearance carries a lot of weight in San Francisco. Even if your kids have to have braces two or three times, they will have straight teeth or will be in the process of getting straight teeth for most of their young pre-teen lives. In many peoples’ eyes, kids without dental care might as well move to West Virginia.
That being said, you can’t live up to many of these standards unless you’re sucking the tit of American capitalism, which is what most San Franciscans have to do. Thus, they find themselves in this weird catch 22 where they have to work the industry their liberalism defies in order to make it appear as though they are living the happy and easy going life. San Franciscans make it a point to show their young, hip, liberal nature. Yet are they?
Now, coming from a totally different lifestyle this is a very bizarre atmosphere for me (an atmosphere I probably have just analyzed with an arguably subjective approach). However, this doesn’t mean I hate San Francisco, I just think that it’s an interesting place. It’s a beautiful town complete with fun and exciting places to go and interesting people to meet. I just find it odd how hard some San Franciscans try to appear hip. The complexities of the upper-class people that live in the city should not be ignored.