Nope. I don't buy it. People can't move around as freely as you describe unless they are (read: can afford) willing to be jobless/undergo a major career downgrade or are receiving support from other people to facilitate the move.

Being able to choose where you live based on politics/ideology is HUGE privilege. Unfortunately, the ability to "move the fuck away from there" is not always an option.

A combination of several/all of the following (assuming you are talking about present day).

This was sort of my thought.

I agree with this, too.

True, but who you live amongst plays a part. I coexist with some real-life I Spit on Your Grave types over here, and yeah, "friendly face" isn't exactly the first thing I envision when driving down those back country roads.

I hear ya. She probably lives around fairly progressive, like minded people. I reside in Southern Missouri, and I would certainly think twice about approaching the doorstep of a stars and bars waving gut toter late at night. Of course being a minority will set them off, but probably other things do as well.

Also a class/political component, which she is signaling towards. I'm guessing you live in not only a white neighborhood, but an educated, liberal, upper-middle class one? I'm also white, but I live in southern Missouri, which has a strong conservative/gun zealot/ignorant/crazypants contingency. Things would, of…

Have you reminded him of how your labor is paying for his Social Security and Medicare? Welfare!

Yeah, I thought so, too. She was trying to show how hip and aware of the pop culture that "the kids" like that she was. *Cringe*

I agree. Especially the girl ones. "Stripper names," as they are often called.

I was like your brother for a long time. Absolutely petrified by being in the midst of any sort of conflict, disagreement, debate, etc. Awful.

Grew up in a similar household, with the issued largely caused by a parent with an undiagnosed personality disorder. Walking on eggshells constantly. It really messes you up. It wasn't until I was in my 30s that I realized I didn't have to be terrified of conflict and live in constant fear of people yelling at me,…

Sure, but there is a medicalized, diagnostic component to calling something "mental illness," which is problematic when the terminology is mobilized be people lacking the requisite expertise to render said diagnosis.

Really? I don't think that their offense is "odd." In fact, there were some good points buried in there. Chief among those: 1."Mental illness"is not a generic, catch-all term for understanding extremely bad behavior. 2. Non specialists should be careful when deploying this terminology and 3. Sometimes the focus should…

Yes. There is more than a smidgen of willful ignorance on her part-I wonder if she is milking it.

YES, THIS!

Alcohol consumption by women has also been found to cause rape, which is why doctors recommend only one glass for women, but men get to safely enjoy two.

You are being honest, not sarcastic, right?

Seriously. I despise all versions of that person's argument. Does that mean if we can uncover something worse than the India incident, then we should disregard that as well? Yeesh.