memes

I agree so much. Sadly it's hard to reach out with how entire neighborhoods are designed. They're designed like solitary domiciles that only exist because employees need a place to be stored when not in use.

Ours is designed where cars just disappear into garages and only people walking dogs and delivery drivers (or solicitors) use the front door. So everyone hides behind those stupid ring cameras.

"whaa but my neighbors are all assholes"

I'll admit: Not all of them!

Peoples' average temperament indeed seems set on being the "leave me alone miserable and lonely" default though.

... Or they're psychos. I live in a particularly transient city though, people move all the time, most rent, and you barely can tell there's completely different people next door one day.

I deleted all the details to avoid a wall of text, but we've lived through a couple neighborhoods where everyone knew each other, and now it's barred windows and cameras that shout "YOU'RE BEING FILMED" when you're 50 feet away.

I notice a common toxicity factor seems to be those "Muh property" NIMBYs that see a house as a "real estate investment" instead of a home. The ones who sic the HOA on people they've never met and are mad about everything. (They're probably also on Nextdoor posting about answering their door "with Smith & Wesson." Trolls.)

I randomly met a really cool neighbor on a bike ride though. He happened to have his garage open! Sadly we don't text a whole ton but he's pretty cool.

People tend to be pretty alright if you encounter them in the wild but nobody's opening their door to say hi anymore, and I also find that we're under so much immense pressure that just stopping for a chat feels like it eats a chunk out of a day. This is also not healthy...

I want community, and local friends and all that. But I dunno, I think everybody is just burned out and vulnerability is especially scary these days, especially with the violent polarization of our politics of late.

But I agree, people would be much less likely to vote to harm and oppress their neighbors if they knew more of them personally...