Comment by profsummergig
23 days ago
It's a high trust homogenous society without lots of different groups with all kinds of grievances about the past, present and the future. And it's probably rural, where everyone knows each other.
When I read the headline, I sided with the mother. But a five-year old having to cross four roads in total to and from (with vehicles going up 25 mph legally, and who knows how fast illegally) is a bit much.
It doesn't have to be homogeneous or rural, you just have to address the grievances, make sure everyone is adequately housed, has access to medical attention, and has something to do; and then you get peace.
No that's really not sufficient
Some groups of people have absolutely endless amounts of grievances. They have made the grievances their entire personality. They will never be sufficiently satisfied with whatever concessions you make to them
We call them Americans.
>homogenous society
this is a racist dogwhistle. _Homogeneous_ is code for racial or ethnic purity.
^^^ This is exactly what I meant.
People and groups with unlimited grievances (and, unfortunately, associated revenge fantasies).
Switzerland has less of this. So you can send your 5-year old for a long walk alone, knowing that your neighbors will be looking out.
(PP: even the word "rural" is seen as a dog-whistle, e.g. by the NYTimes.)
Listen: I'm a visible minority where I'm a citizen of, myself. I'm not shilling for racial homogeneity or totalitarian philosophy at all. I'm just sharing my lived experience that when there are lots of groups with lots of grievances against each other, there's less ambient, latent trust.
It's okay to acknowledge that diversity has some downsides, and homogeny some upsides. We can be intellectually honest enough to admit this, right?
are you asking if it's ok to acknowledge the upsides of racial purity?
the things i read on hn...
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I'm in Zurich which is far from rural. Not really very homogenous either - it's 50% non-Swiss.
I would imagine they're referring to cultural and behavioral homogeneity, not necessarily national or distinctly ethnic homogeneity.
I'm sorry that you have to be around Germans, Austrians, Italians, Spaniards, and—worst of all—the French. Nobody should ever go through that.
There are 150 nationalities in Zurich.
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Imagine implying that Swiss Germans and German Germans look upon each other with familiarity instead of wariness or even suspicion.
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> It's a short walk, along a sidewalk separated from the street by 10 feet of grass. Sam would have to cross two streets with crosswalks, which she'd seen him do safely hundreds of times—including six times that morning
She was always with him when he did that. Not the same as him doing it alone.
Regardless, there are local laws against this.
She repeatedly saw him do it safely. Why should she think he wouldn't do it safely if not observed?
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> Regardless, there are local laws against this.
Yeah, but maybe the laws are stupid and should be changed?
True. I can let a kid ride a bicycle in Amsterdam but not London.
or worse, Dublin.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with a five-year-old crossing small roads like that.