Comment by eudamoniac
5 days ago
Please don't besmirch Utah. It's one of the few high-trust societies left in this country. It's a beautiful, safe, peaceful haven and I literally never had a bad interaction there in years. And I'm not white.
5 days ago
Please don't besmirch Utah. It's one of the few high-trust societies left in this country. It's a beautiful, safe, peaceful haven and I literally never had a bad interaction there in years. And I'm not white.
It may be lovely, and it does seem to be beautiful and tranquil, and I can imagine it works well.
However, my views on it of late are informed by seeing the local police being at the beck and call of a dodgy businessman and making up shit to try and scare off an investigative Youtuber: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxZPfj8AlmY
The police were also so stupid, they accidentally released all their unredacted bodycam footage in their own press release, which revealed a pile of damning evidence against them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ih2XwNN0aVY
It's only one incident, but it doesn't scream "high-trust society". It makes me think of other corrupt small-town police forces with a bias towards residents over outsiders.
(Oh, and I also remember another Utah resident, the guy in the Cybertruck: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0Dl0TnnK0E - he has deep-seated issues and that is such a goofy vehicle. He should sell it and spend the money on therapy)
Basing your opinion about a state from two YouTube videos is a very Internet thing to do. I am quite sure I can find two YouTube videos of stupid police and people in every state and country on earth.
It is :)
But I think it's a good argument against GP's point. You may find the area you live is high-trust, kindly to neighbours, etc. But you can find stupid police and people everywhere, likely including your area. How can you be sure that visitors, neighbours, etc. agree with your experience?
Well, maybe it has changed since I lived there. Nonetheless, about 11 years ago at my daughter's kindergarten I met a black guy he grew up in New York and I said I'd lived in Utah and he said he passed through there once and he remembered walking down the street, he had big dreadlocks and I guess looked alternative (the street must have been South Temple given his description) and he was freaked out about all the weird stares he got from people and how people were locking doors as he walked by, because, and I quote, he had "never experienced anything like that place" and perhaps my own feelings about Utah affected my opinion that yes, that was very like Utah.
I can imagine that happening. It's kind of required to keep a high trust society that everyone try to share culture. That doesn't mean mormonism but it does mean dressing generally within certain bounds. That guy was basically signalling, intentionally, "I do not adhere to your norms!!" which is not going to go over well or engender trust. Not because he was black. Minorities acting and dressing in a traditional manner are respected there.
It's probably axiomatic that a high trust society and a fully liberal one where everyone does whatever they feel like are incompatible. But we've got endless places for the latter and SLC is one of the few of the former.