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People are Getting Crazier in California

Posted by $ Abaco 7 years, 8 months ago to Culture
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I don't know about other parts of the nation. But, we were just talking about this in the office today. My life is spent commuting, working, and spending time with my family. I'm seeing things on my commute the past month or so that are really mindblowing. I think it must be a reflection of something affecting people. Just this morning there was a five car pileup in front of my office. 35 mph speed limit, no stop sights, no speed bumps, straight shot, two lanes...no reason for cars to run into each other. Yet, there it was. Almost no traffic at the time, very early in the morning. I've had a drunk stagger in front of my truck at 6:30 am, almost getting killed. I've seen multiple people passed out on drugs or booze with their legs out in the street and their upper bodies sprawled on the sidewalks. Lots of tents and boxes people sleep in almost anywhere they can place one - freeway cloverleafs, alleys, parks, creeks. I have seen multiple massive crashes lately - probably 5 in the past week - where somebody runs a red light doing at least 50 and just turns their car into a yard sale - often with bad injuries. I'm guessing people are either passing out or just playing with their phones. I'm seeing accidents like this almost every single day, sometimes a couple per day.

There's got to be something going on, right? My coworkers notice it too. Just this past week we've got stories of close calls on our commutes. Any theories on what it could be? I can't imagine. Perhaps it's just coincidence.


All Comments

  • Posted by $ allosaur 7 years, 8 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Always proofread. Especially when rushed.
    When I worked for a small time newspaper during the 70s, I was at times embarrassed by discovered careless gaffes a whole mess of people got to read.
    My editor did not edit, you see. In fact, when someone complained about a controversial subject he MY BOSS ordered me to cover, he would lie about having no control over what I wrote. Learned that due to gossip getting around. .
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  • Posted by $ allosaur 7 years, 8 months ago in reply to this comment.
    +1 Think of the reader when you write.
    Me dino has a degree in journalism but even I can screw up. So fret not.
    Almost all the time I clearly understand you.
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  • Posted by term2 7 years, 8 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Sorry. I meant that the casino security people scare away the homeless, so they arent obvious to the hotel guests, BUT in other parts of the Las Vegas, they are all over
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  • Posted by Stormi 7 years, 8 months ago
    We have snowflakes and airheads driving about while texting, sometimes on drugs.Even in the Midwest, we see people driving the wrong way on Interstates or changing lanes on city streets, at breakneck speeds and no turn signals. Some of them seem suicidal. Others seen not to know there are other people in the world. The ability to reason and realize they are not so important that they can'r go without phone contact long enough to drive, and the people in their sphere will survive without their mindless texts. We have a terrible opoid epidemic in this area, so you never know who is driving near you. Why do people need drugs, why do thye become so weak and powerless. Life is tough, accept it, and stop making the doctors and drug dealers rich.
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  • Posted by $ allosaur 7 years, 8 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Me dino recalls hearing that a lot of people have been made to disappear beneath the sand all about Vegas but that was a reference to gangsters activity..
    Doubt a homeless person is worth a bullet to a gangster and especially not any shovel work.
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  • Posted by term2 7 years, 8 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Maybe random homeless people get eaten by the alligators and killed off by the snakes down there !! Not many natural disaster and difficulties here in Vegas. Even less in San Francisco, the home of homeless people
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  • Posted by $ allosaur 7 years, 8 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I don't see that many homeless in Alabama, which I guess makes unusual encounters all the more memorable.
    Driving, I was entering an overpass above I-20/59 out in the boonies halfway between Birmingham and Tuscaloosa.
    Coming the other way on the overpass walked a homeless man who wore a backpack. No otherr traffic or pedestrians were around.
    The homeless man was yelling at me with eyes all ablaze.
    Me dino supposed the man was angry about motorists ignoring him.
    So I ignored him.
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  • Posted by Dobrien 7 years, 8 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Speaking of Malibu where Cher had issues with the city council for building too high of a wall around her nest. She is like the pope they both have huge walls and protest Trump racism for trying to building one for OUR Country
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  • Posted by Dobrien 7 years, 8 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Created by a liberal policy and mild weather. What a sad State of dispare . I have a friend who lived in Venezuala in the 70's , he loved it then .
    Now it is destroyed. It only takes one generation.
    When the house of cards falls for the Pelosi ,Shifty, Swallwells , Waters ,Brown , Holders,
    Feinkenstien comes down you may have a chance.
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  • Posted by term2 7 years, 8 months ago in reply to this comment.
    The homeless here are "entitled" homeless, using their "plight" to attract donations so they dont have to work. They are pretty brazen too- dont give them money and they either call you names, or just walk away and go on to the next "mark". I see them come into the fast food places casing the joint for guilty looking people. The black dudes go for the overweight white chicks who I see usually giving them money. Its just a sick culture of all this begging
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  • Posted by $ allosaur 7 years, 8 months ago in reply to this comment.
    The only time I passed through Vegas, spending the night and not losing much by playing quarter slots, it was 1973, seeing the Southwest after getting out of the service. Any homeless seen? Zero.
    In California we saw a lot of who my brother called, "Yesterday's hippies" were out stranded by the highways trying to thumb and flag us down for a ride.
    Saved a bunch of money in the serve, So me dino was carrying a lot of cash and travelers checks and didn't want anything to do with any strangers.
    Me dino was not thinking of yesterday's hiippies as homeless. Maybe I should have. Naw, due to them all being young methinks most had a home to go back to..
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  • Posted by GaryL 7 years, 8 months ago
    I was in Cal. in 1970 while in the USN and while in San Diego I thought I would always love to live there. From NY and after retiring we went to SD to look into moving there last year. I was absolutely amazed at how the place had changed and instead of spending the week we had planned we left the very next day. What a complete waste land it had become in less than 45 years. My wife had never been out of rural NY and she was horrified that I was so intent on moving to San Diego. She had seen all the pictures of me and my sailor buddies from Mission Bay and the beach and was thrilled to be going. She can't even listen to her favorite Beach Boys albums any more. NY is a cesspool too but as long as we remain away from any of the metro areas we don't see it though we do feel the pinch of our liberal leaders and the taxes, regulations and high cost of living. Where to go will be the question for the ages and as soon as we get to that place I am willing to bet all the carpet baggers like us will follow and sadly bring their progressive attitudes, wants and desires with them and ruin where ever they land.
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  • Posted by MinorLiberator 7 years, 8 months ago
    Haven’t read other responses, so this is “virgin”.

    Tragic, but IMO as an objectivist and lifelong Economist, this is real, and not coincidence.

    It signifies the early symptoms of a breakdown in civil social order, starting with the moral and mental breakdown or at minimum distraction of individuals of all “classes”.

    That it is happening in Far Left California is not surprising. The stresses of the misallocations of valuable resources (which unlike the myth and propaganda du jour, is caused by the essentially Socialist governments there, NOT Capitalism) leads to failures and inequalities through all of society. But in the end, those affected are individuals, and these behaviours a result of stresses too overwhelming to handle.
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  • Posted by SamAnderson 7 years, 8 months ago
    I grew up in North San Diego county, loved CA back then, but left 20 years ago due to progressive decline in QOL. It is sad to see the negative changes. Its like having a beautiful ex-girlfriend who becomes a crack whore.
    On another note, it seems that people everywhere I go recently (last 2 months especially) are significantly more irritable and on edge. I wonder if there isn't some collective unconsciousness about 1) political unrest stirred by the 7/24 news cycle and 2) the recognition that despite politicians giving us 'the economy has never been better' talk, we are walking the edge of an economic precipice. If so, I wouldn't expect to see more civil behavior in the near future.
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  • Posted by DrZarkov99 7 years, 8 months ago
    Poor drivers can be found anywhere. They just differ in the kind of insanity you witness. Makes me look forward to self driving cars.
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  • Posted by Orwellian 7 years, 8 months ago in reply to this comment.
    You're almost correct, I live in one of the few "red" counties in Kalifornia and the homeless issue is out of control all across the state. This is a state wide problem created by liberal policy.
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  • Posted by term2 7 years, 8 months ago in reply to this comment.
    It seems like a total lack of courtesy, perhaps fueled by the idea that things are going to disintegrate at any moment. This might also account for the popularity of WALKING DEAD. Subtract out the zombie thing and replace it by hordes of looters after an apocalypse event removes all traces of civilization.
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  • Posted by jmmayka1 7 years, 8 months ago in reply to this comment.
    It did go blue and yes, they have been coming here in droves for decades . . . :(

    I-25 and I-70 are both almost completely undriveable now . . .

    - verified by a CO native still living here.
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  • Posted by Herb7734 7 years, 8 months ago
    You're still in the "rat race." If you were retired like me, livivng in a rural-ish area you wouldn't see as much of the madness. However, I must admit that I was the victim of some craziness. Some jerk who claimed PTSD rear-ended me at a red light and then SUED ME! He hit me so hard that he pushed me into the rear of the car stopped in front of me and the air bags deployed.
    my wife, a mini person got smacked in the face with the bag giving her two black eyes that cosmetics could not make disappear. He was driving a scooter in order to get around. When we went to court, I had my handy dandy NRA pocket knife on me and I was very tempted to aerate his tires. My BW who has been with me for 64 years saw what I guess was a certain expression on my face and immediately knew what I was thinking jabbed me rather forcefully in the ribs with her elbow. I got the message and left the tires of the scooter alone.
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