I Hate Seattle

Hell is not hot. Hell is cold. Hell is actually freezing. It is. I know this because I currently reside in Hell. Seattle is Hell. Hell is abandonment. Hell is duplicity and not knowing who to trust. Hell is not being able to be yourself. Hell is eternal judgement. Seattle is the enforcer of such petty judgements. Hell is being frozen out of connection with other human beings. Hell is contagious. You live here long enough, you become a tormentor, circulating the cold breeze that permeates the soul of this city. Hell is self doubt. Hell is madness. Madness originates in a singular, lonely state of mind. Me and my wife are working hard to get the fuck outta this Hell-hole. We are surviving off of every last drop of spiritual warmth we can generate in the meantime until we finally do leave. This has nothing to do with religion. It has everything to do with staying positive in a negative place. Progression and intellectual propriety be damned if it means feeling like this. I would rather live in the fucking Bible belt with people spouting off religious jargon, as long as there is a little bit of warmth. Just a little. Just a little sincerity. Just a little eye contact. Just a little conversation. Just a little realness. Hell is an illusion. Quit making it so fucking real.

where was I in my explosive rant? Oh yes, passive aggression.

I never heard of passive aggression until I came here. In the south it is almost non-exsistent. You say what you mean, and mean what you say. And if you are delicate with words, then that's what you are, delicate. There's nothing wrong with tact and diplomacy, but you still say what you have to say. Here, people will judge you relentlessly, without even getting to know you, and then close off any possible way of ever reconciling your differences. You are simply DEAD to them, and you haven't even given them a reason to be pissed off. If you had, there's no way of knowing it, because they just won't SAY IT.

Hell, maybe they feel it's not worth it to get to know you. People here seem to pride themselves on having Darwinian standards for everything. If you're not attractive or without the resources they are currently on the prowl for, then you're not worth getting to know. Now, they won't own this crass shallowness. At least your LA socialite has a certain self awareness of his superficiality, and will usually wear it on his sleeve. Seattlelites will just feign ignorance. They have a delusional justification for everything....

So why am I still here, you ask? Because I moved here from the sticks of Bama, and this is the first city i've ever lived in. I figured I would give it a benefit of a doubt. I haven't been a complete hermit since my arrival either. I've made just enough flimsy acquaintances to pull me through. Two years ago, I met a wonderful girl, from here no less, and we are now happily married.

I still don't really have any friends other than my wife. But you know what, I can't go around pointing my finger at my environment without also pointing the finger at myself. The one thing I can say about this place is that with it's numbing rain, isolation and intellectual leanings it forces you to be introspective. I have grown more, spirtually and mentally, in Seattle, than in the 21 formative years I spent in Alabama.

I will always see Seattle's shortcomings, and believe me, I will continue to post (perhaps less epicly). Now if I can make only one good, solid, male friend then I will be socially content.

When I first moved here from Alabama, about six years ago, I was absolutely enchanted by Seattle. The lush greenery, handsome skyline, diversity of cultures and counter cultures, and so forth were all very pleasing to my naive, southern eye. But after I settled here for about six months, I noticed that all isn't as it seems. Even though this is a very pretty city, it is extremely empty on the inside.

In the south, I considered myself to be liberal minded and always equated liberalism with tolerance, open mindedness and harmony. In contrast to the loud mouthed bigotry of SOME republicans, the southern bred liberal was mostly a progressive and peaceful person, who considered both sides of any argument, and had a great sense of humor about it. Now, don't get me wrong, not everybody was that balanced with communication, but you generally knew where you stood with a person, liberal or conservative.

Disclaimer: Now before I make any blanket statements, let me say that not everybody is as I will describe. I will just use Seattleite as a generalization of what i've seen for the most part. I'm going to let off some steam now...

Seattleites are NOT nice. They are not tolerant of differences, and are very elitist. They form closed off cliques of people whose image and resources they feel they can immediately benefit from. And even though they are nerds for the most part, (which is not bad) they are also extremely superficial. Customer service is poor and I have often felt that the person behind the counter was mocking me. People here act like grown up kids. Not that they have a child like appreciation for life, but like they are grown up, spoiled brat, rich kids who pout anytime you say something that bursts their little Seattle bubble. They are passive agressive. I didn't even know what passive aggressive was until I came to this place, where the word is demonstrated on a moment to moment basis...

Ugh! I'm running out of time and have to go to work. I'll be back for part 2.

So I've seen many discussions on city-data.com and other places about the "Seattle Freeze", meaning that people here are so overwhelmingly nice, but just won't make close friendships. It's continually emphasized how politeness is supposed to be a core part of the Seattle character (unlike "out east" which as we all know from listening to the descriptions of Seattleites is some sort of post-apocalyptic dystopia awash with violence and cruelty at every turn).

However, I haven't observed politeness in Seattle people at all.

Let's see, where should I start.... Whenever I come across a neighbor in my apartment building I always give them a warm hello. 90% of the time they just continue to stare at their feet while breathing through their mouths. Once in a while I might get an unintelligible grunting noise. I guess that counts as a greeting in Seattle-speak? One fellow was so distraught that I made a casual mention about the current weather condition that he literally slammed his shoulder hard against the elevator door because he couldn't get out fast enough.

Then if I walk out onto the street, there is usually at least one pile of dog crap on the sidewalk. I guess "polite" people like leaving messes for others to step in? And as was mentioned already on other threads, while trying to walk anywhere people have a real penchant for plowing right into you even if they have the rest of the sidewalk to use. Bicyclists are, of course, too busy saving the earth to have any consideration for inconsequential things like laws or pedestrians.

And then there are the drivers.... Well, there have already been so many threads about how terrible Seattle drivers are that I don't feel the need to reiterate, but in the context of politeness it's pretty obvious that Northwesterners sure as hell don't give a shit about the well-being of anyone else around them when they are behind the wheel.

Customer service? Don't even get me started. It is just so obviously and consistently worse here than anywhere else I have ever lived or visited. I've never had so many people who I was trying to give money to treat me like shit.

The only place I've seen anything vaguely resembling politeness in the Northwest is Portland, but there is still a stiff, forced demeanor about it, like an 8-year-old who knows they have to smile and say "please" and "thank you" only because their parents are standing right behind them. It comes across as insincere and fake, but at least they're making some sort of effort, I suppose.

So anyway, is there some special place or time I need to go to in order to observe Seattle politeness? Like only on the second Thursday of month in Magnolia when the stars and planets are aligned in some magical way? I would seriously like to know. I am very much looking forward to my first experience with Seattle politeness.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roC_nsdyi1I

Actually the comments were more poignant than the video itself.

A few things I noticed about the video:
1) "Seattle is a microcosm of a larger social trend"
WTF? Seattle isn't a microcosm of shit. Seattle is it's own little fucked up bizarro world. This woman clearly needs to get out of the Northwest more often.

2) "Seattle people are polite"
I haven't found the people here polite at all. For example if I say hello to one of my neighbors in my apartment building, more than half the time they don't even respond, they just stare in my general direction with this completely vacuous look in their eyes.

3) "Belltown used to be a socially thriving artist's community"
Translation: "It's all the transplants fault!"
Again, this woman really needs to get out of the Northwest and experience the rest of the world. Guess what, lady? Technology and the internet have exploded everywhere in the past 15 years, not just Seattle! People use computers in other places too! And in the rest of the world people still manage to act like human beings!