I decided to post this topic here because this topic gets a bit political. First a bit of a backstory about myself.
I live in the Austin metro area and Austin is a very liberal and progressive city. I am a tech worker and generally considered the 'privileged' type because of my income and line of work. I am also a African American and most of my life, up until the point that I moved to Austin has been what most would consider 'less privileged'. We were evicted out of several homes and lost several cars but it was largely due to my mother and father's inability to cooperate. I had a very unstable upbringing and getting my foot on the ground was like stepping on sand, it changed dramatically when I was finally able to escape my troublesome family and able to live life for myself and be my own boss. I started studying a lot, and sacrificed a lot of time and devotion toward self improvement because I felt that if I didn't, I was going to end up back with my parents in Georgia, I was never going to be able to own a home, and I was never going to be able to afford the expensive $80,000 jaw surgery I needed.
I lived in an apartment in Austin proper for about 2 years and while I was doing that, I studied every night to progress my skill in the tech industry so I could earn a higher salary and buy a house before housing became unaffordable due to the high demand of living in Austin. At that point in time I wasn't making enough to buy a house while also footing my day to day bills. It was always on my radar but I didn't foresee it happening easily so I was looking to obtain a higher income.
Moving to Austin introduced me to liberalism at its core. I started to see the effects more clearly first hand. The first thing I noticed in Austin was the large homeless problem. There were tent cities everywhere. At first, I sympathized with these people believing that these were people who were legitimately priced out of a place to live. I at first supported the liberal policies because they seemed humanitarian and supportive of victims. Later, Austin's mayor Steve Adler removed all homeless camping restrictions allowing to camp wherever and however they wanted including in front of private property and businesses. They also made it difficult to prosecute them if they committed any form of crime. They enacted these policies without passing a vote to the tax payers. I was uneasy about this initially but still accepted it.
I joined an online forum community that focuses on the city, real estate, development and current events for the city. I grew to knew the regular posters quite well quite quickly. There were three different dynamic of posters. Liberal, Conversative and Moderate. For the most part I was moderate. There was a poster there that was a liberal progressive social worker that constantly looked for ways to initiate arguments with other posters, and eventually myself too when I stood up to her. Basically, she was jealous of all of the growth and tech workers moving into the area which was affecting affordability as well and there was some merit to that
I continued progressing in my career and earned my way to a $100k a year job which was a salary I didn't think I would ever achieve earlier in my life, however; it was still borderline when comparing housing prices and the finances I needed for my jaw surgery. I had to make a choice between my jaw surgery or buying a house. I chose to put off my jaw surgery and I bought a home in the suburbs. I was immediately condemned by the social worker who constantly demeaned my posts and put me down for moving out to the burbs instead of choosing to rent in 'hip Austin' ... that poster has lived in Austin for twice as long as I have lived but continues to rent in Austin because she doesn't want to live far from the things she likes. To me that comes off as self-entitled. She was a heavy mocker but I eventually started mocking back and others joined in with me and put her down pretty hard because she was constantly coming against people who were legitimately working their way up the ladder. She stopped after that. The one thing about her that made it difficult for me to condemn was that she was a social worker which requires a Masters Degree but has a overall lower salary cap which is why I didn't want to go heavy handed on her at first. I did tell her that if I were in her shoes I would likely find an additional side hustle or do social working on the side until I got to where I wanted to be then pick social working up again full time.
Time goes on, things are relatively happy for awhile ... but I also started really researching liberal cities and liberal policies and how they have impacted cities like Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles and so forth. I at that time was not a conservative or a liberal. I was against Donald Trump at that time but I also started to notice how the democratic party was twisting the media by spreading propaganda that never happened the way it was explained or changing media after it was released. I was against the defense of George Floyd and making him into a hero only because he was black. I am black too but George Floyd made some very blatant choices in his life that defined his lifestyle as a criminal and regardless or what race, I see a criminal as a criminal.
All too often in the Austin forums I witnessed the defense of criminals only because of race, minority class but not act or deed. It weighed on me and I started eventually speaking up against it because it takes the merit away from being a law abiding citizen. I witnessed the shooting of Garrett Foster by Daniel Perry. I had no empathy for Garrett Foster because he pointed an AK-47 into Perry's Window. The original news article even stated this but it was quickly removed and reconstructed to criminalize Daniel Perry stating that Perry made posts on social media that he was premeditating a conflict against BLM. In reality he was explaining how to defend yourself in an ongoing protest incase you ran into one given how spontaneous they were happening, unfortunately he was unlucky enough to find himself needing to put this into practice.
I started really reflecting on our actual rights in protests, our rights when it comes to police detainment arrests and quickly came to learn how much our society is unaware of due process and legality. I started offering insight where I could be largely everyone was opinionated and while they did at least hear me out, their opinions did not change.
I ran into financial problems because right after buying my house I was laid off due to Covid-19 and went unemployed for almost an entire year while looking. After things opened and I found another job, I started doing Uber + Working. Ubering after work and during weekend nights and between the two I boosted my salary up to about $200k. I was hustling quite a bit but still couldn't afford my jaw surgery.
Then entered the epidemic of remote work. I started really pushing it. I acquired 4 remote jobs + Uber. I was waking up at 4am and Ubering till 9am, came home, worked.. after work then I would go back out and Uber some more. I pushed myself up between $400 - $500k doing this. I never in my life thought I would ever see salary numbers like this, but at this point it was also a need. I started to pay for my jaw surgery but still paid attention to Austin itself.
I live in the Austin metro area and Austin is a very liberal and progressive city. I am a tech worker and generally considered the 'privileged' type because of my income and line of work. I am also a African American and most of my life, up until the point that I moved to Austin has been what most would consider 'less privileged'. We were evicted out of several homes and lost several cars but it was largely due to my mother and father's inability to cooperate. I had a very unstable upbringing and getting my foot on the ground was like stepping on sand, it changed dramatically when I was finally able to escape my troublesome family and able to live life for myself and be my own boss. I started studying a lot, and sacrificed a lot of time and devotion toward self improvement because I felt that if I didn't, I was going to end up back with my parents in Georgia, I was never going to be able to own a home, and I was never going to be able to afford the expensive $80,000 jaw surgery I needed.
I lived in an apartment in Austin proper for about 2 years and while I was doing that, I studied every night to progress my skill in the tech industry so I could earn a higher salary and buy a house before housing became unaffordable due to the high demand of living in Austin. At that point in time I wasn't making enough to buy a house while also footing my day to day bills. It was always on my radar but I didn't foresee it happening easily so I was looking to obtain a higher income.
Moving to Austin introduced me to liberalism at its core. I started to see the effects more clearly first hand. The first thing I noticed in Austin was the large homeless problem. There were tent cities everywhere. At first, I sympathized with these people believing that these were people who were legitimately priced out of a place to live. I at first supported the liberal policies because they seemed humanitarian and supportive of victims. Later, Austin's mayor Steve Adler removed all homeless camping restrictions allowing to camp wherever and however they wanted including in front of private property and businesses. They also made it difficult to prosecute them if they committed any form of crime. They enacted these policies without passing a vote to the tax payers. I was uneasy about this initially but still accepted it.
I joined an online forum community that focuses on the city, real estate, development and current events for the city. I grew to knew the regular posters quite well quite quickly. There were three different dynamic of posters. Liberal, Conversative and Moderate. For the most part I was moderate. There was a poster there that was a liberal progressive social worker that constantly looked for ways to initiate arguments with other posters, and eventually myself too when I stood up to her. Basically, she was jealous of all of the growth and tech workers moving into the area which was affecting affordability as well and there was some merit to that
I continued progressing in my career and earned my way to a $100k a year job which was a salary I didn't think I would ever achieve earlier in my life, however; it was still borderline when comparing housing prices and the finances I needed for my jaw surgery. I had to make a choice between my jaw surgery or buying a house. I chose to put off my jaw surgery and I bought a home in the suburbs. I was immediately condemned by the social worker who constantly demeaned my posts and put me down for moving out to the burbs instead of choosing to rent in 'hip Austin' ... that poster has lived in Austin for twice as long as I have lived but continues to rent in Austin because she doesn't want to live far from the things she likes. To me that comes off as self-entitled. She was a heavy mocker but I eventually started mocking back and others joined in with me and put her down pretty hard because she was constantly coming against people who were legitimately working their way up the ladder. She stopped after that. The one thing about her that made it difficult for me to condemn was that she was a social worker which requires a Masters Degree but has a overall lower salary cap which is why I didn't want to go heavy handed on her at first. I did tell her that if I were in her shoes I would likely find an additional side hustle or do social working on the side until I got to where I wanted to be then pick social working up again full time.
Time goes on, things are relatively happy for awhile ... but I also started really researching liberal cities and liberal policies and how they have impacted cities like Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles and so forth. I at that time was not a conservative or a liberal. I was against Donald Trump at that time but I also started to notice how the democratic party was twisting the media by spreading propaganda that never happened the way it was explained or changing media after it was released. I was against the defense of George Floyd and making him into a hero only because he was black. I am black too but George Floyd made some very blatant choices in his life that defined his lifestyle as a criminal and regardless or what race, I see a criminal as a criminal.
All too often in the Austin forums I witnessed the defense of criminals only because of race, minority class but not act or deed. It weighed on me and I started eventually speaking up against it because it takes the merit away from being a law abiding citizen. I witnessed the shooting of Garrett Foster by Daniel Perry. I had no empathy for Garrett Foster because he pointed an AK-47 into Perry's Window. The original news article even stated this but it was quickly removed and reconstructed to criminalize Daniel Perry stating that Perry made posts on social media that he was premeditating a conflict against BLM. In reality he was explaining how to defend yourself in an ongoing protest incase you ran into one given how spontaneous they were happening, unfortunately he was unlucky enough to find himself needing to put this into practice.
I started really reflecting on our actual rights in protests, our rights when it comes to police detainment arrests and quickly came to learn how much our society is unaware of due process and legality. I started offering insight where I could be largely everyone was opinionated and while they did at least hear me out, their opinions did not change.
I ran into financial problems because right after buying my house I was laid off due to Covid-19 and went unemployed for almost an entire year while looking. After things opened and I found another job, I started doing Uber + Working. Ubering after work and during weekend nights and between the two I boosted my salary up to about $200k. I was hustling quite a bit but still couldn't afford my jaw surgery.
Then entered the epidemic of remote work. I started really pushing it. I acquired 4 remote jobs + Uber. I was waking up at 4am and Ubering till 9am, came home, worked.. after work then I would go back out and Uber some more. I pushed myself up between $400 - $500k doing this. I never in my life thought I would ever see salary numbers like this, but at this point it was also a need. I started to pay for my jaw surgery but still paid attention to Austin itself.
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