• millie@slrpnk.net
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    6 months ago

    As a late night cab driver, if you’re ever wondering why I’m on the street rather than the driveway in your sketchy, pickup truck filled suburban neighborhood, this is why.

    Give me a shady looking industrial district or run down residential neighborhood over semi-rural suburbia any day of the week. I feel much safer.

    • john89@lemmy.ca
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      6 months ago

      Yikes.

      I’m like the exact opposite, but it’s mostly because I’ve had bad experiences with gangbangers.

      • Got_Bent@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        I was lily white guy living in ground zero of MS13 gangland in Los Angeles in the early 2000s for four years. I know it’s crazy, but best neighbors I ever had. We all bbq’d together, watched each other’s kids, and got along well.

        One morning I was taking a bus to work. Two guys robbed me while I was standing at the bus stop. I had fifteen dollars, which I happily gave to them.

        I went over to my neighbor that evening and told him what happened.

        The next day, there was fifteen dollars in my mailbox.

        I moved from there to high end HOA in Texas and holy hell it was miserable. I hated them all. They were the nosiest, most judgemental assholes imaginable. One lady would go walking down the alleys checking how many beer cans people had in their recycling and called the police on one house charging them with child neglect because of beer cans in their recycling bin. Fuck that neighborhood forever.

        (There’s a funny coda to the robbery. I smoked a lot back then. When they were done shoving the gun in my ribs and walking away, I blurted out, “guys, I’m stressed. Do one of you have a light?” and I swear on a stack of books of your choice that one of them turned around and lit my cigarette)

        • Dr. Bluefall@toast.ooo
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          6 months ago

          There’s a certain weird honor in lighting the cigarette of the guy you just robbed. It’s kinda respectable.

            • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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              6 months ago

              “It wasn’t personal, it was just racial. If we’d known you were one of the good white people we wouldn’t have robbed you. You’re not like those other ones”

        • millie@slrpnk.net
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          6 months ago

          This is real. I’ve had folks in my cab that clearly were trying to probe my boundaries to see if I’m an easy target who immediately switched gears the moment I showed my personality. Just because someone is desperate doesn’t mean they want to fuck over someone who’s cool with them and is real. The way you carry yourself makes a difference.

          It’s pretty obvious if you meet me in person that I’m a broke artist who cares about real people and detests fake corporate bullshit. That’s not really an appealing target and I have fuck all to give them anyway.

          But if some fuck shoots me for being on their street while being trans, or literally just someone they don’t recognize, I don’t get the chance to show how I carry myself.

          • set_secret@lemmy.world
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            6 months ago

            Weird the US slang version comes before the actual definition. Someone needs to edit that Wikipedia article.

            Every other dictionary (Including US ones)

            gangbang /găng′băng″/

            noun

            1. Sexual intercourse forced upon one person by several others in rapid succession.
            2. Sexual intercourse involving several people who select and change partners.
            3. Sexual intercourse involving more than two persons, especially with a high proportion of men.
            4. A street gang attacking random people on the streets and/or committing gang crimes.

            intransitive verb

            1. To participate in a gangbang, either consensually or as an aggressor.
            2. To participate in violent gang-related activities.
            3. To subject (someone) to a gangbang.
            • force@lemmy.world
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              6 months ago

              Whether a term is characteristic of a certain dialect or region isn’t generally considered all that much when it comes to order on Wiktionary, unless it’s an “obscure” dialect. I contribute a lot to Wiktionary (mainly for languages other than Modern English though) and there are few rules on the specific the order of definitions, it’s mostly just common definitions above uncommon definitions (but this isn’t even a hard rule).

              Editing it to change the order for your reason specifically might be considered vandalism, as it’s typical and allowed for entries to be like this and it’s common for little disputes like that to cause editing wars (although that’s admittedly far more common on Wikipedia, since many Wiktionary contributors are actually linguists and are less controversial).

              That being said, someone actually did intentionally move the “gang member” definition above the other one, so there’s clearly some sort of difference in opinion.

              If you want it changed, the course of action you should take is starting a discussion about it. It’s a good way to get a community consensus.

              • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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                6 months ago

                So let’s be clear here. You’re implying very heavily. Are you actually claiming that this person did this nefarious thing? What are you saying?

                • force@lemmy.world
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                  6 months ago

                  No, not at all. You can easily view the edit history of all Wiktionary pages – 2 years ago, someone put the definitions in the order they are now for a specific reason. This person thinks it should be the other way around, so if they want to change it it’d be best to make a discussion about it. That’s the best way to get a community consensus on it. Wiktionary is a collaborative effort, people have different opinions on the specifics of a page, that’s why discussions exist and are the go-to for settling differences in views.

                  • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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                    6 months ago

                    Your entire comment reads like a subtle lecture to set_secret about the pitfalls of editing Wiktionary to support his argument in this thread. I think you did that on purpose, because you figured people would interpret it as what it seems to imply.

        • john89@lemmy.ca
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          6 months ago

          It’s really sad watching you people make light of a serious topic.

          I guess it’s because you can’t tolerate any criticism of cities, even if they house most of the people who own guns illegally and use them on other humans.

          But it’s not front-page news on these websites whenever someone dies due to gang violence, because it happens every day.

          • VirtualOdour@sh.itjust.works
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            6 months ago

            Yeah same thing comes up whenever high density housing is mentioned, you’re not allowed to mention how horrible it is because everyone is locked into an ideology where poor people belong in very small compressed areas because then we’ll be forced to ride bikes which is going to magically solve everything

      • GiddyGap@lemm.ee
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        6 months ago

        It also depends where. Suburban or exurban driveways in the South can be deadly with all the 2nd amendment hardliners. Especially in small or midsize cities. In northern or western urban or suburban areas, not as bad.

        • john89@lemmy.ca
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          6 months ago

          In my experience, it’s drunk drivers and gangbangers in cities that have killed my friends.

              • GiddyGap@lemm.ee
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                6 months ago

                No, it just means that you can have drunk drivers, gangbangers, and hick driveway shooters all at the same time.