It's probably sign of being in a low-trust society that I found myself simultaneously agreeing with everything you were saying about dogs, but immediately imagining how all the various flavors of dog nazi online were going to scream at you for it. Dogs should always be leashed! Dogs should be allowed everywhere! I am scared of dogs and society should be designed for me personally! Etc. Another tweet I always think about was someone saying "I am begging Americans to learn to understand contextual clues."
If I saw an unleashed dog in the U.S. I'd be nervous because it's so against the norm. Maybe the person is crazy or very irresponsible! Here, it's just ... the norm. People mostly leash dogs if they're walking them in the city center or something, but not in the forrest.
It's so irrational to fear unleashed dogs. People love their dogs. They don't want them running into traffic or biting a stranger who could then legally demand the dog be put down. So, why would they leave them unleashed if that were a potential possibility?
Might I add, dogs are a reflection of their societies and owners and the problems and neuroses of both. When I'm in the suburbs of LA, and I go for a walk or a run, dogs in their yards have fucking nervous breakdowns and bark bark and bark and generally react like I'm in a bloodied clown suit carrying a machete. This is because no one walks outdoors there.
I mean ... living abroad with U.S. resources is, in my green experience, the best way to live.
New York was killing me, especially post-pandemic when everyone had residual agoraphobia so socializing was harder than ever. I left not because "I don't have what it takes to make it in the Big Apple!" but because with my industry dead, there was no "making it."
I've had really, really exciting, exilarating NYC experiences in my day, but in the past few years, my daily life has been: doomscrolling Twitter all day, not seeing my friends enough because everyone is faraway and the subway is traumatizing, and then also I go get a bagel and coffee and it's $19 and then I panic because I have no way forward in the industry I'd sunk my youth and middle age into.
And you should come see Bulgaria, it's an undiscovered gem.
People usually stay in Sofia, which is a perfectly fine, pleasant city. But Plovdiv is more beautiful than Paris, and there are a ton of other weird little cities all around that are gorgeous and charming. Veliko Turnovo, Koprivshtitsa, Burgas, Varna, etc.
It's probably sign of being in a low-trust society that I found myself simultaneously agreeing with everything you were saying about dogs, but immediately imagining how all the various flavors of dog nazi online were going to scream at you for it. Dogs should always be leashed! Dogs should be allowed everywhere! I am scared of dogs and society should be designed for me personally! Etc. Another tweet I always think about was someone saying "I am begging Americans to learn to understand contextual clues."
If I saw an unleashed dog in the U.S. I'd be nervous because it's so against the norm. Maybe the person is crazy or very irresponsible! Here, it's just ... the norm. People mostly leash dogs if they're walking them in the city center or something, but not in the forrest.
It's so irrational to fear unleashed dogs. People love their dogs. They don't want them running into traffic or biting a stranger who could then legally demand the dog be put down. So, why would they leave them unleashed if that were a potential possibility?
Might I add, dogs are a reflection of their societies and owners and the problems and neuroses of both. When I'm in the suburbs of LA, and I go for a walk or a run, dogs in their yards have fucking nervous breakdowns and bark bark and bark and generally react like I'm in a bloodied clown suit carrying a machete. This is because no one walks outdoors there.
Perhaps I should come to Bulgaria. I keep losing hope in the country.
But the coffin lid closes ever more tightly in a low-trust society to ever become trusting once again.
My wife wants to leave---immigrate somewhere---
we are all seeking a more hopeful society; a more trusting society; a more hopeful society---and then we dash it all to pieces from lack of trust.
I mean ... living abroad with U.S. resources is, in my green experience, the best way to live.
New York was killing me, especially post-pandemic when everyone had residual agoraphobia so socializing was harder than ever. I left not because "I don't have what it takes to make it in the Big Apple!" but because with my industry dead, there was no "making it."
I've had really, really exciting, exilarating NYC experiences in my day, but in the past few years, my daily life has been: doomscrolling Twitter all day, not seeing my friends enough because everyone is faraway and the subway is traumatizing, and then also I go get a bagel and coffee and it's $19 and then I panic because I have no way forward in the industry I'd sunk my youth and middle age into.
And you should come see Bulgaria, it's an undiscovered gem.
People usually stay in Sofia, which is a perfectly fine, pleasant city. But Plovdiv is more beautiful than Paris, and there are a ton of other weird little cities all around that are gorgeous and charming. Veliko Turnovo, Koprivshtitsa, Burgas, Varna, etc.