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Poornima Wagh's avatar

I want our OLD Santa Barbara back. The one which was on the forefront of class, charm, and old style intellectual debate. All I find these days where ever I go is a lot of people who live in a bubble and who are just plain angry, hateful and frankly vicious in a lot of ways. It is actually horrifying to see a once polite, kind and accepting society in this town turn into this zombie apocalypse of bitterness and anger.

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Howard Walther's avatar

Hello Poornima, yes your percipient observations "a lot of people who live in a bubble and who are just plain angry, hateful and frankly vicious in a lot of ways." are very very accurate in more ways that you can possibly imagine. Vicious is a good way to describe the tribal warefare here in SB and "hateful" is another direct describer of those who run this place. I leave you though with some hope from the Greatest Generation and "Powerful Lessons Learned from the Greatest Generation" and I give the link below and quote from same.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/powerful-lessons-from-greatest-generation-robbie-bach/

"The Greatest Generation,” demonstrated a level of grit, determination, persistence, and perseverance that should challenge us all to do better, especially as we face our current challenges. As I trace the arc of my father’s life, I see this lesson in so many major events:"

"While we have economic and social challenges aplenty today, my generation and my children’s generation just don’t have any idea of what life was like anyplace in the world during the 1930s."

Howard Walther, member of a Military Family

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Thomas John's avatar

Poornima, what do you think has lead to the bubble and angriness?

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Poornima Wagh's avatar

In my singular opinion I believe the massive fear mongering and gaslighting during the Covid scam was the straw that broke the camel's back. People were already divided and polarized over the Trump presidency and Covid just made things worse to the point of no return. We also got a HUGE influx of outsiders from Los Angeles, the upper east coast, Seattle, and San Francisco who sold their properties and moved to Santa Barbara during and after Covid. They brought their crappy mentality with them. The further breakdown of societal norms and civility was also directly related to the after effects of the Covid jabs which are causing massive damage to the brain in the form of acute depression, anxiety, aggressiveness, and other worrisome physical and emotional side effects. I've noticed that a lot of old people are the ones who are highly noxious and aggressive. Something I've never seen before. But a lot of old people in Santa Barbara got hoodwinked and gaslighted into taking the poison we call the Covid jabs. Now we're seeing the fall out in terms of vicious aggressiveness, rage and anger. All the above in my opinion have seriously contributed in the decline of the mental health of the people of Santa Barbara in general.

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Howard Walther's avatar

I will answer for you Thomas John ........... those that forsake the basic premiss of life

that I provided to Poorinma in my reply above.

Howard Walther, member of a Military Family

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Paul Aijian MD's avatar

I keep encouraging people I know to check out the SB Current. Its articles span a wide range of topics and opinions, not limited to just local issues. Reading about local news is very informative, however. The perspective offered by the Current is a breath of fresh air in a “news” desert. YAF is a fantastic organization which brings awesome speakers to our town. We attend whenever possible and have started bringing out teenage grandchildren. I feel privileged to be able to occasionally shed some light on topics of a medical nature.

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Eric Gordon's avatar

Daughter will be attending YAF Reagan Ranch conference and my wife and I will be attending some lectures. Looking forward to it.

My daughter will probably not care for it as it is/will be her 1st exposure to political issues which she associates with “old people arguing about old people stuff” 😂

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Peter Scott's avatar

Perhaps your daughter could become a reader of the SB current instead, where she will definitely be exposed to “old people arguing about old people stuff”

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Eric Gordon's avatar

She sticks to the classics…Jane Austin, HG Wells, Orwell, Rand, Vonnegut, Heller…

FWIW, she associates left wing politics with “even older people arguing about even older people stuff” 😂

I’ll take the win!

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Eric Gordon's avatar

Happy to report that our daughter attended the opening night of YAF Reagan Ranch conference last night and LOVED IT! 😊

She liked hearing the speakers like Michael Reagan but was mostly impressed with the higher caliber of teenagers she met there! All the boys and girls there respectfully dressed to the nines, well read, well spoken, and confident. She did not know know that kids her age could be like that 😂

My wife and I were in shock…we were mostly impressed that there was no “vegetarian option” for the dinner or even a consideration for “special needs”…it was almost as if we were all expected to be responsible for our own behaviors like adults at this thing! 😂

So far am very happy with YAF, and I was wrong about my daughter not caring for it. She was impressed beyond words

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Montecito93108's avatar

Extortion, collusion, inept management come to mind when reading the above letters. The successful implementation of the self serving interests of tax paid government workers is a prevailing theme. It’s impossible to fight back without equivalent resources which includes access to messaging community.

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Eric Gordon's avatar

“…all three of these universities should have upheld law and order by clearing the leftist encampments and prosecuting all violators to the fullest extent of the law. And they certainly should have protected the First Amendment rights of conservative students!”

I am Jewish and I disagree unless we are talking about violence, getting in the way of students and the education they have paid for, and/or trespassing

Actually, 1A should apply equally to all points of view. Especially those you disagree with passionately.

Protesting and passionate defense of 1A is paramount for our system to succeed. Anyone who tries to silence or censor speech is the only true enemy of a democratic republic like ours.

Of course, there are consequences for taking a position on anything..

The schools should not get involved in any way, other than to flunk students who for whatever reason, don’t show up for scheduled classes and/or get the answers on tests wrong.

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Brad Scott's avatar

I hate woke liberal trash

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TheotokosAppreciator's avatar

But do you hate secular humanism and democracy?

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Brad Scott's avatar

I hate democrats

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Thomas John's avatar

Sad that you hate so much of the US population and probably 80+ percent of the SB community. I hope you can find some peace.

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Brad Scott's avatar

Go to hell Baby killer. Hating on black people. Hanging and lynching them is fine with you

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TheotokosAppreciator's avatar

Okay, but do you hate democracy and republicanism which are liberal forms of governance? They're anything but traditional or conservative.

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Brad Scott's avatar

I hate liberals

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TheotokosAppreciator's avatar

That's not really answering my question, especially because contemporary conservatives are seen by traditionalist as liberal for their support of constitutional (vs. Absolute/autocratic rule) and market liberalism, in addition to the emphasis on individual rights as opposed to a common good.

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Peter Scott's avatar

Theo, Mr. Blue appears to be a bit wound up today. Best to leave him with his three word hate takes.

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J. Livingston's avatar

Back to Basics: The First Amendment:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

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Michael Self's avatar

Are you referring to the government treatment of the unarmed January 6th protesters?

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J. Livingston's avatar

..the right of the people to peacefully assemble .... and not get shot up by the Capitol Police panicked "crowd control" barrages. The very moment everything turned, caught on long suppressed fixed video surveillance cameras.

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Thomas John's avatar

Is it still suppressed video surveillance? Or is that public yet? Or never to be public?

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Jenn's avatar

And yet BLM can destroy away and nothing happens to them …🤷‍♀️

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Anne West's avatar

regarding traffic control and bulb outs. We used to have our business on Padre, between Chapala and De La Vina. We were there when they re-striped De La Vina in that area down to one lane with a dedicated bike lane. There is quite a bit of traffic on De La Vina certain times of the day, and these are the problems that it caused:

1. Now all the cars are forced into one lane, making that lane have twice as much traffic. If you are on a side street (such as Padre) trying to get onto De La Vina, you have to be looking to your right for a space to enter. ... ...

2. ... Many bike riders still prefer the sidewalk, and will drive UP De La Vina on the East side of the street, so if you are trying to enter De La Vina, and are looking the other way, you are likely to run over a bike rider who is now illegally riding across the crosswalk, from the sidewalk (illegally), instead of being on Chapala going UP on the bike lane there.

3. The man hole locations are designed to be in the center of a lane, so that your tires are not constantly BANGING over it...but now, in the engineers' infinite wisdom, the man hole covers are right in the tire lane because, well, they put 2 lanes down to one and added a rarely used bike lane.

4. did I mention that the bikes don't use the bike lane?

5. When we brought up these issues with the streets department, their answer was 'we engineered it'. Not sure what that is supposed to mean. They engineer a LOT of crap in this city that doesn't work. I guess saying that they engineered it means it must work because, well, they engineered it.

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Eric Gordon's avatar

Posting this by itself because it should not be buried in threads.

I signed up our young daughter for a YAF conference at the Reagan Ranch to kick off her summer vacay.

My thinking was to expose her to conservative ideas while growing up in a sea of liberalism here in SB.

I didn’t think she would care for it, as most of her friends associate politics with “old people arguing about old people stuff”

I was wrong

Happy to report that our daughter attended the opening night of YAF Reagan Ranch conference last night and LOVED IT! 😊

She liked hearing the speakers like Michael Reagan but was mostly impressed with the higher caliber of teenagers she met there!

These were kids inspired by Ronald Reagan. It had been so long and I have lived in Cali so long I had forgotten what that was like. All the boys and girls there respectfully dressed to the nines, well read, well spoken, and confident. She did not know know that kids her age could be like that 😂

No pink hair, no nose rings, no tattoos, not an exposed bellybutton or vulgar tee shirt in the entire bunch! No one spoke out of turn, but when called upon they spoke well and confidently like they were comfortable in their own skin. Knew what they believed, could back it up and were proud of it.

My wife and I were in shock…we were mostly impressed that there was no “vegetarian option” for the dinner or even a consideration for “special needs”…it was almost as if we were all expected to be responsible for our own behaviors like adults at this thing! 😂

Need a wheelchair? It's on you to request it ahead of time. Allergic to something? Yep, you guessed it, not their problem, YOU need to plan for that and not expose yourself to allergens. It's not on them, it's on you.

So far am very happy with YAF, and I was wrong about my daughter not caring for it.

At 14 she was impressed beyond words

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