Whenever someone points out how things ‘now’ are different from how things were ‘then’ it raises a question: are things really different or are we just more aware of it than we were before.
Let me give you an example: I want to say ‘it seems like the world today is more violent and unpredictable than it was ten years ago’. So the question arises: is the world more violent and unpredictable today than it was ten years ago or is the world just as violent and unpredictable as its always been and we are just more aware of it now because of increased media about it?
I try to keep a close eye on the news and it is my opinion that the world is more violent and unpredictable now than it was ten years ago. Yes, there’s more news coverage of violence these days than there used to be, so it would seem reasonable to think that the level of violence and crime is really fairly static and we’re just hearing about it more. But…I disagree.
Given the outrageousness of the violence and crimes that seem to be taking place with alarming regularity these days, it would seem likely that even when we didnt have the media coverage we have today we would have heard about these atrocities. So…I think we hear about violence and crime more these days because we are experiencing more violence and crime.
But its not just in the media, I also just look around me and see the same thing. The town I live in has had an exponential increase in homeless people. And, being a college town, we’ve just pandered to them and made things so easy for them that we have become a vacation destination for the state’s homeless. And, naturally, these aren’t just the usual homeless but the crazy, screaming-on-a-street-corner kind of homeless. Now, I’ve lived in this town for thirty years and I know darn well that we did not have this level of dangerous homeless people twenty years ago.
So, as far as I’m concerned, yeah the world is a more dangerous and violent place these days. So what does that mean in the long run? Good question.
It means that you’re not being paranoid, you’re not being delusional, you’re not being anti-social, and you’re not being crazy by elevating your personal level of situational awareness and taking precautions. Maybe nowadays you carry an extra magazine of ammo that you didnt normally carry before. Maybe you stop and take a hard look at your surroundings before you get out of your car at the WalMart parking lot. Maybe you walk around your house and double-check the doors are locked before you go to bed at night. Maybe avoid crowds and do’t let anyone you don’t know get within arms reach of you. Whatever you do to increase your awareness of the possble threats around/to you, know that you’re not being overly dramatic. The world really is getting more impolite and only the foolish ignore it.
On one hand we can look empirically at violent crime rates by % of population via that report (UCR) which is put out annually. One could debate if that is right but it’s probably pretty close given how the compiling of these things is to spread out and done at the local level.
On the other hand even if the crime rate percentages for the US or state have stayed the same it doesn’t mean they have in your, or my, neighborhood. What used to be bigger city problems trickling out to the burbs and bedroom communities is definitely a thing. My city whose population in dollars would buy a mediocre used commuter car had a triple shooting in one day not so long ago. Three separate shootings in the same day. They were connected to some drug stuff of course.
The huge increase in homelessness, particularly on the west coast, is absolutely a thing.
Let’s take an even broader view of relatively recent human world history. It is now well known that Europe in the Middle Ages had murder rates over 10 times that of the US today. In Italy, for instance, there were more than 70 homicides for every 100,000 people in the 1400s. In 2022 the US stood at an average of 6.3 per 100,000. And that doesn’t include years of World War where far more died. The fact that we live in a SHOCKING safe and peaceful time should tell you just how much the danger is being over played….but also how this has not been the norm for most of human history and eventually we’ll regress toward the mean, perhaps we already are.
Can you point to some links for those stats? Not trying to play gotcha. I’d like to read some source material. Wondering if it, for example, it counts wars.
Following. The media and the whole internet ecosphere is just an amplification function of what is occurring out there, it is their respective business models to play it out endlessly. Your own recon and Intel gathering in your areas will give you a better read of the local terrain and scumbaggery levels. There are larger macro forces purposely perpetrating the conditions and circumstances for an agenda. You are a pedestrian of no consequence to the agenda and if are a victim of the crime and those organized degrading operations so be it they got a mission to accomplish and are indifferent to the plebes feelz about it all. They installed (elected by locals?) A Trans nutter into your statehouse for agenda visibility and degradation operations against the local systems there. Usually or always those coincidences, do indeed lead back to a suspect and source. Better to lay off the muh guns forums, and lame ass deep state media and go lurk more on 4 chan pol/ to get a discernment filter viewpoint. Visit American Stasi, and AnonymousConservative.com for advanced schooling in this sphere of operations arrayed against you. Everybody is a target and you are in a war already, buckle in.
Avoid “The Beam”, so as to stay frosty.
Coming through Bozeman last week , there is an entire city block of run down rv with no running water . A year ago there were 6 or 8 . Now there is probably 20 plus and the city puts out porta John’s and trash bins so they don’t desecrate and defecate in the street .
If I’m a taxpayer and my money provides free trash and sewer to the “unfortunate “ I’d be livid .
Not to mention the upscale business establishments that have this as a neighbor .
It’s amazing that in Montana the cities will allow this crap .
The biggest and ugliest aspect of this is the DIRECT dealing with it. Tolerance only benefits the offender…AND people only do what you let them get away with, That said, why aren’t these jokers being actively encouraged to GTFO here, via bear mace, batons, zappers, etc.? You are in a smaller town than most…and thereby less constrained as to your approach to a cancer that must NOT be allowed to grow roots, continue and metastasize.
Commander:
How much allowance have you made for the press deliberately increasing the hype to achieve the fear they want.
Scared people usually do as they are told – at least the Sheeple do…
Ceejay
I don’t trust the press as far as I can throw them, however when what they report lines up with what i see, it does lend a little credit to what they report.
Remember those lines to get the secretly developed and magically approved shots a few years ago?
Scared people line up to get their experimental shot in hopes of ‘not dying.’
The cure was approved in a record 112 days (off memory, don’t shoot). When pressed for the evidence that backed automatic approval by tptb, we were told it would take like 30 some years to clear and release the info. Sheep for the slaughter.
Remember having your jobs threatened if you don’t get the magic shot?
As for crime, its enabled, not discouraged these days. Criminals are encouraged to continue. The days of hacking off a thief’s hand is long gone. Too many states would rather apologize for arresting guilty criminals than lock up baddies. I won’t even sniff at the phenomenon of street defication…
It is allowed and subtly encouraged because those persons in positions of authority to stop or staunch the onslaught of these organised degrading operations whether just a regular .gov bureaucratic employee or an “elected” office holder are all or mostly controlled assets emplaced in those positions to take orders from a higher cabal authority. Understanding that the stasi surveillance penetration of all facets of society is game on already and that intelligence operatives operate freely and near openly for opfor organization’s agendas, helps one to understand the deeper, behind scenes, big picture of things. Get redpilled on the Intel and surveillance penetrations of nearly everything around you and it is an LSD level type of mind awakening to reality and what is occurring, to you directly and all around you, everyday.
Intelligence / surveillance capabilities and proven direct actions track records negates and nueters all your prep buys and gunz hoarding, everytime. Stay aware, and frosty.
Overall I agree that both our world is getting worse and our awareness of incidents is higher.
The college town not far from me (maybe a little smaller than Missoula) has had a significant increase in crime and incidents. The police scanner pages on FB help awareness of incidents that you won’t otherwise know about.
I’ve pulled up addresses for an ongoing incidents during a Teams meeting so one Engineer knew how close it was to his kids school.
Probably related I’ve noticed an increase in higher end vehicles in the area vs 15 years ago. Think Porsche suvs, G Wagons, even a newer Ferrari at the local Mills Fleet Farm the other day.
Steelheart
CZ, excellent, as usual.
The Missus and I firmly believe that with the rise of social media, this is one of the main drivers. People has lost the “human touch” that face-to-face brings and as such, they don’t give a f*ck about others.
I said years ago, that political correctness will be the end of this country, however this wokeness crap is more that even I had imagined….
In the end, it depends. Which times and locations are you comparing?
World wide and total history. I’d say, less violent. Now comparing the US currently to 60 years ago, more violent. We’ve done almost everything to incentivize the violence in the intervening years.
60 years ago violence was more geographically isolated. It was also perceived and defined differently in some ways. Large scale violence was state sponsored directly or indirectly. Now “businesses” are at the controls.
Culture and society have few remaining boundaries so individual and small group violence can be more common. We tolerate, so it escalated. Plus the financial incentives for Grey/Black Market organizations make it just a cost of doing business. We’ve reduced the risk and downsides.
It is more chaotic and random. The actors are independent and in smaller groups.
Different, YES. More, No
I’m in Barcelona Spain right now. 2 days here and witnessed 2 fist fights by people I assume are immigrants. Both incidents within 100 meters and about 24 hours apart and appears to be the same group of people.
But just my perspective.
The world is just as violent and dangerous as it’s ever been…
It’s just more concentrated and intense than before…
and will continue to wax worse.
Well….I have been working as a cop in the second biggest city of my state. I can state the following:
– we are 1/3 of the staff we were 5 years ago.
– 5 years ago I was answering 1-2 shooting call a month during day shift. Just last week, I answered 4.
– 5 years ago I was going to a suicidal or mental health call once a month, maybe 2. Now I answer every day, sometimes multiple times a day.
– 5 years ago I had true leadership that understood we had rules but we were dealing with subjects with no rules. Now the leadership is spineless and we work with one hand tied in our back.
– 5 years ago we had a DA seeking the highest charge for criminals. Now our DA wants to change lives in a positive way. That means easy on criminals.
– 5 years ago we had maybe 10-20 homeless in my area, with only calls because of cold nights and the homeless sleeping at the post office or occasional drunk. Now, we have multiple calls a day about homeless criminal activity or disorderly activity. The bad part, they do not care to spend a couple days at the jail, they get out, do not show for court, are arrested again on order to show, released again…i think yall see the point….
I put someof the blame for more violence with releases with no bail. More pressure on police brutality investigations finding police guilty until proven innocent.
Most of all – Lack of respect for Life. People being killed for a brand of shoes – WTH ? Shoes !!?? No human life is worth taking for a pair of shoes.
I have two kids, both young adults. Both my wife and I teach them to be careful, but we still worry. Both are good kids that don’t run with the wrong crowd. But that doesn’t work any more. The Bad seeks out anybody who appear vulnerable.
Our society has become overly tolerant of abhorrent and degenerate behavior, Calling for prosecution of individuals for crimes results in your being called a bigot and a racist, It used to be that people were ashamed of doing a lot of things that people are now frequently observed doing, Things like “furries” are to be tolerated and celebrated, Tolerance needs limits, but the leftists in society oppose those limits because the lack of those limits further their agendas,
Your meme is a modern restatement of Luke 22:36. God wants His people armed like soldiers.
Great post, CZ!
Compared to recent years, my experience is that the violence is up significantly. We live in a “good” neighborhood, but there have been two shootings in our subdivision in the past year. Auto burglary seems to be the crime of choice. Some of the burglars are armed and very willing to shoot, as one of our neighbors found out when he stepped out of his house in response to an alert on his phone in the wee morning hours a few months ago.
The city’s annual “Fiesta” series of events was marred on its last night by a shooting of six(!) people at an event downtown. I don’t think it made the news beyond the San Antonio area, but I could be wrong.
Our HOA’s monthly newsletter includes a Security update. It used to be a short paragraph mentioning a few open garage doors and maybe a wellness check. Now it’s a 1/2 page table of small print listing incidents ranging from assaults to burglaries.
My perception is that a lot of crime is going unreported, as the police won’t respond, beyond taking a report, and people are so unhappy with the likely results of calling that they just don’t bother.
Bob
I agree completely on your point about crimes going unreported. My teenage son had a retail job last summer and the amount of shoplifting was shocking and nearly all of it went unreported to the police because the value of the items didn’t meet corporate thresholds to file a police report. Retail companies aren’t spending money to put everything behind locked plexiglass just because they have extra money to burn. Some bean counter did the maths and it made financial sense to spend that capital on protecting their merchandise.
Anyway, not specifically violent crime related but a symptom of the overall level of crime these days that gets under-reported.
Less than 13% of our population commits the vast majority of violent crimes in America. When an AI program was asked the question “if 13% of my cattles harass and bully the remaining 87%, what should I do? The AI answer was remove and isolate them from the herd, or cull them”. This AI program was removed by Google for speaking the truth lol.
You CANNOT correlate prior crime data with current numbers. For various reasons, LOTS of crimes are no longer logged locally, and some of the city/state/national databases are not being maintained or forwarded for collection to the fbi or other groups. TPTB are desperate to keep a lid on the public, and hiding how dangerous things have gotten, and how much worse it will get is all in their benefit. If a politician’s lips are moving, it’s a lie. What makes you think crime data is any different?