While I do not take stories of crime in the city lightly, neither do I enjoy reading ridiculous comments about how the city is one big "ghetto" or "pre-ghetto" as one commenter said. Racism, classism, and presuming the city is bad as a whole hamper efforts to better the crime situation.



Ideally, these comments would be better moderated. Some think they should be shut off altogether.



For now, they're here and I think we should respond.



Given that by the fifth comment on the site, someone will undoubtedly say: "I don't know why anyone remains in the city; it's one big ghetto controlled by thugs. I remember when it used to be white and safe.",



...we should develop stock responses that can simply be copied and pasted from this topic in order to save all of us time.



Can you give your best stock response?

I'm not sure why these nut jobs even feel the need to comment. A person who lives 50 miles outside of the city obviously doesn't care much about it, so why comment?

The question is, do these people actually live 50 miles out of the city, or do they just get some perverse satisfaction from putting down the city even if the live nearby, or in the city itself?

Among the standard commenters on STLToday there seems to be bragging rights for being



1. the most anti-city

2. owning the most weapons and having the most CCW permits

3. being the most anti-Obama, anti-Democratic Party

4. supposedly never ever benefiting from a govt. program

5. whining the most when the "liberal rag" based in downtown STL occasionally deletes one of your posts for being blatantly racist, off topic, etc. even though dozens of others almost as bad made it through.

They are just looking to validate their decision to live in little boxes made of ticky tacky.

Grover wrote:Nice idea. I would love for there to be a stock response that a lot of us could use to show that there is organized, persistent support for living in the city and not just one or two feeble (however well-reasoned) responses. We should overwhelmed them.

Are you thinking we should all use the same response? That could be great.

St. Louis' Up-lifting Tenants... or SLUT.



Let's see how long we can keep this game up!

Don't

Overexaggerate

Urban

Crime

Happenings

Electronically

BL211 wrote:They are just looking to validate their decision to live in little boxes made of ticky tacky.

Now that song is in my head. Curse you.

I wonder if those people realize that without the city there would be no Cardinals, no Blues, no Rams, no Art Museum, no World Class zoo, No Forest Park, no Mardi Gras, No FOX Theater, no City Museum, no History Museum, etc. Without the city there would be no Italian restaurants on the Hill. There would be no Soulard Farmer's Market. Most of St. Louis' culture is in the city. Of course, there's University City. But that's "touching the line."



I get to St. Louis a few times a year and I probably know as much about the city as half the people that comment there. I know I love the city. There's just a feeling in the city of energy and people doing stuff. I know that sounds weird, but here, in the middle of the night, you get a feeling that you're the only awake person within a 15 mile radius.



These posters on STLToday are unfortunately amazing. Their purposeful ignorance can be astounding. Do these people realize that if there had been no St. Louis city, then they would have nothing to run away from?



I love the city lights. Where I live, other than street lights, everything shuts down at 9.



The suburbs have a purpose. And I can see people moving there for schools and such. But the city doesn't seem to be that terrible. I'm sure the city still has great neighbors. I'm sure the city still has many of the things that the suburbs, too. Sure, the city has some abandoned buildings (how many of course depends on the neighborhood). But the buildings in the city (at least most I've seen) are built to last. Most of the newer buildings in the suburbs seem to be built cheaply, with no long-term plans.



Just my $.02.

Matt Drops The H wrote:For example, the group could be Citizens Opposed to Posting Stupidity. Stltoday.com COPS.

There are a lot of great suggestions in this thread, but this one is my favorite since we have to "police" those forums on a regular basis.



BTW, nice job of completely dismantling the anti-city wingnuts in the comments section following the article about the multiple homicides on Sunday.



Notice how very few people that posted comments actually acknowledged the tragedies within the article and immediately started ranting against city living? It only highlights their ignorance and indifference. We may never change their minds, as they are too narrow and/or too small, but we can work to put a stop to the never-ending anti-city drivel by continuously countering this nonsense. I also think it's important to focus on pointing out the positive aspects of city living, i.e., don't stoop to the level of these people by denigrating suburban living.



Personally, I've learned to ignore this stuff and I rarely comment on anything I read on StLtoday.com no matter how much it may offend me, but I'm glad there are some of you that are in the habit of eloquently dismantling these vacuous and pointless anti-city tirades.

Can you imagine how much fun it is to try to moderate those blogs and forums? It just reinforces my faith in human nature.

bonwich wrote:Can you imagine how much fun it is to try to moderate those blogs and forums? It just reinforces my faith in human nature.

No, Joe, I cannot imagine.



The only way I can maintain faith in human nature after sifting through the STLtoday.com rubbish is by telling myself for every person that says something so ignorant, there are at least one hundred people, maybe more, that don't share their narrow-minded views or their pessimistic outlook on life. I think Greg Freeman's Front Porch proved years ago that city and suburban dwellers alike can be passionate about St. Louis, and most of the time, they can even get along quite well.

I enjoyed looking through the comments today and seeing all the city lovers take on the trash talk. We need to SICK EM when they post and take over those posts!



Citizens

Interested

In

City



Empowerment

Multiplied



CIIC EM (Sick Em)

MidcoastSTL wrote:I enjoyed looking through the comments today and seeing all the city lovers take on the trash talk. We need to SICK EM when they post and take over those posts!



Citizens

Interested

In

City



Empowerment

Multiplied



CIIC EM (Sick Em)

I like it!

I love living in the city. Hate going out of the city. Think twice before I go to the county.



But surely you do understand that there is a ghetto element in the city. That's not poor people. That's not black people. That is trashy people --thugs, pimps 'n hos & wannabes and yes they do hang out at Schnuck's Lindell and pretty much ruined Schnucks Grand/Gravois for me. And I'm not a real picky person.