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sinspirational t1_iqseens wrote

Maybe because people are just living their lives? I personally love grocery shopping but I wouldn’t say that waiting in a checkout line brings me any joy.

New England also has a long cultural tradition of stoicism dating back to the puritans. Fortunately there’s no cultural expectation to act happy in public.

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BuddyBear17 OP t1_iqsfnmb wrote

That is actually a super interesting and astute point on the tradition of cultural stocisim and how it manifests itself in daily interactions that I hadn't considered. Obviously it's not an exuberant and "talk with your hands" culture, but when you spend day in and day out around people who look just... vaguely unhappy, it can start to impact your own mood.

All of this predates COVID, inflation, etc so any attempt to pin it on that - no.

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Just_Looking_Around8 t1_iqt3tbr wrote

But you're okay pinning it on racism?

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BuddyBear17 OP t1_iqt6km9 wrote

I've had enough interactions here to know that a decent number of white Mainers are uncomfortable around POC. So some of the time? Sure. The downvotes are a great way of telling who's who.

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Just_Looking_Around8 t1_iqtdz70 wrote

Seriously???

Not smiling at me while doing mundane tasks = Racist Downvoting me = Racist

Are there racists in many places across the country? Absolutely. But your criteria for classifying someone as a racist smacks of irony. You're accusing people of making judgments about you based on appearance. How is what you're doing any different?

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