I would build homes, trains, bus lines, and green power.

And also make sure the water fountains in the park actually work year round.

That sounds psychosomatic but I’m not a professional. You take care of yourself.

Not counting nice walks in prospect Park, I can get on the metro north train and go on a variety of hikes. It’s not 20 steps, but I also get all the other benefits of a city.

Also Manhattan isn’t known for smog, and there is a lot more to New York than Manhattan. Go look at like park slope or Astoria

They said the problem was “widespread”. I’m saying it’s not like everywhere you look, but it feels worse than it is if you only go to the high traffic areas where homeless people go to beg for help.

Cost of living is rising higher than salaries everywhere. This isn’t unique to New York.

The fact that homeless people exist is a poor reason to avoid New York, in my view. People act like you’re going to be wrestling with the homeless every day.

We should do more than ignore the homeless, but that’s a separate conversation.

I think most computer users now don’t know that file systems exist

If you live here you don’t really go through Penn station. That’s a major commuter hub.

I’ve lived here for years and only go there if I need to go to NJ transit for some reason (which isn’t often).

That’s like thinking all of NJ is Secaucus train station, or all of someplace else is just the airport. It’s not representative.

I’m confident whatever you are imagining is not the daily lived experience of new york city. People picture like times square in 1973 on new years eve and also classic film the warriors. Go look at like park slope on google street view (or another similar service of your choosing).

Is there any of that here? No, so you’re reaching & pulling shit out your ass.

The idea that cities are dangerous crime areas full of violence is a racist trope.

Hold on. Like how old are you? I’m going to feel bad if I’m engaging with like a 15 year old who’s never taken Literature 200.

You seem to be media illiterate and I don’t know if I have it in me to do a whole course. But here I am typing on my phone.

The comic is being derided because it’s showing the NYC subway as a dangerous place where fights just happen. This coincides with the common right wing belief that cities are dangerous, which has racist roots (see: white flight).

In order for the joke to work, you need to accept that premise. Imagine if the comic was instead someone in the first frame holding a $100 ticket to a zoo, and then a $3 ticket to the subway, where the subway is full of elephants. That wouldn’t make any sense because there’s no idea that wild animals are on the train. It would simply be absurd.

Even if the author didn’t intend to reference that fear of urban areas, it’s there. Death of the author. Authorial intent does not supersede the text. It can provide clues, but it can’t take something out.

The joke doesn’t work without the racist context imported.

The authors usage of woke could be any of those things, but given their comics seem to mostly be making fun of left wing positions, I don’t think it’s plausible that it’s some deep irony. It’s much more likely that they’re a simple right wing troll.

Also like why are you going to bat so hard for this?

I have no context of who the author is or what the author did

Their usage of “woke” in the name is a clue

Why are you fixated on “taking seriously”?

“It’s just a joke bro” has never been an excuse for (for example) racism, sexism, and other poor behavior.

Please don’t pretend the lack of argument is a valid one

I don’t really know what you mean by this

Do you treat Airplane!, Police Squad!, or Naked Gun as serious, scientific representations, too?

No, but I don’t think anyone is saying this comic is a serious scientific representation, either.

What do you think people are saying? Why do you think people don’t like this comic?

Read the comic name and the comic blurb and anything else on the origin website.

Please learn better media literacy skills.

Oof I didn’t even notice the author

I like making people laugh & I dislike Woke politics. So I made these comics for us to laugh at Woke politics together and push back against its stupidities. I will stop mocking when it leaves us alone.

Author seems to be an absolute idiot.

Yeah, I’m not old enough to have experienced the city in the 70s and 80s. I’ve heard stories but it’s hard to say how credible some of them are, but I believe the city is a lot nicer than it was back then.

Like, Bryant Park is a nice patch of green in Manhattan. They do yoga classes there. There’s a holiday market. People used to call it needle park because it had some a drug user problem.

Places change.

(for people that don’t live here, the path is basically another subway system that serves Manhattan and North Jersey.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/PATH_(rail_system)

)

Also remember that the subway is a flat fare no matter how long you ride. You can go from Coney Island to the Bronx on that $2.90. and back again. You only pay again if you exit.

I have had many, many, uneventful subway rides. Most of the time it’s just people sitting and/or standing quietly. Boring is a little more subjective- someone might find people watching interesting, but even then sometimes off-peak it can be sparsely populated. Sitting in quiet non-interaction for 25 minutes with an old lady reading, a middle aged guy dozing, and another person silently looking at their phone isn’t very exciting, but that’s a lot of rides.

Like, this is people’s daily commute. It’s not the warriors. It’s not whatever wacky video surfaced on youtube. Most of the time it’s just transit, and good transit is pretty boring.

This feels like the scared, naive, suburbanite’s take on cities and public transit. Like, do you really think a system with 3 million daily riders has constant brawls?