If you lie about your hometown, why?

[Anonymous]

Sounds like every inner ring aging suburb in the Rust Belt. Mortgage crisis in 2006-08 was the nail in the coffin. Everyone fled and slumlords bought everything up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My hometown (entire home state, really) is a national embarrassment full of backwards rednecks, and I got tired of the stereotypes. Much easier to say I've lived in DC longer than anywhere else than to grit-smile through ignorant comments about not having an accent or seeming well-educated.

+100

We're probably from the same state.

[Anonymous]

Ask Hilaria Baldwin!!!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do people really do this?

When people ask me where I'm from, usually in a casual setting, I tell them where I grew up. I don't go into an elaborate story about how I was born overseas and immigrated here as a preteen but then grew up in my hometown because I assume people are just making small talk and don't actually care.

A very small subset of people do it, and I find it fascinating. Sometimes I have had to ask a few times to figure out where someone actually grew up. It's strange

If by “a very small subset” you meant to say:

- virtually everyone in San Francisco, then, OK.

Because I grew up just outside the City, and nobody but NOBODY wanted to confess that they actually grew up in Kansas. Or New Jersey. Or Idaho.

Oh no - those places were not “cool” like San Francisco.

So everyone lied.

And that's EXACTLY why people do this. People will rattle off a million excuses "I moved across town when I was seven, so am I supposed to explain that, and besides I moved away for college..." blah blah blah. It's nonsense.

What it comes down to, and everyone knows it, is that some places aren't "cool" and the type of people who lie about where theyre from are uniformly unconfident, uncool, and have a chip on their shoulder about where they came from.

it's a big red flag for other personality issues in general. A lot of these types also suffer from severe envy/jealousy issues, especially towards the "spoiled" or "priveleged" lifelong city dwellers who never had to fight their way out of meth central

+1

It did not occur to me that some people just feel terrible about themselves, and where they come from.

While PP's post was funny, I don't even think it's necessarily an always or even usually a poor ('Meth head central') thing. I think it's just an insecure I'm from a provincial, boring and/or uncool place thing. I know born affluent peers who are sketchy and insecure about the fact they grew up in flyover country, even though they grew up in mansions in pretty swank towns.

Or someone will ask you if you married your cousin or have webbed toes. Because city folk are witty and charming.

If “city folk” are so in-charming then why did you move to a big city and why do you lie about being from a rural place? Hmmm?

[Anonymous]

This thread is wild. I have no idea who in the world would feel the need to interrogate where someone else is from. Except to pat themselves on the back that they are "cooler" b.c of where they happen to be from.

Oh no wait I did grow up in the South and people used to ask "who are your people?" They were snobs who needed to reassure themselves of their own status.

Same strange insecure energy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I personally find it rude for someone to ask me where I'm from, which implies that I am somehow other than someone who belongs. Yes, I get that this sounds sensitive, but the only people who have asked me where I am from are tourists who assume I'm on vacation, too, or someone who is native to DC and wants to make sure everyone knows that they are a true native.

Born in Atlanta, lived 30 years in DC. DC is my hometown.

DC is not your hometown unless you were raised there. Very simple. And you will be called out on it because people can tell

What? Called out for what? So weird. DC isn’t exactly a cosmopolitan place. It is pretty provincial. If someone wants to say they are from DC, who cares?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread is wild. I have no idea who in the world would feel the need to interrogate where someone else is from. Except to pat themselves on the back that they are "cooler" b.c of where they happen to be from.

Oh no wait I did grow up in the South and people used to ask "who are your people?" They were snobs who needed to reassure themselves of their own status.

Same strange insecure energy.

You sound paranoid and embarrassed. Maybe rightfully so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread is wild. I have no idea who in the world would feel the need to interrogate where someone else is from. Except to pat themselves on the back that they are "cooler" b.c of where they happen to be from.

Oh no wait I did grow up in the South and people used to ask "who are your people?" They were snobs who needed to reassure themselves of their own status.

Same strange insecure energy.

You sound paranoid and embarrassed. Maybe rightfully so.

Absolutely not. I'm from a small town in the rural South. Not many people have heard of it so I say "Small Town outside of Small City" when asked. I give zero crabs about what judgy people think of it. It was a fun place to grow up and I would move back if work permitted.

[Anonymous]

It’s funny, the people that want to claim city people are so awful, and that anyone who cares about hometowns are awful and judgmental- and at the same time lying and grifting to pretend to be from those big cities that are apparently so awful.  Because apparently it’s bad for the “city folk” to be judgmental of that place but all the rural dwellers can hide it and lie and make their own judgements ad that’s okay.

Small town logic, I guess.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s funny, the people that want to claim city people are so awful, and that anyone who cares about hometowns are awful and judgmental- and at the same time lying and grifting to pretend to be from those big cities that are apparently so awful.  Because apparently it’s bad for the “city folk” to be judgmental of that place but all the rural dwellers can hide it and lie and make their own judgements ad that’s okay.

Small town logic, I guess.

Grifting. Really. Calm down

I don't lie about where I'm from.

But have you read the responses about the responses that people get when they say they are from? The stupid comments about marrying your cousin etc???

[Anonymous]

Why did Rachel dolezal lie about her race?

Exactly. Same instinct. Claiming an identity that isn’t yours and can never be yours because you don’t feel you’re good enough as is.

It’s sad.

[Anonymous]

Did the DCUM psychic post this? The fact that this went up maybe a week before the Hilaria Baldwin story broke.... wow

[Anonymous]

Hilaria Baldwin psychology. Theyre embarrassed about where theyre from so they make up a new story

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My hometown (entire home state, really) is a national embarrassment full of backwards rednecks, and I got tired of the stereotypes. Much easier to say I've lived in DC longer than anywhere else than to grit-smile through ignorant comments about not having an accent or seeming well-educated.

+100

We're probably from the same state.

Why is it easier if it's untrue?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did the DCUM psychic post this? The fact that this went up maybe a week before the Hilaria Baldwin story broke.... wow

+1
This is actually kind of bizarre, timing wise