Seattle is filthy, and we’ve got the goods to back it up. Not only is Seattle overflowing with music, dance, film, and photography programs, but it’s also considered one of the safest cities in America. Seattle is one of the healthiest cities, ranking as “fourth thinnest”; we’re also a leader in eco-friendliness, with numerous conservation acts.

Not convinced? Some of the largest corporations in the world, namely Boeing, Microsoft, and Starbucks, are headquartered in our dear Emerald City.

Seattle residents share the progressive mindset that these characteristics illustrate, in theory that is.  Moreover, this extreme liberal mindset that most Seattleites possess only makes for aloof, un-accepting views others.

Because Seattle is generally so open to new ideas, it seems that Seattleites look down upon those who are more traditional in their mindsets.
Now that doesn’t seem so “open.”

My parents came to Seattle together hoping to find a balance between the craziness of L.A. and the constant lull of small town life; they deemed Seattle the perfect place.

Isolating themselves in this pocket of the country, they were successful in their mission to avoid contact with and shut out those who didn’t agree with them.  Yes, what they viewed as negative attributes of other cities were avoided by their move; they could now voice their opinions openly and everyone would agree.

They came to realize that, as much as Seattle preaches diversity and awareness, its projected image of random, diverse people stumbling into each other is inaccurate. Rather, it’s just a congregation of people who are too fed up with the rest of the nation to deal, who clump together to create a perfect world.

And so, Seattle has morphed from a filthy to a strange city in my mind.  We Seattleites have sculpted our town into one that champions our own values and fits our own needs. And for some reason, we still seem to expect everyone else to agree with us.

Example A: myself in New York two summers ago. Talking with a group of girls from around the country about what we would do if we got pregnant, I immediately offered up that I would get an abortion. Not only did no one agree with my theoretical decision, but they were shocked, even offended that I had the audacity to bring it up in such casual talk.

Example B: a Seattle born-and-raised family friend at a recent dinner party with visitors. Wine glass in hand, she opened up a conversation about her frustration with people discriminating against gays, assuming everyone around her felt similarly. A non-Seattleite immediately got quiet, casting sideways, angry glances at the other dinner guests. Completely unaware of the disagreement in the room, the emboldened Seattleite kept ranting until she was nudged by another, only to declare, “Who wouldn’t agree?!”

This woman wasn’t just too drunk to realize her mistake. Maybe living in this isolated bubble has completely warped Seattleites’ sense of reality. Seems logical to me.

It’s awesome that we live in a place where people feel comfortable enough to share their opinions with each other and work together to get things done, but those allowances might be precisely if everyone thinks the same way. Floating in this dreamland where getting your point across is so easy, of course it seems dumb that it’s so hard to pass nation-wide bills.

“You guys forget that no one really cares what you think,” says my liberal Uncle Sam, who lives in D.C., “Because your ideas, frankly, aren’t that realistic for the rest of the country.”

Maybe we need to work on being truly open, but so what? We’ve still got Starbucks. And that’s a true Seattleite for ya.