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GOT_IT_FOR_THE_LO_LO t1_iyjc3vq wrote

Reply to comment by Grass8989 in New York and Singapore top the list of world’s most expensive cities in 2022 by Elandtrical

Singapore is an authoritarian state that has made literring an arrestable offense and banned chewing gum. Cleanliness/harassment is not an issue on their public transit like it is here.

I don't recall ever seeing a single homeless on the train in my two visits (outside of little india which is an exception to the rest of the city)

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Grass8989 t1_iyjdz67 wrote

Good to know! Sounds wonderful tbh.

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GOT_IT_FOR_THE_LO_LO t1_iyjkywa wrote

All of the transit systems in Asia (Taiwan, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Singapore, Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur) that i've used make ours seem pitiful and just reinforces how the USA is falling behind in terms of infrastructure. Some are better than others, but across the board they're superior to anything i've used here.

European cities are better as well but tend to be a bit more mixed in my experience.

It's amazing how much of an improvement it is when you use a train and don't worry about whether it's going to show up in a few minutes.

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ihatecommentingagain t1_iymj3zu wrote

It was really, really nice to live in when I was there for work. Biggest issue I had was the constant tropical weather.

After living there and coming back here, most of the complaints about stuff like chewing gum comes off as memes and cope - it's hard for New Yorkers to swallow that some cities in the world do some things better than us even though we pay so damn much.

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BiblioPhil t1_iymm9yf wrote

I'm a gay guy looking into a destination wedding in Singapore...any suggestions for venue? Don't worry, we know all that stuff about chewing gum and weed is memey cope or whatever.

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ihatecommentingagain t1_iymsqiu wrote

Holding a gay wedding isn't illegal in Singapore. You can't register it in the Registry of Marriages, but no one will arrest you for a destination wedding.

You might know that if you didn't get all your information about Singapore from aforementioned memes and cope.

Singapore's stance on homosexuality is pretty conservative and I don't support that, but in general you've only exposed that you know very little of the nuances of living in Singapore in this gotcha attempt and have proven my point.

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BiblioPhil t1_iymyuhk wrote

>Holding a gay wedding isn't illegal in Singapore. You can't register it in the Registry of Marriages, but no one will arrest you for a destination wedding

Pretty sure this is reason enough to completely condemn Singapore dude. Refusing to recognize gay marriage in 2022 means you're ass-backwards on civil rights. It's non-negotiable.

So if your point is "Singapore is an okay place for human rights" then no, I don't think I've proven your point.

Jesus fuck these apologetics. "Aha! You claim you couldn't get married in Singapore, but you can... as long as you don't expect your marriage to be legally recognized in Singapore. Checkmate human rights!"

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ihatecommentingagain t1_iyn2hj2 wrote

>Pretty sure this is reason enough to completely condemn Singapore dude.

I have never claimed that Singapore is a perfect place. I have suggested that my personal experience with Singapore was nice and that they "do some things better than us".

>So if your point is "Singapore is an okay place for human rights" then no, I don't think I've proven your point.

You've proven my point about New Yorkers who are so insecure about being compared to other cities that they jump at the bit to post gotchas based on incorrect impressions of a country they've probably never been to based on some comment they read on Reddit or Facebook.

It shouldn't elicit such an insecure defensive reaction for someone to suggest that there are some aspects of other cities that we could learn from.

The only apologism here is from your trying to downplay that our city could do better with its budget and how your farcical initial gotcha showed that you're exactly the kind of New Yorker I'm talking about.

Edit: Used wrong "illicit".

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BiblioPhil t1_iyna37j wrote

> have suggested that my personal experience with Singapore was nice

Because you're not a lgbt person looking for equal rights under the law.

>impressions of a country they've probably never been to based on some comment they read on Reddit or Facebook.

Or based on the facts we just established during this conversation.

>The only apologism here is from your trying to downplay that our city

Uh, no, pretty sure I'm talking about human rights in Singapore. But yeah, they're better here, now that you mention it.

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ihatecommentingagain t1_iynd5nh wrote

>Because you're not a lgbt person looking for equal rights under the law.

I think you'd be surprised by my sexual orientation, but that's really too much personal information to be giving out on Reddit and it's not any of your business. Suffice it to say, there's a reason why I'm familiar with laws regarding homosexuality in Singapore and also why I came back here (also: I'm annoyed that every time people get into an argument on Reddit, it turns into weird social presumptions about the other person. It's erasure).

>Or based on the facts we just established during this conversation.

No, your original gotcha was just rhetorical garbage trying to pretend like people don't have gay weddings in Singapore. They do.

>Uh, no, pretty sure I'm talking about human rights in Singapore. But yeah, they're better here, now that you mention it.

And that's not relevant because I have never suggested that New York City adopt Singapore's stance on gay marriage.

Again, all you've done here is further reinforce your own insecurity about New York City as if we can't learn anything from other cities. You're acting just like Republicans when people point out that other countries with more gun control don't have the same level of shootings - it's the exact same kind of insecure whataboutism that prevents us from actually improving from the status quo.

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BiblioPhil t1_iyrd1rv wrote

Again, you keep acting like I'm defending NYC when I'm simply saying that clean streets are not a worthy tradeoff for a loss of civil rights for lgbt people. That fact alone makes it less desirable than any American city.

Just admit that you don't prioritize equal rights for LGBT people instead of hemming and hawing about how Singapore isn't so bad. It is if you're a second class citizen there.

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ihatecommentingagain t1_iyschbx wrote

>Again, you keep acting like I'm defending NYC when I'm simply saying that clean streets are not a worthy tradeoff for a loss of civil rights for lgbt people.

And I've also never said anything of the sort. I have never suggested that it was necessary or correct for us to trade our stance on LGBT rights in this city for anything.

All you've done since the start of our exchange is try your best to stuff words in my mouth so you can argue against strawmen and act disingenuously sanctimoniously.

>Just admit that you don't prioritize equal rights for LGBT people instead of hemming and hawing about how Singapore isn't so bad.

LGBT rights are important to me, which is, again, why I live here and not in Singapore (among other reasons). I continue to maintain that there are things that we can learn from them regarding spending - and that's it's not necessary for us to compromise our stance on LGBT rights to do so.

And, just to revisit this line:

>you keep acting like I'm defending NYC

This whole offensive has been nothing but a huge "whatabout" attempted distraction to try to cram things I never said into my mouth and present garbage rhetorical devices to distract from the concept that NYC has areas in which taxpayers do not get their money's worth.

We can absolutely learn some things from Singapore. We don't need to be and shouldn't be exactly like them in every way, but we can absolutely learn things from them in terms of spending and quality of life.

Edit: It's been fun, but considering the direction of our conversations so far, I'm getting pretty tired of arguing with someone whose only interest is in being disingenuous. Have fun with whatever strawman you were planning to come up with next.

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thing01 t1_iykin1u wrote

Sometimes I wish littering were an arrest-able offense in NYC

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