#quora

I have lived in Seattle for three eternal, neverending, miserable years. I remember it as the worst period of my whole life. I have never been as depressed as when I lived in Seattle. I hit rock bottom. I hate it with passion. I hate every inch of it and its surrounding areas. And I hate people who love Seattle. And I won’t apologize for it!

Because of my career, I have lived in a few cities (in Europe and in the US) and Seattle is, by far, the worst for countless reasons. One thing I have to specify is that I don’t hate Seattle for the reasons other people commonly adduce: social justice warriors and hipster types. The social justice warriors or hipsters don't bother me. I don't care. The real problem is that Seattle is a provincial town with the pretense of being a cosmopolitan city like New York or London. Imagine a chicken who believes he/she is an eagle. That’s Seattle. When you go to a provincial town, you sort of know what to expect and you are not disappointed. Likewise, when you go to New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Paris, Madrid you also know what to expect. Seattle has the worst of a small town and the worst of a big city, all combined in one. Pay one, get one free.

I was offered a job in Seattle and had to relocate from California. Everybody kept telling me: “Oh my God, you will absolutely love Seattle. Are you kidding me? It’s fantastic. The mountains, the air, the people… you will be hiking. The most intelligent people live in Seattle… you will loooooove it. Love it! It will be heaven compared to California. People are so much nicer than in superficial California.” My expectations were high and in fact, I was in deep denial the first months I lived there. When reality slapped me and when I dissipated the veil of denial, I realized how much I hated it. I know you cannot generalize, so please don’t give me the “you cannot generalize!” line because there are some common traits that are very typical in Seattle. Also, exceptions are everywhere but are not statistically relevant.

One thing I have noticed is that people in Seattle, in general, are annoying, boring, obnoxious, passive aggressive. I remember that when I lived in Seattle and I said that I loved California, Seattleites would look at me as if I was the devil enunciating blasphemous words. The Seattleites would say: “Jeez, californians are jerks!” Guess what: Seattleites are jerks too and don’t look nearly as good as some californians who, at least, tend to take care of their appearance. You are not allowed to say that you love California in Seattle. It's taboo. Everybody raves about how beautiful Tacoma, Federal Way, Olympia are, as if they were prey of a mystical delirium.

I have found an incredible amount of bigotry in Seattle, believe it or not. People can claim to be liberal all they want, but it’s fake. It’s all fake. It’s all virtue-signalling. They are provincial. I worked in a very famous and big tech company and I was one of the very few unmarried and childfree people and they made me feel like an alien. If you are even slightly different for whatever reason, they will MAKE you feel different with words or actions.

As other people have mentioned, the Seattle freeze is real. I have made friends everywhere I have gone to, even in Timbunctu, but not in Seattle. It’s hard to make a real connection and most of them are nerds who love to play video games. They also think they are smart just because they landed a job in a tech company. A lot of people in Seattle are arrogant and think they are geniuses even when they are not.

There are very few things to do in Seattle, apart from eating, eating, eating and eating... going to the fish market and watch people throwing fish at each other. Why Seattleites think that is a big attraction, is beyond me. What I mean is that there are no real vibrant activities that do not involve stupid video games or eating. When I lived in New York, there was anything imaginable to do. You could never get bored. Same for Chicago.

The gloomy atmosphere is really depressing. I didn’t imagine this was going to affect me this much, but it’s true. Strangely, the cold days in New York and London were not as depressing as the days in Seattle. There must be something in the air or in the quality of light, I can’t pinpoint it, but it really is dismal.

Housing is crazy. It’s insulting, atrocious. You should pay one million dollar for a dump. They could literally pay me to live in a mansion in Seattle and I would refuse it. Now, imagine if I am going to spend a dime to live in that place. No way!

There is not a lot of cultural diversity.

To sum up, Seattle is not New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, London, but believes it is all of them.

When I was finally able to leave, I cried tears of joy and I solemnly swore I would never, ever put a foot there anymore. Now I live in a much nicer city and am surrounded by great friends.

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the other reply on the same page from a different guy about how all the women here hate his guts is very funny however, the level of man-hating in seattle is actually really not any different from any other large city ive lived or traveled in, idk what hes talking about but i suspect he is interpreting "not wearng makeup" as "the women are meaner". (and i support the culture of not wearing makeup, to be clear. what i object to is the thing that has replaced it, a culture of punishing people who arent conforming in this other way lol, its a false liberalism which is what the first guy is talking about)