Thug-like... that’s another strange thing about how just strangely evil Boston is. The local high-brow newspaper, the Boston Globe, is viciously anti-Catholic, but still pro-mafia. How can you hate Italians and Irish and love the mafia and the corrupt CINO politicans, like Mumbles Menino and the Winter Hill Gang?
My mayor failed to file paperwork, resulting in the Winter Hill Gang getting property back from the city... and was immediately sent to Congress. The Globe sat on the news story until just after the primary, which serves as the de-facto election.
I had no idea Boston was like this...only have been there a couple of times. Their image used to be one of complete propriety.
I live on the west coast...think life is probably less stressful here despite being the LEFT coast.
First night in Boston from the mid-west. Took a walk, got turned around but wasn’t worried. A 30-ish woman walks up “Pahdon me, do you know how to get to.....” where ever, I don’t recall. Anyhow, I replied “I’m from Minnesota, I’m lost myself”. “Ohhh, fahget it”. Polite when she wanted something, rude when I was of no further use. But the hotel staff were all great. Jimmy and Claude at the Colonnade Hotel, I remember you guys taking care of an out of towner, even 20 years later. Jimmy was a small old guy who insisted on carrying my suitcase which had to be heavier than he was, and Claude was the waiter who seemed to work 24 hours a day and knew the best stuff to order.
The irony here is the Boston Globe got its start by being the newspaper for the catholic Irish and Italian immigrants. The old saw was that the Globe was the paper that went "up the back stairs," i.e., the maid's or servant's stairs, while a more august paper like the Boston Transcript went up the front stairs. The Globe's voice began to change in the sixties. Students caught on to it, it went anti-Vietnam, etc., etc., the same old story.
As for your other point, Boston is exceptionally tribal. If a person's great grandparents came from the same third- or second-world hell hole that your great grandparents came from, he or she can be excused for just about any anti-social behavior whatsoever.