Warning! Rant incoming.

Yes it is, like almost everything he says (￣∇￣") And that's why all around the world people call him a clown. Or call him a new Hitler, since Trump's speech is so earily similar to his. When I was your age I also couldn't care less about politics, it's normal. Just don't become one o those adults who vote blindly or don't vote at all, it never helps.
You've gone through all that. I hope it will get better for you from now on.

So.... yes it can be that bad around the united states. It can be that bad anywhere in the world. You just have to know what you are looking for. I know the negatives because I tend to end up helping out those people, even if it is just to lend an ear or shoulder to cry on. Shit! I knew a girl that was just 13 and kicked out of her house. This was because she was pregnant AFTER SHE WAS RAPED. If you are not apart of the network I am you do not hear about these PATHETIC stories all that much.

Now about Trump..... IF HE WINS THE ELECTION MANY OF US ARE LEAVING THIS PLACE. He is an anti gay, sexist, piece of shit. He made derogatory comments about so many things. Did you know he said that women should be at home not working... THEN MADE HIS WIFE APOLOGIZE FOR HIM. Yeah, I hate his guts. (╬￣皿￣)凸

If he gets elected, kids, the whole world is going to suffer from it: it won't be enough to move to Europe (though you're all very wellcome as far as I'm concerned), since this creep keeps ranting about "I'll make America great again!!" And we all know he doesn't mean he's going to make it geographically larger (as if Obama had made it shrink, lol), but he means he's going to make a war somewhere. And that will make the people in the countries he'll send the Army to get even angrier than they already are, and start attacking us and you and everybody! That's what caused this situation we're in to start in the first place... So you American kids better tell your parents not to vote Rep, or if you're older, not do it yourself! One would think American voters would have learned by now, after Bush senior and Bush junior, but no... it gets worse... PRak is right: Hitler was elected democratically, by the German people, who didn't realise his discourse was dangerous and would leave their country in shambles. They ended up regretting it, but too late...

I know it can be bad anywhere in the world. My country is very calm an peacefull, yet there always are those bad 'hoods' and some very bad people.
I grew up to the sound of shots, from an abandoned area near my house (it's stopped since). I witnessed so many drug deals I can't count. I heard countless stories of people who got mugged, and sometimes got injured from it (fortunately I never was). Both my sister and I have countless stories from school - fights, drugs, pregnancies, domestic violence, deaths, people with a prize on their heads, ... - I walked around school and saw syringes, condoms, and people sharpening their knives right beside me. Once a group of classmates brought beer to class and started drinking it. I had a classmate who beat the mother. I had a classmate drop out of high school to work and get out of the house. Once my homeroom teacher went out for a bit and when they came back just calmly said 'kids, a scoolmate of yours was just stabbed in the neck at the school gate. Now let's resume our lesson.' Even just a couple years ago I went to university smelling of blood for the whole day because I couldn't avoid the blood pool on the bus.
And those are just a few stories.

And Trump didn't only say that about women. Also, women's only worth are their looks.
The other day I saw a clip of the Letterman show with him an I just laughed. Trump: 'Mexicans are stealing our poor american's jobs! Let's ship them all back to Mexico!'. Letterman (grabbing a few of Trump's products): 'Let's see, where are these shirts made?' Trump:'I don't know.' Letterman: 'Bangladesh. They're made in Bangladesh. How about...' Trump: 'Isn't that good, we're making jobs in Bangladesh.' Letterman: 'What about these ties? Are they made in China? ... Well, they really are made in China!' Trump was just getting more and more nervous and I could swear I saw some sweat.

And I'll stop my Trump runt here since I didn't even want to get into politics here.

The whole world is politics, darling. You can't escape it. Whether some bad leader is elected or not, affects your life: you've just told us that. The things you've described are not caused by some random bad people, but by bad leadership in a country! Crime, corruption, poverty, unemployment, bad social security, ruined environment, etcetera etcetera... all caused by bad leadership. So everyone who goes "I don't care about politics 'cause it's boring" is actually doing himself and the others no favor...
Apart from this (sorry) sermon, I still wonder about your description, pRak! Are you saying all that happened in Portugal when you were young? How long ago was that?

Cyrano, it did happen. I'm still in my early twenties and the most recent event (the bus thing) I told here was about 4 years ago.
But don't think it's all that bleak in here, I just picked some of the worst stories and the way I put them may have made some of them look worse than they were. And it's not like it's a daily thing, even during the time it was at its worst.

But it was a bad area, actually a good area (not the best one though) that was in the middle of a few bad areas, and the school had several students from social neighbourhoods and some of them belonged to gangs. Like I said, everywhere in the world you can find troublesome neighborhoods, or even just specific streets you'd never go through. In the Lisbon area you can find some of them in some places in the south side of the river and Amadora, You can also find some degraded and social neighbourhoods in Oporto, and other cities. And most of them originate from poverty and bad policies.

Portugal itself is a very good place to live in and visit (specially to visit since our minimal wage is not even 600euros but the prices for everything are nearly the same as in Belgium). It's just that there are a few bad areas, even just specific streets (and I know there also are some there in Belgium, at least at Brussels and Wallonia).

One big problem I see not only here but in other countries is how the govements deal with really poor people. Instead of helping them become a part of the community, they separate them (sometimes even by ethnicities or religion) in neighbourhoods specially made for them. It creates isolated communities (sometimes those places are even away from the cities and towns), which are then forgotten, their problems then increase and they develop their own systems. Many times goverments create what unintencionally become ghettos. I believe many problems with crime worldwide could be solved if, instead, those people were housed within the community (spread so you wouldn't have a new 'hood) and be integrated. I know it isn't that simple, but I see this as a basic.

The gunshots I usually heard when I was little (the last one being probably 10 years ago) came from abandoned buildings that were illegaly occupied. They stopped because those people were relocated into social neighbourhoods. But they went all together to the same place. The problem didn't end, it just moved locations.

Indeed. I understand. Yeah, in Brussels, there are some neighborhoods where there is crime, mostly due to the fact that we have many illegal immigrants, people who won't go to any public institution, be it to the police, the fire brigade, the social security office, the Employment office, for fear to be discovered as "illegal" and be relocated to the place they came from. In the mean time, they don't have a home, a job, an allowance, an income, their kids don't go to school, in short they behave like they don't exist. Anything rather than be sent back to where they come from, for some reason we don't know. But while they're in that state, the City can't do anything for them, and they're easy targets for criminals who use them and exploit them for sweatshops, drug traffic, theft and other crime.
So the problem doesn't really lie in Belgium, but in all those countries out there, where life is so impossible to live that you are willing to lead a life of misery and anonymity in the streets of Brussels rather than stay there.
And what you tell me about Portugal is also a result of bad politics, isn't it?
It's not so easy to be a good leader, and it's even harder to stay good, I think.