@Commit_Crime Yeah, Americans when repaid with kindness will also be kind [especially ones you meet outside the US] although I've noticed travelling around the US is that if you're inside a rough US city [very common in bad areas in california and also washington DC/maryland] that people will be very standoffish and blunt.
This is because in these areas people tend to stick to themselves due to crime and in general being on guard is mandatory since even just casually walking around places like Maryland or pulling up to a store you're almost guaranteed to have your windows pounded on by homeless asking for money or yelling at you and same is true in some areas in California. Was in DC last month and this happened multiple times near the DC/Maryland border.
Whereas if you go to some rural town in the middle of georgia, south or north carolina and go to a gas station even the clerks will commonly address you as sir, people will open doors for you and in general you'll be met with smiles [unlike the dead faces and general guardedness of people in the more bad major cities].
This isn't an issue with all major cities, since major cities I've found in florida such as orlando, tampa and jacksonville don't have the issues but cities with more issues like LA/Washington DC it's very common for the people there to be very guarded and unfriendly and if you act friendly to them you'll most likely raise suspicion since people just aren't used to it.
But yes, crime and homelessness are very serious issues all over and it's not just the fact there's homeless everywhere and it's filthy and you have to worry about where you sit incase you accidentally sit on a needle and potentially get exposed to HIV or who knows what else but it's gotten to the point is that they will find their way to you to hassle you. And since most are also addicts on very extreme substances like fentanyl, heroin, meth, bath salts you name it and potentially are also suffering from untreated mental illness like schizophrenia and psychosis there's a chance they can spit on you, throw their bodily waste on you, punch/kick you or stab you if it gets to that point.
And then you get to the gangs and general crime and unlike other countries almost any thug can get a gun and since most kids nowadays are growing up here with absolutely no prospects in life most family they have usually just becomes a gang and some of these gangs have initiation killing which aren't even targeted at rival gang members or anything but on just random people on the street and people that are young with nothing else to live for to find a place to belong will just go out and shoot your straight in the head and think nothing of it. Besides that you have your obvious things like stray bullets hitting people etc from gang infighting. Hearing gunshots at night in most bad areas in cities is a pretty common thing.
So yes, the worst things you hear about the US are not an exaggeration but completely true. When comparing a place like Australia to the US when it comes to crime, homelessness and general safety it's not a stretch to straight up say Australia has no crime compared to the US. It's that much of a drastic departure that there may as well just be none in Australia since that's how safe it is.
Also people living in New York period are going to say it's nice because for one they were able to live in New York, a place with sky high cost of living and rent and they were most likely making a ton of money with good jobs [even more so if they managed to leave the US and live somewhere else] any american you met outside of the US is already an anomaly since the reality is most normal americans, low income-middle class, are trapped in the US and most likely will never leave this place and thus meeting an american outside of that they will naturally be more wealthy/have a better view of the US than most.
