Absolutes are bull crap though. I’ve visited a number of “s***hole” countries that have a lot more to offer than supposedly far advanced ones.
SF is a great place to live if you’re there for the right reasons. Same with Jacksonville, FL, and same with Napoli or even Kirachi.
Hand-waving, sweeping judgments are always a crutch, typically employed to shield the believer in the justifications of their 1 or 0 attitudes about places, people, etc.
I get it. We as humans have evolved and survived off of low-mental-energy shorthand, which is why a darkie with a mental health problem on the streets is presumed more dangerous than a white tech bro who secretly loves sex torture dungeons.
The question is are you convincing yourself of the reality you want or of the one that actually exists?