Philly’s Inferiority Complex

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Drew Lazor of Philly Mag with an excellent piece about our inferiority complex:

All that’s charming and great, but I’ve come to realize that there’s a deleterious side to knee-jerk Philly pride. If recent dust-ups in the media are any indication, we still care far too much about what New York thinks of us, when we really have no reason to care at all. As much as defending our honor is an essential part of the Philadelphia experience, it also holds us back from celebrating ourselves independent of inter-city comparison. In other words, we’re doing ourselves a disservice by flipping hysterical shit every time our name leaves a New Yorker’s lips. We stand for so much more than rash reactions, and it’s time we start acting like it.

Before you turn me upside down and shake me to produce my papers, let me state for the record that I am not a Philadelphia native. I grew up just outside Baltimore, came here in 2002 to go to school, fell in love and never left. Over the past dozen years, I’ve become a huge advocate of the city I’m proud to consider home — which is why it’s so frustrating to watch fellow Philadelphians exhaust themselves screaming about out-of-state criticism and commentary instead of expending that same energy promoting what makes us different.

Good piece. Not sure I totally agree, though. Part of what makes Philly unique – even though this particular trait is about as sexy as a passive aggressive ex who texts you things like: “Glad to see you’re living your life… guess you’re really not broken up about it like you said you were!!!! We’re done talking! Call me.” – is our persistence in self-defense, defending the cause. No one listens, but we hear it. It gives us something to cling to. A reason for living. A rallying cry. Meaning in our lives. Philly really is a great city! GOSH DARNIT PEOPLE LIKE US!!!

Shit… maybe Drew’s right. Chin up, Philly. Chin up. We’re better than this.

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19 Responses

  1. Booooooooring. If there’s one thing more common than people bitching about what other people think about Philly, it’s people bitching about people bitching about what other people think about Philly.

  2. Leave it to a person who wasn’t born and raised here to criticize the city. We defend ourselves because people from out of town always criticize us. Just like that guy in philly mag just did.

  3. Philadelphia is the second most bass-ackwards “Northern” city. It’s main media comment sections are filled with race baiting cowards who have internet muscles, TV’s tuned to FOX 24hrs a day and follow certain political agendas that are blatantly against their own best interests, its streets are filled with gun toting cowards who kill WOMEN over knock off hand bags, kill each other over a $5 bag of weed or a Play Station 2(!?!) and ensures themselves of NEVER being gainfully employed by getting face/neck tattoos, it’s media is filled with self-important blowhard hypocrites and it’s political machine is run like a mob ring. I can feel the tension in the air when returning to Philly airspace after a flight from other locations. That being said, FUCK New York….

  4. It doesn’t help that our 2 sportstalk radio stations(WIP & 97.5)is infested with out of towners pretending to represent the Philly fan base such as;

    Sean Brace from Scranton
    Josh Innes from Houston radio
    Al Morganti from New England
    Angelo Cataldi from Rhode Island
    Steve Trevolese from North Jersey
    and that fat pig Paul Jolovitz from DC.

    1. That lineup is depressing especially since they are also so lame at what they do. Cataldi/Morganti have passed their expiration date, Jolovitz is a nasty, mean-spirited jackass with a superiority complex about everything; Josh Innes – what can I say? He is so juvenile and idiotic I can never get past the first half-hour of his show. He also seems more concerned about having an “entertainment” show instead of a sports-centric call-in show; Trevolese never fails to mention he is a Giants fan; Sean Brace I have never heard of. Jody Mac, Ricky Ricardo and various other fill in people are pretty good. Glen Macnow is okay and Ray Didinger pretty much saves the station.

  5. The media is the one who does this shit. They push the Philly Phan narrative then complain when people complain about it. How about the douche nozzles in the media just stop talking about snowballs and santa?

  6. Josh innes ain’t bad at all I like his show.it’s interesting . Jolly is brutal. That young lady who got killed for her bag was a uncalled for tragedy. Philly sports radio is sort of an inside joke.the fanatic has Bruno and Mayes and that’s about it. forget WIP .

  7. Hey don’t ridicule 97.5, mikey miss might think you have a homosexual crush on him.

  8. Let me get this straight: this guy came here in 2002, right during the Eagles great playoff stretch/NFC Championship run which ran concurrently into the Phillies building and winning a World Series and also the Flyers Stanley Cup run. He has been here for a great 15 year stretch – now once he has been here for his whole life like a majority of the fans and seen heartbreaking loss after loss then he can speak about an inferiority complex.

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