Peter Thiel And The Youtube Couple Stir Chicago S Second City Syndrome

There’s been an unfortunate recent outbreak of Second City syndrome—the nagging inferiority complex that causes Chicagoans to reflexively overreact to every dig and perceived slight directed at the city, even if it’s much ado about nothing. 

Coming from the mouth of Silicon Valley’s supervillain, that’s a comment Chicago should’ve just smirked at and let go. 

But the level of venom in tweets and YouTube comments directed at the couple was disproportionate, so much so that a New York magazine headline reads: “The Dramatic Saga of a YouTube Couple’s Escape From Chicago Has Turned the Entire City Against Them.” The Whites reportedly received a deluge of hateful criticism, from those calling them “privileged white trash” to those wishing that the couple be shot.