The individualism/personal responsibility ideology, combined with the corruption which has led to lax antitrust enforcement, tends to mean that there are massive power imbalances between most people and the providers of their services and goods. Consequently, you end up agreeing to a lot of legal verbiage which A) you sometimes don’t even know you did, as when opening a box is considered consent to the EULA inside the box, B) is not interpreted by the legal system to mean what the words mean in other contexts, as when I discovered that the insurance which paid 100% of all reasonable and customary charges for a dental procedure defined “reasonable and customary” well below what they actually charged at the dental facility operated by the same organization which provided the insurance, and C) costs too much in both money and time to fight in court even if you could win. So expect to get legally robbed a few times, and accept that this is just the cost of “freedom”—you’re better off accepting it ahead of time than believing the bullshit that you should have read the terms more carefully or filed form 278-C-2 six years ago or whatever, and then feeling bad about yourself.
Generally, don’t buy extended warranties and don’t answer phone calls from numbers you don’t recognize. Don’t talk to the police more than necessary. Typically, trust individuals and volunteers; for all the systemic crap, most people are great. But we’ve seen a surge in violently inflexible ideologies of late, so avoid challenging those who advertise a political view.
Chicago’s not ideally situated for the most dramatic natural beauty, but it’s an airline hub, so if you’re at all into wilderness, you could get direct flights to lots of places with national parks. Our national park system has some pretty accessible, spectacular stuff, and some deliriously wild and remote stuff, as well.
