a Chicago can of worms?

Here's a post I'm already regretting making, a ridiculous can of worms that is probably going to go places I don't want to see it go, but what the hell... First, a little conceit. As a life-long Chicagoan and someone who has always had great interest in my city, I have to say that (first) I have no doubt about Chicago's greatness and global status and (second) through work I have done in Chicago's tourism industry, I have no doubt that others from across the US and around the world agree with me. It's almost: NO CONTEST. Nothing is fact, but here's about as close as you can get: Chicago does city, does urban, in a totally remarkable, mind boggling way. I've said it before and I'll say it again: in my eyes (for right or for wrong), I see NYC and Chgo as peer cities; I have never, ever traveled to NY and came home to a place which I consider to be the "Second City"; I'd be willing to say that the vast majority of Chicagoans see things that way and would be unshaken or unconsidered if others outside our area differed. It's more imporant to us how we see ourselves than how others see us. So, this board has me confused. What accounts for the large degree of Chicago trollers, the Chicago critics, even the Chicago haters? Is it, as I suspect, what others and what I post throughout this forum about our city that gets the juices flowing (especially the LA juices) in others? We all (me included) will get into discussions of other cities and throw in Chicago into the discussion; and sometimes that toss is gratuitous and disrespectful to the other city. My sixth sense about the LA situation is that it was the back-and-forth that has gone on here that has caused their dismissal of Chicago in that NY/LA coastal axis. And I don't think the guys posting it even believe it; I think they're trying to score points in light of how they feel Chicagoans here (including me) beat up on LA. Chicago has always been about bragging, about being bigger than big, about truly being that Windy City that promotes itself like no other. How much of that bravado is responsible for the digs and insults that Chicago gets here. Is it negativity to Chicago or is it negativity to what you and I post here that is responsible for the angst? DO CHICAGOANS BEHAVE WORSE (OR WORST) THAN FOLKS FROM OTHER CITIES ON THIS FORUM? I'm asking this as a serious question, in hopes of getting a serious answer.>