Well, depending on where newcomers are arriving from, they might have a lot of popular media talking about machine uprisings as their only context for you. Others... might just see anything large and powerful as inherently prone to violence because that's their own experience. It's unfair, but I guess some of it is human nature -- fearing the powerful unknown can hurt you.
I hope they've learned to assess you as an individual.
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I hope they've learned to assess you as an individual.