I comment a lot on stories having to do with state governments and legislation or regions of the country. It got me wondering how many people I’m accidentally disparaging when I don’t mean everyone in said state or region is terrible. So… Please be as specific or obtuse as your privacy filter requires. I’ll start:
I’m in the Bay Area, specifically Oakland. Despite Bay Area hate from some posters, I think it’s great. How about you?
Nice try NSA
*USA
Hey everyone, make sure you aren’t doxxing yourself. Comments in the Fediverse can be very hard to delete.
Good reminder. I am a proud Oaklander and won’t hide it, so I’ll just say again. Oakland!
Also what’s your date of birth and mother’s maiden name?
And the name of my first pet and my elementary school for good measure.
Spot, and Jefferson Davis Elementary. Only limits that to half hr country, though I kid of course.
April 1st, 1969. Crapper. Why do you ask?
San Antonio, Texas. Disparage away. Any chance of change happening is incredibly slim. My city only had about 14.81% turnout during our last primary election.
This is by design. Voter fatigue is very real.
That’s depressing. Cheers.
I’m in, and from, Florida. Am over 50 so have seen the devolution of the political situation as we get more populated. But am in a very diverse city with a large queer community, and I think that’s what people get wrong about Florida, we have ever been diverse, not like up north where it’s more stratified. Everyone here, at least in the more populated areas, most neighborhoods are mixed on just about any axis you can spin us on. Like my street has old people, families, black, white, Asian, Muslim, Catholic, protestant, atheist, conservative, progressive, gay, straight, trans, able bodied and disabled.
I’ve lived in a few different states and I was born in a foreign country. I absolutely love Florida. South Florida is an amazing place with great weather and great people.
It all depends on the cultural lens which you use to look at it. One shopping plaza looks different to a Jew then it does to a Brazilian then it does to a Haitan. The Jew may come for the hummus lunch place and the Brazilian goes for the Brazilian nightclub. They exist in the same physical space but it’s like a parallel universe because they don’t see each other. I find this so fascinating.
When you take the time to really explore you see a massive depth of different cultures. I love living among immigrants, including many fresh people right off the boat.
Up north it simply isn’t the same. In Chicago there’s a lot of Latinos, but they’re virtually all Mexican. In South Florida you get every single type. Brazilian, Venezuelan, Cuban, Puerto Rican, Colombian, Central American… Mexicans are a minority.
I don’t know if there’s another place in the world that has such a diverse mix of people from around Latin America. So many opportunities and interesting things to do.
I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I hate the government, but I refuse to move.
Respect for staying and staying strong. That devolution has been rapid and concerning.
You sticking around encourages every person (disclosed or otherwise) in any of those groups to stay, and eventually force that SOB running your state out.
My partner is a huge Disney fan, and I see behind the magic and respect everything they do to hide the actual mechanics of it all. It pains us that we can’t get on a WN flight to MCO because we refuse to spend money (that we are aware of) in states behaving that way generally.
We miss Nashville, too, as well as a place between Nashville and Orlando that sells stuff people failed to “claim” for cheap.
But I’m not buying gas in GA or FL, much less anything else, in the current environment.
Miami once was a haven and a melting pot, and I personally welcome everyone to this country. But… current state of affairs.
I couldn’t do it, we are both straight and a conventional married couple (mosly, aside from things that are no one’s biz). We fled a Midwest state because, among other things, we got tired of defending that WE wore masks/used hand sanitizer over a period of years.
Fuck those people, we are not hurting them by vexing cautious. Turns out (it seems, per current research) we were right.
The diesel bros are slowly feeling the long term results.
It’s fine. Boycotts will hopefully get the attention of the businesses and they will push, we are dependent on tourism money. So yes, stay away if you need to, it may help eventually. DeSantis is such a fool to push the culture war stuff - as I said in a different thread, I’m tempted to run for governor myself on a platform of Make Florida Freaky Again. We have a culture of circus folk and drag queens, it’s literally part of our heritage.
The state is gerrymandered to fuck, the legislature doesn’t represent us, as you can tell by all the constitutional amendments. But on the ground here, it’s still vibrant and diverse in my city and neighborhood, and there is so much I do like about this state, the actual land and creatures here, we have so many state and city and county parks, lots of public land.
Texas.
It’s okay. I don’t blame people for hating our legislature, just try to remember that not all Texans are shitty people.
Howdy neighbour. The same goes for me and many people I know in the Bayou State. The legislature especially recently makes me want to barf.
I’m in rural PA.
Pennsylvania is a weird state because we have half the population in cities, Philly and Pittsburgh are the big ones, but we’ve got quite a few smaller cities peppered throughout. The other half live in the middle of nowhere, Amish country and farmers for miles.
The rural is deep red. I can see a Confederate flag from my porch. We can’t even claim that as “our heritage” or whatever bullshit the South says to justify it.
Feel free to disparage my area, it’s pretty disgusting.
Oh, man. My condolences.
But, seriously: rural PA can be gorgeous. The issue is, as you said: the politics. When we first moved there, a new friend told me: “Pennsylvania is Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and Alabama in between.”
Another replier to your comment said they lived outside Allentown - I don’t consider that “rural” PA. The suburbs in PA are vast, and while it can look rural, you don’t know PA rural until you drive to somewhere like New Berlin: through coal country. I knew people who’d grown up within 3 miles of where their grandmother grew up, lived there their entire lives, and never ventured more than a few dozen miles from the Mainline. Never visited Gettysburg, a mere 4-hour drive.
And you’re so right! The Mason-Dixon line is the Southern border of PA, and yet Confederate flags abound. That, and Trump signs; they just never take those down, campaign year or not.
We moved to Minnesota from PA (answering OP’s question) and I was surprised at the political similarities. Around The Cities it’s fairly liberal, and even through the few-hour drive to Deluth. But once you get off the main commuter thoroughfare, those Trump signs start appearing everywhere. Iron ore is to MN what is coal to PA, and mining is mining. Although, the property around the big Northern lakes is all lake-homes owned by urban families who can’t afford lake homes around The Cities, so there are pockets of Blue out there. Anyway, I found the similarities to be surreal. The biggest difference is that the PA coal country is far poorer than MN iron country.
But I’ll repeat: the countryside in PA is amazing, especially in the Poconos, but also in the farmland. Just beautiful.
No argument from me on the beauty of the countryside. I had moved to Cleveland for a few years, and came back to hillbilly Town because it was worth having a crick for my kids to play in. That’s not a typo, my PA folks get it.
West Michigan, helping turn a previously red district purple.
I actually kind of love Michigan. It’s a beautiful state and the people are generally kind and friendly. But it does have some bullshit, especially when you get outside the cities. Though I suppose that’s true everywhere.
Methdesto, CA
Oakland makes this city look like Carmel by the Sea. 🤣
Bruh I’m in Hemet, CA. All desert and tumbleweeds but hey at least I can afford to live here
San Diego, carne asada fries in hand, ready to put on my thickest winter coat when it hits sub 60 degree temps.
I live in Urbana, Illinois. In couple of days. I’ll be going on a mission to Moon to help the USAA with the set up of one their bases, Clavius Base.
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Washington State
A couple hours north of you in the central valley. Hi neighbour.
In a house.
