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?
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!
San Diego
Hi neighbor. I’m in Temecula.
There are dozens of us!!!1
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.
I’m outside Allentown, but half my family is from up near Towanda. It is an odd state due to how we’re spread out.
We’ve got Confederate flags around here as well. Less things plastered with Trump signs lately, but the last few months I’ve seen businesses with Houck signs all over. He’s an anti abortion activist that twice assaulted a 70+ year old man that was a patient escort at a clinic.
All the people I meet from all over the state are usually very kind, but politically what many of them believe just confuses me. I just didn’t know what would ever change their voting bloc if things haven’t done so by now.
Santa Cruz, CA. Hi neighbor!
Hat tip.
One of my favorite small cities. Would live there if I could, but it’s unfortunately too expensive.
Yeah, way too expensive for us as well so we’re actually planning on moving to the other side of the bay. We are not renting, thankfully, but we’re pretty squeezed and moving elsewhere in Santa Cruz requires paying ridiculous amounts of money I cannot justify.
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West Side Chicago
South side here
North side
When our powers combine…
Given the time you posted this, you’re going to get biased replies
Inevitable.🤷♂️Literally asking US Lemmies, I somehow missed that.
Not really? Most people in the US are awake at the same time. Posting at 2am EST will get you biased results
Posting at a time where most Europeans are awake and most Americans are asleep will also get you biased results. The Earth is round. Like I said, it’s inevitable. Or am I misunderstanding you somehow?
Read the question. It’s asking Americans for their information at a time when half of Americans were asleep.
Ah yes.
new mexico!
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.
DFW area of Texas. There’s a lot that’s good here, but the number of people who combine various levels of being small-minded and short-sighted are indeed very frustrating.
And they all have cars that contribute to our THUNDERDOME traffic situation these days. I legit don’t even like driving anywhere in the metroplex these days out of safety concerns.
Hampton Roads area of Virginia.
Jersey. The best state.
Hahahahaha! I’ll buy you a drink. This was most unexpected Jersey pride.
I’ll say, haven’t been in a while, but my brother lived in SF and then Palo Alto for a bit during and after law school, so 2009-14 we’ll say, and I had a blast every time I went to visit. I haven’t been back since, and obviously people say the city has changed a bit, but back then it was such a different lifestyle from the East Coast.
I always go back to this story, at that time Dunkin Donuts’s catchphrase or whatever, at least in the NEC, was America Runs on Dunkin, but when I went out west they would say America’s Favorite Coffee, and I always found it a pretty apropos juxtaposition of the coastal mentalities. In NY/NJ, we were all about work. Everyone works, you go out after work in your fuckin suits, you talked about work. It was a culture, and it ran on coffee (sometimes Dunkin). But out west, people seemed to be more interested in taking in life, the sights, the food, and yes, the fucking coffee.
And the catchphrase for the middle of America was “drink it or don’t, nobody cares about you”.
JK, flyover states!
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.
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Within driving distance of a former presidential candidate’s childhood home (hopefully he doesn’t ask for money again), in the great state that still won’t apologize for its cheese.
