I recently moved to California. Before i moved, people asked me “why are you moving there, its so bad?”. Now that I’m here, i understand it less. The state is beautiful. There is so much to do.
I know the cost of living is high, and people think the gun control laws are ridiculous (I actually think they are reasonable, for the most part). There is a guy I work with here that says “the policies are dumb” but can’t give me a solid answer on what is so bad about it.
So, what is it that California does (policy-wise) that people hate so much?
California is the target of conservative fear mongering.
Which is silly considering how many conservatives there are there. The current speaker of the House is from California.
I was told California had a “one party system”, have I been lied to? 😱
Doesn’t matter. Cali and NYC are the epitome of librul chaos and if those places aren’t made out to be smoldering shitholes with 2.7 homeless people to every citizen the gullible nitwit voluntarily angry dopes in the party (most of them) might actually vote in their best interests
Another “fun” fact. More people in California voted for Trump than in any other state.
Same with Chicago
Alley ways!? Ahh! I’m scared!
California gets trotted out in the conservative media sphere as “liberalism run wild”, a place where being what they consider to be a “real American” is illegal but crime is subsidized by the state, where everything is expensive and dangerous, and homeless people have gay sex in the street. There’s an entire industry focused on filtering for the most extremely awful news they can find in a state of almost 40 million people, packaging that news as though it’s the typical experience everyone there goes through, and then blasting that news into the brains of Americans 24/7. That image, carefully crafted to be as extremely negative as possible, is the only experience most people have with California.
I moved from Canada to California a few years ago and spent almost 5 years in the San Jose area. Loved California; the food, the people there, the scenery, definitely the weather. End up hating America though.
I live in the Bay Area and love all the natural beauty in all directions. We can hike a different trail every weekend during the months when it’s not unpleasantly warm or chilly and never repeat. The tragedy of it all is that it’s attached to the rest of the country, by which I mean red states.
sure, once you look past the insane wealth inequalities and transient tech workers it’s mighty beautiful.
Hating it because of politics? If so, the California-like or Florida-like type?
I’m from bumfuck nowhere in the US, but damn I am jealous of California and it is wasted on the US. But hey, if leaving the US entirely is out of the question, there’s bound to be a few places there that are somewhat bearable.
The liberalism run wild concept is kinda what I’m curious about. Like what things? I know California protects abortions and has stronger gun control laws. But is that really it? There’s gotta be more actual examples
A lot of social programs, better employee pay and benefits, legal weed. Conservatives are just jealous that their shithole backwater hick towns will never change so they point at the scary liberal boogeyman that is “Commiefornia” in some vain hope they will get noticed.
their shithole backwater hick towns
That was beautiful. Thank you for sharing it.
Nope. Conservatives are a simple people. You tell them something is bad because god doesn’t like it and they won’t question it.
We have different views on incarceration as well. Ask a conservative what they think about Prop 47, for example. I guarantee you they’ll not only know what it is but they’ll have a very strong opinion as well.
Ronald Reagan began California Gun control as a response to the Black Panthers. supported by the NRA.
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That image, carefully crafted to be as extremely negative as possible, is the only experience most people have with California.
That’s the thing. No one I’ve ever heard who says this kind of shit has ever lived here for any length of time or knows anything about the state beyond what the “news” has told them to believe. There are issues here like there are issues everywhere. So people want to focus on homelessness. Of course we have more homeless people, we have more people. We have two of the largest and most well known metro areas in the nation with an up and coming third.
The removed takes away (maybe intentionally) from the homeless issue that is rapidly increasing throughout the rest of the country. This is an issue of inflation and greed masquerading as inflation. Of corporate property owners buying up rentals and raising rents. Of workers not being paid a living wage. Of food and essentials becoming increasingly unaffordable by the month. Of course people are losing their homes and stealing from walmart. But this is a national problem. It gets worse all over the country for the same reasons and at the same time that it gets worse in California.
But what I will say is, we do have reproductive rights. Reasonable firearms regulations. More tenant regulations that most places, though still never enough. Some cities have social worker response teams instead of sending cops to kill people having mental health problems. We have homeless outreach and a statewide homeless census. Our schools and colleges still have diversity programs and sex ed. The state provides tuition waivers and grants for low income and marginalized students. We have drag shows and pride parades. And our libraries aren’t being purged by fucking nazis. So there’s that.
There’s a large amount of perceived haughtiness from the residents of California. They have a lot to be proud of though - it’s a great state in a lot of regards.
Full disclosure, I’m Canadian but travel to San Diego often for work.
Downtown San Diego is not as I remember it from before the pandemic. It’s quite clear to me that California is struggling with a massive mental health and addiction issue. The cost of living compounds these issues and amplifies the worst in people. Even “normal” working class folk are quick to anger and explode at the slightest inconvenience and people just do not give a shit about each other. I pin it to everyone being stressed out because they live paycheck to paycheck and the future is always uncertain.
Things that I think could help: universal healthcare, increased public housing, and the execution of the sackler family.
Also universal basic income
When I lived in Southern California (which is very different from other parts of the state) in the early 90s it was exactly like that. And when I have visited. I always tell people to watch it because a lot of people are really quick up take offense and anger in public and they never believe me until they see it, which they have on each trip back.
I love other areas of California, it’s beautiful, but Southern California always felt like a pressure cooker to me.
San Diego used to be a lot worse in a lot of ways. Honestly people have short memories. Admittedly, downtown is starting to look like 80s-90s downtown again, in a lot of ways though.
I can honestly say that there are a lot of terrible people out there, but in my experience San Diego always manages to come together when it matters. And honestly, in most day to day interactions, the vast majority of people I interact with are pretty nice overall.
I mean I lived in Anaheim in a terrible part of town on the early 90s with no car and a 40 minute bike ride to work, it was inevitable that I was going to have some bad experiences (robbed at gunpoint, crazy lady with rabid dog living in front of my building, getting screamed at and having stuff thrown at my by passing cars because I was on a bike, etc).
My coworkers (kitchen work in a big hotel) were great, it was just when I was going to and from work I’d see a lot of crazy stuff.
In later years, going back, I just found people were on a hair trigger. Like I was with two co-workers (was there for something like a work conference) in a store buying beer and these two guys were in costume so my buddy (from the Maritimes) said “those are awesome costumes” and these two guys went nuts on us.
Profanity, threats, it was wild. We just apologized and they were telling us to go f ourselves as they left.
Or I went to sf with my wife about ten years ago and she wanted to stop at a gas station in the city to use the washroom. I was like “just keep your focus on the cashier to get the key and I’ll wait outside the bathroom”. She told me I was being paranoid. Before we even got out of the car two dudes got into a fistfight and a cop saw it and tore in return the lights and siren going.
Just stuff like that going on all the time. Meanwhile, a few hours away you have paradise on earth.
Totally. It’s definitely area dependent. I was speaking to San Diego as a whole, more than downtown specifically. I personally wouldn’t go to downtown SD by myself, to like walk around. But, I never would have since I remember it back in the day.
Just like you didn’t go to certain neighborhood here unless you had a reason. My husband doesn’t remember SD like that, so whenever someone invites us to one of those neighborhoods (which most have been heavily gentrified now) my first reaction is always like uh….fuck no.
Shit even parts PT Loma/sports arena are are getting pretty awful again. Sports area was okish for a while, but there are SO many encampments in there now.
I think every downtown in every city in North America is pretty bad right now. I’m not anti-city but poverty, drug poisoning (like cutting drugs with crazy stuff that makes taking them very unpredictable), and general disorder are really stacking up in every downtown. I live in a large city in Western Canada, the downtown is really not ok to hang out in even during the day.
For various reasons, I am familiar with the situation in many other cities and they all seem to have similar issues. The city here put out water dispensers for people to use and then criminals started to gate keep them, charging money to access. I just don’t know how to stop that besides putting a cop or two by each one but police here continue to use their inability to stop this crisis as a way to get additional funding each year… Sigh. Not really sure why I’m ranting like this, it’s just really frustrating.
I don’t doubt that at all. It’s hard for everyone. SD and CA big cities as a whole are the destination for a lot of homeless/unwanted either willingly or “forcefully”. Largely because of our temperate climate and “liberal” policies, so we see a lot of it that we wouldn’t, if people didn’t explicitly come here for that reason.
I was mostly trying to comment on how SD was vs how it is now. It’s definitely MUCH safer here than it was in the 80s/90s. Early 90s was bad here, but people don’t remember, or more likely, are transplants and weren’t here for it.
Right on, I get you. Thanks for clarifying and have a good one. :)
There’s a large amount of perceived haughtiness from the residents of California. They have a lot to be proud of though - it’s a great state in a lot of regards.
The Napa Valley liberals are staggeringly arrogant when you meet them in person.
California has Medi Cal which is pretty close to universal healthcare.
It’s nice, but it does have some glaring gaps in it, such as the usual exceptions for most “luxury bones” concerns (teeth). Last I checked, Medi-Cal only covers one basic cleaning a year, for example.
My dental is taken care of by local Indian tribes. I’m not native.
It depends entirely on where you visit in the city. Plenty of areas have zero issues. Downtown sucks, though. I’m more surprised you’ve ever enjoyed it there…
It’s a left-leaning, progressive state. Everyone who talks shit about this state in anything other than the cost of living generally doesn’t have an answer because their actual reason for disliking the state is that it’s not a republican state.
Fwiw there are more Republicans in California than most red states it’s just a matter of having an enormous population. Hence OP’s coworker.
To drive your point home: More Californians voted for Trump than Texans.
And they all seem to be in the Central Valley; The worst region of the state.
Also 8% of US agricultural output by dollar value. Let’s not forget that we need conservatives as much as they need us.
Who’s doing the work in the fields?
Immigrants, mostly from Latin America.
Even the worst valley republican is better than the best Bay Democrat
their actual reason for disliking the state is that it’s not a republican state
Largest number of electoral votes for presidential elections, too, which drives 'em nuts!
california is the largest “sub-national” economy in the world. if california was a country, it would have the fifth largest economy. bigger than the uk, or bigger than india.
if i had to guess, the answer is “success breeds jealousy”
If anything, it should be California thats pissed off, having all its tax money go to support the failed red states and their failed policies via the federal redistribution.
I maintain that if red states want to end government handouts, we should respect their wishes, for them.
100% agree.
All accusations are confessions, and quite possibly the biggest of them all is their calling everyone welfare queens… When republicans rely on federal welfare to keep states above water so they can continue to convince those very same idiots that welfare bad and federal gubmint bad.
If its so bad, turn the faucet off and let them see how bad it really is under republican rule.
The problem is that policy hurts the poorest who have the least say in thr policy
Aka haters gunna hate
I think this is mostly due to the highly polarized political climate. California is the most populous state and it’s policies frequently end up spreading to other states and therefore is frequently focused on because if it’s major influence. This is similar to how Texas and Florida are in the news a lot for their more conservative policies. While there are people out there who take the time to inform themselves and make their own decisions most people are only able to parrot back talking points they hear from the news or their friends. I suspect your coworker is one of those people and probably leans conservative so all he hears all day is how California’s policies are making housing too expensive and it’s too “woke” etc.
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Political policy that’s extremist, whether left or right, doesn’t make sense.
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I think that happened under Trump. If it really was last year she should have declared a state of emergency and have Biden send in the feds to clean house.
Trump wasn’t even willing to take care of wildfires on federal land, but an extreme case of blue flu, or whatever the hell you call it when you feign incompetence so severe that they are letting red handed murderers go on their own recognizance (Asian targets, black criminal, suddenly the court finds it’s clemency), demands a clean out. Eliminate the cop gangs and provide 24h security for the governor and da.
Biden has been a disappointment in some areas and a welcome surprise in others but his inability to address bad policing is one of the disappointments. The thing is, the administration is usually powerless to act unless their aid is specifically requested.
As California goes, so goes the nation. Conservatives don’t like this.
If it wasn’t for the high cost of living, I’d move to California as well. Still hope I’ll make it there some day.
Largest population and a GDP that at last I read was somewhere around 5th GLOBALLY supassing most countries which is no small feat for a single state. So it makes good sense that the rest of the nation takes notice when they enact something. Fortunatly most of the policies they enact tend to be for the benefit of the populous (environmental, gun control, privacy, etc) rather than corporations amd the elite so keep it up I say.
Some say people don’t like it due to the cost of living. Property costs are reflective of both the prosperity of a local population and the desire people have to live there, so it’s hard to say people don’t like it because of the cost of living, if anything I’d see the opposite.
Poor republicans are butthurt
As a very left leaning individual who does not like California my reasons basically come down to all the benign neglect of the homeless (leaving people to rot in the streets with their fentanyl addictions isn’t progressive, assholes) the militant oppositions to building housing anywhere (progress is being made but it’s like pulling teeth) and the huge focus on performative laws that effect 0 actual change.
… Notably these are all problems in other states too. Most of them just use police to lock them up instead. Not better.
But California rubs me the wrong way because they act smug about it.
Notably these are all problems in other states too. Most of them just use police to lock them up instead. Not better.
They don’t always lock them up. Sometimes they put them on a bus to California.
That represents such a miniscule population that it’s not really worth talking about.
90% of your homeless population is home(less)-grown.
In the context of this discussion about attitudes towards CA, the fact that CA is held to a higher standard than other states is worth talking about.
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I could have written most of this, but about Massachusetts.
Prop 13 (1978) is part of the cruel legacy of Ronald Reagan, who had stopped being Governor in order to gird his loins for becoming President, but was still highly influential. The Howard Jarvis Association continues to poison the political sphere to this day.
The high costs really are kind of insane. Even before COVID. I honestly don’t know what the solution is or if it’s actually preferable to have high costs but also a tremendous amount of money coming into the state from continued interest in Californian real estate.
I remember when a city wanted 1 million dollars to construct an outhouse. At that price, with that level of graft, the voters thankfully voted against it.
If we can’t even get an outhouse built, what does that spell for larger projects?
We pay so much just for the real estate / rent and so much in taxes and what does it get us?
My uncle got fined for installing his own solar panels (although this happened over a decade ago). Honestly the state gets a lot of things right but when it gets things wrong it gets them infuriatingly wrong, and for the amount of money we are spending this shit shouldn’t be happening. I have no problem paying for an administrative state, as long as it administrates!
Recently we found out that over 300 physical assaults against Asian seniors were all done by one guy, which honestly I don’t even know if that’s true or not, and the implications in either case are terrible. One guy who was arrested for stabbing a senior citizen in the neck was released into his own recognizance and he ended up successfully murdering another senior citizen within 24h of his release. Of course, black perp Asian victim, so no surprise the justice system suddenly finds clemency. We will shoot black toddlers for playing with a toy gun but if it’s a black person stabbing Asian senior citizens in the neck, suddenly this is a precious creature who must be protected.
Another recent headline grabber is when they eliminated the sats as a criteria for college admissions. That one really pissed me off, as someone who absolutely hated homework and was too timid to ask someone else to do it but who aced all the tests. They got rid of the sats but they will introduce a new test in 2025?!! They should have the new test ready before they eliminate the old test! Leaving admissions fully in the hands of incompetent teachers is so fucking stupid that it could only be intentional.
These past few years have really clarified for me that I think I identify best with social Democrats and not with actual leftists and certainly not with right leaning saboteurs. I don’t mind giving the underprivileged a voice or giving them accommodations, but certain govt services are necessary and we need them to work.
Funny enough for the right wingers that don’t like the gun control in California, it was first brought in because Reagan was fearful of the Black Panthers who were openly carrying fully legal assault rifles and those white politicians couldn’t handle that second amendment applying to black gun owners.
SYSK do a good explainer on this and the Black Panther party in general - https://www.iheart.com/podcast/105-stuff-you-should-know-26940277/episode/the-black-panther-party-29467333/
Most people out of the state who complain about California, never lived here, they are just repeating what they heard on conservative media.
If it was a hell hole like they say, the property prices would be cheap, no one would want them.
Most people that are leaving, are leaving because they got priced out and cannot afford to stay.
I would think that the people leaving have the money to move anywhere, due to being cheaper than CA. Buying home in cheaper states or due to work.
It’s the network effect. Many industry leaders are already here so everyone else wants to be also.
The real estate / rent prices are so insane that it is already affecting malls and smaller shops but it’s still not causing the real estate market to draw down. In fact if anything the continued trend of prices rising higher and higher only attracts more demand.
Same reason people don’t like Florida. Lots of targeted negative media coverage. Conservatives think California is a shithole where homeless people are everywhere and people don’t get arrested for robbing a store at gunpoint. Non-conservatives think Florida is full of hard-core Trumpers who want to ban all gay people from existing and is like a redneck 1984.
Reality is more nuanced. Both states are very large populations with a diverse makeup. But nuance is hard to convey in headlines. I personally live in Florida and love it, even though I hate DeSantis with a passion. The people here make up for the shitty politics. And the pendulum will inevitably swing back to the other side.
But nuance is hard to convey in headlines
This 100%. I’d also like to bring up that population distribution has a lot to with it. Across America, rural communities tend to agree with each other and urban communities agree with each other. A person living in Miami and someone living in LA would probably agree with each other politically than someone from LA and someone living in a rural community in North California.
The main issue comes from whether or not the majority of the state’s people live in cities or the countryside. I live in a mid-size city in TN and almost everyone I know, including our
governormayor and local leaders, are very left-leaning. But because most of the state lives outside the cities, it doesn’t really matter. Sorry, this comment turned into a rant haha 😅deleted by creator
Whoops, meant mayor. No, fuck Bill Lee for a hundred and one different reasons
Yeah wtf is this dude smoking? Bill Lee isn’t on the Trump or DeSantis level(yet). But he’s wayyy right leaning. Outside of Nashville, Memphis, Chattanooga, and Knoxville this state is as red as it gets.
Yeah meant to say mayor, I corrected it in the original comment haha my bad
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Is there an alternative to DeSantis?
Not this last governor election but the one before it was a close race between DeSantis & Andrew Gillum. Gillum lost by a very small margin although some months after the election he was caught having sex with a male prostitute in a hotel room smoking meth. This was obviously unpopular, especially since he espouses family values and is married with kids.
The next election DeSantis won more or less unopposed and the electoral map of Florida looked like one of Reagan’s maps where he painted the whole country red.
DeSantis’s popularity seems to be dropping like a rock, however. A) he’s trying to challenge Trump, which has been a bad idea for any Republicans who want to be elected in the last few years B) he’s engaging very heavily in culture war which is financially hurting Florida and people are starting to see it
He’s trying to fight Disney, one of the main reasons Orlando is a major city. He’s passing anti-illegal legislation where Florida has some of the highest rates of illegals and Latinos in the country - essentially guaranteeing price increases and inflation for all sorts of manual labor intensive services. Ie construction, landscaping, etc
And of course housing prices are skyrocketing with Florida having the highest inflation in the country, topping 10% last year.
And while Floridians are struggling to pay rent, his messaging is focusing on “anti-wokeness” and he’s turning down federal aid money.
Essentially DeSantis had a chance to be relevant nationally and he’s throwing it all away while also pissing off his entire base in Florida. He thought he was untouchable and his overconfidence, I think, is backfiring.
So going forward what will happen in Florida? It’s hard to say. If there’s a good candidate from the Democrat side, they have a chance. However Gillum did stain the Dem reputation for a while in Florida.
Covid brought a lot of “anti-vaxxer / anti-lockdown” migrants so the Republicans have a good ~400k highly politically motivated new voters. However like I said, the Republicans policies are hurting Florida economically and that’s never a good way to win elections.
There really isn’t a left or centerist champion in Florida right now to my knowledge, but two people to keep an eye on might be the former agriculture commissioner and the new mayor of Duval county.
From my small sample size experience as a customer service rep for an internet and cable TV company, California customers are some of the most obnoxious ever. People in LA seem like some of the angriest people ever. The slightest inconvenience and it’s like you killed their fucking dog.
Sit in LA traffic for two hours and you’ll get it… It’s an awful place. The Decemberists described it as “the oceans gargled vomit on the shore.” So far, that’s the best description I’ve heard.
LA people are not right in the head. The rest of California is nothing like that place.
