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Learn the phrase and see it everywhere: negative partisanship. XBOX vs PS vs Nintendo vs mobile, Mac vs MS vs Linux, Rep vs Dem, white vs black, old vs young, etc. etc. etc. Stupid people love signalling to their ingroup how loyal they are by attacking the outgroup.
It's the fifth largest global economy...
It's hard proof that most of their policy is complete bullshit, because if they were right, liberal social policy and taxes would have chased all the wealthy away.
But it doesn't, because people want to live in places with that kind of policy
California is a monument to the total debunking of right wing social ideology
It plus New York fund the existence of the red states
Oh dear, I have to post it again:
Look at the economies of southern red states. They're fucking garbage and they turn out some of the most reprehensible personalities in our country. Pathetic.
Because caring for the environment and creating social programs is scary to them.
The people who tell conservatives what to think have indicated that California is bad. Why is it bad? They made some progress on a few things, and we can’t have that. It’s why we can’t have nice things like affordable healthcare and breathable air.
Breathable air? That's just another commodity to sell to the masses. Like shelter. And water. And food.
If they could sell us sunlight, they would do it without a second thought.
It holds a level of cultural and economic dominance over much of the country to the point where it can often feel similar to how America does to Europeans.
They make our art, they grow our food, and they represent us on a cultural stage to the world. And for a lot of middle America you will never be able to afford to move there, but some of your neighbors and friends will, and they'll love it.
There's a lot of sour grapes in California hate, because Iowa, Missouri, ohio, etc know they're flyover states, they know they're never going to be the powerhouses that California is. So you watch your Los Angeles media on a Silicon Valley device eating your San Joaquin vegetables thinking about your childhood friend who couldn't take it here and got into a UC and never moved back. There's some bitterness if you left your small town, but if you didn't even manage that…
I think you hit the nail perfectly on the head
i say living on the west coast after I escaped the drudgery that is the Midwest
You're thinking of educated people, the people who hate California could never think things that far through. They are the uneducated masses who eat up what fox news sells them, and then regurgitate it. They've never talked to a minority or someone outside their economic class. They know their small reality, and can't conceptualize a society bigger or more complex than that.
Everybody loves finding things in common with other people.
Since California is percieved by the right to be a "liberal stronghold", it is easy for them to bond over a shared hatred of it. Regardless of whether or not that hate is based in fact.
California is successful. It is the strongest economy of the US, and one of the strongest economies in comparison to other, complete, countries. And it dares not to be Republican!
On the other hand, most Republican states could not survive without federal handouts, mostly supplied by more successful Democratic states.
It is envy, plain and simple.
Because California stands for many, many, many, many of the things they oppose without evidence to back up their claims: Supporting LGBTQ+, better Social programs, limited religious freedoms, run by a bunch of "liberals", etc. etc.
And yet, it's the 5th largest economy in the world, and the vast, overwhelming, majority of funds for the USA.
They hate that California works, because it disproves pretty much all of their talking points.
Because the entire concept of conservatism is based on having enemies.
They jelly of that economy
"B-but everyone is leaving California!!1!"
To the people saying this: yeah, dream on. Step away from the hard right-wing media and look around. It's a myth.
Yes there are some people leaving the state for places like Texas and Florida (sorry, but fuck knows why!). But there are still a ton of people here in CA, there are still people moving here, and there are still kids being born here. We are a loooong way from a mass exodus of economy crippling proportions.
In integral part of conservative ideology is hatred and California's been a target for decades. When the acceptance of gays became too widespread they switched to hatred and vilification of transgender Americans. When the general population gets tired of listening to them screech about that they'll find someone/something else. For some reason they don't get tired of whining about CA.
From what I can tell from up in Canada, it's a more 'liberal' leaning state according to their metric and they don't like that.
If California is allowed to look good, then it hurts the credibility of their ideology.
I think there are some criticisms about Californians leaving the state raising housing prices in their own state. That’s just how supply and demand works though when the supply of houses suddenly becomes more limited in your area.
They like to say things along the lines of: “Californians messed up their own state with their high taxes, fled here, are driving all the prices up, and are now trying to bring their fAiLeD PoLiTiCs to the state.” The real answer is that California is such a desirable place to live that there are not enough houses and well paying jobs to go around. People leave the state because of unregulated capitalist pressures, not because of the state’s strong social programs.
It’s not just Californians moving to other states that are driving prices up. Housing prices going up is also caused by private equity firms buying up available properties, a slowdown on building new houses capping supply, people from other states moving, and Not In My Backyard people trying to prevent lower cost housing in their towns since they don’t want the price of their house to ever drop.
Having strong social programs in their own states could actually help mitigate the impact of prices going up for housing as well as for other goods and services. For instance, they could have their own state provided healthcare coverage to help them have guaranteed healthcare. They could have better public transportation systems so they are not so car reliant to get to work. Rent controls in place to mitigate landlords pricing people out of the area. Affordable housing construction. Even things like public utilities could be offered for less by the state for gas, electricity, phone, and internet.
What’s crazy is that, by pure numbers, CA is basically tied with FL as having the second most republicans in the country—at around 6 million.* Only TX has them both beat. Conservatives really do shit on the 2nd/3rd largest enclave of republicans in the country 🤣
*Based on the 2024 US election turnout—not registered republicans
California is strictly better than every red state in almost every measure. They literally hate it because it directly disproves their worldview that conservatives are good for the economy.
I get the sense places like California and New York are seen as the homes of the rich elite. Which, they are - because that’s where everyone wants to live. Conservatives miss that they’re also the homes of hundreds of thousands of oppressed working class like themselves who also hate those rich elites, because states are big places.
There’s also racism. They hate sanctuary cities because they go against their narrative that immigrants are destroying America. (Signed, a white guy living in a sanctuary city that is proud of its low crime rate)
I get the sense places like California and New York are seen as the homes of the rich elite.
And then they elected a born rich New York elite man-child. Twice.
Not a bright bunch.
California is a big, shiny, undeniable counter-point to everything they claim is bad about liberalism.
More people choose to live here than anywhere else (in America) and we have more money than anyone else because our economy is more productive than anywhere else (in America).
It's California. Go anywhere in the world and say the word "California" and they'll know what you're talking about, even if they don't speak English.
California is concrete proof that liberalism isn't some failed ideology and they REALLY don't like that. Hell, we're responsible for some of these conservative states even existing, as they siphon money from us because we pay WAY more to the federal government than any other state.
Conservatives don't have a state as successful as California. And even most of their large cities are liberal.
It's hate based in jealousy.
It’s a stereotype. Why do many people instantly think of Texas when talking about conservative states?
I think of a fertilizer factory built across the street from schools that blows up. Or people freezing to death when their power goes out. Or getting a bill for $5,000 because they didn't freeze to death.
right wing propaganda from MSMs, like fox. they are also hyprocites because many of them live like in nevada, and thier entire business is inside CALIFORNIA. for eg, i used to followed some asian ytubers, they moved to LAS VEGAS or reno over the pandemic but they rail on california, called it woke, but thier base is in california los angelas. and then they were whining about the lack of community culture for POCs in VEGAS, healthcare and school. also one of them was caught by california EDD laws, for mislabeling thier employees as contractors,1099 instead of full time employees. he was literally asking the incel viewers how to EVADE and commit fraud to get away with it.
Lookng at Cali might give them cognitive dissonance so they get upset like the mean dumb goblins they are.
Conservatives = keep stuff how it has been California = modernize stuff and abandon how things were
It's basically in their name - to conserve. California is doing exactly everything opposite, setting new trends and standards.
An often overlooked aspect is that much of the rural US is experiencing pretty aggressive gentrification. "California" is the nebulous word used to describe that process by conservatives because actual understanding and contextualizing is "woke".
California being the stand in word due to the socio-economic reasons already stated.
It represents everything they hate. CA ain't perfect, but it's got a lot of good stuff going for it. Especially that monster economy.
I like to rag on our state to the south friend-o, but it's outta love for the pnw. You keep doing you because it fucking pisses off the Pedo Party and that's awesome.
Perceived as most left-leaning of the states , wen any one who knows just a little past surface level about USian politics , they'll realise there's no true "left-leaning" state lol
I've never been to Alabama but I'll still shit on it because I've seen statistics and stories about how bad it is there. Same with Republicans. California is definitely one of the better states to live in by most metrics but it does have huge wealth inequality combined with its large population means there's no shortage of people in poverty and statistics and stories from that group that fox News can shove in the face of there audience and pretend that's how everyone in California is living.
I've been to Alabama. I have family in Alabama. I will say it's probably worse than you think in many ways.
I would guess most midwesterners have not been, so they dont know the reality of the place. So anyone can say it's full of bad people and they won't bat an eye.
Since nobody here is giving any actual reasons and just putting up straw men, let me give you the real reasons.
Crowded and high cost of living.
And because politics, those two points extend into lots of homeless (crowded) and "liberal initiatives" (cost of living). But it's always rooted into crowded and high cost of living.
But what about large cities in the red states? Yes, the same is said of those. Crowded and high cost of living.
Why is it crowded there? It's expensive because it's crowded, so why is it so crowded? Do people actually want to live there or something?
As my dad said after moving to San Francisco "It's expensive here because it's worth it"
The OP asked about the state, not cities. There is a ton of cheap land here. There are also tons of different sized cities with different housing costs.
You said others were offering straw men? What is this?
What conservatives alsp forget is their own system of capitalism they worship is what drives its high cost of living. People want to live there. If there wasn't a demand to live there, cost of living would lower.
More homeless are seen in the west coast states also because the climate is more hospitable, and the governments and people a little more so, too. Also because right-wing media magnify the problem.