5 ms·

What, ahem, political climate would that be? Y'all think this state is full of idiots. Y'all are only half-wrong, and it's still probably better than your stat

What, ahem, political climate would that be? Y'all think this state is full of idiots. Y'all are only half-wrong, and it's still probably better than your state.

enraged_camel 11y ago
I live in Texas and I'm as surprised as the parent. It's not that I think the state is "full of idiots" as you say, but because the oil and gas industry has the state by the balls. edit: judging by the downvotes, apparently this is a controversial statement. weird.
- aaron695 11y ago
  I don't think you deserve downvotes for this comment. But surly you'd be aware this is what the rest of the world thinks? The first thing the world thinks of when they think of Texas is racist, backwards, ultra religious people. I'm surprised you'd be surprised of this?
  - krapp 11y ago
    People tend to be surprised when confronted with stereotypes about themselves, especially when those stereotypes are untrue.
toomuchtodo 11y ago
> Y'all think this state is full of idiots. Y'all are only half-wrong, and it's still probably better than your state. Texas ranks dead last in education, healthcare, and most indicators of quality of life. Clearly, it can't be better than any other state, unless your compared metrics are restricted to "no taxes" or "cheap housing".
- jeremyt 11y ago
  source?
  - JohnTHaller 11y ago
    Do a Google search for: texas dead last You'll find things like Texas being the worst in terms of: Highest percentage of residents over age 25 without a high school diploma Lowest funding of mental health care Lowest funding of legal services for the poor Lowest average credit score Lowest voter participation Highest percentage of uninsured residents Highest per-capita gasoline consumption Highest level of cancer-causing compounds released into the air/ground/water Searching on other factors reveals other bits, like that Texas is: 40th in obesity 48th in child immunizations 46th in teen pregnancy These are from a ton of different news stories and statistical summaries from 2008-2015, so I'm sure a bunch are out of date. The point being that in many ways the Texas stereotype is backed up by real-world data. It's also interesting to see the things that Texas is good at that you would not expect based on stereotypes of Texas like levels of smoking (5th), drug deaths (7th), etc.
    - toomuchtodo 11y ago
      It's quite humorous you were downvoted considering everything you mentioned is true. http://web.archive.org/web/20150401050939/https://www.texastribune.org/2011/02/14/texas-is-on-the-brink-legislative-study-group-says/ http://web.archive.org/web/20150401050939/https://www.texast...
      - JohnTHaller 11y ago
        It's not unusual to be downvoted for factual posts by people who disagree with said facts.
  - toomuchtodo 11y ago
    http://web.archive.org/web/20150401050939/https://www.texastribune.org/2011/02/14/texas-is-on-the-brink-legislative-study-group-says/ http://web.archive.org/web/20150401050939/https://www.texast...
- skaevola 11y ago
  You're wrong http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/10/27/upshot/surprise-florida-and-texas-excel-in-math-and-reading-scores.html?referer= http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/10/27/upshot/surprise-florida... Don't worry about the political climate too much though. Plenty of Californians are moving here, many intent on advocating for the same policies here that caused them to flee their state in the first place.
  - GFK_of_xmaspast 11y ago
    From the first paragraph of the article: "When the Education Department releases its biennial scorecard of reading and math scores for all 50 states this week, Florida and Texas are likely to look pretty mediocre. In 2013, the last time that scores were released, Florida ranked 30th on the tests, which are given to fourth and eighth graders, and Texas ranked 32nd." And: > Plenty of Californians are moving here, many intent on advocating for the same policies here Let's hope they succeed. Texas delenda est and all that.
    - vaadu 11y ago
      These refugees from bankrupted states are locusts that destroy the prosperity in one state, then move on to other prosperous states.
      - GFK_of_xmaspast 11y ago
        (a) I'm not totally comfortable referring to anybody, even Californians, as insects (b) California contains "Silicon Valley" into which there's a ton of prosperity being put (c) even Orange County is less morally bankrupt than almost all of Texas.
      - woah 11y ago
        California pays America's bills. http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/05/which-states-are-givers-and-which-are-takers/361668/ http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/05/which-st...
    - jdminhbg 11y ago
dang 11y ago
We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10960114 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10960114 and marked it off-topic.

What, ahem, political climate would that be? Y'all think this state is full of idiots. Y'all are only half-wrong, and it's still probably better than your state.

enraged_camel 11y ago

I live in Texas and I'm as surprised as the parent. It's not that I think the state is "full of idiots" as you say, but because the oil and gas industry has the state by the balls. edit: judging by the downvotes, apparently this is a controversial statement. weird.

aaron695 11y ago
I don't think you deserve downvotes for this comment. But surly you'd be aware this is what the rest of the world thinks? The first thing the world thinks of when they think of Texas is racist, backwards, ultra religious people. I'm surprised you'd be surprised of this?
- krapp 11y ago
  People tend to be surprised when confronted with stereotypes about themselves, especially when those stereotypes are untrue.

toomuchtodo 11y ago

> Y'all think this state is full of idiots. Y'all are only half-wrong, and it's still probably better than your state. Texas ranks dead last in education, healthcare, and most indicators of quality of life. Clearly, it can't be better than any other state, unless your compared metrics are restricted to "no taxes" or "cheap housing".

jeremyt 11y ago
source?
- JohnTHaller 11y ago
  Do a Google search for: texas dead last You'll find things like Texas being the worst in terms of: Highest percentage of residents over age 25 without a high school diploma Lowest funding of mental health care Lowest funding of legal services for the poor Lowest average credit score Lowest voter participation Highest percentage of uninsured residents Highest per-capita gasoline consumption Highest level of cancer-causing compounds released into the air/ground/water Searching on other factors reveals other bits, like that Texas is: 40th in obesity 48th in child immunizations 46th in teen pregnancy These are from a ton of different news stories and statistical summaries from 2008-2015, so I'm sure a bunch are out of date. The point being that in many ways the Texas stereotype is backed up by real-world data. It's also interesting to see the things that Texas is good at that you would not expect based on stereotypes of Texas like levels of smoking (5th), drug deaths (7th), etc.
  - toomuchtodo 11y ago
    It's quite humorous you were downvoted considering everything you mentioned is true. http://web.archive.org/web/20150401050939/https://www.texastribune.org/2011/02/14/texas-is-on-the-brink-legislative-study-group-says/ http://web.archive.org/web/20150401050939/https://www.texast...
    - JohnTHaller 11y ago
      It's not unusual to be downvoted for factual posts by people who disagree with said facts.
- toomuchtodo 11y ago
  http://web.archive.org/web/20150401050939/https://www.texastribune.org/2011/02/14/texas-is-on-the-brink-legislative-study-group-says/ http://web.archive.org/web/20150401050939/https://www.texast...
skaevola 11y ago
You're wrong http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/10/27/upshot/surprise-florida-and-texas-excel-in-math-and-reading-scores.html?referer= http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/10/27/upshot/surprise-florida... Don't worry about the political climate too much though. Plenty of Californians are moving here, many intent on advocating for the same policies here that caused them to flee their state in the first place.
- GFK_of_xmaspast 11y ago
  From the first paragraph of the article: "When the Education Department releases its biennial scorecard of reading and math scores for all 50 states this week, Florida and Texas are likely to look pretty mediocre. In 2013, the last time that scores were released, Florida ranked 30th on the tests, which are given to fourth and eighth graders, and Texas ranked 32nd." And: > Plenty of Californians are moving here, many intent on advocating for the same policies here Let's hope they succeed. Texas delenda est and all that.
  - vaadu 11y ago
    These refugees from bankrupted states are locusts that destroy the prosperity in one state, then move on to other prosperous states.
    - GFK_of_xmaspast 11y ago
      (a) I'm not totally comfortable referring to anybody, even Californians, as insects (b) California contains "Silicon Valley" into which there's a ton of prosperity being put (c) even Orange County is less morally bankrupt than almost all of Texas.
    - woah 11y ago
      California pays America's bills. http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/05/which-states-are-givers-and-which-are-takers/361668/ http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/05/which-st...
  - jdminhbg 11y ago

dang 11y ago

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10960114 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10960114 and marked it off-topic.