5 ms·

The politics and culture (which are intertwined). Even if one area or city is more liberal, you're still dealing with a conservative, and possibly racist, sexis

The politics and culture (which are intertwined). Even if one area or city is more liberal, you're still dealing with a conservative, and possibly racist, sexist and homophobic, state government.

hn_throwaway_99 8y ago
Agreed. State government in Texas is constantly overturning city ordinances in Austin: the whole bathroom bill BS, requiring local police to hold suspects for ICE, even overturning the plastic bag ban. All of the current political ads are pretty nauseating. Regardless of where you stand on the issue of managing immigration (and IMO there are lots of fair points on both sides that I think unfortunately get drowned out by extremists), the tone of the current set of ads is clearly "Evil brown gang members are coming to sell your kids drugs and murder your family." Makes Willy Horton look quaint.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
tifnufiene 8y ago
Having lived in Alabama, this would be rather offensive if it weren’t so endearing; Sounds like a child who’s so certain that the closet hides a monster, that they’re too scared to go learn that the noise is just an air vent.
- azinman2 8y ago
  I’ve known many a gay man who has left the south because they don’t feel safe there. Certainly voting wise, the parents comment feels very true.
  - oh_sigh 8y ago
    I've known gay men who moved to the south because they liked the culture, so where are we now?
    - tomcam 8y ago
      At perfect equilibrium for gay men in the south, with a pseudo-osmotic filter allowing only hardy gay men. Meanwhile the wimpy gay men who fled are invading the rest of the country, leaving behind a trail of well-kept neighborhoods with lots of tasteful little galleries.
- mdorazio 8y ago
  Having lived in Georgia and Tennessee and still having family in the Carolinas, you're either a straight white man or living in denial.
  - rayiner 8y ago
    I lived in Atlanta for the better part of a decade as a brown guy right after 9/11. Was great.
    - amazingman 8y ago
      I guess you never spent much time in the hills just an hour or so from Atlanta in almost any direction, in any of a good number of towns where “a brown guy” would have a hard time finding a restaurant willing to take his money for food.
      - rayiner 8y ago
        One of my college buddies lived in Douglas, three hours south of Atlanta in south georgia. Never had anyone be anything short of incredibly polite and hospitable. Heck, I’ve been in rural Illinois, rural VA, and rural GA quite a bit and everyone’s been great. I don’t know (or much care) about peoples’ politics but I’ve always been treated respectfully.
      - deleted 8y ago
        [deleted]
      - selimthegrim 8y ago
        Another brown guy checking in. My aunt and uncle practiced medicine in Murphy, NC for many years and only ever had a problem when the feds thought Eric Rudolph might be hiding in their backyard.
    - enraged_camel 8y ago
      Large cities are always much more liberal. Don't let that fool you though, the overall culture in the state of Georgia is not much different than it was back during the Civil War era. edit: nice downvotes from Georgians ;)
- dpark 8y ago
  You’re so unwilling to stand behind your statement that you created a sock puppet account to say it for you.
- Zach_the_Lizard 8y ago
  Having lived in Alabama as a Catholic yankee I was met with at best extreme ignorance about my then beliefs and at worst outright harassment and discrimination for having the wrong accent and wrong Christian denomination. Within the first week of moving there, we had a Klan rally in town. Most of the other local Catholic families, if they could afford it, moved their children to private school to escape. The schools had corporal punishment, and demanded that we call our teachers sir or ma'am, a custom that I was not used to and have encountered nowhere else. Failing to do so landed me in detention within the first month or so. I was there for the original Roy Moore saga. This was 15+ years ago and in a rural community with dirt roads, so I'm sure things have changed a bit and do not apply to the whole state, but checking the school website corporal punishment is still alive and well and Alabama nearly elected Roy Moore yet again. I would never live there so long as the current toxic blend of religion and politics dominates the Southern political scene.
BoorishBears 8y ago
North Carolina?
- wtallis 8y ago
  The North Carolina government is in the hands of the Republican party, with the exception of the governor's office, which is one of the weakest executive branches in the country and due to get weaker with some of the constitutional amendments on the ballot this year. NC has some potential to improve its standing, but so far the gerrymandering has proven insurmountable as even when the courts rule the districts to be illegal, they allow them to continue to be used because the next election is always "too soon".
- jldugger 8y ago
  1. It's a control state. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcoholic_beverage_control_state https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcoholic_beverage_control_sta... 2. The politics are still overtly racist: https://twitter.com/haroldpollack/status/1051657219899617280 https://twitter.com/haroldpollack/status/1051657219899617280 3. The HB2 saga demonstrates how strong the Christian right is in the state. As does a candidate in a race too close to call insisting there will never be peace in Jerusalem until Jews acknowledge the divinity of Christ: https://forward.com/fast-forward/413488/gop-candidate-no-peace-in-israel-until-jews-muslims-convert-to/ https://forward.com/fast-forward/413488/gop-candidate-no-pea... 4. gun laws are relatively permissive: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_laws_in_North_Carolina https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_laws_in_North_Carolina 5. MJ legalization is behind west coast states: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_in_North_Carolina https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_in_North_Carolina
  - monksy 8y ago
    Not sure if you've lived in NC... but there are a few things to that that I think you may have missed: 1. Yes, the fact that this is uniformly a control state, that is a problem. (Given how they are, I wish they had some special exclusion areas) However, a lot of the east coast operates in the same manner. The early hour for last call is bad as well. 2. Politics that you're talking about have very little to do with the tech sector. Despite what silicon valley would have you believe, you can be a conservative and be a productive member of the industry. 3. This sounds like you're pushing a political agenda here. I think a more succinct way to put this would be: Given the demographic that the tech industry attracts, the bible belt would not be favourable to their lifestyle. 4. (Also see #3) There are reasons for doing tech in NC and it does have a small tech sector.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
yspeak 8y ago
How is this tolerated as acceptable comment ? No way this would be tolerated if similar sentiment was said of SF but the South is fair game on HN. Everyone in the South particularly Texas is a bigot except the tech elite who are fleeing the high taxes and cost of living of California and other states for the abundant jobs in TX.
jupiter90000 8y ago
With the rampant sexism in west coast tech companies, you'd think they'd feel right at home in the southern states then.

The politics and culture (which are intertwined). Even if one area or city is more liberal, you're still dealing with a conservative, and possibly racist, sexist and homophobic, state government.

hn_throwaway_99 8y ago

Agreed. State government in Texas is constantly overturning city ordinances in Austin: the whole bathroom bill BS, requiring local police to hold suspects for ICE, even overturning the plastic bag ban. All of the current political ads are pretty nauseating. Regardless of where you stand on the issue of managing immigration (and IMO there are lots of fair points on both sides that I think unfortunately get drowned out by extremists), the tone of the current set of ads is clearly "Evil brown gang members are coming to sell your kids drugs and murder your family." Makes Willy Horton look quaint.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

tifnufiene 8y ago

Having lived in Alabama, this would be rather offensive if it weren’t so endearing; Sounds like a child who’s so certain that the closet hides a monster, that they’re too scared to go learn that the noise is just an air vent.

azinman2 8y ago
I’ve known many a gay man who has left the south because they don’t feel safe there. Certainly voting wise, the parents comment feels very true.
- oh_sigh 8y ago
  I've known gay men who moved to the south because they liked the culture, so where are we now?
  - tomcam 8y ago
    At perfect equilibrium for gay men in the south, with a pseudo-osmotic filter allowing only hardy gay men. Meanwhile the wimpy gay men who fled are invading the rest of the country, leaving behind a trail of well-kept neighborhoods with lots of tasteful little galleries.
mdorazio 8y ago
Having lived in Georgia and Tennessee and still having family in the Carolinas, you're either a straight white man or living in denial.
- rayiner 8y ago
  I lived in Atlanta for the better part of a decade as a brown guy right after 9/11. Was great.
  - amazingman 8y ago
    I guess you never spent much time in the hills just an hour or so from Atlanta in almost any direction, in any of a good number of towns where “a brown guy” would have a hard time finding a restaurant willing to take his money for food.
    - rayiner 8y ago
      One of my college buddies lived in Douglas, three hours south of Atlanta in south georgia. Never had anyone be anything short of incredibly polite and hospitable. Heck, I’ve been in rural Illinois, rural VA, and rural GA quite a bit and everyone’s been great. I don’t know (or much care) about peoples’ politics but I’ve always been treated respectfully.
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
    - selimthegrim 8y ago
      Another brown guy checking in. My aunt and uncle practiced medicine in Murphy, NC for many years and only ever had a problem when the feds thought Eric Rudolph might be hiding in their backyard.
  - enraged_camel 8y ago
    Large cities are always much more liberal. Don't let that fool you though, the overall culture in the state of Georgia is not much different than it was back during the Civil War era. edit: nice downvotes from Georgians ;)
dpark 8y ago
You’re so unwilling to stand behind your statement that you created a sock puppet account to say it for you.
Zach_the_Lizard 8y ago
Having lived in Alabama as a Catholic yankee I was met with at best extreme ignorance about my then beliefs and at worst outright harassment and discrimination for having the wrong accent and wrong Christian denomination. Within the first week of moving there, we had a Klan rally in town. Most of the other local Catholic families, if they could afford it, moved their children to private school to escape. The schools had corporal punishment, and demanded that we call our teachers sir or ma'am, a custom that I was not used to and have encountered nowhere else. Failing to do so landed me in detention within the first month or so. I was there for the original Roy Moore saga. This was 15+ years ago and in a rural community with dirt roads, so I'm sure things have changed a bit and do not apply to the whole state, but checking the school website corporal punishment is still alive and well and Alabama nearly elected Roy Moore yet again. I would never live there so long as the current toxic blend of religion and politics dominates the Southern political scene.

BoorishBears 8y ago

North Carolina?

wtallis 8y ago
The North Carolina government is in the hands of the Republican party, with the exception of the governor's office, which is one of the weakest executive branches in the country and due to get weaker with some of the constitutional amendments on the ballot this year. NC has some potential to improve its standing, but so far the gerrymandering has proven insurmountable as even when the courts rule the districts to be illegal, they allow them to continue to be used because the next election is always "too soon".
jldugger 8y ago
1. It's a control state. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcoholic_beverage_control_state https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcoholic_beverage_control_sta... 2. The politics are still overtly racist: https://twitter.com/haroldpollack/status/1051657219899617280 https://twitter.com/haroldpollack/status/1051657219899617280 3. The HB2 saga demonstrates how strong the Christian right is in the state. As does a candidate in a race too close to call insisting there will never be peace in Jerusalem until Jews acknowledge the divinity of Christ: https://forward.com/fast-forward/413488/gop-candidate-no-peace-in-israel-until-jews-muslims-convert-to/ https://forward.com/fast-forward/413488/gop-candidate-no-pea... 4. gun laws are relatively permissive: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_laws_in_North_Carolina https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_laws_in_North_Carolina 5. MJ legalization is behind west coast states: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_in_North_Carolina https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_in_North_Carolina
- monksy 8y ago
  Not sure if you've lived in NC... but there are a few things to that that I think you may have missed: 1. Yes, the fact that this is uniformly a control state, that is a problem. (Given how they are, I wish they had some special exclusion areas) However, a lot of the east coast operates in the same manner. The early hour for last call is bad as well. 2. Politics that you're talking about have very little to do with the tech sector. Despite what silicon valley would have you believe, you can be a conservative and be a productive member of the industry. 3. This sounds like you're pushing a political agenda here. I think a more succinct way to put this would be: Given the demographic that the tech industry attracts, the bible belt would not be favourable to their lifestyle. 4. (Also see #3) There are reasons for doing tech in NC and it does have a small tech sector.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

yspeak 8y ago

How is this tolerated as acceptable comment ? No way this would be tolerated if similar sentiment was said of SF but the South is fair game on HN. Everyone in the South particularly Texas is a bigot except the tech elite who are fleeing the high taxes and cost of living of California and other states for the abundant jobs in TX.

jupiter90000 8y ago

With the rampant sexism in west coast tech companies, you'd think they'd feel right at home in the southern states then.