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Maybe for a privileged urban techie. There are people here in California who grouse about the state being an oppressive single-party state. There are certain ru

Maybe for a privileged urban techie. There are people here in California who grouse about the state being an oppressive single-party state. There are certain rural and city people (both white and black) who have to behave differently and give extra thought to avoiding unwanted law enforcement scrutiny. There have been numerous articles written about how many rural California interests are under-represented. I have a friend who lives up north in the Sierras (who actually won an award for her work in social justice) who can't go to certain bars in her town, because someone might knife her over political disagreements. There is some unrest, oppression of the less powerful, and under-representation here in California. It's much better here than in many parts of the world, but it's there. Some of it is due to the lop-sided nature of politics here.

asveikau 8y ago
> people here ... who grouse about the state being an oppressive single-party state. I'm pretty sure you can say that about most states. Either you have a blue state with a rural population that feels oppressed, or a red state with an urban population that feels oppressed, or pockets of people identifying with the less dominant party within both urban or rural areas. It doesn't fit neatly into 21st century American domestic political discourse (with emphasis since 2000 on red states vs. blue states), but we're really more interspersed than we believe, at varying proportions.
- stcredzero 8y ago
  Either you have a blue state with a rural population that feels oppressed, or a red state with an urban population that feels oppressed, or pockets of people identifying with the less dominant party within both urban or rural areas. I have a sense that California is singularly skewed in this way, however. I've seen a rural lawyer in California advise people to basically hide their cultural identity while driving. It doesn't fit neatly into 21st century American domestic political discourse (with emphasis since 2000 on red states vs. blue states), but we're really more interspersed than we believe, at varying proportions. The time to worry is when you have scapegoating of certain minorities expressed in law and government behavior. The time to worry, is then the authorities have decided it's now alright to trample on the rights of a subset of its own citizens, regardless of their innocence.
  - HashHishBang 8y ago
    >I've seen a rural lawyer in California advise people to basically hide their cultural identity while driving. Genuinely curious what one would do to hide or advertise their cultural identity while driving? Bumper stickers and flags?
    - stcredzero 8y ago
      Bumper stickers and flags? Those were two of the things that were mentioned.
garmaine 8y ago
Not my point. The parent to your post was talking about oppressive authoritarian regimes. You compared to a democratic state with free elections and the rule of law that happens to also consistently vote a certain way. These aren't even remotely the same thing.
- garmaine 8y ago
  And not that it should matter, but I’m saying this as a republican living in California ...

asveikau 8y ago

> people here ... who grouse about the state being an oppressive single-party state. I'm pretty sure you can say that about most states. Either you have a blue state with a rural population that feels oppressed, or a red state with an urban population that feels oppressed, or pockets of people identifying with the less dominant party within both urban or rural areas. It doesn't fit neatly into 21st century American domestic political discourse (with emphasis since 2000 on red states vs. blue states), but we're really more interspersed than we believe, at varying proportions.

stcredzero 8y ago
Either you have a blue state with a rural population that feels oppressed, or a red state with an urban population that feels oppressed, or pockets of people identifying with the less dominant party within both urban or rural areas. I have a sense that California is singularly skewed in this way, however. I've seen a rural lawyer in California advise people to basically hide their cultural identity while driving. It doesn't fit neatly into 21st century American domestic political discourse (with emphasis since 2000 on red states vs. blue states), but we're really more interspersed than we believe, at varying proportions. The time to worry is when you have scapegoating of certain minorities expressed in law and government behavior. The time to worry, is then the authorities have decided it's now alright to trample on the rights of a subset of its own citizens, regardless of their innocence.
- HashHishBang 8y ago
  >I've seen a rural lawyer in California advise people to basically hide their cultural identity while driving. Genuinely curious what one would do to hide or advertise their cultural identity while driving? Bumper stickers and flags?
  - stcredzero 8y ago
    Bumper stickers and flags? Those were two of the things that were mentioned.

garmaine 8y ago

Not my point. The parent to your post was talking about oppressive authoritarian regimes. You compared to a democratic state with free elections and the rule of law that happens to also consistently vote a certain way. These aren't even remotely the same thing.

garmaine 8y ago
And not that it should matter, but I’m saying this as a republican living in California ...