5 ms·

West coast people are extremely biased, bigoted, and hateful against Southerners. The fact that you even have this bias is a tragedy. Source: Grew up in rural

West coast people are extremely biased, bigoted, and hateful against Southerners. The fact that you even have this bias is a tragedy. Source: Grew up in rural South. Work in west coast tech. :(

claudeganon 6y ago
Are you in SF? When I lived in LA, this seemed like far less of an issue than in Northern California, where people seemed incredibly stuck up and generally awful. Something like 40% of LA doesn’t speak English at home and I would imagine a comparable number (if not more) speak with some kind of accent. If you clung to judging people because of their accents, you’d find yourself outside most social circles there.
- chrisseaton 6y ago
  > I would imagine a comparable number (if not more) speak with some kind of accent Everyone speaks with ‘some kind of accent’.
  - claudeganon 6y ago
    Yes, of course. Native Californians often asked me where I was originally from based solely on my noticeable Midwestern accent.
    - chrisseaton 6y ago
      I guess this comment is snark, but I don’t know what the connotation of a Midwestern accent is in California to know for sure. But anyway as you say, you do still speak with an accent even if it is a common one. We all speak with accents!
      - claudeganon 6y ago
        Not snark at all. I don’t know the connotations because I’m not a Native Californian, but people would comment about how my speaking nasally and apologizing too much (both of which you can find in just about any parody of Midwestern culture).
        cortesoft 6y ago
        As a native californian, the only connotation I know of having a Midwest accent is about the sounds.... there is no real characteristic that the accent evokes
  - nitrogen 6y ago
    We can probably assume, charitably, that they meant relative to the predominant local dialect. For what it's worth, as someone originally from a semi-rural area, I think there is some truth to the idea that some in SF have an anti-rural bias.
tomc1985 6y ago
Everybody hates their neighbors and city folk hate the country folk. Such is the way of the world...
- lb1lf 6y ago
  National Brotherhood Week (Tom Lehrer) Oh, the white folks hate the black folks, And the black folks hate the white folks. To hate all but the right folks Is an old established rule. But during National Brotherhood Week, National Brotherhood Week, Lena Horne and Sheriff Clarke are dancing cheek to cheek. It's fun to eulogize The people you despise, As long as you don't let 'em in your school. Oh, the poor folks hate the rich folks, And the rich folks hate the poor folks. All of my folks hate all of your folks, It's American as apple pie. But during National Brotherhood Week, National Brotherhood Week, New Yorkers love the Puerto Ricans 'cause it's very chic. Step up and shake the hand Of someone you can't stand. You can tolerate him if you try. Oh, the Protestants hate the Catholics, And the Catholics hate the Protestants, And the Hindus hate the Moslems, And everybody hates the Jews. But during National Brotherhood Week, National Brotherhood Week, It's National Everyone-smile-at-one-another-hood Week. Be nice to people who Are inferior to you. It's only for a week, so have no fear. Be grateful that it doesn't last all year!
  - throwaway201103 6y ago
    LOL I was just looking that one up! It's a classic!
jcims 6y ago
I spent six months working at a FAANG in the bay area after 20 years of living a rural lifestyle in the midwest. I lived in Mountain View and really tried to soak in the difference...I didn't even bother to get a vehicle. That proclamation alone will be cringy for some of you, but it's unthinkable where I live now and where I'd lived every day prior. At first I felt that I was seeing an environment that is truly 'the future' of integrated multi-culturalism. I just marveled at the fact that on my walk to the store, maybe half of the conversations I overheard were in English. Authentic food and art and music from all over the planet was so accessible, likewise my team was from all over the planet and it was really cool. Then I realized that I didn't really see any black folks. Anywhere. I mean infosec has a lot of work to do with diversity to be sure, so I wasn't particularly surprised that there was just one black guy on the team. But then I started looking on my way to and from work, at the store, at restaurants, etc. Nada. Then I started getting creeped out, and that one blind spot really started uncovering quite a few more, particularly around the assumptions I was hearing folks make about people that I had direct experience with. This created a Truman Show-esque unraveling and after a while I decided that the juice wasn't worth the squeeze. I got somehow disgusted with the place, quit and moved back home. It's not better here, but at least it's not pretending to be. I'm starting to look at relocating again, but it's not going to be to the west coast. I really hate generalizing and to be clear, there are some amazing folks out there that aren't part of the echo chamber, and the access to a broad cultural base not to mention the weather/natural setting is beyond compare IMHO. But it's just too volatile at the moment and I'm not in a position where it makes sense to basically 'start over' financially for a location that, for the most part, is just overwhelmed with its own pious fantasy.
- refurb 6y ago
  What I’ve noticed in the Bay Area is a “fetishization” of multi-culturalism; at least amongst the upper-middle class. Lots of “it’s so great our community is diverse”, but then I realized that’s more of “it’s great I can find authentic Mexican food" or "the Chinese New Year Parade is so fun!", but it's pretty apparent by their behavior they are not comfortable with them living in their neighborhood. Or they’re comfortable with an ethic group in their neighborhood as long as they are firmly Westernized and of a similar socioeconomic class. Outside of that there is very little interest in mixing other than as some fun Sunday leisure activity. Like going to the zoo.
corysama 6y ago
Ah hail from rural Indianer. Gots ma own achent. Or, at least I used to. Been away from the Midwest long enough that most of it has rubbed off. I don't think I would have reacted any differently before I moved. In the Midwest the only time you'd ever hear such a drawl was in media showing the South from 60+ years ago.
SiVal 6y ago
LOL! Just one hour ago, a high school kid who grew up here in Silicon Valley was telling me about how ridiculously uninformed his local friends are about Southerners. This kid has visited the south a few times recently and has come back amazed at how friendly, smart, and mannered southerners are. (I agree with his assessment, but I've seen it myself often enough in my own travels that I lump it in with the many no-longer-surprising differences between reality and intellectual fashion. He was confiding in me, because he guessed that I would be one of the few who might understand.) He has apparently tried to correct his friends' misconceptions a few times, and has been equally amazed at 1) how wrong their ideas of southerners are and 2) how nothing he can tell them has any impact their thinking as they crow about how superior we are to those contemptible southerners, who aren't "tolerant" like we are. (One more LOL for the road....)
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- YeGoblynQueenne 6y ago
  I live in Europe and have never visited the States. I think your comment goes some way towards explaining Donald Trump. And probably your next few Republican presidents, I'd guess.

West coast people are extremely biased, bigoted, and hateful against Southerners. The fact that you even have this bias is a tragedy. Source: Grew up in rural South. Work in west coast tech. :(

claudeganon 6y ago

Are you in SF? When I lived in LA, this seemed like far less of an issue than in Northern California, where people seemed incredibly stuck up and generally awful. Something like 40% of LA doesn’t speak English at home and I would imagine a comparable number (if not more) speak with some kind of accent. If you clung to judging people because of their accents, you’d find yourself outside most social circles there.

chrisseaton 6y ago
> I would imagine a comparable number (if not more) speak with some kind of accent Everyone speaks with ‘some kind of accent’.
- claudeganon 6y ago
  Yes, of course. Native Californians often asked me where I was originally from based solely on my noticeable Midwestern accent.
  - chrisseaton 6y ago
    I guess this comment is snark, but I don’t know what the connotation of a Midwestern accent is in California to know for sure. But anyway as you say, you do still speak with an accent even if it is a common one. We all speak with accents!
    - claudeganon 6y ago
      Not snark at all. I don’t know the connotations because I’m not a Native Californian, but people would comment about how my speaking nasally and apologizing too much (both of which you can find in just about any parody of Midwestern culture).
      - cortesoft 6y ago
        As a native californian, the only connotation I know of having a Midwest accent is about the sounds.... there is no real characteristic that the accent evokes
- nitrogen 6y ago
  We can probably assume, charitably, that they meant relative to the predominant local dialect. For what it's worth, as someone originally from a semi-rural area, I think there is some truth to the idea that some in SF have an anti-rural bias.

tomc1985 6y ago

Everybody hates their neighbors and city folk hate the country folk. Such is the way of the world...

lb1lf 6y ago
National Brotherhood Week (Tom Lehrer) Oh, the white folks hate the black folks, And the black folks hate the white folks. To hate all but the right folks Is an old established rule. But during National Brotherhood Week, National Brotherhood Week, Lena Horne and Sheriff Clarke are dancing cheek to cheek. It's fun to eulogize The people you despise, As long as you don't let 'em in your school. Oh, the poor folks hate the rich folks, And the rich folks hate the poor folks. All of my folks hate all of your folks, It's American as apple pie. But during National Brotherhood Week, National Brotherhood Week, New Yorkers love the Puerto Ricans 'cause it's very chic. Step up and shake the hand Of someone you can't stand. You can tolerate him if you try. Oh, the Protestants hate the Catholics, And the Catholics hate the Protestants, And the Hindus hate the Moslems, And everybody hates the Jews. But during National Brotherhood Week, National Brotherhood Week, It's National Everyone-smile-at-one-another-hood Week. Be nice to people who Are inferior to you. It's only for a week, so have no fear. Be grateful that it doesn't last all year!
- throwaway201103 6y ago
  LOL I was just looking that one up! It's a classic!

jcims 6y ago

I spent six months working at a FAANG in the bay area after 20 years of living a rural lifestyle in the midwest. I lived in Mountain View and really tried to soak in the difference...I didn't even bother to get a vehicle. That proclamation alone will be cringy for some of you, but it's unthinkable where I live now and where I'd lived every day prior. At first I felt that I was seeing an environment that is truly 'the future' of integrated multi-culturalism. I just marveled at the fact that on my walk to the store, maybe half of the conversations I overheard were in English. Authentic food and art and music from all over the planet was so accessible, likewise my team was from all over the planet and it was really cool. Then I realized that I didn't really see any black folks. Anywhere. I mean infosec has a lot of work to do with diversity to be sure, so I wasn't particularly surprised that there was just one black guy on the team. But then I started looking on my way to and from work, at the store, at restaurants, etc. Nada. Then I started getting creeped out, and that one blind spot really started uncovering quite a few more, particularly around the assumptions I was hearing folks make about people that I had direct experience with. This created a Truman Show-esque unraveling and after a while I decided that the juice wasn't worth the squeeze. I got somehow disgusted with the place, quit and moved back home. It's not better here, but at least it's not pretending to be. I'm starting to look at relocating again, but it's not going to be to the west coast. I really hate generalizing and to be clear, there are some amazing folks out there that aren't part of the echo chamber, and the access to a broad cultural base not to mention the weather/natural setting is beyond compare IMHO. But it's just too volatile at the moment and I'm not in a position where it makes sense to basically 'start over' financially for a location that, for the most part, is just overwhelmed with its own pious fantasy.

refurb 6y ago
What I’ve noticed in the Bay Area is a “fetishization” of multi-culturalism; at least amongst the upper-middle class. Lots of “it’s so great our community is diverse”, but then I realized that’s more of “it’s great I can find authentic Mexican food" or "the Chinese New Year Parade is so fun!", but it's pretty apparent by their behavior they are not comfortable with them living in their neighborhood. Or they’re comfortable with an ethic group in their neighborhood as long as they are firmly Westernized and of a similar socioeconomic class. Outside of that there is very little interest in mixing other than as some fun Sunday leisure activity. Like going to the zoo.

corysama 6y ago

Ah hail from rural Indianer. Gots ma own achent. Or, at least I used to. Been away from the Midwest long enough that most of it has rubbed off. I don't think I would have reacted any differently before I moved. In the Midwest the only time you'd ever hear such a drawl was in media showing the South from 60+ years ago.

SiVal 6y ago

LOL! Just one hour ago, a high school kid who grew up here in Silicon Valley was telling me about how ridiculously uninformed his local friends are about Southerners. This kid has visited the south a few times recently and has come back amazed at how friendly, smart, and mannered southerners are. (I agree with his assessment, but I've seen it myself often enough in my own travels that I lump it in with the many no-longer-surprising differences between reality and intellectual fashion. He was confiding in me, because he guessed that I would be one of the few who might understand.) He has apparently tried to correct his friends' misconceptions a few times, and has been equally amazed at 1) how wrong their ideas of southerners are and 2) how nothing he can tell them has any impact their thinking as they crow about how superior we are to those contemptible southerners, who aren't "tolerant" like we are. (One more LOL for the road....)

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
YeGoblynQueenne 6y ago
I live in Europe and have never visited the States. I think your comment goes some way towards explaining Donald Trump. And probably your next few Republican presidents, I'd guess.