The idea that West Coast people don’t care about race or class and are “laid back” is repeated so often that it could be considered a truism. However - is it actually true?
I find people here tend to be quite materialistic and judgmental and definitely not necessarily non-racist since many people here hate illegal Mexicans. People who aren’t workaholics are frowned upon here it seems like and viewed as lazy parasites - probably due to the cost of living. It is very politically correct though, at least in public. I’d say the overall culture here on the West Coast is rather self-absorbed and lacking in self-criticism. After all, the vast majority of North American comedians seem to be from the Midwest, Northeast or Canada.
I’m not really familiar enough with the rest of the country to know whether it’s different anywhere else, but I’ve heard many people say that people who live east of the Rockies are more “genuine” and not as passive-aggressive and harsh towards people who call a spade a spade and complain about things that are unjust or bother them.
I will say though that I am in Grass Valley, CA right now and people here are WAY nicer and friendlier than people in Oregon. So you can’t really put the entire West Coast or West into one category, I’m sure it’s the same back East too. Like I’ve heard Virginians and Michiganders tend to be quite surly while people in say Louisiana are more laid-back.
Still though, California has voted against so many liberal and left-wing measures it’s hard for me to buy the idea that everyone here is a pacifist socialist laid-back hippie. Would be awesome if it were true, but I’m not seeing it.
Nixon was the governor of California (so was the terminator). Generally the high-population coastal states, east or west coast, are more liberal than rural america, but there’s a mix of beliefs anywhere you go.
When I was a kid in San Diego, we found Nazi newspapers on the neighbourhood lawns. My friends and I played Army with them, but the parents were not amused and took them away. White Supremacist Tom Metzger had his headquarters in San Diego. My oldest friend lives there, and he’s a Teabagger.
When I lived in L.A., Orange County was known as ‘Reagan Country’. (We called it ‘Behind the Orange Curtain’.) Still very conservative there.
Once you get away from the metropolitan areas, things get pretty red. I lived in the Antelope Valley, in the northernmost part of L.A. County in the Mojave Desert. I went to the ‘progressive’ school. Based on what I see on Facebook, they’ve all turned conservative. Head up into the Central Valley, and you see a lot of hand-painted right-wing political signs in people’s fields.
California isn’t even among the top ten most liberal states (or maybe it’s the tenth or the ninth most liberal, according to two other ways of calculating it):
LA and SF, huge swaths of coastal areas are pretty open minded. Modesto, Fresno, Bakersfield, and other central areas might as well be the bible belt. Thus the apparent contradiction politically. There is a HUGE conservative base outside of coastal areas and most of those areas are very Agriculture centric or in the case of bakersfield, Oil.
You REALLY need to try living somewhere else instead of assuming what “you hear” about residents of far-flung parts of this country is true. And not just visit; visitors are almost always treated well.
People who eat Hellman’s instead of Best Foods are just as likely to object to incessant complaints about themselves. I suspect, based on your posts here, that what you describe as calling a spade a spade and pointing out injustice is seen by others as rude and insulting whining. However, if you find a place where people agree with your complaints, they will be better received.
It may be that a smaller town instead of a city or suburbia may be more what you’re looking for. The city/country divide is pretty universal, no matter which direction away from Kansas you drive.