In this pit thread there’s lots of negativity about Texas so tell me Texans or former Texans or people who just don’t like Texas, what’s wrong with the place?
My cousin who lives in Connecticut but lived in Texas for 20 years said that people from other states hate Texans, why?
I’ve known two people (who weren’t related) from Texas. Both of them would not shut up about Texas, how great it was, how it was so much better than everywhere else etc. They worked it into almost every conversation. It was obnoxious, and really, if Texas was so great what were they doing living in NY? Of course, that’s a sample size of two, and I don’t hate Texas, but there you go.
California is an infinitely better state than all other states in the union…especially Texas.
But I have to go with what the above poster said. For me, it’s the fact that Texans are just so damn proud.
That’s a huge part of it. There’s actually things to like about parts of Texas, but just try to get most Texans to shut up about them, or all the other stuff that they think is great about Texas but isn’t. I generally say that there’s bits of Texas that aren’t so bad, except that they’re full of Texans. Houston’s an armpit, Dallas is so full of itself it threatens to blow up all over hell and half of . . . yeah, that, and Austin’s gotten so hip it can’t see over its own pelvis.
I love a good smoked beef brisket as much as anyone, but it ain’t barbeque unless there’s a pig involved. I take second place to no one in my admiration for Buddy Holly, Buddy Knox, Doug Sahm, Augie Myers, Bob Wills, Joe “King” Carrasco, Joe Ely, or Jimmie Dale Gilmore. I like, but do not regard as the messiah, Stevie Ray Vaughn.
I’ve turned down at least two decent jobs over the years simply because they’d have meant moving to Texas (though both were in the DFW area, which is the absolute worst IMO). Of course, I now work for an Austin-based company, so I get full doses of it on a regular basis now.
Let’s see – they execute more people than the rest of the country combined. You can use lethal force to protect your property – resulting in bizarre cases like people killing car repo guys and not even being charged. You can have open liquor containers in your car. And they send people like Tom Delay to Congress and George Bush to the White House.
To be fair, to some people that’s heaven. To me, that’s barbarian.
You cannot have open containers in your car or kill repo men in Texas.
And Texans did not “send” Dubya to the white house, the entire country did.
FTR,
From here:
California sends people like Ronald Reagan to the White House and people like Bob Dornan, Duke Cunningham, and Duncan Hunter to Congress. Charles Manson was from California. Obviously, it is a bad place.
Take a look at people like Ann Richards, Lady Bird Johnson, and Barbara Jordan.
Texas isn’t all bad. Great Tex-Mex food.
Re-planted Texan here, just returning after ten years away. I’ve lived in Massachusetts, Georgia, California, Florida, New York, and the United Kingdom as well.
Well… I admit to not closely following Texas politics while I’ve been away. Temperament wise, I don’t find Texans any more nutty or bloodthirsty than Georgians and Floridians, for example. Texans as a general rule like their guns. If you’ve traveled south of the Mason-Dixon line that’s true in most places.
Boyo Jim, that part about open containers is patently false. Though I think it was legal to have an open container in the backseat up until 2001 or so.
Texas, along with our fare share of jackasses and fuckwits, also provided the nation with Lyndon Johnson, Shirley Chisholm, Barbara Jordan, Lloyd Bentsen, Ann Richards, Sara Weddington, Molly Ivins, Lady Bird Johnson, and Liz Carpenter. So my conscience is clear.
The “Austin is an oasis in Texas” is a hopelessly overplayed meme and pretty untrue. Austin has a rep, but I grew up here. Trust me there are plenty of right-wing nutjobs in town, just like most of Texas. I lived in Montrose in Houston, smack dab in the middle of a vibrant gay community that had an annual pride parade which was well attended and never to my knowledge the subject of protests. San Antonio and Dallas have their neat little communities like Montrose as well.
I’ve been back home for about a week now and I call tell the difference. People are willing to strike up conversations with random strangers, the customer service - at the DPS no less - has been pretty great, and everyone is slobbering over the return of football (high school, college, and pro). I agree that we can be pretty obnoxious about how great our state is, but have you ever talked to transplanted New Yorkers or people from the Bay Area? They’re just as bad. Every proud Texan I’ve ever encountered, though, is pretty tongue-in-cheek about it. Y’all just don’t get our sense of humor.
LOL…I almost forgot in my earlier thread. The largest gay church in the world is in Dallas. Kinda funny to go a mega church and wondering if the sermon is going to be another rant **against **Bush.
Has Texas amended or thrown out the law allowing home owners to use deadly force at night to protect their property?
I have some links here for Google News archives, and unfortunately to read the whole story one has to pay, but the headlines pretty well say it. OTOH, they are fairly old, and maybe the law has changed.
I do see that Texas passed an oen container law in 2001. Good for them.
Agreed. I’ve spent very little time in Texas, primarily in airports. I once spent a good portion of a day in Love Field airport in Dallas and ended up watching local TV in the terminal the whole time. By the end of the day, I never wanted to hear the word “Texas” again.
The juxtaposition of these two sentences made me grin.
I agree though - they’re not just proud, so many of them are unwilling to see any fault. I do love NY but I know there are a great deal of problems here.
Less of the tedious defensiveness of some Texans about Texas, as others have said. This state has some fairly serious social problems, like many others. No use not admitting it.
Fewer yahoos who simply cannot fathom why everyone else does not look like, speak like, behave like, or live like them. Hey, I know that’s not exclusive to Texas, but they sure can be noticeable here.
There could be fewer bugs, especially those giant cockroaches that we saddle and ride for recreation here.
Come to think of it, if the average elevation of the Houston area was about 4000 feet higher, this would be the greatest place on Earth. The average summer temperature would likely be in the high 70s, and the twinkling of the refinery lights way down in the canyons along the Ship Channel would be soooo pretty.
I kinda like this state, even if it is hotter than heck in the summer. Not everyone drives a pick-up or cheers on executions. Although I see it on TV all the time (Channel 4 News: We’re Texas Proud), you don’t hear people crowing about how wonderful the state is. One thing I have to admit, we are not a diverse state, I saw only about 6 white people today 
.
Not everyone here is the same. Didja know a few cities in Texas have the highest rate of gay parents raising kids?
See, we are cool with stuff like that.
Completely true. I grew up in the Bay Area, and people I know there just can’t freaking believe I left on purpose. Very annoying. And IMHO, New Yorkers are even worse. I actually can’t recall ever hearing a Texan boasting about Texas, but it’s certainly a well-known meme.
Think Cork and you’re getting close 
That’s right. You’re not from Texas.
As a native Austinite, I feel qualified to weigh-in here. The one thing that is wrong with Texas right now is all the damn yankees that are moving here right now. We are having a population explosion of epic proportions. You can tell who these bastards are by their bumber stickers, “I wasn’t born in Texas but I got here as fast as I could”. Let me be the first to tell you that that does not make you a true Texan. It makes you a first-class jerk. Just because the place where you were born sucked doesn’t mean that you can move to my home state and fuck it up just like the place where you are from. Go home and die fuckers.
Hmmm, looks like the OP has just been answered.