I recently moved to California. Before i moved, people asked me “why are you moving there, its so bad?”. Now that I’m here, i understand it less. The state is beautiful. There is so much to do.
I know the cost of living is high, and people think the gun control laws are ridiculous (I actually think they are reasonable, for the most part). There is a guy I work with here that says “the policies are dumb” but can’t give me a solid answer on what is so bad about it.
So, what is it that California does (policy-wise) that people hate so much?
And a lot of the folks that moved there did so for the same conservative leaning reasons tech companies did, like less taxes. Feels like a lot of selection bias going on.
And many of the people moving from California aren’t California natives. Some dude who moves from Ohio to California for a year and then moves to Texas is going to be lumped into this group.
I’ve met people from California who now live in Texas and are right leaning and typically they are very right wing. More so than your average Texan. Most older people in Texas don’t like change and are Christian conservatives. The right wingers from California feel different to me. I’ll use the term neo reactionary to describe them, but they are the no regulations, meritocracy, pro eugenics types. You can’t use the old school stuff like “what would Jesus do” which would occasionally work on getting the most stubborn conservative Texan on a neo reactionary as they typically don’t believe in God.
I’ll be honest I’ve heard some of their ideas and they frighten me. They imagine a antidemocratic world controlled by AI and tech executives. It’s very different from the conservative Texan ideas I’m used to seeing. The classic Texan conservative wants prayer in school and the freedom to not wear a seatbelt. They can be stubborn and annoying at times but I’m used to it and I think they mean well. I don’t feel the same way about neo reactionaries.