Is there a hatred of California in the USA?

[Dark Knifer]

I was browsing around the escapist when I read the comments in this thread and there were jokes about nuking California.

I'm from Australia so I got that they were jokes but not why people were making them so I wanted to know if there is a common dislike of California that I don't know about.

 

[username sucks]

Californian here. People hate us because we are all hippies and/or movie stars. All of us.

Nah, I don't think there's a common hatred of California. I've never seen or heard anything worse than a few jokes. Then again I'm rarely out of state, so maybe I'm wrong.

 

[Kolby Jack]

Californians are mostly pretty cool. A LOT of American cultural movements had their roots in California, so it'd be pretty stupid to hate them for trend-setting. That said, most people from LA suck. I think even Californians (who aren't from LA, and even then...) would agree with me there. LA is a shitty place, though that's true for most big cities in some way or another.

 

[Dark Knifer]

Californians are mostly pretty cool. A LOT of American cultural movements had their roots in California, so it'd be pretty stupid to hate them for trend-setting. That said, most people from LA suck. I think even Californians (who aren't from LA, and even then...) would agree with me there. LA is a shitty place, though that's true for most big cities in some way or another.

Well I could believe people would hate them for trend setting, even though it is stupid to hate for that.

I'v eheard that sentiment about LA a lot as well, why is it bad?

 

[Happiness Assassin]

Hatred? No. Do we deride California to hell? Of course. We do it for all the states (except Delaware because who gives a shit about Delaware). Florida is full of crazies, Texas is thinks it is a separate nation, Oregon is hipster central, and California is... well:

Californian here. People hate us because we are all hippies and/or movie stars. All of us.

Yeah, pretty much this.

 

[Kolby Jack]

Californians are mostly pretty cool. A LOT of American cultural movements had their roots in California, so it'd be pretty stupid to hate them for trend-setting. That said, most people from LA suck. I think even Californians (who aren't from LA, and even then...) would agree with me there. LA is a shitty place, though that's true for most big cities in some way or another.

Well I could believe people would hate them for trend setting, even though it is stupid to hate for that.

I'v eheard that sentiment about LA a lot as well, why is it bad?

Traffic. Arrogance. Vapidness. Disconnected from the rest of the world. Gangs. Dirty Cops. A crappy airport that most flights route through. Smog.

 

[Dark Knifer]

Traffic. Arrogance. Vapidness. Disconnected from the rest of the world. Gangs. Dirty Cops. A crappy airport that most flights route through. Smog.

Man, I thought my city was bad with just looking like shit and homeless people every second corner. And occasional stabbings.

 

[Nouw]

I always thought there was a hatred of Florida in the U.S.A. What, with that bugsbunny.gif and all.

 

[Sleepy Sol]

I think a lot of states just have stereotypes associated with them that are perceived as negative. Pretty common jokes, really.

Like how Mississippians don't wear shoes. Whatever shoes are.

 

[Doclector]

I always thought there was a hatred of Florida in the U.S.A. What, with that bugsbunny.gif and all.

Yeah, pretty much this. It is unreal the amount of stupidity that comes out of florida. It doesn't even really make sense, I mean, what's fuelling it?

But of course, it's a large area, so there's undoubtedly some intelligent lifeforms living there. Lifeforms I feel terribly sorry for.

Never heard much about negative said about California, though, aside from LA's supposed crime levels.

 

[Doclector]

I always thought there was a hatred of Florida in the U.S.A. What, with that bugsbunny.gif and all.

Yeah, pretty much this. It is unreal the amount of stupidity that comes out of florida. It doesn't even really make sense, I mean, what's fuelling it?

But of course, it's a large area, so there's undoubtedly some intelligent lifeforms living there. Lifeforms I feel terribly sorry for.

Never heard much about negative said about California, though, aside from LA's supposed crime levels.

 

[Armadox]

I always thought there was a hatred of Florida in the U.S.A. What, with that bugsbunny.gif and all.

Yeah, pretty much this. It is unreal the amount of stupidity that comes out of florida. It doesn't even really make sense, I mean, what's fuelling it?

But of course, it's a large area, so there's undoubtedly some intelligent lifeforms living there. Lifeforms I feel terribly sorry for.

Never heard much about negative said about California, though, aside from LA's supposed crime levels.

You know, as a guy from Florida. We really didn't know that the rest of the country found us insane til recently. California here is known for movies, crippling debt, and weed. Past that it's rarely in the news. As for Florida, I can actually answer that!

Florida is actually three specific and warring biomes. You have your south Florida beaches and cream state, your mid Florida, which is mostly tourism now, and your upper Florida, which is really just lower-lower Alabama. In the past Florida thrived off tourism, making itself as appealing as it can be to get the rest of the U.S.'s money and then have them leave. Then the U.S. ran out of money, and less people come down to fuel the blood sacrifices necessary to keep the state moving.
Instead of building a proper industrial state, and having mowed down all of the orange groves in mid-florida, Upper Florida has been trying hard to redesign itself as a "family place" after Panama City kicked MTV out, gutting itself in the process. We walked out of the endless party of Bacchus, and have been just milking that hangover since then..
There is nothing here, and when you get enough people cut off from the rest of the world things get... strange. South Florida doesn't seem to be losing any steam after they opened that statue to Dagon, which is nice. I mean, all the big hurricanes have been hitting elsewhere since then. What you lose in sanity and the occasional cannibalism attempt, you gain in not having to bucket out your house since everyone's 2 feet below sea level generally.
Come to the beaches.. We're ALL beach. There's a beach in every direction, we've seen the beaches here. What else do we have to do, but to cause trouble?

 

[spartan231490]

Hatred? No. Do we deride California to hell? Of course. We do it for all the states (except Delaware because who gives a shit about Delaware). Florida is full of crazies, Texas is thinks it is a separate nation, Oregon is hipster central, and California is... well:

Californian here. People hate us because we are all hippies and/or movie stars. All of us.

Yeah, pretty much this.

retty much this, if any state is hated by Americans, it's Jersey. Having lived there, that hatred is deserved.

 

[lacktheknack]

I'm pretty sure that it's similar to the Canadian "hatred" of Quebec.

ie. A few people do genuinely hate them, but most people like Quebec well enough, but EVERYONE goes on about how terrible they are. Same with the common "perception" that Alberta is locked in a hate-ridden blood feud with Ontario. National jokes are a bit weird.

 

[AuronFtw]

Throughout a lot of the Midwest and south, there's... well, hatred or at least intense dislike. California, in the 60s/70s, was a haven for "alternative lifestyles." Hippies, gays, heavy drug users, surf culture, feminine guys/metrosexuals, over-the-top movie stars, etc, so it did (and still does, in some parts) get a lot of flak for it, especially from people who find any of those subcultures distasteful. As you can imagine, there are plenty of those people in the south, and a fair amount throughout the Midwest.

My dad showed me a picture of the border between California and Arizona, where a sign near the road said something to the effect of "I hope you enjoy your stay in California, cos we don't want you back." (This was from his college days, so not recent, but at that time anti-Cali mindset was quite prevalent). Now that gays are more or less accepted and drugs, hippies and surf culture have largely died off (as national crazes), there's not a whole lot of difference between cali and other areas. Massive Mexican immigration throughout the south has caused the bigots in those areas to turn their rifle scopes of disdain onto fresher targets, but many still have anti-Cali sentiment.

 

[Foolery]

I'm pretty sure that it's similar to the Canadian "hatred" of Quebec.

ie. A few people do genuinely hate them, but most people like Quebec well enough, but EVERYONE goes on about how terrible they are. Same with the common "perception" that Alberta is locked in a hate-ridden blood feud with Ontario. National jokes are a bit weird.

True. Canada has plenty of stereotypes that we like to poke fun with. Albertans are cowboys, the BC coast is full of stoners, Newfoundlanders are friendly to the point of creepy, Toronto has hipsters, Saskatchewan is so flat that if your dog runs away you can see him in the fields for 3 days, etc.

 

[Diddy_Mao]

For reasons I really can't explain, my state sees a surprising influx of Californians. Which can be a little grating because it seems like almost every conversation starts with a comparison to how much better things were in "Cali" which always makes me wonder why the hell they moved shop in the first place if they liked it so damn much.

Still, I don't really think Califoria gets any more or less grief than any other popular state. We tend to lampshade it a bit as an entire state of Colon irrigating, Botox infused, Kale sucking, weirdos but I'd like to think that the majority of us know that it's hyperbole at best.

 

[Rob MacArthur]

I think part of it is political: California is one of the most densely populated states, which means it's important in presidential elections and has a lot of congressmen, and a lot of the super-rich live there. So when California has a problem, the perception is that the federal government falls all over itself trying to fix it immediately, whereas when somewhere like Utah or Minnesota or North Dakota has a problem, nobody in Washington can be bothered cause you're not California.

Teal Dear version: If the US were a family, and Washington DC were the parent, then all the other states resent that California seems to be by far the favorite sibling.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Hate California? No, there are some nice parts. Some absolutely beautiful parts, but its a poorly managed state and there are a lot of people there that rub me the wrong way. There's a very smug attitude amongst some of the populous that turns me right off. I lived there for a year and in that time met a lot of people from different walks of life, high and low. I lived in the SFBay Area, LA, San Jose, Sunnyhell... Basically everywhere except north of SanFran. I didn't meet everyone in CA, no way that would be possible, but I did get a general sense of attitude out there, and a lot of Californians seemed to have a turned-up nose superior attitude towards anyone who wasn't one of them.
Hell I feel Florida, my home state, gets more hate sometimes that I hear about than California. Most of the vitriol spewed towards Cali seems to be more directed at LA.