There is a woman – Diana Helmuth – who wrote a first-person essay for Curbed, a San Fransisco area website. She was telling the story of a dear friend of hers, who was moving from SF to Pittsburgh, and the trip to the airport that left her in tears at her loss of a close friend.
She had realized that many of her friends had left – 12 in all – and that they were generally not employed in the tech fields, but in relatively low-paid fields. Some were leaving for a job, others for a more affordable life. Some wanted to have a family or home, and realized that it was never going to happen unless they left.
So, 1 by 1, this women’s social circle is developing gaping holes in it. In her naiveté, she implores the residents who see fleeing CA refugees to realize that they are good people, just hoping for a better life.
And, I’m sure she believes that.
They may have ‘good hearts and big dreams’, but what the resistant old residents of the new locations are wary of is the newcomers’ refusal to recognize several important things:
- The state of CA has become ruined due to their own actions – voting in high taxes, limiting residential homes/apartments, zoning that keeps out affordable housing, overbearing Big Brother government, a prevailing ethos of “you BETTER watch what you say and do or we will RUIN you”.
- CA has held its arms open to illegal immigrants, because cynical Dems want the votes, as well as the increased representation in the House of Representatives.
- Only the poor-to-middle-class suffer from the problems illegal immigrants bring in. It’s their local school systems that have been over-saturated with non-ESL students, overage “minors”, and virtually uneducated students. The rich can afford the exclusive private schools, or to live in a community that insulates itself from those problems.
- It’s not that they hate YOU, it’s that they hate the cultural assumptions that you bring with you:
- That they are inbred hicks
- That they’re dumber than you
- That the way they live is designed to oppress minorities, reject LGB——?, and force their Christian religion on you
- That the reason they don’t think like you is because you haven’t explained it well enough, rather than the truth – it doesn’t matter how long you lecture them about the superiority of your values, they think those values are severely lacking
- You want to change that place – NOW!
- You expect your natural superiority will entitle you to immediately take leadership roles in any community activity
- You turn your nose up and roll your eyes at the food, dress, and interests of the locals
- You cannot keep your damn mouth shut about your dumba$$ opinions
That about covers it.
I’ve lived in cities, small towns, and rural areas. I’ve always been warmly welcomed, but a lot of that is probably because I didn’t come in with wrinkled nose about my new home, and immediately set about changing the neighbors “for their own good”.
Treading lightly in new environments is a real good idea, if you want to be accepted.
Ah, but the Libs just can’t help themselves. To them their superiority is self evident and never forget in their own mind’s they are selflessly “helping” the less fortunate.
I saw that article yesterday. Mizz Helmuth clearly has the depth of a puddle of mud. She is so lacking in self-awareness and introspection that one is left with the impression that she is intellectually and emotionally a child.
“intellectually and emotionally a child.”
So, a standard lefty voter, then?
i read through her “essay” and i just shook my head.
I support Glenn Reynolds idea of a welcome wagon reminding these liberal refugees that the reason they moved is these states don’t have all that liberal garbage they left behind.
If I had the power in CA, I’d place illegal immigrant facilities right in the middle of the fanciest neighborhoods. Plus, all private schools would have to set aside 20-25% of their enrollments for illegal immigrant children. It’s only fair, and it IS for the children!
Those ‘with the power’ in CA always seem to impose policies which never personally affect them or their closed circles. This is intentional.
I’ll be leaving in the next ten months, and I was born in California. And when I get to my destination, I will get on my knees and thank God that I am once again in a land of freedom and opportunity where good folk outnumber the grifters and people can behave as they will, without CARB, tree-huggers, Proposition 65, and a state government completely out-of-control
I left in 2016, after 52 years . . . And no, had no intention of bringing the disastrous policies that ruined California with me. Funny, though ‘’ we were at a party last summer in our new home town, and one of the guests (from Berkeley) greeted us enthusiastically with a ¨Welcome! Great to see more Californians here; we need to turn this place blue!¨ Whereupon I smiled and said ¨No.¨ And walked away.
it’s pretty obvious that leftists ruin everything. Nevertheless, they want to impose their poorly thought out solutions on everyone, because dammit, it just feels right. No admission of error, because they lay claim to intentions that are ever so wholesome and pure, which apparently matters more than results. Mexifornia is doomed.
She has this flippant throw off line that makes it clear that she thinks all of the folk in the places her friends are moving are closed minded. “I am also proud to be part of a liberal community that is trying to be a safe zone for people who would otherwise be persecuted in other parts of the country or the world.” The whole thing reminds me of that famous New Yorker cover, except the myopia is coming from the other direction. Small towns of course mean small minded. Because we are all uneducated bigots and homophobes out here. *Let me put on my best Jethro Bodine accent* Well gee, golly, gosh, it sure is cheap to live out here, but we don’t take to no queers, immigrants, foreigners or stinking Californians.
“I can’t change the rent.”
YES you can. Stop voting for every idiot politician and program that taxes the hell out of everything and takes NIMBY to BANANA (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything).
People don’t like californians for the simple reason that they do not want their community to become california – unlivable by regular folks and overrun with illegals and drug users (currently SF has more drug addict than students in school).
Seems you changed the “point of view” when you got to the Bullet Point starting with “It’s not that they hate YOU”
Very jarring — it doesn’t scan….
Locusts.
Instapundit has a recommendation for Local GOP parties on how to deal with these economic refugees…”The Welcome Wagon” would educated this idiots WHY their blue utopias have failed them…and why they should radically change their voting habits so they don’t ruin the economically thriving “red states” as they ruined their previous states…won’t happen, the GOP is too stupid to implement it…
They don’t want to be accepted. They want to be in charge. They are the Good People, the Moral People, the Smart People, so of course they SHOULD be in charge, you ignorant hick!
I went through a similar process a long time ago. Raised by Philadelphia liberals. Liberal arts college grad. Knew everything, smarter than the rubes, etc. Voted for Jesse Jackson. (I know, I know.) The only thing that didn’t fit the lib mold was that I had joined the US Army and served in Vietnam. Moved to a rural PA county during the hippie era. Found no demand for my degree in Asian history. What a shock. Finally took a job as deputy sheriff. My military service helped me get the job. Thus began my transformation. Retired after 30 years in law enforcement. Wouldn’t live in Philly even if you gave me a freakin’ mansion in a posh area. 70 years of Democratic rule have turned much of the city into a third world shithole. Now I meet young people moving into my county who have a mindset similar to my own mindset of long ago. I listen to them patiently and affect the benign smile of the thoughtful geezer pondering the ironies of history.
Lew,
Glad you made it back to the world ok.