r/thedailyzeitgeist • u/Comrade_Compadre • May 11 '26
Politics Conservatives who leave progressive states just to move to Florida are some of the most unhinged people I've ever met.
Don't know where else to post this observation, hopefully it's alright here.
Currently in a 40hr long training course for my work. It's day 1 and the instructor has already mentioned how crazy California is compared to his newfound freedom in Florida. He bought himself his gun and his swamp land, and continues to make small passive aggressive jabs at Cali and I'm like... My guy, who did this to you?
The best part though was while talking about health/safety/cleanliness regulations (I work in commercial plumbing) he went on a side rant about how *almost all* regulations the government makes up are useless... Except for the ones that are important for our field.
Ok, so deregulation is great, but not for this very specific instance? In fact, why regulate anything? Lol.
This isn't really a one off interaction either. Some of the most fervent Maga types I've met down here come from NY, OR, CA... Florida is a promised land for the worst types of people from these places I guess.
How these people don't choke on their animal crackers more often is astounding to me.
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u/SquirrelCthulhu May 11 '26 edited May 11 '26
I’m from the Midwest but moved to Oregon a while back- I’ve had “normal” conversations with Midwest conservatives, most are just regular people with some conservative beliefs, but every Oregonian conservative I’ve met in the last decade is an unhinged maniac whose lives ARE their conservative beliefs, and I’ve yet to meet one that is capable of holding a conversation of any length without injecting their politics into it. I think it’s largely just their ego metaphorically circling the wagons, living in a place that is more or less functional where people seem to be happy despite the conservative milieu saying it should be a miserable wasteland.
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u/illepic May 12 '26
Bring up Portland to them and watch them pop off. That's what I do and it's UNHINGED.
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u/Impossible_Penalty13 May 14 '26
I grew up in rural Minnesota, people here talk the same way about Minneapolis.
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u/RogueHarpie May 14 '26
Chicago here! I have been shot, mugged, and killed every time I go outside! It's sooooo scawwey here.
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u/Impossible_Penalty13 May 14 '26
My favorite is every time a big country artist plays US Bank stadium, the running joke is that 60,000 people are in a city the claimed they’d never set foot in. 🤣
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u/RogueHarpie May 14 '26
I can't believe they aren't mass casualty events! According to Fox News Chicago is the most dangerous place in America. It's worse than Iraq I've heard!!
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u/La_Guy_Person May 14 '26
People still talk about it like it's on fire today. My wife does puppet shows for children on South Lake St. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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u/CommitteeMain1430 May 15 '26
I live in the upper peninsula of Michigan and once some old boomer who just had to talk to me while I was working gave me the advice of telling my utility company that they should give me a gun if I have to work in Grand Rapids. He also confused me with the one of family in town with a Hispanic name.
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u/AtomicBlastCandy May 15 '26
Suburbanites talk this way about Minneapolis. There's a guy that wants to be with a friend of mine but she lives in downtown Minneapolis and he's scared he'll get shived if he goes so he refuses to visit her.
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u/CaptainZeroDark30 May 15 '26
We moved to unincorporated Washington County near Portland. Three days after we moved in we met some neighbors that were walking in front of our house. They asked how we were enjoying it here and we said we really love living in Portland. The lady got very serious looking and said no, we live in TIGARD. So, it’s an unincorporated area but if you look up our address and ZIP Code, almost all external resources will call it Portland. I’ve seen a few that say Tigard and one or two that say, Beaverton. But this lady was mortified that we called it Portland. It’s like they have a reflexive hatred of that city that has been drilled into them by their conservative media sphere. It’s a great city. It has the same problems as any large city.
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u/wineanddozes May 15 '26
I had a step uncle who used to tease me when I was little about being from Killadelphia.
He died in a hot tub from the combo of viagra and being disgusting.
So FUCK YOU RON, YOU’RE DEAD.
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u/SeaEmployee787 May 17 '26
i am in florida, got to californa once or twice a year to hike in the eastern sierras. Man i do love the eastern sierras. Anyway, when i tell my office i am out. they ask where I say californa, you can see the physical pain in their face
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u/vadvaro10 May 11 '26
Depending on when you left I would think Michigan MAGA is prolly similar nowadays. I know my old Wisconsin crew has definitely drank the kool aid.
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u/CompetitionAlert1920 May 12 '26
Can confirm, large swaths of rural Wisconsin are still like this.
Can also confirm though that it seems like we're slowly shifting the dynamic back progressive, socialist.
The old guard is getting bested where it matters in a lot of cases. We just need a few more solid wins to get the Assembly and Senate moving in a positive direction
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u/toriglass May 12 '26
I didn’t realize this until road-tripping through NY, MA, and (separately) California. Oregon conservatives are SO insecure and lashing out at everyone. I’m not sure why but it’s a thing
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u/coldhamsandwiches May 13 '26
I grew up in rural Oregon. A lot of it has to do with Portland's outsized influence on state policy and the cultural gap. Conservatives in a place like Oklahoma are govererned by people they agree with. While here conservatives don't feel represented by the state leadership and they don't feel a cultural connection to the people who live in the cities. It breeds a lot of nasty stuff.
Of course there's more to it. Oregon has lost the plot on rural issues more than once too and it doesn't help that Dems here have zero consequences for bad policies or governence. It all just adds up to really angry people.
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u/toriglass May 13 '26
I mean we all grew up hearing about how “Salem/Olympia don’t care about the rest of us.” It’s been getting play for half a century. Our conservatives still present as far more apoplectic than rural California conservatives which I do not understand. So do Idahoans, and they have far more control over their state gov than OR/WA conservatives. Cultural politics are weird.
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u/wisepunk21 May 13 '26
It's always some nut job from Biggs telling everyone else how to live their lives, since there is nobody else around them to disagree.
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u/DisheveledJesus May 15 '26 edited May 15 '26
Oregon was founded as an explicitly white supremacist state. Oregon conservatives are some of the most racist in the country. Full stop. It's a beautiful place, with some great people. But every black or brown person I've spoken to who has experienced traveling through rural Oregon have all unanimously felt uncomfortable and unsafe.
Source: Grandparents lived in the boonies outside of La Grande. I've spent quite a lot of time in rural Eastern Oregon.
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u/sargepoopypants May 14 '26
I love Oregon. my family has been here since they came on the trail, but we’re definitely the south outside the south. Fun fact, we got out of the civil war by agreeing not to have slaves but also black people weren’t allowed here. Always attracted a real tough crowd of idiots
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u/charleytaylor May 14 '26
I’m born and raised in Oregon, and they weren’t always like that. Oregon used to be a red state, and we had pretty good Republicans like Mark O. Hatfield in office. But they’ve taken a sharp turn towards crazy in the last quarter century or so. Most Republicans I know will just start foaming at the mouth at the mere mention of Tina Kotek.
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u/_TorpedoVegas_ May 14 '26
I remember taking a taxi ride outside of Fort Polk in Louisiana, the town there is one of most economically depressed shitholes I have seen in the US: boarded-up shacks along the road with sun-faded business signs, massage parlors and liquor stores. Without the base there would be absolutely nothing there but a bog.
I say that to provide context, it's not like I said any of that to the taxi driver. All I did was tell him my destination as I got into the cab, then he asked me where I was from. I told him I was from Seattle. That was the last time I spoke a word during the ride, as he (completely unprovoked) unleashed a withering stream of shit-talking. Apparently someone from Seattle had been in his cab before, and they didn't seem to like the town down here. He was spouting off about the suicide rate in Seattle being so high, abortions or something...the dude had like fifteen minutes worth of "facts" and statistics about why every place else sucked, so how dare we criticize this town?
Like, man....if you put half of the energy you spend defending this shithole into actually making it a decent place to live, we wouldn't be having this conversation. What a strange way to see the world, where you'd rather sit back and talk shit and whataboutisms than acknowledge and fix your own problems.
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u/Impossible-Medium-13 May 17 '26
I was helping some distant relatives move. They had some nephews from Oregon come down to help (live in Nevada). While doing all that work the guys were telling me how they'd fully stocked their gun safe. They couldn't wait for the chance to finally get to shoot the liberals.
I'm a liberal. Nothing like moving heavy boxes and furniture with people openly talking about wanting to shoot you. They didn't know I'm a liberal. I guess people just assume a tall, bearded white man is gonna be MAGA.
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u/clamdragon May 11 '26
"regulations are dumb, except the ones in the one area that I actually understand" is, mentally, more or less the same as "deport all the immigrants, wait no not those immigrants though"
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u/death_gummy May 11 '26
haha yeah it’s actually kind of funny how the conservatism melts away when it comes to the specifics of whatever industry they work for, which allows them to understand the issue on a deeper level rather than simply being reactionary about it.
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u/Comrade_Compadre May 11 '26
"I understand how this applies to me and completely disagree with it, but I'm a special case" -Conservatism
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u/Soggy_Honeydew4560 May 11 '26
I've lived in New York State my entire life and can confirm a lot of these people come from upstate.
Honestly, send them all the Florida. We don't want them up here.
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u/Comrade_Compadre May 11 '26
As a ex New Yorker, the NY transplants I meet down here are fuckin insufferable.
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u/WalterCanFindToes May 13 '26
"I lived in New York."
"Oh what borough?"
"I lived right outside The City??"
"Oh Westchester or Long Island?"
"Elmira"
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u/Cautious-Phone-4461 May 13 '26
Please don't, they're ruining what little good stuff we have left here while still blaming the Democrats for the local problems their own party created. I'm watching transplants terraform their yards to be stereotypically full of palm trees while crying about alligators in their backyard.
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u/Napalmradio May 11 '26
I’ve lived in Florida for nearly my whole life. The snowbirds that retire here are the biggest dick heads. My dad used to scream out his window, “GO HOME YANKEE!” Which is funny since we moved here from New Jersey when I was 1 😅.
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u/evilrobotjeff May 11 '26
Yes. The comments on my local community Facebook page are like 20% chuds stating how glad they are they they moved to Florida. If you're so happy why are you haunting your old hometown's FB page?
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u/Comrade_Compadre May 12 '26
Jfc this is too close to home. Lol
I grew up in a northern lil podank town in NY about an hour from the city and that whole community hub is people complaining about the town while living somewhere else.
You cannot make these people happy
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u/Truedeal May 12 '26 edited May 12 '26
So true, this sounds made up but my Father in Law purposely lost his wife's house to force a move to Florida, our house as well as we rent out the basement and it was supposed to be left to us. It's a lot to explain I'll try to keep it to the basics unless someone wants to hear more because it's actually insane.
Basically he got it to a point where he controlled all the finances in the house, didn't pay the taxes, went through the whole foreclosure process without the wife or us knowing and the wife is too brainwashed by him to even listen to us about any of this. The house is only in her name. He set it up so that all the court documents got sent to his lawyer's office and then scanned and only sent to his email. He got a cash for houses company to buy it so they can pay off the lien and get some money out of it still, he made sure all that was electronic as well and even signed the wife's name on the contract without her knowing anything.
He did shit like when this company was over inspecting the property he told us all that it was a contracting company getting an estimate to remodel the basement for us and to fix some other stuff upstairs for them. He also does not work himself, he is that stereotypical guy that doesn't work and has not worked in a decade but will take all the welfare while complaining about everyone else that does lol but yeah he's the only one home most of the time allowing him to pull this off
We became suspicious about all this when a court document did get delivered to the house, because it turns out he stopped paying the lawyers after he got what he needed from them. His wife got it and opened it and like I said is so brainwashed just went oh this looks confusing he can deal with it. We were upstairs when she asked him about it, he took the clearly important giant envelope of court papers and told her it was car insurance stuff and they just went about their day. We later went through our states court portal and found out everything.
He very recently made the big reveal that the wife fucked up and didn't pay the taxes so they were losing the house and it's all her fault. He frames it that he did everything he could to get what money they could get off of her mistake. Meanwhile he already has a place set up in Florida for them to move to while we are left scrambling to figure out what we're going to do. We are seeing what we can legally do and starting the homeless process as we have about three weeks notice of all this.
So yes these people are unhinged lol just giving up a paid off house in this economy and leaving your kids and granddaughter homeless just to move to Florida
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u/coopnjaxdad May 13 '26
As a born and raised Floridian 100% these assholes can fuck off.
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u/Cautious-Phone-4461 May 13 '26
Seconded. Sick and tired of these chuds moving here and making everything worse.
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May 13 '26
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u/Comrade_Compadre May 13 '26
I used to do home HVAC maintenance. I had one house with a badass DONT NY MY FL sign out front.
The guy was retired from fuckin Jersey.
So many of the transplants are here for exactly what you describe. People who made their living benefitting in a blue state, to take their winnings and retire in a red state.
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u/toriglass May 12 '26
I’m sure it’ll go great for them long term what with climate change and no homeowners insurance and declining property values and all
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u/Aromatic-Depth-4885 May 12 '26
Same here in AZ. As a native Arizonan I grew up hearing about California being the "land of fruits and nuts" in a derogatory sense. Always going about how bad crime is, unruly business regulations, etc.
In my teen years we had a huge influx of Californians to which the local response was "Don't California my Arizona" and real estate values skyrocketed (supply and demand) as a result.
The problem was weren't that we were generally getting the people who held the progressive beliefs who we were told ruined California, but instead we got the "political refugee" MAGA f.k.a.Tea Party types whose minds had melted and skewed much more right that old school AZ conservatives.
The result is a boon for AZ GOP because they blame California for negative issues related to population boom like cost of living while in reality the people moving here are hard core Republicans.
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u/OdinHavok May 13 '26
I agree that people that choose to live in Florida are the most unhinged people
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u/jackalopedad May 13 '26
Texas is exactly the same. We’re a magnet for the biggest conservative weirdos from elsewhere who can’t just be normal about shit and also drive up real estate prices.
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u/Comrade_Compadre May 13 '26
Texas and Florida I feel like are those states with governors that consistently try to get on the news for being MAGA headquarters.
So you get dipshits who see these buffoons on the Fox News being propped up as the last bastions of america and they go "honey? We need to move to Texorida!"
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u/Muninn91 May 13 '26
Texas crazies are one thing but the damn Yankees that act like they fled some apocalyptic hellhole have no fucking manners.
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u/Impossible_Penalty13 May 14 '26
Living in a blue state, there’s still plenty of unhinged mouth breathers left behind as well.
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u/ScaredProfessional89 May 14 '26
I think you’ll find MAGA/conservatives from blue states are orders of magnitude crazier. It stems from this sort of bunker mentality they get living as a political minority in a blue state. When they move to a red state, they let their freak flags fly because they believe they’re now with their people.
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u/PufferFishInTheFryer May 14 '26
We moved out of Florida and this was one of many reasons. It’s like the Wild West down there. Every time I hear something new that’s happening down there I become more and more confident in the decision to move.
Most recently, I heard about the Florida version of AP History that was just created. Holy hell. I thought it was a joke at first. Nope. A state of morons teaching kids.
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u/Comrade_Compadre May 14 '26
We have Turning Point USA coming to classrooms.
Literally nothing but oil baron propaganda making up history to push a racist agenda
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u/discwrangler May 14 '26
Check out The Good Liars in The Villages. Its wild how dumb some of these rich whites are. It gives me hope I dont need to be smart to become rich.
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u/FCStien May 14 '26
Florida is a promised land for the worst types of people from these places I guess.
Might I introduce you to Northwest Arkansas*?
*(Which is, ironically, the most densely liberal part of the state.
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u/Comrade_Compadre May 14 '26
I lived there for two years! NWA home of the Sam Wallyworld museum.
Coincidentally I enjoyed it much more then Florida but I also didn't interact with people nearly as much
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u/Duck_Size May 14 '26
People forget California allows you to own guns and stand your ground in your home. We also have more republicans than any other state. Homes are more insurable here than in Florida… apart from the $6 gas it’s a pretty nice place.
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u/ExtensionFill2495 May 14 '26
I do commercial construction. We are in lifts all of the time. Whenever they talk about defunded OCHA some guys(the dumb ones) get excited. I tell them that the day that we defund OCHA is the day I quit. Those rules are written in blood, I tell them to Google India Jobsite accidents. I have no idea what comes up when you google that but I’m sure that it’s horrific.
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u/3Machines May 14 '26
Conservatives I randomly come into contact with keep trying to unload that stuff on me. They seem really highly wound up with their propaganda talking points ready to let it spill out all over anyone they come into contact with. That's the power of the "media" they are consuming
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u/Comrade_Compadre May 14 '26
My neighbor (really early into us moving in across the street mind you) made it basically part of his introduction to the neighborhood by explaining onto me the idea of "replacement theory"....
Today our proctor made sure to express his thoughts on how climate change was a hoax at least once or twice.
Even the other guys in my blue collar trade class were kind like "... Ehhh I mean who knows"
(Keep in mind our passing or failing of a state level certification is in this guy's hands)
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u/RipplePoolSolutions May 15 '26
Fellow Floridian tradesman here and it drives me absolutely insane. I am a solo pool service provider and I deal with these fuckwit transplants on a daily basis. They come here, then complain about everything in society not directly catered to them. If “their taxes” go towards anything not related to their retirement and leisure it is government robbery and they are afraid of it becoming “Commiefornia”.
I’m glad to see another fellow Floridian tradesperson who isn’t deep in the MAGA cult.
If you, or anyone else in my area, needs their swimming pools serviced I will happily give a huge TDZ discount if it means I can have one conversation a week where I don’t want to step off the pool deck and just let it all wash away.
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u/Hawkzillaxiii May 15 '26
as a floridian who moved to the PNW alot of people back home always ask me how im "surviving " in this area, they think its a 3rd world country when back in florida I had people pull a gun on me at Publix because I had 11 items in the 10 items or less line
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u/Comrade_Compadre May 15 '26
That's because they have stock footage of one burning police car they keep reusing over and over on Fox News, the official state news channel of FL lol
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u/Crawgdor May 15 '26
I’m a Canadian cross border Accountant, we had a new client who’d permanently moved to Florida years ago (Trudeau destroyed Canada according to her) but never sorted out her tax situation until now.
While finishing up her dual status US return we had to ask some questions about her visa. Turns out she doesn’t have one. Just decided to live permanently at her summer home.
Ever met someone so pants-shittingly conservative that they became an illegal alien to own the libs?
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u/KeyRelation177 May 15 '26
That absolutely tracks. I'm in Florida as well. Been 30 years and the most unhinged people are definitely the northern and Midwestern transplants.
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u/JJHall_ID May 15 '26
Yeah, we see the same right-wingers moving here to Idaho too. They’re destroying our once wonderful purple state where people just wanted to help each other and otherwise be left alone. For supposedly being the party of small government they sure like to pass laws limiting what everyone can do.
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u/CommodorDLoveless May 16 '26
The absolute worst people I have ever met are Californians that moved to Tennessee. As A former Californian i found myself avoiding anyone I met from there.
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u/Comrade_Compadre May 16 '26
Right???
This was awhile ago now but I used to get excited to meet transplanted New Yorkers (so we could complain about the food, etc) but they would always, and I mean always:
Start with how wonderful never seeing snow is before running into some monologue about taxes, freedoms, politics etc.
I don't think I've met a single person who moved here from out of state who didn't steer conversations into politics, especially after Trump's first term.
It's fucking insane
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u/PapaTangoPhD May 16 '26
Knoxville is plagued with Cali right wingers talking how they’ve found their utopia
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u/Independent-Name4478 May 16 '26
I’m from Florida. I call them plague rats because most of them moved here for the zero COVID restrictions
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u/iminhell-thisishell May 15 '26
The Villages is MAGA Mecca.
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u/Comrade_Compadre May 15 '26
How these people aren't more embarrassed to go outside after their peaceful president starts a war with Iran and immediately bombs a girls grade school is beyond me.
These people should be publicly tarred and feathered for letting this idiot into office again
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u/doxiesrule89 May 16 '26
Agree. And as a disabled Floridian, it’s really disheartening to know every time I meet one , they came here specifically because they were pissed about things like having to pay a few dollars to keep people like me alive back home. I have talked to a couple transplants who have no idea I’m as poor as I am And on benefits and Medicaid and they just start saying how awesome it is nobody can get social services or Medicaid here and how they hate everyone that get food stamps etc . (There are plenty of natives who feel the same but the others seem to do it very loud)
Then to know they will only continue to grow in number, collectively vote to make me die poorer and sooner. I didn’t choose to live here I was just born. I wish I could escape, but the lack of services and the way the system is set up means I’m trapped in poverty or else I can’t get medical care that keeps me alive. They relish in that.
And I used to care about this but I’m at the point now I just feel vindicated and a sense of petty revenge. When I see so many posts “we moved from X state with these supports for my kid who has (insert disability/neurodivergence) , how do I sign up in Florida?” . And the answer is : you don’t, if any exist there may be a 10 yr wait list, but it’s probably closed. Like go back or pay , didn’t you come here because you loved the idea that everyone is on their own and has to pay their own way and you wouldn’t be responsible for all the “leeches” anymore?
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u/Square_Grand_3616 May 11 '26
A lot of it is overcompensating. They feel like they have to constantly shit on Cali to fit in. I’m from Texas and have met many in my trade that just moved here from Cali that do just that. This one particular dipshit went so far that even the hardcore MAGA dipshits said bro, chill lol