Spiridon Louis wrote:
MOP_Roy wrote:
Spiridon Louis wrote:
No one should ever live in the south because it is racist. People should live in other parts of the country because racism doesn't exist there. No one should read my post and think that racism is the only issue keeping me from returning to the south. It is one of many.
Edit: I wish I had listed reasons other than racism in my original post... oh wait, I did... ðŸ˜
Yes, you also mentioned political leanings and prevailing mentality -- what exactly do you mean by that?
I just get tired of this kind of crap. As a well educated, highly intelligent, wealthy person who lives in the south I get tired of people thinking we're a bunch of bumkins. It's a virtual guarantee that I'm smarter than you and richer than you, like 99%. And I'm socially pretty liberal, so we're not all racist Bible banger down here. There are racists everywhere. And people who have political leanings and prevailing mentalities that you don't like everywhere too. If you're happy somewhere else that's great. I fished in the Gulf today. It's warm here year-'round. I have friends coming to town this weekend and we're going to the beach and gonna catch some huge red snapper on my boat. And we're going to drink and have fun. And there's little traffic or crime and people are generally nice. This is a great place to live. If it's not for you that's fine, but you look ignorant striking an entire region of the country as uninhabitable for you because of what you recently read in a book coupled with your later realization that we are "backwards" down here. Your post, frankly, is insulting.
Seems I've struck a nerve. We'll save the "smarter" "richer" comments to some other middle school penis measuring thread. But, you make my point for me by even bringing statements like that into the conversation. It would never occur to me (or the people I chose to surround myself with) to make some of the personal claims / statements concerning self worth you make (whether true or not). As a 45 year old retiree who focuses on coaching multiple sports teams for his daughter, being a room parent at her elementary school, and keeping my wife's house clean and meals prepared as she works full time and pursues her second doctorate, we probably measure success in life quite a bit differently. Fishing, boating, and drinking don't fall anywhere on my list of things to brag about or activities to look forward to. To each their own. For myself, I got all my major personal professional checks in the box during my 25 year career as a Marine infantryman and I'm still working on accomplishing all my personal athletic goals, in the spare time I have now after prioritizing my family's needs first. I'll start worrying about the family's financial state of affairs if my wife ever tells me to curtail the grocery spending or planning the family vaca's that we enjoy. We haven't gotten to that point yet...
As to my perceptions of life in the south, I can only comment on my opinions based on a life spent actually living in the states of Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky, and Virginia. Actual residence / observation in these states make up approximately 38 years of my life. I can safely say that I didn't run into too many of 'our' liberal ilk during those 38 years. My personal encounters were much more of the bible-thumping, NRA / GOP adherent, "I'm better than you because I have a nicer boat to catch red snapper from" than you, type people. Now, everyone in our great nation is certainly entitled to their opinions, philosophy, and way of life. And I actually dig respectful and mature interplay / debate among those of differing view points. However, my wife and I just chose not to settle down in the middle of all that when we finally do decide to grow up (whenever that may be). We also feel pretty comfortable that our decision is right for us, given our actual, real life experiences (her's are similar but not the exact same as mine). I have a hard time making the equation of large swaths of "generally nice" people solve when you input 40% vote to continue racial discrimination. That 40% isn't the whole story, in my analysis, its just very revealing of what I believe lives beneath the pretty exterior that some people display.
And maybe I wasn't as clear as I should have been in my original post. My generally low opinion of the south isn't a "YOU people" opinion. Its an opinion of "why are WE this way". I may never move my family there, but this is a problem of WE not YOU. It is also not a new opinion based on a recent reading of a book. You missed the point of my OP. It only adds to my already existing opinion.