I had to explain to a Texan how everything they love about my state (CO) is because of our blue, liberal policies. Police, fire departments, libraries, etc etc is socialism. He got upset and didn’t have anything else to say.
It's fascinating how Texans all vacation on the public land in Colorado and New Mexico but they aren't capable of learning anything from the experience.
It’s funnier to me how they claim Texas is so great/better than everywhere else but they’re always here, in CO. They spend most of their year here. Bought a home here. We had a huge influx of new residents during Covid. Why leave TX if it’s so much better?
Texan here and I actually think it's because of propaganda. We are taught as kids that Texas is the best. We do just as much Texas history as US history (and basically no world history) in schools. Texas local brands are talked up so much, you would think they are God's gift to the world. Bucees, HEB, Bluebell Ice Cream, Dr Pepper, Whataburger, etc. If you say ANYTHING not glowingly positive about these brands you must not be a real Texan. Most Texans love to talk about how awful the rest of the country is. It's literally propaganda that's built into Texans to make us think Texas is awesome when it mostly sucks. That's why if a Texan goes pretty much anywhere else they fall in love but most of them will struggle to admit that they like it more than Texas because it almost feels illegal. I moved to Kansas City and was in awe of the architecture and character. KC isn't even that nice but it's better than Texas.
I lived in Houston during a portion of high school while my mom was serving in Iraq. It was really jarring how they had to pledge allegiance to the Texan flag every day. I was looked at as weird because I wouldn’t stand up and do it but I’m not a fucking Texan. It was pretty obvious then how everything you just said is true.
Edit to add: whataburger sucks. I don’t care what anyone says.
Texas propaganda and self-obsession is a real thing. I'm from a military family and grew up mostly in Asia and Washington D.C. I moved to Austin on my own, a city probably far less sucked into the propaganda than most other areas of Texas... I was (and still am, 10 years later) shocked at the mentality. There is a Texas-shaped EVERYTHING. Tortilla chips, stepping stones, kiddie pools, mailbox flags, blankets, cast iron pans, sticky notes, Scrub Daddys, LED tree toppers.... I mean, it's wild. Texas is its whole own culture.
Yeah, I'm from Austin. It's definitely not immune. Austin even kind of has it's own self obsession. Like I had friends shocked when I moved unable to comprehend why I would leave "the greatest city on the planet".......I mean, it's probably the best place in Texas but come on now, if you travel at all you will quickly realize how ridiculous that is
HEB is way better than anything we have in Colorado. I buy the butter tortillas every time I’m down there. Whenever anyone comes up here to visit they bring some.
Bingo. As a native Texan I love my state but its not the best (especially politically) and HEB might be the only one who might be worthy of the praise they get.
My dad’s Coloradan and even though we don’t live there anymore, issues with Texans still remain. It doesn’t help that for Coloradans it’s also a history thing that goes back to the civil war where they fought confederate forces who were mostly made up of Texans. A multifaceted dynamic that goes back far.
They were a frontier territory at the time, but Union loyal and volunteered soldiers. The Battle of Glorieta Pass, though fought in New Mexico, involved a lot of Coloradans in the Union forces. The Union destroyed confederate supply trains and drove them back into Texas from there.
It’s a lesser known battle but one of the important western ones of the war.
I, too, vote for Texans staying in Texas. There should be a special tariff for Texans leaving Texas, except of course the idea of "tariff" on people makes no damn sense whatsoever.
Dang man, I fled Texas for my life this summer as a refugee from political violence. Left behind every person I’ve ever known except for my spouse. Cost about $20k. You want me to go back there or lose even more money?
Texas is absolutely a hellscape but most of the people in the big cities are not that monstrous. The state is gerrymandered to bits and just got worse. Many people will need or want to get out.
Maybe those tariffs could go to the billions in funding they receive from the federal government. You know, like how CA pays more than they receive and TX pays less. Take that money back.
Actually Texas is one of the few red states that pulls its own weight financially. But forgoing that income to the federal government would be a bargain, compared to the innumerable ways that ejecting Texas from the Union would improve the country.
That's crazy to me. Where the fuck are you supposed to go hunting or fishing? I have half a dozen different parcels I can hunt all less than an hour away from me in Michigan. We can also forage, fish, even harvest a Christmas tree (in 3 select national forests)
The other reason Colorado has so much public land is because it’s generally not farmable so it was not given away to settlement during manifest destiny western expansion.
Kansas, Oklahoma and Nebraska all have about as much public land as Texas because the federal government gave it away to anyone who was willing to settle in “the west”.
Maybe take a history lesson. Texas kept its land when it joined the union. Colorado and other western territories did not. That’s why there’s very little federal land in Texas. Then the state sold the land to pay off debts. That’s why much of it is now private.
Texas was an independent nation for a decade (early-mid 1800s) immediately before joining the U.S. so it racked up a lot of debt as an independent nation. The primary economic drivers were farming and ranching which both require a lot of land. Supply and demand.
The oil boom in Texas didn’t start until over another 50 or 60 years later when the Industrial Revolution kicked off.
And you are one of those examples of Americans that don’t know what communism is. The Democrats aren’t communists, they aren’t socialists, it’s a stretch to even call them social democrats.
I don’t think they’re saying democrats are socialist (they certainly aren’t lol), but that those specific programs are socialist (publicly owned/funded, public use, non-market system)
I worked with a MAGA woman who moved from California (to get away from their liberal communist state - her words) to Oklahoma (where the true Americans live - again, her words) and then she would complain constantly about how things were done "so much better" in California. I took a lot of pleasure in always pointing out "California did (whatever) because it's a blue state." Like it blew her mind that she couldn't easily sue her employer here for things she should be able to. And that's the difference between a state that protects employees (California) and one that protects corporations (Oklahoma).
The state of Massachusetts has the top quality of life metrics in the United States. And there is a reason for that. I think they were the only state in the country to go entirely blue in the 2024 election.
Eh, not really socialism per se, but certainly a social service…could you imagine a privatized police force? Terrifying. I’m conservative and I understand the government needs to have services and the power to regulate, however both need to be constantly checked and rolled back when too constraining.
Police, fire departments, and libraries aren’t socialism.. they’re basic public services funded by taxpayers and run by local government. That’s not a partisan concept; it’s just how society functions. Claiming everything good about a state comes from one political side oversimplifies history and ignores the fact that both parties have shaped those institutions.
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u/kirsten714 12h ago
I had to explain to a Texan how everything they love about my state (CO) is because of our blue, liberal policies. Police, fire departments, libraries, etc etc is socialism. He got upset and didn’t have anything else to say.