5 Famously Liberal Places That Aren't As Liberal We Think

Our thoughts about the famous Cracked.com.

Re: 5 Famously Liberal Places That Aren't As Liberal We Thin

Postby reallifegirl » Fri Sep 25, 2015 6:31 pm

This article irks me a bit, partly as a New Yorker who isn't from the city. It's not even that ATB is entirely wrong, but it's that he's glossing over something complicated or nuanced with his very ATB way of dismissal. Which, judging by the comments here/on the article, is how the natives of all the other named spots feel, too.

ATB seems like he does have grains of a good idea, but his signature style of FUCK EVERYTHING I DON'T LIKE doesn't really translate well into discussing this stuff. And if it's abrasive when he's discussing music and movies, it's even more so when he's hand-waving groups of thousands or millions of people.

That said, New York really is a lot different outside of the city's borders, and there's a lot of resentment in some spots over how the city gets all of the attention and political representation when they give little to no shits about the entire rest of the state. Western and Northern New York in particular get the shaft on that, though I know Long Island has a lot of bitterness about how resources all tend to funnel towards the city (even though almost 8 million people are on the island vs. 9 million in the city).
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Re: 5 Famously Liberal Places That Aren't As Liberal We Thin

Postby williamthallis » Fri Sep 25, 2015 6:39 pm

I think you're misunderstanding. That attitude makes him edgy and relevant, so his points are more true despite lacking any kind of circumspect view on the points he is addressing. Sort of like when you're in an argument and you start yelling, your argument becomes more valid.

Exceptions can be found to any rule. He went out looking for the exceptions, and his points are ones that most people will blindly accept because they already know them to be true. He seemed to have decided on the topic, then cherry picked examples (missing, for instance, that he twice cited Pomona in the Orange County example, despite Pomona not being in Orange County). His outrage is justification for the process, and it seems like the more he has people reasonably contradicting him, the more it's proof that he's telling a 'harsh truth' and is actually right.

Had he come at it from the other point of view, found 5 places that were not the way people thought, then said to himself, 'This would make a good article', it'd have been very different. But many writers seem to have an image of themseleves, and ATB's seems best exemplified by his podcast 'Unpopular opinions' - I saw him in the comments section, feeding off of the backlash. It seemed like saying these things knowing it irked people was more important than actually being accurate. That is something I see encouraged on Cracked.
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Re: 5 Famously Liberal Places That Aren't As Liberal We Thin

Postby NathanLoiselle » Sat Sep 26, 2015 12:03 am

MY ARGUMENT IS TOO VALID! YOUR REASONABLE YET PERSISTENT AND MEASURED DISAGREEMENT IS ONLY PROOF THAT MY OPINION IS FACTUALLY AND MORALLY CORRECT!
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Re: 5 Famously Liberal Places That Aren't As Liberal We Thin

Postby Ceiling_Squid » Mon Sep 28, 2015 7:34 am

williamthallis wrote:Just wanted to add, I grew up in Orange County (moved out when I was 26). What he says is way, way off. And for some reason he thinks Pomona, which is in LA, is in Orange County.

California is a really diverse place with over 33 million people in it. LA and San Francisco are just two of the big spots on the map. There are a lot of places that are 'small town-ish' with the mentality that you'd expect.

For some reason he chose to pick on Orange County. It's not paradise, but there's a reason families (pretty much every color except black) move to the endless middle class suburbs. My best friend growing up was Filipino, other friends were Vietnamese, Mexican (which I'm half myself, no one ever gave a damn), and lots of immigrants.


He ought to have picked on San Diego, where I live. I mean, I get it, popular media doesn't pay much attention to us because of LA being so close by, but we're a freakin' huge naval port city. Miramar air base isn't far off, and neither is camp Pendleton. Lots and lots of marines and sailors here.

And there's no shortage of conservative values among the considerable military population here, that's for sure. But no, he had to go after Orange County and Pomona? I'm almost mildly insulted.

All in all, sloppy article, really. Can't even pick his targets right.
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Re: 5 Famously Liberal Places That Aren't As Liberal We Thin

Postby Knicholas » Tue Dec 01, 2015 11:08 pm

Quick necro--the bit of this article that got up my nose is reaching a conclusion. The trial of the Toronto cop who shot Sammy Yatim on the TTC streetcar is reaching a conclusion. There should be a verdict in the next few days.
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Re: 5 Famously Liberal Places That Aren't As Liberal We Thin

Postby cmsellers » Wed Dec 02, 2015 12:10 am

I can't believe that ATB missed an opportunity to bring up the busing riots of half a century ago to argue that Massachusetts is as racist as Mississippi. Hell, blue-collar, Catholic, Bostonian Baby Boomers are still pretty socially conservative; I bet he could have found more than a few examples to highlight just how bass-ackwards the Bay State really is.

I am however wholly unsurprised at the omission of Vermont. The only reason Vermont isn't as liberal as you think it is is because it's more so. Even the "conservatives" in Vermont are generally just cranky old libertarian farmers.
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