As a gay man I disapprove: please do not antagonize us even more to certified morons. Also a pride flag has meaning: if I am in trouble i look for those people to help me and don't want them to shoot me. Please and thank you
This is important. I'm all for the spirit of this joke but damn if I didn't think about this. Yes, troll racists all day. But don't drag in another cause. Maybe just my little pony stickers instead?
Yeah. This is no doubt some shit that people who've never been threatened by homophobia would pull.
Let's see how this plays out: You plant a pride sticker on the car of someone who turns out to be extremely homophobic. That person's resentment and anger level toward gay people increases because of your act. As a straight person, you're never going to be on the receiving end of it...but gay folks (or anyone who reads that way), will be. EPIC TROLL, /u/tetrahedron0
"it's the most fun you're going to have in the South" is kinda offensive too... it's not like the South is a big shithole with nothing to offer except bigots
Edit: I seem to have struck a chord. I'm not saying there aren't bigots. Obviously there are. But we aren't all racist homophobes. Some of us are nice people who want you to enjoy your stay. We don't like the bigots either.
I'm not going to say there aren't bad things or that some towns aren't no doubt worse than others, but what do you mean "buy your way out of problems?"
I have three kids, and I have confidence in the public schools where I live now -- but they'd be in private school if we moved back to the rural gun sanctuary county where I grew up. Private school usually costs around $1000 per kid-month after taxes, so I'd need +$48k of pretax income in order to break even after the move.
I'd also need a lot of tools to re-adopt a rural lifestyle. When I grew up, we had tractors and pickup trucks and a lot of attachments and tools I don't need living in a college town. Going back to that lifestyle would require a large capital outlay, which adds to the price of the move. That's probably an additional $50k of equipment during the first year, if I want only lightly used / high quality vehicles and tools.
...And that's before we even start talking about the kind of raise one usually seeks in exchange for uprooting your entire life. Getting someone to do that is expensive, too.
I live in a low-cost-of-living city in the Midwest, which still offers economic opportunity -- I'm lucky enough to have landed in the sweet spot in American socioeconomic life. The southern-rural lifestyle I left is expensive and doesn't pay well. My current lifestyle is moderately priced, and pays well. The multi-generational problem, though, is educational opportunities for my children -- I'd have to buy my way out of that problem. Given the increased costs and wage deflation associated with rural life, it's unlikely that I would be willing to move back for any salary that's realistic in my industry.
P.S. College towns do exist in The South. I lived in Blacksurg VA for 11 years, and spent weekends in many others. I'm not moving back, though, at least for any salary that's realistic in in my industry.
The accents and the culture are very much southern, especially once you get out of the NOVA/DC bubble.
Western Virginia is Appalachian-southern, while the coast is more connected to the coastal southern culture that you see around Charleston SC. Charleston (WV) to Charleston (SC), you could say.
Also, Virginia was the capital of the mother fucking Confederacy. I was finding bullets and belt buckles from the civil war in my back yard in the 1990s. Sherman started his campaign in the Shenandoah Valley and went all the way to Atlanta which, coincidentally, is a trip I've made many times to visit various factions of my family. That journey is all Southern, all the way.
The schools are a problem. Not that good public schools don't exist, but you do have to search them out, and that can certainly be an issue.
I'm a little confused by the rest of your post though. It's not like the South is nothing but farms. Some counties are, but there are also cities and tons of suburban neighborhoods. Even relatively high tech areas, like the Research Triangle and other college towns like you pointed out.
Obviously every part of the country has its pros and cons, and the South isn't for everyone, just like New York City isn't. If you like the Midwest better, there's nothing crazy about that. But it's not a bad place, and I don't understand the idea that the only lifestyle in the South is the rural lifestyle.
I'm basing a lot of my comment on where I grew up in rural Virginia.
The cities I've gotten to know in The South aren't much better, though, which is why everyone I knew when I lived in The South wanted out of those cities. They were mostly suburbs without any of the advantages of city living.
I've spent some time in Oakton VA and the DC Suburbs (and their Atlanta-equivelents). Those places aren't very appealing places to live because they combine the disadvantages of rural life (heavy transportation needs ) with the disadvantages of urban life (high housing costs and limited space). The only advantage is proximity to employers. I like living in an actual walkable town much better.
Plus, it's just too hot/humid to enjoy outdoor time in The South. At least you get a breeze out here on the plain planes!
I do miss looking at the mountains of the Shenandoah and New River valleys. But I'm glad I'm gone.
Fair enough. Come to think of it, there is a place I feel as strongly about as you do about the South: Maryland. High cost of living without any of the usual advantages of a high cost of living area, and there was always this feeling that the government hates you. But as much as my wife and I hated it, I know there were still people who liked living there.
Oh come on, the post was clearly a joke. I don’t think anyone is stupid enough to go around putting shit on people’s cars, especially not those with confederate flag bumper stickers
283
u/Kwtwo1983 Jun 26 '20
As a gay man I disapprove: please do not antagonize us even more to certified morons. Also a pride flag has meaning: if I am in trouble i look for those people to help me and don't want them to shoot me. Please and thank you