Yes, California is neoliberal hell. Yes, California is part of the United States and the US is evil, so by extension so is California. The state was built on stolen land and genocide, just like the other 49.
But I've been in the weird position of defending California on this site not because it's "good", but just because I think for those of us who have no choice but to live in the US, it's the least bad option.
I think the issues around homelessness are a good microcosm to look at. Yeah, CA is really shitty towards our homeless population, no doubt. But at the same time there are quite a few people here who actually want solutions that help homeless people and there are programs at the state and local level - feeble as they may be - that try to do this. Meanwhile, since I'm a transplant I can compare CA to my native Midwestern state. Back there, they are only a couple steps below "just fucking shoot homeless people we don't care". Literally every person I know back home sees homelessness as a "problem" that just needs to go away. If I was homeless I would never even consider going back to where I grew up, I'd stay here.
So yeah, I would sorta defend CA here. And now I feel like over the last year you've seen how absolutely christofascist the red states are going w/r/t abortion, trans issues, even gay marriage, you all are starting to see just how awful most of the US can be for anyone who isn't a well-off cishet white guy.
Fun CA fact: if you can land a job in CA state or local govt (including in the massive UC system), your health insurance is required by law to cover all gender affirming care, including expensive surgeries.
that state is a great example of liberals ignoring the environment every chance they get. People whinge about forest fires while living in the middle of a forest that regularly catches fire. What do they expect? Farmers live in the middle of a desert and complain there isn't enough water. People live right on top of a fault line and then get annoyed and scared by it. All of these problems they bring on themselves.
Kind of sounds like the apotheosis of settler colonialism. People have lived in those forests for millennia but it's only recently that the US state has forced them off the land and to stop maintaining the forests with small burns and other traditional ecological knowledge. Farmers, well the central valley used to be a wetland but that biome was supplanted by agriculture, and the ground is sucked dry to where it has subsided several meters in many places. The earthquake thing.... Yeah can't really fault that criticism, lol
I can fault the earthquake. Don't build a city on a fault plane then freak out about it.
Yes exactly, I'm agreeing with this criticism, can't really fault it