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.
The world's a racist shithole, at least South America doesn't export that racism and guarantee the continued hegemony of the worst and most violent system of "world order" history has ever seen. To even remotely compare the United States to South America and say "it's really not much better" is a massively uninformed take.
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Ah yes, 100% of all South America is racist as hell and America isn't, ok bud. Life in a "poorer" country is almost always going to be not as good as life inside the empire, I'm not debating that. It's not South America's fault that they're vastly poorer than the United States. What I'm trying to say is that on the whole, for the entire world, if all of South America blipped off the map and disappeared nothing much changes for everybody else. If the United States blipped off the map and disappeared the world is suddenly a vastly better place, where the potential for political change and sovereignty is totally transformed. That's why saying they're virtually the same is not a fair take.