Your jealousy of the Golden State is an embarrassment!
As a native Californian, who has lived in Las Vegas my entire adult life, I am absolutely over all the California hate. For the past couple decades, the expressed hatred of my home state has become obnoxious. I am sick of hearing it from individuals on social media, random acquaintances, and even family members.
In a 2012 poll by Reuters, California was ranked as the most-hated state in the union with 27% of respondents giving it a favorable rating, while 42% voted unfavorable. In the recent years, the hatred of California has even gotten worse, and it comes from a very specific demographic. Tom Jensen of Public Policy Polling said Republicans “absolutely despise” California, with only 12% of Republicans saying they had a favorable opinion of California, while 68% had unfavorable feelings.
T-Shirts tell the story!
No one can deny that California is beautiful: from its beaches to its mountains to its serene deserts. Aside from the L.A. pollution, California is a paradise with the best climate in the world. Since realistically no one can criticize the landscape, it is the people who live in California that are a problem for the haters.
With over 39 million residents in 2023, California is the most populated state in the nation. Texas comes in second at 31 million, Florida is third at 23 million, and New York comes in fourth with 19 million. In recent years, the populations of California and New York have declined, yet clearly most people who don’t hate California want to live there.
Economically, California dominates all other states — by a landslide. Based on California’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of $3.7 trillion recorded in the fourth quarter of 2022, if California were its own state, it would be the 5th largest economy in the world. Only the economies of the United States (as a whole), China, Japan, and Germany exceed that of California. According to the World Population Review, Texas places second with a $1.9 trillion GDP and New York comes in third with a $1.57 trillion GDP. Following New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts, California is the fourth largest donor state, which means that it is supporting the rest of the country. In addition, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in 2022, California ranked first in the category of agriculture-producing states, followed by Iowa, Nebraska, Texas, and Illinois. What more can you ask of a state?
Third in area, but first in population and GDP, California is a large and diverse state. Lumping all Californians together as a group to despise is ignorant. As noted by “bjpmbw” on Reddit, with a population of [then] 40 million, people should not “generalize” Californians. From the San Francisco area, “bjpmbw” identifies more with people from Boston than with people from the nearby Central Valley, an agricultural hub. Similarly, in her article in SFGATE, on July 9, 2020, Jessica Mullins states, “We’ve long been the subjects of any number of vast generalizations. To some, we’re overly superior and pretentious. To others, we’re way too progressive and compassionate. We just can’t win.”
I concede that California has a serious homeless problem. With an estimated 172,000 homeless individuals, 30% of the nation’s homeless reside in California. Since 90% of the state’s homeless population were living in California before becoming homeless, only 10% moved to California to take advantage of social services and the friendly climate. Let’s face it, no one wants to be homeless in North Dakota. While mental health and addiction are huge contributors to the problem, the housing crisis has played a large role. The homeless situation is ruining major urban areas, making them undesirable and unsafe. Since he came to office in 2019, Governor Newsom has dedicated over $20 billion to the cause, but no amount of money will ever be enough.
California hate has been thoroughly discussed on Reddit. People from other states call Californians smug, arrogant, entitled, and elitist. They criticize the unbearable cost of living and the issue of California transplants who drive up housing prices when they relocate to another state, which has been a real problem in neighboring Nevada. According to “DeafMaestro010” on Reddit, people “…have been indoctrinated to believe California is a “liberal hellscape.”
Californians also get a rash of shit for being bad drivers. This statement is utterly false, as Californians are the best drivers. Sure, we drive fast — aggressively so — and we also know how to merge on the freeway and change lanes. Keep up, bitches!
In his June 1, 2012, article “Why Do People Hate California” published in yahoo!finance, Rocco Pendola identified California hate as envy. Pendola decries the high cost of living and the culture-killing gentrification of ethnic neighborhoods as obvious problems, but he also notes that “… if it were not for California (and Seattle, Manhattan, Boston, Austin and a handful of other “elitist” hubs full of gays, vegans, Prius-drivers and highly-educated snobs), the rest of the nation would lead relatively boring, less fulfilling lives.” Pendola cautions investors to not let their hatred of California influence their investment choices, since much of the tech and entertainment world is based in the Golden State.
I get it, haters are gonna hate. “Attinctus” on Reddit sums it up best, “People who hate California are fundamentally miserable boring fucks who deserve their misery.”
© Joyce O’Day 2023. All Rights Reserved.
AI was NOT used in the creation of this article.
Joyce O’Day 
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