April 19, 2024

"When your community no longer reflects morals and values, it might be time to move."

 Says the website Conservative Move, quoted in "Sick of Your Blue State? These Real Estate Agents Have Just the Place for You. Agents in South Carolina, the fastest growing state in the country last year, say that many newcomers are Republicans eager to leave the Northeast and West Coast" (NYT).

Yana Ghannam, a recent client of [a Conservative Move real estate agent], said that she had moved to Greenville from Livermore, Calif., because she wanted to make friends who wouldn’t criticize her for voting Republican or for being anti-union. “It was very much, ‘Oh you have to do this to fit in, you have to do that,’” Ms. Ghannam said of her life in Livermore.

There's a big difference between: 1. Wanting to live where everyone thinks like you, and 2. Wanting to be free of rejection for failing to think like everyone else.

Reason #1 is anti-diversity. Reason #2 is pro-diversity. Don't mix up the 2 mindsets! A conservative might want to leave a blue state because Democrats are treating them with hostility. That is, Democrats are in mindset #1, seeking uniformity. 

What are you supposed to do if you want good social interaction among people who enjoy a diverse marketplace of ideas? I'm afraid the only option — even if your motivation is to flee hostility (Reason #2) — is to go to the place where people agree with you (which would be Reason #1 if it were your motivation).

70 comments:

Achilles said...

I don’t necessarily agree with the people in Alabama on everything or much.

But unlike the people in Seattle they are not batshit crazy fascist assholes who insist on stuffing homeless people in the parks and communities I live in and allowing property crime.

Property taxes are also less than half.

rehajm said...

This is the leftist anthropologists speculating on what the savages are thinking again...

The guy that cuts my hair left CA for SC because he was helpless to remove the homeless encampment that popped up below his bedroom on his half acre lot in San Diego. The friends that just visited us in SC really want to leave Boston for the same reasons we left- we can no longer rely on rule of law, we feel unsafe and the qualities that make living in the city enjoyable have eroded to the point the need to get out is the dominant belief...

...I thrived in Boston for over three decades as a conservatives. I could give a damn what people thought of my politics. In fact it was liberating since the worst of the lefties keep their distance...

Old and slow said...

I find that most conservatives (all of them that I know in the real world, not online) are polite and friendly with those they disagree with. We just know enough to avoid certain topics. I can't say the same about many of the progressives I know. They often seem to want to instigate conflict. Talking about politics is often just bad manners.

Temujin said...

Plus, South Carolina is actually a very beautiful state. Those who have never been there may know nothing about it. And many in the Northeast still think of it as a slavery hellhole. But then they still think civilization ends at the Hudson River.

SC is actually a very nice place. We strongly considered moving there a few years ago before we ended up in Florida (which we love). And though Florida is now a very red state, my neighbors and friends come in all sizes, colors, shapes, and opinions. We are nowhere near an exercise in homogenous thinking.

As one of our neighbors sons, visiting here from New York, commented the other night. "It's so weird here. People are always smiling at you, saying hello to you, some I don't even know give me a hug when they meet me. It all makes me so uncomfortable. I don't get it."

The problem might be in the thinking and attitude of some in the blue states.

rehajm said...

Oh, and thank you for making the SC house I bought in 2020 a double since then.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

I'm sick of my blue state.
The lust-for-power Soviet Democrats have destroyed it.

Jenna Griswold(D-Soviet) - our corrupt and evil Secretary of State - lives on MSNBC.

If she rises to a more powerful position - I am leaving for good. So sad.
Colorado used to be fantastic.

rehajm said...

...and stop trying to join the golf clubs. Pickleball is the best!!!

Mr. O. Possum said...

Cross the border from NC to SC and immediately you see three things—

* The Stars and Bars flying
* Stores selling such flags and memorabilia
* Billboards for the state lottery
* Signs asking if one has been saved and urging immediate repentance.
* Possums, possums, possums.

Choose wisely.

Anything is possumable in South Carolina.

Will Cate said...

Greenville, about 35 miles up the road from me, is a great city. I suspect Yana will be very happy there. It even might qualify as a "diverse marketplace of ideas" as it is purple-ish politically, as is my town of Clemson. (The rest of the upstate is solidly red. In fact there are a few SC counties I would advise avoiding if you have a Biden bumper-sticker on your car.)

And for transfers who still want to live in a mostly-blue city, there's Charleston.

iowan2 said...

Lots of people moving to lots of different places. But most seem to be coming from California.

The Prog left, directed by Obama, (" we are 10 days away from fundamental change") is intent in turning the United States into California. (A one Party hellscape)

San Francisco, used to be one of the 5 must beautiful cities in the world. Progressives got everything they wanted.

Tank said...

As someone who moved to NC for the lower taxes, weather and beach, I was pleased to find that my community was not 10 to 1 left wing as it was in northern NJ (where I moved from). On the other hand, most of the northerners who move here seem to bring their left wing ideology with them and are likely going to turn this state blue. I hope not, but I see the endless residential construction and assume the migrants from up north will be mostly lefties.

n.n said...

Diversity [dogma] (i.e. color judgment, or, generally, class bigotry).

Modern morality is a secular religion of ethical or relativistic order with "benefits" in the liberal fashion of progressive sects with traditional motives.

tim maguire said...

Years ago, I had a girlfriend who complained that liberal Woodstock was so much more expensive than the more conservative surrounding communities. She didn't understand why that was. I didn't have the heart to tell her that those surrounding communities are not conservative in any way like Woodstock is liberal.

Liberals will move to a liberal community to be around other liberals, making liberal enclaves scarce resources, driving up prices and pushing out people of more modest means. Conservatives don't feel such a strong need to be around people who think like them and have more practical reasons for choosing their location. (The greatest concentration of conservatives per square mile in the the US is New York City.) As a result, they aren't "conservative communities," they are communities that happen to be conservative. People aren't clamoring to go there unless it's for employment and they'll leave if it becomes unpleasant. So it has to be affordable and it has to be at least somewhat well run.

As you look across the country, the difference in attitude shows.

Tina Trent said...

Just because they don't want neighbors who call then Nazis doesn't make them fascists.

rehajm said...

Possums, possums, possums.

There was one on the game cam last night, along with a first- a very large toad surveying the patio from his perch next to the camera…

Tina Trent said...

Will Cate: can you name specific examples of cars unambigulously being defaced becase of a bumper sticker, or is that just some fantasty driven by a sick desire to degrade you neighbors? Include police report numbers, please. They will block out names and addresses.

Otherwise, maybe you should spend more time contemplating your own pathetic, likely classist prejudice.

RigelDog said...

I am fighting despair over having almost no social outlets/friend connections anymore, due to living in the Philadelphia area. People are AGGRESIVELY woke or at least anti-discussion of anything that doesn't agree with The Current Thing. I've lost my two close friends over this, and have to watch myself whenever I meet new people--as though I lived under the thumb of the Stasi.

When I travel to areas that are more Red, I do not find people being aggressively in my face, pushing "conservative" positions. I still have plenty of opinions that are on the liberal side, such as being pro-gay marriage and pro-choice, within reason. But I'm not afraid to acknowledge these opinions in the Red areas. They are way more tolerant, overall.

Virgil Hilts said...

On parallel track -- have heard of a professor from Columbia University (liberal, of course, but not fanatic progressive) who is currently a visiting professor in the southwest at a good state school, who has told at least a few people in private what a breath of fresh air it is to be an environment where open debate and free discussion/expression is not just tolerated but encouraged. Person has also said that a number of other professors at CU have had simialar experiences and would love to get out.
I am not making this up - do not want to provide information that would allow the professor to be identified, but thought this was interesting and may be something that leads to a drain of the better professors away from ivy league.

Quaestor said...

Diversity was always a fraud, as was inclusion. If every member of every race is equally blessed with talent and ability, which is what we ought to believe according to all the social philosophers who are allowed to publish, then the only diversity that counts is the diversity of opinion, but what the so-called Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion movement delivered was conformity, supererogatory advancement, exclusion, and segregation -- by design. That litany of outrages was the intent from the start.

JAORE said...

" I'm afraid the only option — even if your motivation is to flee hostility (Reason #2) — is to go to the place where people agree with you (which would be Reason #1 if it were your motivation)."

Nope, nope, nope. There are many places where, when (e.g.) you read an article on lawn care it does NOT include a reference to Orange Man Bad. Same with cooking articles, or Broadway reviews. There are places where seeing (or NOT) seeing a political sign in your yard does not get you yelled at.... where the "wrong" bumper sticker will get your car keyed. There are places where politics is NOT the topic of every freaking conversation... with a mandated litmus test.

Left Bank of the Charles said...

The “halfback” retirement trend has been around a while. First you retire to Florida, then you move to the Carolinas. Only makes sense to skip the Florida step. The Conservative Move website has some other suggestions of where to move, the "Battleground States" of Nevada, Arizona, New Hampshire, Virginia, and Georgia.

hawkeyedjb said...

We had a visit recently from some friends from a blue state. One of them was railing about the injustice of some place or other forbidding the flying of LBGTQ flags on government flagpoles. Mrs. Hawkeye asked why we should allow any political flags on government property. The response: "That's not political!"

Anything lefties believe in is "not political," it's just the right and natural way of things.

Mr. O. Possum said...

Can't speak for SC, but the number of people moving to the NC Triangle area (Durham, Raleigh, Chapel Hill) and west into Greensboro are COLOSSAL.

Thousands and thousands and thousands are apartment units are being built.

Driving to Charleston from Raleigh, a stretch of interstate is being widened that must be more than 50 miles long.

Deep State Reformer said...

Any kind of trend among the remnant is immediately pounced upon as an opportunity by the usual gang of grifters, freeloaders,rip-off artists, kooks, and con men that prey upon that demographic. Remember back to the halcyon days of 2017? When some of the ex-Trump retreads and others sought to solicit individual contributions in order to privately build a border wall? All of them but Steve Bannon are now cooling their heels in federal prisons today. And now this. Bottom line: Grifter's got to grift. Just because the world's on fire doesn't mean you can't make some money selling them firewood and matches, eh? Florida swampland and empty arid desert wasteland have to get sold somehow.

gilbar said...

of the Washington NPR office.. of the 87 people there: how many are registered democrats?

Diversity is VITAL! it is VITAL that we are ALL diverse in EXACTLY the same way

Chuck said...

Here’s an interesting and helpful map.

Rusty said...

I don't want to live where everyone agrees with me. I want to live somewhere there is less corruption. It makes it very difficult to do business or own property.

MadisonMan said...

The ability to ignore your neighbors' politics is a talent that everyone should cultivate.

hombre said...

My wife and I are about to move from a conservative mountain town in Arizona to a retirement community in Central California where her mostly Democrat family resides. I don't imagine there will be many arguments. Democrats don't argue for obvious reasons. I don't expect to find many like minds, except perhaps at church.

I confess moving from red to blue, especially batshit crazy blue, is daunting, but mitigated by the fact that we will soon be a one party nation anyway.

tcrosse said...

I see very little moral preening here in Las Vegas.

tcrosse said...

I see very little moral preening here in Las Vegas.

EdwdLny said...

Blue cities didn't overnight become third world turd buckets, it was and continues to be a concerted liberal effort. The only remaining question is, when will the fascist left, but I repeat myself ,realize that they are alone. Alone with all of the predators that they have created and turned loose. Alone to fund their lib nirvana all by themselves after having driven the tax base out. I hope they enjoy it, those that survive, enjoy it good, hard, and dry. They've earned every bit of it.

Clark said...

"[T]he only option . . . is to go to the place where people agree with you (which would be Reason #1 if it were your motivation)."

That might make sense if you meant to say "to go to a place where some people agree with you." But Reason #1 is "Wanting to live where everyone thinks like you." That can't be right.

The agree/disagree ratio is good here in Northwest Indiana. There is disagreement, but very little disagreeableness.

Howard said...

Run away, cowards.

RJ said...

About 10 years ago we moved from New England to Texas. A refreshing change. Blue states just won’t leave you alone.

Big Mike said...

Plus, South Carolina is actually a very beautiful state.

It’s gonna hafta come up some to match the Shenandoah Valley.

Mason G said...

"Progressives got everything they wanted."

Everything? They've stopped making demands and are satisfied with what they've created?

Original Mike said...

Blogger Tina Trent said...
"Will Cate: can you name specific examples of cars unambigulously being defaced becase of a bumper sticker, or is that just some fantasty driven by a sick desire to degrade you neighbors? Include police report numbers, please. They will block out names and addresses."


I have an easier inquiry; Do you know first-hand people who this actually happened to, Will?

Mason G said...

The response: "That's not political!"

Neither are Christmas trees.

Lawnerd said...

My entire career was spent in progressive shitholes surrounded by progressive morons. I had no choice working first in biotechnology then in patent law. I learned quickly to shut my mouth and keep my opinions to myself or suffer the consequences of wrong think. I am happily retired now and live in a red county in a purple state.

Larry J said...

"Colorado used to be fantastic."

I lived in Colorado for 27 years, and for most of them, it was fantastic. By the last 5 years or so, it was well on its way to being Californicated. I moved to Alabama 12 years ago and love it here. My wife and I visit Colorado every year or so to see family and friends, but each visit is getting shorter. We started out staying for a week or more per visit. This year, we're down to 3 nights. If it weren't for my grandson's graduation, I may not have returned at all this year. It truly sucks there.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

"Run away - cowards?"

Explain what you mean?

Should we stay and let your precious corrupt Soviets screw us over?

Kate said...

I live in a climate hell hole. It's wonderful. No one moves here looking for a beautiful retreat from a blue state. You move here (if you dare) because the area industry attracts you, and your continued concern about commerce keeps your politics even keel.

Sebastian said...

"go to the place where people agree with you"

But we righties don't agree with each other, don't try to impose conformity, and couldn't do so even if we wanted to.

It's our advantage, fom a moral and human point of view, and disadvantage, from a political and power-grabbing point of view.

Rocco said...

Gotta make a move to a town that's right for me
Gotta make a move to keep grooving with some energy

Well, I talk about it, talk about it
Talk about it, talk about it

Talk about, talk about
Talk about, Movin'

Gotta move on
Gotta move on
Gotta move on

Won't you take me to Funkytown?

Deep State Reformer said...

In re last few posters above: Let the old boomers go off someplace warm to sun themselves & grill until they die. Then the real "work" begins in earnest. IYKYK. We'll see how content the rest of us are when they're gone and we are only 38% of the population. Like Cali is now.Only everywhere.

Rafe said...

“Run away, cowards.”

Why *is* Trump doing so well in the polls, Howard?

- Rafe

Kevin Walsh said...

Politics aside I am mystified by the attraction to the hot, humid summer climates in states like S. Carolina, Florida, Texas, Georgia etc. In NYC summer now lasts from late May to early October and it's only going to get worse. The southern states even more so.

Narayanan said...

People are always smiling at you, saying hello to you, some I don't even know give me a hug when they meet me. It all makes me so uncomfortable. I don't get it."
=================
Resistance is futile - you will be assimilated!

Hey Skipper said...

@Iowan2: Lots of people moving to lots of different places. But most seem to be coming from California.


I live in a going on five year old roughly 80 house subdivision in the foothills a few miles north of Boise.

At a block party a couple years ago I got to chat with most of the people in the 'hood. Out of sixty or so, nearly all of them had come from California, Portland, or Seattle. There was one native Idahoser. My wife and I moved here from Germany. (I grew up in SoCal, but left for good in 1978. I think I'm protected by the statute of limitations.)

To a person the reason they moved here was because they loathed the looney-tunes policies of progressive government.

NB, Howard.

mikee said...

When I moved for a new job in Texas from the hellhole that was Baltimore in 2000, I was aghast at the uniformity of progressive ideology required to live in Austin. And the high taxes. And the high house prices. So I moved north of Austin to a new subdivision built on 400 acres of previously lovely cow pasture. My neighbors on my new street were likewise mostly newcomers to Texas, because "everybody" in Austin knew that only the Blacks and Hispanics lived east of I-35, and whites lived west of the interstate.

We newcomers not only disabused the local realtors of that segregationist Democrat bullshit, we were the start of a nonstop rise in expansion and gentrification west of I-35 that ignored the deep racism here. That process is continuing now, a quarter century later. My street houses techies and engineers working for Samsung, AMD, Motorola, Dell and other high paying tech employers in the Austin area. We also had some doctors and contractors, including the supervisor for the housing company that built most of the subdivision. And my street is more racially, ethnically, religiously diverse than anywhere else I've ever lived. And oddly enough, we have different political signs on our yards every election and nobody gets canceled for it. Take that, haters.

n.n said...

we righties don't agree with each other, don't try to impose conformity, and couldn't do so even if we wanted to

The libertarian heel. That said, diversity of individuals, minority of one.

JaimeRoberto said...

At the risk of divulging too much information, I am a Livermoron. While Dems outnumber Republicans here, Swalwell is our Congressman after all, I've never felt shunned for my political opinions. In fact, on this street we believe in gun ownership and that taxes are too high. Even the Democrats next door.

mccullough said...

Where to live is dependent on your age, job, and family situation.

Open-minded people are everywhere. Close-minded people are everywhere.

Closed minded people are easy to identify because they are loudmouths. Open minded people are easy to identify by process of elimination.

Narr said...

Don't be so tough on Howard. He knows that without his daily affirmations you people might forget how superior he is.

Narr said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
james said...

"I heard another voice from heaven, saying, “Come out of her, my people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive of her plagues;"

Enigma said...

These days people say "I want to live in a place where the government doesn't take money from MY KIND to give it to THE OTHER KIND." Pick your kind and move in with your tribe, for the USA is well down the South African apartheid path.

Coincidentally, COVID and remote work brought forward the long-term southern migration trend by a generation. Many northern states are in serious demographic and economic trouble, and this has little to do with self-segregation. The strong will move south, the old and broke will die in place, and those dependent on government will remain. Offices will remain empty. Public housing will expand. See Detroit as a model. Understand the push for residents from south-of-the-border. If not for Biden's vast range of inflationary gifts to blue cities/states since 2021, many blue places be in economic collapse already.

Larry J said...

"Kevin Walsh said...
Politics aside I am mystified by the attraction to the hot, humid summer climates in states like S. Carolina, Florida, Texas, Georgia etc. In NYC summer now lasts from late May to early October and it's only going to get worse. The southern states even more so."

Over a century ago, a great man named Willis Carrier (PBUH!) invented air conditioning. He made life in the South enjoyable. Every Southern city and town should erect a statue of Willis Carrier in the public square in grateful recognition of what he did for us.

n.n said...

Move-ality

Humperdink said...

A hearty thank you to you Howard. Labelling us cowards shows we are moving the needle. A huge upgrade from being called Hitler Fascists.

Note: Where else could we get our daily amusement?

Hassayamper said...

when will the fascist left, but I repeat myself ,realize that they are alone. Alone with all of the predators that they have created and turned loose. Alone to fund their lib nirvana all by themselves after having driven the tax base out.

Assuming they keep control of the Federal government through a combination of demographic replacement and electoral fraud, which seems a safe bet until the coming Revolution, you can bet your ass your tax money will be paying for their "lib nirvana" even if you live in Alabama or North Dakota.

They're also going to try to replace your local police with a Federal praetorian guard comprised mostly of immigrants, gang members, and Puerto Ricans. Remember Obama's "Civilian National Security Force" that he said would be just as large and well funded as the military? You think they have let that dream die?

Earnest Prole said...

I divide my time between very red rural and very blue urban and feel politically pressured in neither place. As any normal person knows, a majority of Americans are neither Republican nor Democrat; if you nonetheless choose to tie your personal identity to one of these two crappy institutions, don’t complain when your counterpart across the political spectrum says stupid things to you.

RMc said...

Most people want to be like most people.

Owen Glendower said...

I'm astounded that anywhere is growing faster than Florida, Tampa in particular.

My wife and I became FL residents in 2020. A dozen or more agents were working in kiosks at the driver's license facility. I have my paperwork to an agent, who said, "You're the fifth person from Illinois I've had today. What's going on?"

I replied, "Illinois is a failing state."

Joe Smith said...

Livermore is no hotbed of DEI.

But I'm with Scott Adams; don't live around people that hate you.

Joe Smith said...

Btw, having been born in CA and living here all my life, it's the foreigners and communists that have ruined this state.

In the '70s, CA was a paradise.

FullMoon said...

Commenter Howard was born, raised, and lived most of his life in California.

Rusty said...

Howard said...
"Run away, cowards."
OK. I'll move in next door to you.

Rusty said...

Howard said...
"Run away, cowards."
OK. I'll move in next door to you.