Is there a unique California culture? If so, how would you describe it? (Los Angeles: earthquake, living)

[Escondudo]

How can someone identify California culture, if there is one?

[V8 Vega]

Everyones face buried in a phone. Police helicopters circling overhead, noisy leaf blowers.

[Electrician4you]

Well the portrayed California lifestyle is a laid back not a care in the world surfs up light up a blunt lifestyle. Which truthfully is bs.

Wanna know the California lifestyle for the average Californian

Expensive.
Stressful
Chaotic

[Bert_from_back_East]

In 2020, stereotypical California culture that was popularized by Hollywood throughout the second half of the 20th century has been nearly eradicated from the state due to heavy legal and illegal immigration from Second and Third World countries. Sadly, these immigrants and their offspring have largely replaced non-Hispanic whites in California who have either died or moved out of state.

[Davecali]

I am technically a Native Son of the Golden West and my family has been here for generations. I would just say it’s cultures layered on cultures and immigrants but then you have the rapid changes of technology that have made the quickest changes here like everywhere else. It’s a huge state with an astonishing variation in climate and terrain from mountains, huge lakes, snow, ocean, dense redwoods. The history was Indians and Spanish settlers and typically Western. San Francisco was the first big city. The earthquake in 1906 destroyed most of it but not all. Los Angeles is almost all newer from the 20th century. The population has doubled in the last 50 years and went from mostly White and middle class, to extremely diverse and extremely wealthy, although the huge amount of natural resources in California has always made wealth. But we also have new levels of poverty not seen before due to the high cost of living and immigrants.

[Ruth4Truth]

IMO there was a SoCal culture and a NorCal culture. But at this point, I don't know if it matters; so much has been taken over by the techie crowd, that the original cultures have gotten lost, it seems. For SoCal culture, see the Beach Boys, and Hollywood. For NorCal culture, see John Muir and the Sierra Club, for starters. Farther back in time, check out the SF and Monterey Presidios and area missions, and equivalent in LA or Santa Barbara, General Vallejo's home/museum in Sonoma. Going further back still, well, that would be a topic for a whole other thread.

[aileesic]

Be a recluse if you want. Be a Hollywood freak if you want. Be a techie if you want. Hang out if you want. Be a bum if you want. Come from the Northwest, Northeast, Midwest, and Russia if you want. Be a guy who likes hanging on the beach with surfboard or refined lady at the local bars if you want. Be a minority just as long as you stay out of the way in public and away from most people if you want. Be a crazy person if you want. Live life as one ongoing vacation if you want. Be a republican if you want. Be a democrat if you want. It’s total freedom baby.

[matzoman]

Flip-flops and shorts in winter. Fish taco's. Bleach blond hair and vocal fry even on the latinos, asians and some suburban blacks. In-N-Out Burgers. Poor people driving new BMW's and Lexuses in OC. Balmy, sweet, salubrious weather that lulls you into a belief that everything will be okay.

[pacific2]

Living life and loving it but, sometimes waiting for that other shoe to drop.

[eureka1]

California is a very diverse State.