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It's definitely a West Coast thing. West Coast cities tend to attract transplants who think they are some sort of special breed of person who is vulnerable because of it. In SoCal, it tends to be the "I'm hot and your jealous" crowd, whereas in Seattle I remember the prevailing mentality was "I'm smart, nerdy, and above you on the totem pole and you're going to taunt me/come after me because of it." As a result, you get this army of people who only care about protecting themselves and are hesitant to meet new people or hang out with non-family, because such folks might bust their ego. Protecting one's ego is more important than committing to a plan to hang out with a friend. East Coast urban dwellers, NYCers in particular, are generally more thick-skinned. They don't mind meeting new people and jumping into something new, even if it means taking blows to the ego.
I have a different take on it. I think that the nature and energy (and history too) of a place kinda sets the standard for living. The west coast is so much more chaotic than is most of the country. And certainly more so than the northeast which is quite set. Stable. Traditional. The west coast is more in flux on various levels. It's less entrenched. There's a wildness too. The way to deal with the energy of it all if you're from elsewhere and find it annoying is to be more open and flexible and less exacting and demanding of people meeting your expectations, etc. ... take a more "live and let live" approach to everything. Loosen up and just kinda go with the flow.
And whereas the rest of the once wild west is more conservative and "rooted", grounded, the coast (at least the coast of California) isn't.
That's part of the picture anyway.
Phoenix, Tucson and Albuqerque are far more smug then any city in California. I go to California alot and they are don't seem smug at all except and when they are smug it is because they are accomplished.
I don't consider Californians flaky either, its just that there are sorry many amazing options in the state that its like a buffet of fascinated individuals.
Albuquerque is a smug, flaky city that thinks its so artsy for having graffiti and turquoise everywhere. The whole state of New Mexico is just a very unfriendly, rude, self-serving place. Its also a state filled with heroin and meth addicts who have no grasp on reality. The people of New Mexico are just plain creepy and weird.
Tucson is another smug and flaky city. They have a few mom and pop restaurants and locally owned stores that sell tacky junk yet they think its some unique and eccentric city. They take pride in being a big city that feels like a small town but its just an excuse for having absolutely nothing compared to most cities.
Tucson also takes smugness and excessive pride in keeping their city looking like a desert, which is just another excuse for every house to have a dirt yard with some prickly cactus.
Phoenix is also a smug city. They really think they are the only city with mild winters and large hills with-in close proximity. The locals are $50,000 dollar millionaires, with 3 to 5 kids, massive SUV's and leased european sedans. Phoenix locals are obcessed with talking about money as everyone in a conversation only talks about their businesses and vast riches despite the hard fact that most of the city has crappy looking homes on tiny dirt lots.
Louisville is another one. They are pretentious and snobby for no reason. I like Louisville as a city but the locals are very smug with their hometown and see no faults in relationship to it.
San Diego and Denver are smug but they are amazing cities that are head and shoulders above comperable sized cities and have a justification to be snobby.
But people are definitely not as high strung and obnoxious as people back east.
The smuggest places are Seattle, Portland, SF, and SD- all cities dominated by transplants from back east.
They not really obnoxious, more like blunt. Actually obnoxious on the low aka passive aggressive is actually worse cuz u dont even own it, which is what they do in NW. And theres not even that many NE people here.
The East coast overall is a very different kind of smug from the west coast. East coast smugness is usually found in the higher levels of society and commonly related to educational or job prestige, whereas on the west coast, smugness is open to all who can convince themselves that they are saving the world by composting. I think it's much more widespread over there.
About West coast being invaded by east coasters- this just isn't true. However, the west coast does tend to attract the most smug individuals on the east coast who aren't validated as much as they wish they were.
Louisville is another one. They are pretentious and snobby for no reason. I like Louisville as a city but the locals are very smug with their hometown and see no faults in relationship to it.
How much of this opinion comes from a select few vocal Louisville posters on this website, vs. actual Louisville residents? Louisville is one of my favorite cities and I have a lot of good friends there. I can't say I've ever felt it come across as particularly smug. There's a lot of local pride, which I think is a good thing and it reflects to how much progress is being made there in transforming the city.
In terms of smugness I don't think any city comes remotely close to the Bay Area. After that my experience tends to see the vapid sunbelt cities (Orlando, Phoenix (yes I am a former Phoenecian and I love the city), Tampa, Houston) As being fairly flakey due to the rather transient nature of the populous.
i think you've got something here. the people in the nw drink too much coffee, too. that definitely has an effect.
that would account for the over the top jitteriness that you see up there
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