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Have you ever known someone who brags endlessly about where they are from and puts down people from other places?
Someone who is close to me does this and its maddening. They are from southern California, and to hear them talk this is the apex of the universe. They do not live there currently and have no plans to go back as far as anyone knows. Which does in fact, beg the question, if its so fantastic, why aren't you there?
Recently another person who is close to me was throwing away some items that could have been recycled and SoCal Sally went on a tear about how this individual "has no idea how much (you) are hurting the enviroment" blaming it on "your backwards upbringing in (small town east coast USA.)"
This caused an argument as I stepped in-- both are close to me and this was in my home. Now there are hurt feelings. It was totally inappropriate.
Anyone know a hometown snob? How did you deal with them?
I had a friend/neighbor who compared everything in L.A. to Ohio. "They'd never get away with [fill in the blank] in Ohio. This [whatever] is so much more expensive than Ohio. That guy in the BMW would never cut somebody off like that in Ohio." I just let him talk -- nothing I said or did was ever going to change him. I don't envision SoCal Sally will ever change, either. You'll probably either have to tolerate her or stop hanging out with her.
When I first got married and moved to a very small town from s. Ca. I was quilty of that, but I complained mostly to my poor husband. It was such a huge culture shock and was very,very homesick. Lol! I grew up with my mom telling me how much better her state was then California.
Do I still miss California, yes but I miss the California I grew up in and here in the real small town is my home now. Much better since now they sell decent avocados and there is now a Mexican restaurant in town now☺ I live on 20 acres and raised my kids here.
But that is just the thing-- she is generally NOT rude. In fact, she is one of the more polite people I know. Timid even. Its just this whole issue of where she is from. She definitely feels superior to anyone on the east coast (where she lives now) because of it. I don't understand it.
You don't understand it because perhaps you are trying to convince yourself she's a nice person and she's not. Or she has a really low self esteem and has to put down others to make herself feel better but unless she is willing to admit it or self reflect you are not going to see much change.
You may be right. The person she lashed out at is very successful in her career and earns a great living-- SoCal Sally is struggling. My other friend from the midwest is also a high earner and she made a big deal of being better than him because of where they were both from. Its her only trump card. But it doesn't really work.
In my social circle, there are a few people who fetishize SoCal-- these are the types that have not traveled much, went there and discovered the beautiful weather. They pump her up a bit because she can talk to them about recommendations for visits or get nostalgic about being there. But the rest of the people she has interacted with in my company are generally pretty lukewarm on the subject and try to change topics if she gets on her soapbox.
I have noticed too that she does things to call attention to her SoCal background-- from suggesting certain music be played to wearing flip flops, telling us the weather in San Diego as opposed to ours or going on about some new raw diet she is trying because "in California people care a lot more about their health than they do here. " There may be some real truth to this inferiority theory. Maybe she feels like that is all that differentiates her or makes her special?
She sounds really effing annoying TBCH. How insufferable.
We have folks coming into Phoenix all of the time bragging about how much better it is in their old neck of the woods. After a few years they either go back "home" or start to complain about their old neck of the woods.
Had a coworker like that from Seattle, who saw NYC as inferior. I have never Been to Seattle and heard its nice and met others from there who liked NYC. States and cities in the US can be very different from each other. A snobbish person will be like this about things other then a hometown usually.
I would say a lot of the bragging is due to being homesick. Op, your friend does sound like a snob. It's one thing to miss your home, but you don't insult people and act like your better then anyone else.
It could be homesickness in her case. I have a friend who constantly compares everything to where she grew up (Philly). And I actually stopped accepting invitations to another person who is from a European country and disparages everything about our city and the US in general (although she's a hypocrite.)
On the other hand, when you consider how much smug, generalized "bashing" there is on CD against the South/Southerners and the Midwest/Midwesterners, geo-shaming is a real thing.
People who crow about their hometown, which is truly just an accident of birth are parochial and, pun intended, small-town minded. The very same as people are are snobbish about some fraternity/sorority/college/sports team that they are somehow associated with. The same as hiring someone from your hometown or college, etc. because of a "connection". Totally irrational, but that's how most people are. "I don't know a thing about you except you're from Milwaukee...good people!" ha
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