Why are Southern Calfornians so Rude and Nasty? (Los Angeles, Glendale: condos, homes)

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by sav858

No there hasn't, certainly not on the SF-O forum. I've been on here for almost 5 years now and don't recall any specific threads about how nice people in SF are.

There's one there now. It's been going a couple of weeks.

[sav858]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

There's one there now. It's been going a couple of weeks.

You mean the one that was started 4 days after I wrote that post? That's the first one I recall seeing as most threads on that topic seemed to state the opposite. That thread was started this past Sunday btw.

[BarcelonaFan]

Originally Posted by shmoov_groovzsd

Correct but that is assuming that people choose their Govt which I am sure you know is not the case. Its a futile argument because no two countries are run the same or have the same rule of law.

Originally Posted by shmoov_groovzsd

What you are talking about is division in the social fabric of a given society. Your CHOICE to create an argument stems from wealth disparity and then clumping "Americans" into a society where we ignore it. My way off post was simply inserting another variable into the same argument which at the end comes to differences in the soscial fabric, but I chose a populist piece rather than a wealth class.
This is like making a chicken or egg argument. You simply cant slice a piece out without there being an affect on other part. Since there arent many countries with the same rule of law or history as one another, its an incredibly difficult debate to quantify and really there is no ultimate answer. But somehow you have tried to frame it that way.

So while it may seem way off to you, simply inserting your social fabric argument makes total sense from a macro point of view. An opinion of a nation or group of people that have totally different rules they live by simply because these other moving parts affect that sect of society.

Society is way too abstract to generalize I agree and many different factors play a part, I agree. Where I disagree is that you cannot pinpoint disparity related largley and mostly to economics, which I think you can do because here we are talking something much more concrete; the means of production and their relation to society. In the workplace there is disparity within income and this disparity within the workplace translates into disparity outside the workplace. When the share of those at the bottom is lowered this also translates into social inequalities. The antagonisms seen in the workplace translate into social antagonisms between people. Our relationships at work translate into social relationships between people.

Whereas other epochs stressed racial, religious, clan, feudal or tribe relations between people, in this epoch the dominate relationship is the one we have is economic. Economics becomes a large determinative factor, while race, religion and creed a close second. This is a common feature in most if not all nations with a market economy.

[BarcelonaFan]

Originally Posted by Jenkay

Hahahaha Most of my neighbors are not "poorer" than me by any stretch of the imagination.

That's outstanding.

I am not arguing that there's no inequality. I pointed out that there's just as much if not more in DC and Chicago (where did Detroit and Camden come in? although I understand the mechanics of povery in those areas to be different, as you point out. I did quite a lot of Urban Studies work as part of my degree- and I still work with census data and demographic data as part of my profession) as there is in SoCal, AND that it's unfair to paint such a DIVERSE region with such a broad brush.

I think I made my point to Tex. Read it. Get back to me.

And I do believe that you're misusing "caste". It has so much more to it than income inequality, and the social and historical forces that shape the caste system in India make it such that the word isn't really applicable to anywhere but there, so I stand by my statement that that's a bizarre word to use in this context.

Feudal, tribal, and religious hierarchy in the caste system did make it rather unique but those are being torn asunder by rapid development, as is the case for areas marked by rapid liberalization. But in the destruction of old hierarchies come with it new ones not defined by religious or tribal illusions. The new social structure of hierarchy becomes one dominated by economic class. The more pure the model the faster (free enterprise) the more apparent the classes, the less pure the model (Keynesian, welfare state) the more it’s obfuscated by one’s class advancement over the other.
Besides I was trying to use it as an adjective to descibe how bad inequality has gotten in the US.

Sorry for "irking" you. I will try to keep my "subjective little experience", as you so snarkily put it, to myself from now on.

It's ok. I guess I don't mind snarky.

[SOON2BNSURPRISE]

Originally Posted by sav858

Are you serious? It gets people's attention and realize the light is green and they need to start driving.

Nobody honks their horn for driving through a tunnel btw.

Yes I am serious. How many drivers do you know that can't figure out what a green light is or what it means? Maybe they should stop driving.

Plenty of people honk their horn going thru a tunnel. My entire life I have heard cars honk horns as we drove thru tunnels. The kids love it. We were heading to long Beach and as you leave the PCH as it enters the 10 you have to drive thru a tunnel. I honked as did a couple other drivers. It is a tradition that is fun.

[sav858]

Originally Posted by SOON2BNSURPRISE

Yes I am serious. How many drivers do you know that can't figure out what a green light is or what it means? Maybe they should stop driving.

Plenty of people honk their horn going thru a tunnel. My entire life I have heard cars honk horns as we drove thru tunnels. The kids love it. We were heading to long Beach and as you leave the PCH as it enters the 10 you have to drive thru a tunnel. I honked as did a couple other drivers. It is a tradition that is fun.

The problem is them not paying attention realizing there is a green light. Lots of times you catch them looking down at something (phone, book, radio, etc...) or daydreaming. You've honestly never seen people not realize the light has turned green and sit there?

Maybe tunnels are a novelty where you are. I never notice anyone honk in them and can't remember the last time that happened but I do recall a few occasions people doing it a long time ago. Honestly that might lead to road rage today here in the Bay Area.

[DinsdalePirahna]

Originally Posted by joryjim

Go to the Del Mar Whole Foods. You can watch the pretentious jerks in action.

I think Whole Foods pumps rarified Bozone into their stores.

If you really want to see rude, entitled and pretentious snobs - visit Clayton and/or Ladue, Missouri (and I have no idea what their snobbery is about).

[tonyinsd]

Originally Posted by BarcelonaFan

I was discusing the idea that class and economic divides become social divides and antagonisms between people. I said that it depends on the invididual so you cannot generalize the people only the conditions.

Why didn't you discuss the idea that there is a huge income disparity in CAs largest cities? Why didn't you discuss that this economic divide may translate into social divides between people?

Also, why do Americans have this tendency to believe that class doesn't exist or that it plays absolutely no part in our daily lives? Maybe these are things your small mind cannot grasp? IDK.

I don't know that it necessarily contributes to antagonistic attitudes towards people, but there is definitely a divide.

My family friend who sold his company to Eli Lilly said he felt a lot of sympathy towards the workers at Ralph's who were ready to go on strike. He said he wouldn't cross the picket line because he didn't think it was right.

But by the same token, he's not frequenting the same places as those workers are. Sure, he may clip coupons to save money, and he may drive around a car way less than what he can afford, but he's not going to be crossing paths with those folks except when he shops where they work.

The economic divide is not unique to California. I invite you to head to some of the really bad neighborhoods in Anacostia in DC, and then head to McLean.

There's no question that class plays a part in our lives. Here is a perfect example of how some people of a certain socio-economic status don't want "the poors," for lack of a better term, around them.

http://www.sbnation.com/2013/3/26/41...acobs-is-awful

"That didn’t go over too well," said Mason Phelps, a former equestrian who today serves as a Jacobs family spokesman in Wellington. "Nor did we want to attract the kind of people the Akon concert would attract to this community…. The people that go and listen to and like Akon are not Wellingtonites. It’s just a different crowd of people. I don’t mean to sound like a snob, but this is a fairly upscale community, and we don’t need to bring the low- and middle-income hooligans into town and have them all of a sudden say, Wow, good pickins’ out here."

Yes, because as one of those middle income hooligans, I'm going to go to your rich area, and think, hey, let me steal that Bentley. Unreal.

[JohnSoCal]

Originally Posted by BarcelonaFan

It's all relative but mostly I think that in CA in general is a VERY class based society almost caste-like in comparison to the rest of America. The gap between rich and poor is very high and these two camps almost never interact. You will get nastiness from both camps depending on how they view you. That is why views vary so much on the niceness/rudeness of CA people.

I thought living in a nice area in LA I was going to encounter friendliness but instead LA can be super nice or super rude especially in the uppity as hell neighborhoods. The Valley has some of the nicest people I have ever met, I love the Valley but Beverly Hills, Calabasas (in the Valley I know), Brentwood. My god they can be rude.

La Jolla in San Diego was the worst. Good lord, were the people there just unbearable and rude.

Again we cannot generalize but there underlying theme I have found in CA is that it is extremely class polarized. It all depends on the individual if they want to exercise that snootiness which they seem to be more than free to do, or if the lower class prole wants to think that you're of the 1% and treat you accordingly.

I just think that a lot Southern CA people (especially from the upper crust) are missing that overall hospitality toward all people like they do in the South and Midwest. They're just free to be rude to people they think are beneath them like it's socially acceptable or something.

While the South has a problem with racism, Southern CA has a serious problem with classism/elitism that is tolerated.

That is the most ridiculous thing I have heard.

[JohnSoCal]

Originally Posted by BarcelonaFan

I wasn't just talking about San Diego but all of CA, especially Los Angeles which hosts one of the poorest and most unequal counties in the country.

So it's bizzare to point out the most obvious that California is very divided?

That is just your distorted opinion. I have lived all over California and you are just wrong period. You have obviously never lived in SE Florida which I did for 8 years.