How anti Texas are city data forum posters? (Dallas, San Antonio: house, schools)

[katygirl68]

Originally Posted by Treasurevalley92

This response right here sums it up. Texans can't take any objective criticism.

Yeah, Texas is great. The Jobs, Food, and most of the people are really great. I like it here despite what it lacks.

But I think I'm offering a pretty good set of reasons as to why lots of people visit, are unimpressed, and then hear the Texas homers go on and on about how great their state is and don't get it, or just find it outright annoying.

Don't worry, you offered a great set of reasons and I thought it was very on point. I didn't get offended at all.

[katygirl68]

Originally Posted by Treasurevalley92

I'm not even complaining at this point, I love Texas, I'm just explaining why it doesn't show well, even if it has many many positives that make it a nice place to live.

The ruggedness of Texas and big sky has even grown on me, but that took years and I'm still not about to rank it in the top 2/3 of states I've been to scenery wise.

It isn't 100% fair, but there are alot of Texans and the ones who have money travel. Not unlike New Yorkers most people at some point have come in contact with loud, brash and rude people from our State. I agree it isn't fair to judge a state based on a few people, but people do that all the time, there is a grain of salt of truth to it. Stereotypes often have an ounce of truth to them, even if they are an unfair way to judge people.

This other group of Texans were waving a Texas flag at the end of a hike in Rocky Mountain National park when I was there just last summer, saying Colorado was a province of Texas. (Cringe) My family was giving me a hard time saying I should join them. When I studied in Rome you always had that one guy (or several) who would bring a Texas flag to wave around outside the Vatican.

It's hard to expect old stereotypes to die when people keep doing silly stuff like that.

Oh God, how embarrassing.

I remember waiting for a ghost tour in Edinburgh, Scotland, and when the tour guide found out we were from Texas she said they often get people from here, many wearing boots and hats. I made a face about that and she was saying it was cool (I think she was being diplomatic). I thought it sounded like a bunch of obnoxious people. I think it comes from all the years of the westerns being so popular.

[katygirl68]

Originally Posted by Treasurevalley92

While I'm the first to admit that the utility of this sort of stereotype is fairly limited because it is largely anecdotal, I don't think that means there is nothing to it, or it means people everywhere are the same. Different places have different cultures, and even if not everyone falls into their local culture archetype, the exception to some extent proves the rule.

I've never met someone from lets say Nebraska who who talks and sings and brags about Nebraska the way I've met many Texans who do.

I never felt the need to talk about my home state much at all until I moved to Texas, so maybe it's rubbed off on me

Even though there are more Texans, you see more Texas flags per capita than any other flag.

Lots of people really love their state, but there is something in the culture of Texas that makes people want to talk, brag, sing and make a big deal about it.

Lots of the "Really Texan" movies and people exemplify this culture.

What is your home state?

[TexasHorseLady]

I have said that Texas is a state of mind, but I think it is more than that. It is a mystique closely approximating a religion. And this is true to the extent that people either passionately love Texas or passionately hate it and, as in other religions, few people dare to inspect it for fear of losing their bearings in mystery or paradox. But I think there will be little quarrel with my feeling that Texas is one thing. For all its enormous range of space, climate, and physical appearance, and for all the internal squabbles, contentions, and strivings, Texas has a tight cohesiveness perhaps stronger than any other section of America. Rich, poor, Panhandle, Gulf, city, country, Texas is the obsession, the proper study, and the passionate possession of all Texans.


- John Steinbeck

[Irishtom29]

Originally Posted by Ivory Lee Spurlock

Obviously you never been to the Texas Hill Country. You should take a trip thru there sometime. You owe it to yourself if you're going to live in Texas and you like to hike.

It's several hours less than a 7 hour drive from Dallas and Houston.

The Hill Country is one of the scrubbiest, worn out and ruined areas I’ve seen. It must’ve been nice before the Americans overgrazed it, the topsoil was washed away and the brush took over. But back then it was full of Comanches—not tourist friendly at all.

[Treasurevalley92]

Originally Posted by Irishtom29

The Hill Country is one of the scrubbiest, worn out and ruined areas I’ve seen. It must’ve been nice before the Americans overgrazed it, the topsoil was washed away and the brush took over. But back then it was full of Comanches—not tourist friendly at all.

Robert Caro devoted an extensive amount of his first book in the LBJ history to how this happened. It's crazy. The hill country we see looks 100% different from what you would have seen 200 or even 150 years ago. It used to be grassland hills

[Treasurevalley92]

Originally Posted by katygirl68

What is your home state?

Idaho, I'm from the Boise area, though I've spent most of my adult life in DFW, with the exceptions of a couple summers spent in Alaska and abroad.

[Treasurevalley92]

Originally Posted by katygirl68

Oh God, how embarrassing.

I remember waiting for a ghost tour in Edinburgh, Scotland, and when the tour guide found out we were from Texas she said they often get people from here, many wearing boots and hats. I made a face about that and she was saying it was cool (I think she was being diplomatic). I thought it sounded like a bunch of obnoxious people. I think it comes from all the years of the westerns being so popular.

LOL yeah that seems about right. About 75-80% of the students at UD study abroad (since we have a campus just outside Rome) and a decent number of suburban cowboy types bring their boots along even though they are warned they won't be comfortable to walk in on the old cobblestone roads and they will be heavy and space consuming in your luggage if you don't wear them. They still do it.

Granted, I love my cowboy boots, I think they look sharp, and can be dressed up, dress down etc, but they aren't great travel/hiking shoes unless you have a horse. But hey, even abroad some people just want you to know they are from Texas and a great pickpocket target.

It a stubbornness and a state of mind.

[bluescreen73]

I've been following this thread primarily for chuckles, but I saw something yesterday that plays right into what some people have said. I'm in Seattle for work. It's my first time here. I'm riding the light rail from Sea-Tac to downtown and out the window what do I see? Someone proudly displaying their huge Texas flag over their apartment balcony.

Texas is the only state I've ever lived in where the state pride is crammed down your throat on a daily basis, and Texans are the only folks I've encountered who'll move to a different state and then make their new house look like their home state threw up all over it.

[Irishtom29]

Originally Posted by Treasurevalley92

Robert Caro devoted an extensive amount of his first book in the LBJ history to how this happened. It's crazy. The hill country we see looks 100% different from what you would have seen 200 or even 150 years ago. It used to be grassland hills

Great books. How about the chapter in the first called “The Sad Irons” about the incredible amount of harsh labor a woman on a farm had to do before rural electrification?

Yes, a common southern farm practice was to work the land to ruin and then move on, leaving in their wake ruined soils and scrubby woods. Large areas of the southeast that were farmlands in the 17th, 18th and 19th Centuries are now woods. It seems to me that those areas of the Hill Country in the best shape are those settled by land thrifty Germans.