Why are Texans so defensive about their state? (Houston, San Antonio: home, law school)

[doctorjef]

Originally Posted by BobTex

This reminds me of one such actor who is such a boor about Texas/Texans. He is always trolling these pages slinging his bags full of horse manure.

I fully agree about those from other areas spending much time here in the Texas forums. It seems some have unnatural fixations.

Oh, I am quite Texas proud ... I have no specific reasoning other than maybe it is genetic. I am not rude about it to others though.

Dude, since I was born in Texas, am a 5th generation Texan by birth, went to university and grad school in Texas, retain my professional license in Texas, pay taxes in Denton County TX on holdings I have there, and lived in Texas the greater part of my life, I reckon I have every logical right to post on the Texas forum.

I'd differ with you and Ray about who's slinging the horse manure.

[doctorjef]

Originally Posted by SVTRay

Just so that I understand, you're looking for the Louisiana local weather forecast in Houston? I can't recall ever getting any localized weather reports when in Louisiana, Oklahoma, Arkansas, or New Mexico for that fact despite being within a 100 mile radius of say Texarkana, El Paso or Dallas etc. I don't know, I think you're reaching on this one.

I've learned one thing in my years of traveling, every state, city, country, district has it's own pride. Texas is just unique I guess in that we're not shy about expressing our pride. We don't feel the need to go to the Delaware sub-forum and brag about how great our state is either. But you will find people from other states or countries continually making such threads about Texas in the Texas sub-forums.

Texas pride is just something you get or you don't.

Please see my reply to your friend, Bob, above.

[TexasHorseLady]

Originally Posted by doctorjef

Dude, since I was born in Texas, am a 5th generation Texan by birth, went to university and grad school in Texas, retain my professional license in Texas, pay taxes in Denton County TX on holdings I have there, and lived in Texas the greater part of my life, I reckon I have every logical right to post on the Texas forum.

I'd differ with you and Ray about who's slinging the horse manure.

Ah, doctorjef, but you've made it infinitely clear that you hate Texas and love your new state. So why on earth are you spending your time here when you could be on the forum of your new state or, better yet, having relocated, out and about enjoying your new state and singing its praises THERE?

One has to wonder at your compulsion to spend time here denigrating the state that apparently gave you birth, education, profession, etc., when there's a place you clearly prefer and have, joyfully, moved to.

It's not that you don't have a right to post here, but why on earth would you? What possible motive could you have for such behavior?

[Cathy4017]

One has to wonder at your compulsion to spend time here denigrating the state that apparently gave you birth, education, profession, etc., when there's a place you clearly prefer and have, joyfully, moved to.

Yep.....he's so good at dripping scorn on Texas and anything Texan....one has to wonder why.

[doctorjef]

Uhm, maybe because I continue to have an active interest in Texas and because the Delaware forum, like the forums for other states with small populations on C-D forums, doesn't have as much activity to engage with and a great many of the threads there have to do with real estate matters that don't interest me since I'm not looking for a house and don't care about new housing developments or retirement communities. In point of fact I spend most of my time enjoying the amenities here locally or our beaches in season, as well as other easily accessible places elsewhere on the East Coast. I haven't been back to Texas since I went back for a week in mid-2005 to close the sale of our house in Austin. Don't know when I'll make a trip back to deal with the final matter of a rented storage unit I have in Austin. After that I don't anticipate any reason to return again to the state, but one never knows what the future may bring. I don't hate Texas, just its awful post-Ann Richards politics and the activist social conservatism of some of its citizenry.

[polo89]

Originally Posted by doctorjef

Uhm, maybe because I continue to have an active interest in Texas and because the Delaware forum, like the forums for other states with small populations on C-D forums, doesn't have as much activity to engage with and a great many of the threads there have to do with real estate matters that don't interest me since I'm not looking for a house and don't care about new housing developments or retirement communities. In point of fact I spend most of my time enjoying the amenities here locally or our beaches in season, as well as other easily accessible places elsewhere on the East Coast. I haven't been back to Texas since I went back for a week in mid-2005 to close the sale of our house in Austin. Don't know when I'll make a trip back to deal with the final matter of a rented storage unit I have in Austin. After that I don't anticipate any reason to return again to the state, but one never knows what the future may bring. I don't hate Texas, just its awful post-Ann Richards politics and the activist social conservatism of some of its citizenry.

Post-Ann Richards Texas. Is it really that different politically? I didn't live in Texas at the time of Ann Richards, and I would've been too young to recognize the culture politically anyway.

[doctorjef]

Mark White was OK too, IMO. There was a brief flash of real light with the election of Ann Richards and her administration, although she was a moderate Dem by national standards and she felt compelled to take more conservative positions on some things than I think would have been the case had she not been serving such a conservative body politic overall. I think if she were serving in the present decade her positions would be somewhat farther to the left (this would entail an entirely hypothetical scenario, of course, in which the Republican ascendency in Texas would not have definitively taken hold). Anyway, I didn't think much of earlier Dems like Dolph Briscoe or certainly Preston Smith -- that was at a time when Texas was still a one-party Southern Democratic state, embracing both liberal-progressives like the great Sissy Farenthold and Sen. Ralph Yarborough, as well as a lot of the types who easily turned Republican later on (the majority of the Texas Democratic Party, actually).

Texas Republican US Senators and Congressman used to seem far more moderate than today. John Tower would be one such Republican example IMO. Of course, the Republican Party wasn't at that time in thrall to the social conservatives/theocrats. I'm old enough to remember the great Sen. Everett Dirkson (not a Texan, of course) and got to meet him on the floor of the Senate when I was a kid -- it was a different time.

[JayBrown80]

Originally Posted by Cathy4017

One has to wonder at your compulsion to spend time here denigrating the state that apparently gave you birth, education, profession, etc., when there's a place you clearly prefer and have, joyfully, moved to.

Yep.....he's so good at dripping scorn on Texas and anything Texan....one has to wonder why.

One has to wonder why we can't argue or speak to the points he is making. Instead, when he brings up uncomfortable truths, we tell him he isn't even allowed in the forum. Or we question his motivation or his intelligence or the amount of free time he has on his hands.

Any poster can post in ANY forum any old time they please. If you disagree with a poster, then say why you disagree with their points. But "Why are you EVEN here, don't you have something better to do, what's wrong with your life that you can't go do something else" only says to me "Wow, you are speaking some uncomfortable truth here, I am not eloquent enough to refute you, maybe I can bully you into running away instead".

[TexasHorseLady]

Originally Posted by JayBrown80

One has to wonder why we can't argue or speak to the points he is making. Instead, when he brings up uncomfortable truths, we tell him he isn't even allowed in the forum. Or we question his motivation or his intelligence or the amount of free time he has on his hands.

Any poster can post in ANY forum any old time they please. If you disagree with a poster, then say why you disagree with their points. But "Why are you EVEN here, don't you have something better to do, what's wrong with your life that you can't go do something else" only says to me "Wow, you are speaking some uncomfortable truth here, I am not eloquent enough to refute you, maybe I can bully you into running away instead".

JayBrown80, just so that you'll see the full post, which you apparently missed when Cathy4017 quoted it:

One has to wonder at your compulsion to spend time here denigrating the state that apparently gave you birth, education, profession, etc., when there's a place you clearly prefer and have, joyfully, moved to.

It's not that you don't have a right to post here, but why on earth would you? What possible motive could you have for such behavior?

It's not that I think that he shouldn't post here, or that I'm unwilling to address his posts point by point (I don't think anyone would accuse me of that!); I'm interested in the psychology that drives someone to hang out on a relocation forum for the specific purpose of badmouthing a state that they no longer live in and apparently have no intention of living in ever again. It's got to be similar to, but at the same time different from, the psychology that drives someone to hang out on a relocation forum for a state that they've never lived in or, for that matter, even visited, have no intention of visiting or moving to, but badmouth at every opportunity as if they know all about it and are clearly in that state's forum for the specific purpose of badmouthing it.

Both behaviors fascinate me. Why would anyone do that?

I'm sure these kinds of behaviors were around before, but they are certainly highlighted by the existence of the internet.

[doctorjef]

In point of fact, "relocation forum" is a mischaracterisation of C-D forums. Yes, that's ostensibly a major purpose of it, but numerous threads on the various state forums deal with things that have nothing directly to do with relocation. The threads dealing with socio-cultural and political affairs on the Texas forum are exemplary of these non-relocation threads.

I occasionally post on the London sub-forum and rarely on the Colorado forum, having lived both places. I sometimes post on C-D state forums of states where I haven't lived, either to ask questions or make observations. I generally dislike the C-D Politics and Other Controversies forum (I prefer a similar forum on an entirely different website). Anyway, it's not just Texas, and why wouldn't I have an interest about goings-on there and cultural/political matters. I still have friends in Fort Worth, Austin and Houston with whom I maintain communication and occasionally see when they are travelling on the East Coast.