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I moved from California to Texas but only stayed 4 months. Texas isn't much cheaper, and everyone was politics-obsessed. (www.businessinsider.com)

submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Kellee Speakman, a conservative elementary school teacher, moved from California to Texas in 2022 but returned after four and a half months due to Texas's political obsession and unexpected living costs.
Speakman found Texas to be not much cheaper than California, with high property taxes, expensive services, and lower wages, which contributed to her dissatisfaction.
She returned to California, appreciating its lifestyle, public lands, and better teacher benefits, realizing that her idea of freedom involved peace and everyday adventures rather than political rhetoric.

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[–] [email protected] 101 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (8 children)

YEP. My experience having grown up here was that Texas was cheap and pretty laid-back politically. Then something changed and the state shifted into being expensive and politically obsessed.

Edit: that's what I used to like about Texas: everyone minded their own business. They wanted the government to fuck off and let them do whatever. Now there are a lot of people who want to know what's in your child's pants.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 months ago (4 children)

When did this change happen?

[–] [email protected] 46 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The last gasp of the 'mind your own business' conservatives in Texas was either the 2016 election or the one after that. There was a period of time where you had the Lt Governor trying to pass culture war bills (like anti-trans bathroom bills) in the senate and then they would die in the house when the speaker wouldn't put them up for a vote due to it being bad for attracting businesses. Once the MAGA Republicans got voted in, it's been full steam ahead for them.

It's not like things were great before then, but it wasn't this race to the bottom like it is now.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

It really got rolling when Bush Jr got elected governor. It had been festering for a while.

The southern strategy merged with big oil money, and utilized the conservative Baptist churches to try to shame people into getting on board.

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