- 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.
I recently had an insight on (US) politics that applies here. Our ridiculous two party system is unsurprisingly to blame for this. Both parties encompass both reasonable and terrible ideas. And members of both parties are fed entirely different pieces of propaganda. So republicans are fed the idea that all democrats embrace the worst, extreme ideas that fall under the democratic umbrella. While democrats are fed the idea that all republicans embrace the worst, extreme ideas that fall under the republican umbrella. This makes members of both parties see the other as simply evil and so the opposing party is impossible to embrace. It often doesn’t matter what experiences a person goes through.
Right wingers have an unreasonably radical view of liberals because that’s what the right wing hate machine churns out relentlessly. Liberals think most right wingers are confused but reasonable because thinking otherwise clashes with liberal philosophy. Leftists think that right wingers are rabid fascists because right wingers always show themselves to be rabid fascists the moment someone gives them permission. Enlightened centrists think both sides have equal and opposite prejudices because they like that vibe, not because it reflects reality.
I’m sorry but this false equivalence is BS. Conservatives are eating propaganda happily and there is definitely liberal propaganda. But nobody is making up the awful things conservatives are embracing in vast majorities worldwide. You don’t need to make anything up to find awful things in the right, the way the right is making things up about liberals.
I was trying to come up with an example of a reasonable Republican policy but I failed. Can you help me out with an example?