scilly

Actually I was last there about 6 or 7 years ago, and yes, there had been many changes since we lived there BUT much was still the same.

I found that one did still not ride transit unless one was poor white or coloured.

One was careful about where you went ........... and that included around the very expensive hotel. Much like many other cities of course, especially in the US or in 3rd rate countries!

There were, and still are now, red-necks and Trump-ite supporters a-plenty

It was not a cheap place to live

BUT it had become less turned in on itself, the university effect had finally happened, so had the music scene.

As far as democrat in a republican state ......... that's usually the university effect! Take the university faculty, staff and students away, especially those who moved from democratic regions, as well as the Mexican-Americans, and Austin will be much less democratic, and much closer to the rest of the state.


In addition to the recent personal experience, I have a friend who lives there who has gradually changed during the 20 or so years she has lived there from a liberal-leaning Englishwoman to one who became a huge supporter of Trump and posted the most horrible things about Obama and Hillary Clinton on public sites. It is no lie to say that her mother would have been horrified at some things that were posted and re-posted by her daughter!


I also have a musician friend here who played many times in Austin, but never experienced anything outside the music scene there and, for whatever reason, says he will not return.

iaink

I was hoping to be down there by the start of December but that's looking less and less likely.
They are currently doing "background checks" and are still trying to arrange for me to do the mandatory drug screening somewhere around here.
I feel I should give my current employer a couple of weeks notice to try and find a body to fill my shoes, but I'm not resigning until everything is watertight with the new position and the news today was that Leeds will likely take 4 weeks to confirm my academic qualifications.

Might yet have to put the bloody snow shoes on my car.

jerryhung

That's what I don't understand - how can a liberal leaning person turn into a Trumpit?

jerryhung

Okie - fair enough

jerryhung

I guess I'm thinking ultra conservative (hate immigrants, foreigners), not too educated, doesn't appreciate any concept such as "sharing" i.e. socialist ideas, probably a hunter, gun toting in the US, and these days leans to Trump and actually thinks Trump is sticking it to the stupid "elites".

BristolUK

Constant exposure?

But in the same way one person's freedom fighter is another person's terrorist, sometimes one person's liberal leaning is another person's right winger Context too.

My mum - a Thatcherite who denied it but would say things like "they're lucky to have a job" about work colleagues who were protesting against new forced night shifts not previously required - had a friend that she described as a "socialist" (I could almost hear her spit when she said it) when said friend - to me - was more Edwina Currie.

Tangram

Best of luck Iaink

Pulaski

My father-in-law, a born and bred Virginian, who came from very humble roots, sounds on most matters to be a calm and reasonable Republican, a Reaganite, you might say, .... but swears he's a Democrat, and says he votes that way despite mainstream Democrats standing for almost everything he hates!

I try and stay out of political discussions when he's around, though I can't resist needling him occasionally over wild inconsistencies in his stance. .... But last Thanksgiving things got ugly between him and Mrs P, his daughter!

Thankfully things stopped short of getting physical, and didn't stress my FIL to the point where it affected his heart, but tempers certainly flared!

Novocastrian

What is it about southerners across the world that makes them wankers?

The US south, no need to expand: the UK south; self-identified as superior to the rest: south Germany (Bayern); reactionary in the extreme (although many parts of the former DDR are worse): France? Well that's a bit different because it's the Parisians who are the conceited ones and Paris isn't in the south, but check out Antibes.

Canada and South Korea may be exceptions, the former because the north is uninhabitable and that latter, like the case of the US, there's no need to expand the point.

I invite comment about Australia and New Zealand but remembering that they are both upside down.

Souvy

Are you reacting to the boredom of retirement, or just pissed?

Pulaski

Nah, the US may be an exception, along side France/Paris, to your attempt to discover a north-south rule. In the US it's the New Yorkers and New Englanders who are generally the conceited tossers.

Southerners on the other hand are the salt of the earth, .... even if some of them are a little confused.

Novocastrian

I should expand on the US case. Southerners are to a large extent racist and Republican voters even in the most extreme circumstances.

Mostly not all

Just as UK southerners are reactionary Tory voters.

Mostly nor all.

Novocastrian

Both. But Brighton is A-OK. So I wasn't meaning you.

Souvy

Brighton is full of wankers. Not that I'll ever go there again (no reason).

Half of me is from the north of Scotland, so I probably get bragging rights on southerners.

Jingsamichty

Don't be so hard on yourself.