Why you should never live in Alabama.

KudzuRunner wrote:

Have you ever been to Alabama?

I don't think you have. Nothing in your post suggests that you have. So that fact that you feel empowered to speak with such apparently earned expertise amazes me.

"The gulf towns are not that nice."

Have you ever been to Gulf Shores during the Memorial Day weekend? I have, many times. I've been on that beach. I've lazed on that fourth floor ocean-facing condo porch. Have you? Meh, I don't think so.

"Birmingham is not nice." Really? When was the last time you had a hot chicken sandwich at Hattie B's hot chicken? How often have you graced Birmingham with your presence in the last ten years?

Have you run the Azalea Trail 10K in Mobile? (Top 10 US 10Ks. I've run it twice. Great race.)

Meh, I don't think so.

You just don't have a clue. But ignorance can always be remedied. Just get on a plane, show up, use Tripadvisor skillfully, talk to people, and you might be surprised by how much there is to learn about the big world out there.

Flagpole wrote:

mayeroff wrote:

We should never make generalizations about people based on where they live or where they are from.

There is a certain percentage of conservatives in San Francisco just as there are percentage of Bernie Sanders supporters in Mississippi and Alabama. I don't know anyone in Alabama, but I have some close friends of Mississippi, Georgia and Louisiana. Some are conservative, some are "moderate" and some are liberal.

We often want to "pigeonhole" people based on their race, nationality, skin color and where they live. This only deepens the social and political divide that is ripping this country apart.

We are one family, on one planet. Life is too short.

Yeah, I can get behind that.

I will make clear that the post I agreed with said it was "full of" racist rednecks. I submit that "full of" doesn't mean everyone. To further clarify though, I will just say "Too many for me". There are for sure liberals there and highly-educated people who live in Alabama...too few and far between for me to want to spend any time there though.

KudzuRunner wrote:

Yawn-a-bama wrote:

I got your back wejo. It’s beyond comprehension to me how someone could feel happy or fulfilled living most of their life in alabama. Even if you’re a simple person who’s goal in life is just to rasie kids then living in alabama is a major diservice to your kids developmentally (and in most other aspects). Why wouldn’t you at least move to somewhere like rural new jersey or colorado where the average public school is better than the top 10% of schools in alabama?

And the mosquitoes. The humidity.

And don’t try to tell me the cities or nature are nice. Birmingham is not nice. Huntsville is not up and coming. The gulf towns are not that nice.

My tone isn’t meant to be mean or condescending. I have a few close friends from alabama who are amazing but left forever as soon as they could. There’s no will but we should probably have government programs to incentivize people to move away of the worst parts of the country (like much of alabama). I think a lot of people who stubbornly try to “save their small towns” only do so because if they don’t they obviously and unfortunately will lose quite a bit of money if they own their home and there’s other costs with uprooting. But if we gave people some financial support for migrating in the short term, long term the country would save money from having to perpetually subsidize infrastructure in many areas.

Have you ever been to Alabama?

I don't think you have. Nothing in your post suggests that you have. So that fact that you feel empowered to speak with such apparently earned expertise amazes me.

"The gulf towns are not that nice."

Have you ever been to Gulf Shores during the Memorial Day weekend? I have, many times. I've been on that beach. I've lazed on that fourth floor ocean-facing condo porch. Have you? Meh, I don't think so.

"Birmingham is not nice." Really? When was the last time you had a hot chicken sandwich at Hattie B's hot chicken? How often have you graced Birmingham with your presence in the last ten years?

Have you run the Azalea Trail 10K in Mobile? (Top 10 US 10Ks. I've run it twice. Great race.)

Meh, I don't think so.

You just don't have a clue. But ignorance can always be remedied. Just get on a plane, show up, use Tripadvisor skillfully, talk to people, and you might be surprised by how much there is to learn about the big world out there.