It holds a level of cultural and economic dominance over much of the country to the point where it can often feel similar to how America does to Europeans.

They make our art, they grow our food, and they represent us on a cultural stage to the world. And for a lot of middle America you will never be able to afford to move there, but some of your neighbors and friends will, and they'll love it.

There's a lot of sour grapes in California hate, because Iowa, Missouri, ohio, etc know they're flyover states, they know they're never going to be the powerhouses that California is. So you watch your Los Angeles media on a Silicon Valley device eating your San Joaquin vegetables thinking about your childhood friend who couldn't take it here and got into a UC and never moved back. There's some bitterness if you left your small town, but if you didn't even manage that…

It's the fifth largest global economy...

It's hard proof that most of their policy is complete bullshit, because if they were right, liberal social policy and taxes would have chased all the wealthy away.

But it doesn't, because people want to live in places with that kind of policy

They jelly of that economy

The entire answer is "propaganda"

In integral part of conservative ideology is hatred and California's been a target for decades. When the acceptance of gays became too widespread they switched to hatred and vilification of transgender Americans. When the general population gets tired of listening to them screech about that they'll find someone/something else. For some reason they don't get tired of whining about CA.

The people who tell conservatives what to think have indicated that California is bad. Why is it bad? They made some progress on a few things, and we can’t have that. It’s why we can’t have nice things like affordable healthcare and breathable air.

Because caring for the environment and creating social programs is scary to them.

They hate us because they ain't us.

Because Fox News tells them too

I've never been to Alabama but I'll still shit on it because I've seen statistics and stories about how bad it is there. Same with Republicans. California is definitely one of the better states to live in by most metrics but it does have huge wealth inequality combined with its large population means there's no shortage of people in poverty and statistics and stories from that group that fox News can shove in the face of there audience and pretend that's how everyone in California is living.

Lookng at Cali might give them cognitive dissonance so they get upset like the mean dumb goblins they are.

I would guess most midwesterners have not been, so they dont know the reality of the place. So anyone can say it's full of bad people and they won't bat an eye.

Because California stands for many, many, many, many of the things they oppose without evidence to back up their claims: Supporting LGBTQ+, better Social programs, limited religious freedoms, run by a bunch of "liberals", etc. etc.

And yet, it's the 5th largest economy in the world, and the vast, overwhelming, majority of funds for the USA.

They hate that California works, because it disproves pretty much all of their talking points.

They hate the proof that their ideas suck and the ones they fight work, even when you fuck it up kinda badly.

It represents everything they hate. CA ain't perfect, but it's got a lot of good stuff going for it. Especially that monster economy.

I like to rag on our state to the south friend-o, but it's outta love for the pnw. You keep doing you because it fucking pisses off the Pedo Party and that's awesome.

Since nobody here is giving any actual reasons and just putting up straw men, let me give you the real reasons.

Crowded and high cost of living.

And because politics, those two points extend into lots of homeless (crowded) and "liberal initiatives" (cost of living). But it's always rooted into crowded and high cost of living.

But what about large cities in the red states? Yes, the same is said of those. Crowded and high cost of living.

What’s crazy is that, by pure numbers, CA is basically tied with FL as having the second most republicans in the country—at around 6 million.* Only TX has them both beat. Conservatives really do shit on the 2nd/3rd largest enclave of republicans in the country 🤣

*Based on the 2024 US election turnout—not registered republicans

Learn the phrase and see it everywhere: negative partisanship. XBOX vs PS vs Nintendo vs mobile, Mac vs MS vs Linux, Rep vs Dem, white vs black, old vs young, etc. etc. etc. Stupid people love signalling to their ingroup how loyal they are by attacking the outgroup.

Everybody loves finding things in common with other people.

Since California is percieved by the right to be a "liberal stronghold", it is easy for them to bond over a shared hatred of it. Regardless of whether or not that hate is based in fact.

From what I can tell from up in Canada, it's a more 'liberal' leaning state according to their metric and they don't like that.

It’s a stereotype. Why do many people instantly think of Texas when talking about conservative states?

I'm not conservative but the last time i was in LA precovid it was actually a really shit place. Streets were gross, homeless everywhere, insane wealth disparity and so much sprawl. Food was 11/10. The economy probably wouldnt be what it is without silicon valley.

It's heavily featured in Fox and other conservative ~~propaganda~~ media. So is the pacific northwest... my god, my dad will not stop talking about the homeless hordes of seattle or whatever.

TBH Texas and Florda are portrayed similarly in many leftist tabloids. Speaking as someone who has recently leaved in both, yes, they are conservative dystopias, but not uniformly and not like news would lead you to believe.

There are just blowing up grains of truth.