Bummed. Realizing my friends in Florida are morons.

[Atman]

I'm just dumbfounded. All these people I grew up with. They're now all on FB posting "Please, Al Sharton, Stevie Wonder, please boycott us! We don't need your carpet bagging asses!" Everyone seems to think Zim is a hero for ridding the world of another punkass black kid. All those blacks are always shooting each other anyway, so what's the big deal that a white guy shot one?

WTF happened to that state? I don't think I'm ever going home. I literally feel safer walking around NYC.

[Mopar151]

1. I have family in Fla.

I don't get it either - must have to do with invasive species like teabaggers interbreeding with the "native" dumb-ass crackers.

[Faux pas]

2. 'WTF happened to that state?'

I'll take a wild stab at it, could it be the fact that repugs rule down there?

[Atman]

5. But what happened to the people?

I was talking to a friend yesterday, a snowbird who has a place outside of Orlando. He admits it pretty frightening there. Total hicks. I grew up there, but in Cocoa Beach, an affluent beach resort town full of scientists working in the space program. I swear, more than half of them are hard-core religious gun nutters. The space program shut down and everyone grabbed a gun and ran to Jesus. It's just freaky down there!

[Faux pas]

8. Brainwashing, fear mongering, low educational standards

just to mention a few reasons. Not being able to think critically and 'group' think. Scary that it seems to be spreading like the bubonic plague. Thrilled i don't live there, for sure!

[CanonRay]

18. I finally cut communications with my cousins down there

I got tired of the racist, homophobic, ignorant e-mails and told them off. No more Floriduh for me.

[ewagner]

19. I was raised in Sanford

Most of my family still lives there.

We tolerate each other but that's about it.

I don't think they formally belong to the Tea Party but they sure think like it.

On election night in 2008 one brother called and said, "Please tell me you didn't vote for that n****r". I've heard a lot of conservative, rw crap come out of him but this was end...we haven't talked since then.

I thought Florida had come a long way since the 50's and 60's but I think they're (to use a good Pentacostal term because most of my family "found Jesus" in the 80s) "back-slidin". I think there are politicians down there who are trying to teach the public it's OKAY to be prejudiced...because, all the stereotypes are right...

[LiberalEsto]

11. But someone had to vote them into office

and those someones are the problem

[Faux pas]

15. So true. Response #8 could explain

why those someones voted that way.

[KaryninMiami]

3. Not everyone in FL is a moron

Nor does everyone feel anything like the comments you mention. Some of us- including my friends and colleagues, our outraged and were horrified by the decision of the jury. Many of us are working to change things in Florida and to elect leaders who share our views - including throwing out criminals like Rick Scott. And while I understand the sentiment behind boycotting our state until change happens and for political reasons, this only harms the people working in the tourism industry which could implact many middle and low income workers. There are lots of progressives and Dems here- font discredit the state due to your FB friends please- perhaps it's time to expand your circle!

[Atman]

7. I can't "expand the circle of friends" I grew up with.

You've heard the old cliche, "it doesn't take a rocket scientist..." Well, literally three members of my family are "rocket scientists." One headed the Delta missile program, one develops rocket fuels, one is a systems guy who programs guidance systems. They've all turned hard-core GOP. They're all racist fucks. Many of the friends I grew up with wound up working for NASA...that's what you did in Cocoa Beach, you worked for Disney or the space center. They've all gone God & Guns. Is it something in the water?

[Atman]

9. Oh, BTW...they all blame Obama...

...for shutting down the space program, even though it was GWB who did that. "Yes, but Obama could have reversed it!" You see? It is ALWAYS the black dude's fault.

[HardTimes99]

20. I'm surprised scientists would go racist, since science is the

antithesis of racism and effectively refutes it. Having said that, many scientists remained in Nazi Germany, like von Braun and Heisenberg.

[Go Vols]

31. von Braun

came to the US to help the Army and ended up living a number of years in Huntsville,Ala. as director of the Marshall Space Flight Center.

[OwnedByCats]

33. You know how it goes, right?

A state like Florida has a few morons and some here make out that everyone there is either crazy or stupid. Kind of like how Texas is bashed pretty regularly around here.

There are stupid people in every state, Florida hasn't cornered the market on that.

Generalizations are bad.

[HockeyMom]

4. "They are just jealous that we live in Florida"

bla, bla, bla. I hear that ALL the time, and want to smack them. They are so full of themselves.

Yes, you are correct. I felt much safer walking around NYC. Too many Florida "law abiding citizens" carrying guns that you cannot see.

[Cirque du So-What]

6. What can you do?

I have no regrets over having turned my back on everyone I knew 'way back when' who decided to remain mired in ignorance and bigotry. True, I can have conversations where these subjects don't arise and they seem like fine folks, but when you know they're harboring those feelings and opinions just below the surface, it's a deal-breaker AFAIC. I don't want to know them, I don't want to talk to them, and I sure as hell don't want to live in their neighborhoods. I've accepted the fact that nothing I can say or do would have the slightest influence on them, so they remain in outer darkness within my universe. That's just the way it is.

I could go the rest of my life without ever setting foot in the place where I came of age, and it wouldn't trouble me in the least. My regrets lie in having ever moved back there (twice) when my heart was most definitely not in it. I'm familiar with the term, 'never say never,' but I rest assured that returning will not occur - not even after my death.

When I was a youth, my home had a telephone that was on a 'party line' with the biggest blabbermouth in town. Think the NSA listening in on your conversations is bad? Try having the town gossip hearing everything that gets said over the phone! Gossip is still a team sport there, and social media is a godsend to those busybodies. Before FB and Twitter, there was Topix, which remains a favorite for new generations of busybodies steeped in gossip culture. I once visited my home town's site on that wretched website, came away embarrassed and at the same time grateful that I departed forever, and for reasons like that I have no use for social media.

[Atman]

10. In a FB reply, I said I feel safer in Harlem than Orlando.

I got slammed...they simply couldn't believe it. "Go ahead, walk through Harlem! It was nice knowing you!" Yet, I was totally serious. The ignorance and racism down there is astounding!

[Cirque du So-What]

13. I've gotten similar

when I mention my experiences in Cleveland or Pittsburgh or Chicago. Their mindset just won't allow even firsthand accounts that contradict their erroneous assumptions.

[Lars39]

38. Topix still exists and boy howdy what a cesspool it is.

Went there once for my hometown, never again.

[99Forever]

12. Hard to understand, for sure.

Stupid has taken over in Floriduh and as such, I'll happily grant those redneck morons their wish, I'll spend my vacation funds elsewhere. No problem dumbasses.

[dembotoz]

14. racism is the new cool

folks admit it
are proud of it

[UserNSAv32]

16. This is something I noticed a while back

Those who do not nor ever lived in FL do not realize FL is just as racist and redneck as GA, AL, MS, TX...

It is cultural, the longer one stays the more one regresses while you progress.

Just move on with your life without them.

[Ian David]

17. There's a new app that tells you which of your friends are racists. It's called "Facebook."

I think that's a John Fugelsang joke.

[HardTimes99]

21. LOL- That's a classic for the ages! - nt

[Paladin]

22. +!. (nt)

[Tommy_Carcetti]

23. I'm in Florida. I'm not a moron.

If you've read any of my posts, you certainly know I don't think Zimmerman was any type of hero.

Lax gun laws and racial profiling are not Florida problems. They are national problems. Plain and simple.

And funny that you mention New York, because I just got home from vacation in New York and having listened to one of my wife's relatives from there spew out some of the most incredibly racist statements I've ever heard. He could go toe to toe with any Alabama Klansman in his beliefs. And he's a police officer to boot.

[Atman]

24. Your last sentence kind of sums it up.

Sorry.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

25. I misread your post a little.

Thought you were referring to Floridians in general and not a specific group of personal acquaintances of yours in Florida.

But my point remains the same. This shit is nationwide, and epidemic.

[Baitball Blogger]

26. An imbalance of justice happened to this state.

And they just got accustomed to the preferential treatment.

[clyrc]

27. I'm stuck in a rural, red part of Florida

I joined a UU church last week, partly because I need the company of non conservative people. It's saved my life.

[NM_Birder]

28. A call to boycott a state is as

pointless as "rioting for Trayvon". Innocent people will be hurt, uninvolved people will suffer property damage, and the people of state in general will retain a sour taste in their mouths long after the media sensationalism of a political celebrity calling for a boycott wears off.

P.S. To hell with Al Sharpton, he is only outraged when the death of an innocent person can get him some extra publicity. He is a political scavenger of the worst kind, he profits by exploiting a community's outrage over an unjust event, then quietly slips out after there is no more value to be taken from the protest.

[Hoyt]

29. Not unlike Hannity, Limbaugh, and all media folks. Sharpton is consistent on bigotry and guns.

[NM_Birder]

32. I am not fan of Sharpton, I see him as an opportunist and a scavenger, ........

He is consistent on bigotry and guns, in cases where it can benefit HIM.

However, I'm not sure even my opinion of him, puts him in the same crock pot as Hannity or Limbaugh. Sharpton would be a great asset, if he could put his ego in the backseat.

[Ligyron]

30. I grew up in South Florida

moved away for school and the military.

When I came home, people who I had known all my life and who had no trace of an accent previously had suddenly developed the most astounding, cartoon-like southern drawl you ever heard.

Florida is a real melting pot and while almost half the people are now officially idiots, don't forget the larger half elected Obama last time round. Problem is, like local races all around the country, gerrymandering districts has produced an ongoing Republican problem. I'm up in north central Florida now and they didn't even run a Democrat in some districts during the last election.

I swear I'd leave if I could afford to.

grrrr!

[ieoeja]

34. Saw my dad take someone down over that accent thing.

There was always some accent. And I thought I was detecting a much more southern accent (this is in Indiana an hour's drive north of Kentucky) because I had moved away.

Then one day I was sitting in the American Legion with my dad who had, except for three years in the Marines, spent his entire life living down there. Listening to a bunch of people talk my dad said, "God damnit! I've known all of you since we were in grade school together. And none of you spoke with a southern accent until about 10 years ago. What the hell happened to you people."



My high school friends took me to task one day, saying college and the big city had made me Liberal. So we went down the core ideological issues one by one comparing our views then versus when we were in high school. We still agreed on one issue. And they ultimately admitted that was the only issue on which they, not I, had pulled a 180.

So, yes, something has gone horribly wrong in a huge swath of this country. And it is really easy to explain.

One time while visiting down there in 2000 I heard the exact same anti-Gore/pro-Bush stories in the local media that I had been hearing in Chicago. But the pro-Gore/anti-Bush stories were non-existent. They pretend that the Chicago media is biased. But as I said, I heard all those anti-Gore/pro-Bush stories in Chicago. They were the ones receiving a censored version of the news, not me.



Read an article down there about people living in subsidised housing being told they were not allowed to put up Christmas decorations in their apartments. Several paragraphs from the poor woman who had to enforce this rule and how horrible she felt doing so. Paragraph after paragraph of her complaining about how the government was forcing her to commit this terrible thing. Then came the final paragraph along the lines of:

"We contacted the Housing Department who told us there is no such rule and that they had fired xxx immediately upon learning of this incident. Furthermore, they pointed out that they have a Christmas tree in the lobby of every building and hold Christmas pageants for the residents."

Obvious what happened here. Some Religious Right fanatic used her job to gin up a fake "war on Christmas" scandal. But everyone who did not read that very last sentence of a lengthy article would walk away believing it was true.


Propaganda is a hoot. Did you know that the New York Times reported that Al Gore claimed to have discovered Love Canal? It's true.

I know that Al Gore did not make that claim. I know that the New York Times printed a retraction. But it is still true that the New York Times did report that Al Gore made that claim. It does not matter how often the New York Times says they were mistaken, they still said it. So I can repeat that one statement a thousand times and be correct every time.

Did you know the 9/11 commision report said that Saddam Hussein was behind 9/11? Again, that statement is true. Mind you the full statement, "a lot of people tried to say that Saddam Hussein was behind 9/11. That is complete nonsense." But since the underlined portion is actually in the report, I can ignore the rest of it and be correct in claiming those words were in the report.

I wish I wasn't an atheist just so I could believe there is a special place in hell for liars by ommission.

[Atman]

35. One of my high school friends ran against Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

Son of a preacher. He got his ass kicked. It wasn't even close. To this day, he swears he lost because of Democratic voter fraud. He says his "investigators" have the proof, but he doesn't want to go public with it.

I called total bullshit. He simply defriended me. Much easier than addressing the issue.

[Ligyron]

36. People in her district and along much of the coast

have a clue. Go inland and go backward 100 yrs to "the Old South". May as well be in Mississippi.

[stevenleser]

37. NYC has the lowest crime rate of any city in the country over 100K and has for years now.

In fact, its consistently in the top 10 safest cities in the world. It has nothing to do with stop and frisk either. The low crime rate predates stop and frisk by 10 years or so.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/14/fbi-crime-stats-mixed-for_n_3439629.html

.
.
.
The FBI data did reveal some unqualified good news for the city. When all violent crimes are combined with property crimes, New York does have the lowest crime rate at 2,361.59 per 100,000 population. The next-best major city is Los Angeles, which had a rate of 2,750.32 per 100,000.

The big story is still the murder rate, Zimring said. "For a city of its size and diversity, New York City's homicide experience is very close to Guinness Book of World Records, certainly by American standards, and it just keeps going lower," he said.

[rppper]

39. Daytona Beach is a mixed bag locally...

But enough people actually vote here to make it matter, and having New York and New Jersey retirees doesn't hurt...we are home to NASCAR and twice a year all the yahoos come down to watch the races or come to one of the 2 huge bike rally's. but it's a pretty laid back town overall....Flagler coumty to the north and Brevard county to the north(cocoa, Titusville, space coast) are teabagger territory....