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Comment by big_chungus | Hacker News Reader

So you can't stand to live in a place where many people don't think the way you think, yet you'd probably appreciate a more "diverse" city? You appreciate places like San Francisco because while others may look different, they think the same. That's fine, people are more comfortable around those who agree with them; but quit kidding yourself.

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That's an uncharitable interpretation of the OP. It's not that people think different, it's that people are actively discriminated in Atlanta (well it's less an Atlanta problem and more a Georgia problem). For context I write this as an African American living in the Bay Area with family that's based in Atlanta.

For example as a Black person I know my vote won't count for much in Georgia, and that the state is actively working to disenfranchise it [0]. I also know that I won't have the ability to plan my family [1]. I know I might get weird looks if I'm in a non-heteronormative relationship [2].

So the problem most people have with "red" states isn't that people love God, love cops and love pickup trucks, it's that these areas actively working to restrict our "blue" freedoms.

0: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/14/stacey-abram...

1: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/07/us/heartbeat-bill-georgia...

2: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/20/us/tennessee-internet-min... (Note, this is about Tennessee, but similar attitudes pervade the South)

You think your vote counts in the bay area?

Say what you will about voter suppression in Atlanta, but a vote counted there is worth a lot more than a vote counted in California.

Flip Georgia blue, and you’re making real change.

It counts for a lot in the CA statehouse vs what it would be in GA. That said at the federal level, my vote is largely meaningless. But for the majority of my voting life I've had a bifurcated federal government that gets nothing done. So from my vantage the state is where real policy is coming from anyways.

SF tore down a major black community within the city (Filmore) and its policies have resulted in an exodus of blacks except for some impoverished communities.

The comment you are replying to explicitly mentioned a "hostile state government", none of the ax-grindy stuff you're bringing up.

This is a disengenuous argument. Even people who genuinely like diversity are not obligated to want to live near all possible kinds of people. I like diversity, but I don't want to live next to neo-Nazis, anti-vaxxers, serial killers, etc.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_tolerance

So you’re lumping in Republicans with “Nazi’s, anti-vaxxers and serial killers”?

No, I'm giving examples of the kinds of people one wouldn't want to live next to even if one wanted diversity.

The idea that liking diversity means liking all possible humans is flawed.

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