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Comment by stochastician | Hacker News Reader

This is OT but can you share a little bit more about what it's like living in East Idaho? I grew up in Boise and now live in Chicago but with the way things have been going lately I've been considering moving back, and there's a real appeal to living in a smaller town in the eastern part of the state (my dad was from Twin Falls). Internet access is always a bit of a concern though, which maybe Starlink ameliorates? Sorry to be so off-topic but you're the first person I've seen on HN from eastern Idaho!

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Sure! I love living here. The only thing is the airports are small. You have to drive to SLC or Boise for good selection of flights. Other than that though, I love it. Population density is much nicer. All the stores and restaurants you want, but traffic isn't too bad.

There's a lot of fiber out here, but you'll need to either be near a city center of in a new enough area. The homes that are 10 to 15 years old are underserved and you're mostly stuck with a wireless ISP. But ... Starlink is about to negate that in my opinion!

My family and I spend a lot of time in the northern Idaho handle near Coeur d'Alene. We love it up here. My wife is Asian (matters to the story), we are liberals, but the folks are generally* terrific and kind. I star “generally” because I would say that the average person is much, much nicer than the folks we meet on the west coast, but the not so great people are much more open with racist, hateful, and frankly scary confrontations. We are invited into peoples homes, have made fast friends with many locals, love the pure beauty of the place, but the lows are much lower when they happen.

I agree completely. There are tons of wonderful, tolerant people here. There are a few gross people too that tend to be a lot more gross than on the west coast, but overall it's not too bad.

> live in Chicago but with the way things have been going lately I've been considering moving back,

I live in chicago( south loop/pilsen ) too. What has been going on lately that is making you consider the move?

FWIW I lived and worked in Chicago for 10 years. Never liked it. Expensive, and life just seemed really complicated. I always felt stressed out. If you grew up in a rural or small town lifestyle, it's a big adjustment.

Eventually moved back to my hometown and wouldn't care if I never saw Chicago again.

I know a few people from the Seattle area who do part time work there - unless you enjoy and agree with religious fundamentalists, die-hard MAGA anti maskers or people whose personality revolves around owning 35 guns, you might want to spend some time there first... Boise by comparison is much more secular and liberal than some of those areas.

I’m sure the generalization earned the downvotes but candid opinions good and bad help paint a more well rounded picture, thanks.

Eh. They aren't wrong per se, but there are a lot of folks that might look like the fit the picture, but are just from a different cultural background. A little tolerance goes a long way in any direction.

As you specify people from Seattle, and these people went out of their way to point out that the people are religious, republicans who like guns, I have a feeling they aren't particularly open minded or tolerant people. Religious or secular, blue team or red team, basic politics shouldn't color your ability to get along with people. Fundamentally people are pretty similar, and American culture is quite homogeneous.

Well, particularly in the current situation where masks somehow became a political hill to die on, I think you are underselling the matter some.

It's a bit difficult to feel all that neighborly or friendly with people adamant that they won't even wear a mask to help protect your own health.

And all the topics listed - religion, political affiliation, guns - are all infamous for causing strife. Even the most tolerant person can easily wish to simply minimize the chances of a conflict. Tensions over these matters also only seem to be intensifying, which further exacerbates the matter.

While anti-maskers are definitely more likely to be politically right, due to weird behavior of the last administration, the reality is, the majority of Americans are fine wearing masks in public. Polling i have seen showed 75%+ were fine with masks.

I think that likely shows the problem, rather than anything else.

(I'm going to assume you mean that number nationwide)

75%, or roughly so, nationwide would be one thing if it was evenly distributed. But as you noted, the issue is tied to politics (I think more than you imply, but doesn't matter). We also know political affiliation is not evenly distributed.

So, a number like 75% mask compliance makes it possible, and frankly very likely, that there are areas with substantially lower rates.

I would encourage you to listen to, and believe, the very real experiences of people of color, same-sex couples, and transgender or nonbinary people who have spent time in locations like Eastern Idaho.

I don't disagree, but I would caution heavily about stereotyping an entire geographic area based on anecdotal experiences. Different neighborhoods around here can be radically different. One street up is "the Mormon street" where everyone is LDS, but a few streets past that is the polar opposite.

I think when we blanket stereotype people based on geographic location, the error rate is quite high. In my opinion, unacceptably, but then I've always value tolerance, acceptance, and open mindedness (although for people that don't offer that to others I admit little patience, and I don't want to be around them).

> Different neighborhoods around here can be radically different.

Having lived in places with similar ideological demographics, I caution that living in a place means you're going to visit all sorts of neighborhoods there, and it would be (not saying you're recommending this) untenable to recommend that certain people would do just fine if they keep to the neighborhoods where they are welcome.

If a particular neighborhood in an area is hostile to certain people for no good reason, it makes the entire area hostile because all of the people involved can and do operate outside of the geofence.

Here I am trying to read about satellite internet and you have to pollute the discussion with toxic partisan cliches and irrelevant divisive anecdotes.

I wish you’d quarantine yourself to social networks like Reddit where the discourses are already sufficiently poisoned.

The person asked "what's it like living in east idaho" - and I answered based on some very detailed descriptions provided to me by people who've spent a lot of time there. I consider it an unavoidable fact that unless you are an ideological match with the majority of the persons who already live there, it's going to be a very miserable experience. Some of the social attributes that I described are statistically documented for that region in poll data.

Considering that probably 40% of your hn comments seem to be some variety of partisan axe grinding on American-specific political issues, maybe you might want to take a look in the mirror first.

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