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[Krizonar]

I am neutral on Obamacare.
Like many laws as complex as it, I like some parts and dislike others.

[Bella]

Basically, disregarding how lonely I am here, you should never set foot in Texas; you'd go on a homicidal rampage, as 99.9999% of people here are anti-Obama, anti-LGBT, strongly against any religions that aren't Christian (Judaism often gets a free pass, at least), hates everyone and everything north of the Mason-Dixon line, takes the word of Fox News as gospel, etc. etc.

Not to be One Of Those People, but ~41% of Texans are Democrats (.or at least voted democratic in the 2012 presidential elections). Austin is very liberal, El Paso is democratic too, and most of the large cities lean liberal and have relatively large populations of Democrats. With the growing numbers of Latinos in Texas, the state's projected to skew farther toward the Democratic party in the future.

That said, the Republicans/Conservatives have a stronghold on all the rural and small-town regions. And Texas Latinos on average vote less liberal than Latinos elsewhere. Texas probably isn't going to become a blue state anytime soon, but there are certainly oases of moderate and liberal politics.

I can't say I'm completely happy with how the Affordable Care Act has been implemented but America needed to do SOMETHING about the runaway healthcare costs and stranglehold insurance companies have on people. It's a good first step.

Looking at things personally this is the first time I've had "actual" health insurance (not counting Healthy Kids, or whatever the program for lower-income youths is called). I'm finally actually looking after my health proactively, getting medicated for my skin condition, keeping up with immunizations and the like, which I couldn't have afforded before i had insurance.

[Nichi]

TBH that seems less believable than Half-Life 3 coming out in my lifetime :\

Granted, I did grow up in a small town that is very conservative; because of that, it's hard to picture that 41% figure as true when you regularly hear people proclaiming that George W. Bush was the best thing to happen to America with 111% seriousness, see anti-liberal bumper stickers constantly, and Fox News is the default news channel. As established, I might not hate the entire state so much if it wasn't for the town I was cursed to live in.

[Chocofreak13]

one of the many reasons i can never see a reason to travel there. sad that i'll never have a shot at voice acting work, but hey, they could take my shit over the internet if they wanted. it's their own fucking fault for being in houston.

[stewartsage]

Am I seriously the only person in the world (internet[this site{active posters}]) that doesn't obsess about living in cities and while they really like the north east aren't determined to live there?  Seriously, my home town is measured in the hundreds of people and where I live now the population is measured in dozens and I like it here despite the constant low grade right wing agitation in places.  Because have I mentioned I don't like cities yet?  'cause I don't.

[Bella]

Small towns/rural areas that are full of rational, kind, tolerant people (pretty common in New England) = good.

Small towns/rural areas that are full of irrational, hateful, intolerant jackasses (as Pent describes his area) = badbadbadbadbad.

[Nichi]

What Bella said. If the people here were actually as nice as they claim to be, it'd be one thing, but the fact they're all "WE TEXANS ARE NICER THAN THOSE GODDAMN YANKEES" but will pull a gun on you the instant you reveal not having the same exact worldview as them makes it far worse :\

[Krizonar]

Am I seriously the only person in the world (internet[this site{active posters}]) that doesn't obsess about living in cities and while they really like the north east aren't determined to live there?

I would hate living in the city.

[NejinOniwa]

Am I seriously the only person in the world (internet[this site{active posters}]) that doesn't obsess about living in cities and while they really like the north east aren't determined to live there?  Seriously, my home town is measured in the hundreds of people and where I live now the population is measured in dozens and I like it here despite the constant low grade right wing agitation in places.  Because have I mentioned I don't like cities yet?  'cause I don't.

To be honest, my experiences with this may be sort of limited, but let's sort them out:
1 - my hometown is a decently largeish Stockholm suburb, with train connections to everything. There's plenty of intolerance abound mainly because of the very high amount of immigrants living in the central district, and the west side at one point was a stronghold for neo-nazis. Things have calmed down, though. While nothing feels very rural per se since it's a 10 minute walk to the town center and/or train station and most places are quite busy, my district is curiously intermeshed with swaths of nature to the point where the trees outnumber the houses by far in some areas. It's very noticeable that the entire town has been more or less carved out of the forest, which is something I quite like.
2 - Uppsala, where I live now, is a smallish city, with no subway lines or trams like the other big 3 cities in Sweden (Gothenburg, Malmö, Stockholm). It is absolutely rife with students, and quite rife with hardline leftists - more so depending on what program/course you're taking. 50% of the city's 250k population is somehow connected to the university, and I think the total number of students is 60-75k or so. As such, crazy things connected to student life happen rather regularly, and are very much accepted - though parts of the city population tends to GTFO during the most intense studenticose happenings like Walpurgis - and embraced. Immigrants in the form of guest students are quite common. All in all the city is a fair deal further left than I'd prefer, and the nuttier parts of the academia are rather creepy to deal with; other than that, it's a decent enough place to live as far as cities go. I'd never contemplate living in central Stockholm or any other similarly sized city, but central-ish Uppsala is a completely different thing.
3: I spent one year living on Gotland, which is a rather isolated island in the Baltic and Sweden's largest island. The island is rather a tourist paradise during summer, and gets an enormous influx during the warm months; population goes from 50k for the entire island to 500k. While most of this is concentrated around the walled county capital of Visby, I lived in Fårösund at the northern edge of the island, in a tiny ghost town full of empty summer houses and abandoned/repurposed military facilities. While skating/skiing around the quite flat roads and trails was quite fun, it was a quite dead place to live in with about 500 permanent inhabitants spread out over an area appropriate for 5000. Think of it as you may like.

[Chocofreak13]

i can mirror nej's post a bit, actually.

1. hometown is a suburb of sorts, although whether it's a Boston suburb or a Manchester/Concord (or hell, even Nashua) suburb is up to the person you ask. it's rather quiet, and was rather pretty (Windham is trying to urbanize itself more now at the expense of everything i liked about it, including the trees, some historical buildings and quiet spots), but had little to nothing to do. there are no sidewalks, nothing really close to my house that's interesting for a kid (there was the town beach, but i've harboured a slight hatred of that place since i was small), and there were no kids on my street, so we spent all our time at home doing nothing.

alternate hometown is still quiet, still suburb (once again, could be a suburb of either Boston or Manchester), but thankfully had more to do. there were kids on the street at my grandparents, plenty of sidewalks, and everything is very close; Salem truly captures the good side of small-town america. (both windham and salem have a pop. of between 10-20k.) there is no public transit but with the library, schools, community centre, restaurants and konbinis so close there was never much need for it. a former friend, James, was even known to walk clear to the other side of town (several miles), which wasn't much of a problem, honestly.

2. commuting to Boston opened up a whole new world to my eyes. the city isn't the largest in the world, but that's a good thing; it's the right size to be comfortable. travel was a breeze with sidewalks, taxis, buses, and my favourite, the subway, all over the damn place, leaving the entire city and beyond at your fingertips. this meant that, after class in Kenmore Square, i could hop on the train and go out for tea and ice cream on mondays with my friend and classmate, Kim, in Cambridge (not very far by car, but far by walking, definitely) in a relatively short time, after which i could hop right back on the train and catch the bus home. the city felt so much more alive than my town did, mostly because of the ability to go anywhere and see anything i wanted in the blink of an eye. it was worlds away from spending my afternoons stuck in the living room at home.

in terms of living there, though, that's a problem. city living is very expensive (plus there's mass tax) and very hard to do as space is at a premium. i had the option of living in a dorm but i turned it down flat due to the massive cost and lack of my own space. unless i could get/afford an apartment, i would never consider living there, and even then i'd probably miss the "countryside" too much (mostly the ability to see the stars at night). still, though, i miss the subways in Boston quite a bit.

3. i have visited New York City twice, and while i had fun both times, if Boston is a zoo, then NYC is a goddamn safari. the place is nuts and i can only imagine the cost of living there. their subway system is utter chaos compared to Boston (in theory it's more organized, but they have every letter of the alphabet, several numbers, 28 different colours and even different sign shapes) and while walking to places is actually quite easy (given the grid system), it still makes for very long trips. at least there's taxis......thousands of fucking taxis. holy shit there's a lot of taxis. it's nice to have access to so many different things (shops, restaurants, museums, community centres, churches, etc etc), but honestly, the size difference really doesn't seem worth it for more than a visit. perhaps, though, living there might change one's mind, as my sister adapted quite well in the Bronx....

4. i've been to Canada twice and stayed in Stanley with my relatives........and oh my god you guys cannot imagine how tiny it is. Stew, i realize you live in tiny surroundings. but you have not been to motherfucking Stanley, NB, Canada, population 305 (or maybe 304, since that one guy killed himself a few years back). it is an hour removed from ANY manner of civilization and the ONLY major thing to do there besides roam the woods or linger at the county store is the Hockey Rink. hell, google classifies it as a Village. the landscape is lovely (in a country sort of way) and the sky lights up brighter than Las Vegas at night, but i don't think i could handle that tradeoff, either. that's TOO much.

TL;DR: i enjoy being within 30 minutes of a city. if i could have my own place, to my self, and i could afford it, i would consider living in a smaller to mid-size city such as Boston, provided it had good public transit. otherwise, i have a car, i enjoy the stars, and rather like where i am now (Salem, that is, Windham sucks and always will).

[Bella]

TL;DR: i enjoy being within 30 minutes of a city. if i could have my own place, to my self, and i could afford it, i would consider living in a smaller to mid-size city such as Boston, provided it had good public transit. otherwise, i have a car, i enjoy the stars, and rather like where i am now (Salem, that is, Windham sucks and always will).

ARE YOU ME, KARI?! Because this is exactly how I feel tbh.

If i was wealthy enough to afford a comfortable, nice apartment I'd be okay with living in the city.

However I'd prefer to live outside a city in a small-townish environment. Close enough to commute in for work, but far enough away to have some peace and quiet and space away from people if I so choose.

I also agree with you on the NYC vs. Boston thing. NYC is fun to visit but i could never spend significant time there. Too big, too dirty, too noisy, too chaotic, quite frequently too rude as well.

There are a couple strange (and probably controversial) opinions I want to post here but idk if they'd fit, because they mostly have to do with fictional matters.

[Nichi]

Truth be told, ignoring the sociopolitical aspects of Palestine, which is my major issue with this place (see my previous posts), it's alright; it's easy to navigate, and if you know where to look, there are some nice, comfortable, quiet places to go to. Just, it'd be nice if there was more to do; at least Tyler isn't too far, which gives me more variety in stores -w-

[Krizonar]

I live out in the country in a nice small house on a hill in SC...
before this, I lived... out in the country in a nice small house on a hill in WV.
It does not get better for me 

[Chocofreak13]

@pent: you'd be happier in salem. tons within walking distance (including our own THEEEEME PAAAARK), quiet,  and people tend not to wear their views on their sleeve. their cars, yes, but that's about it.

@bells: we're all friends here. post away.

[stewartsage]

Kari, Cass, WV has a population of 52.  Green Bank, five miles away, has a population of 143.  The county seat has a whopping 1,000.  Pocahontas County as a whole, all 900+ square miles, has a population of just about eight thousand.  The nearest grocery store is at least an hour away and the same to medical/dental care.  At night it's pitch black because you're below towering mountains and there's no light pollution.  If there's no moon it's absolutely, utterly dark.  I lived there in an ancient wooden house alone for six months excepting Candace's visit and a twice monthly weekend stay from mechanics.  Also there was snow.  Never over a foot but I did leave in early November.  I've been a-god damn-lone before.  I liked it.  If the pay was better I'd have liked it even more.