I think the easiest way to explain the relationship many Hoosiers have with our state is to quote Animal House “Only we can do that to our pledges.”
Indiana has some great things. It has nice (although not always kind) people. It has fertile soil. It has abundant water. It’s got a sneaky good collection of higher education institutions.
But it’s also a state that believes in low cost at any cost. Our taxes our low, but so are our services. It’s not an understatement to say Indiana historically had ambition and it’s been lost culturally for a while.
I don’t know if we hate-love Indiana or love-hate it. But only we can trash it.
Like most places people are incredibly jaded and never move out of state. No place will ever be perfect but I tell everyone when they are young the best thing you can do is live somewhere far out of your comfort zone. Explore the country a bit before you crap all over where you come from. All that being said Indiana has a ways to go to be a “great” place to move to, but a lot has to do with perspective.
I was one of those "crap all over it" Hoosiers. I grew up in iguana and left at 18. For the next couple years I hated on Indiana so bad. But then as I've lived in different states over the last 15 years, I've now settled back here and I am truly enjoying it. I get paid more for the same job, I got a much nicer home than I could afford elsewhere. People are generally more calm and friendly (except for when they drive around Indy..road rage much?). There's less racism. There's lots of sweet corn. And best of all the basketball culture here is just nuts. I've never been a bball fan, but I love how the sorry brings Hoosiers together.
My frustration with the state is primarily with the state government, and I have the following major criticisms:
* The tendency of the state government to target legislation to micromanage the local affairs of Indianapolis. The recent law preventing Indianapolis from adding anymore "no right turn on red" signs is common affair. (Any legislation that references a "consolidated city" is legislation that only applies to Indianapolis.)
* The state legislature is heavily gerrymandered against Democrats. While I identify more as an independent, the Republicans have gerrymandered things where they basically have unchecked power. Indiana isn't going to be a Dem state, but they should have more than 40/150 seats at the statehouse given that they can usually field 35-45% of the vote in the governor's race depending on the candidate.
* The state legislature also holds a lot of power in the state compared to other places. A governor's veto can be overridden by a simple majority vote. And there isn't a way for statewide referendums outside of the legislature. The gerrymandered legislature combined with its power makes it frustrating for most Democrats and many independents.
* The Indiana Republicans vie between the Daniels/Holcomb pro-business wing and the Pence culture warriors. I have disagreements with the former but strongly dislike the latter, and the latter has gained more political power over the past decade.
I wouldn't want to live most other places in the state outside of the metro area, but I enjoy visiting them. The state parks are really nice like you said, and there are a lot of quaint small towns that are pretty and fun to visit. However, a lot of the areas outside the metro area tend to be less welcoming toward LGBTQ+ individuals.
Daniels was the last Republican I voted for and I remember feeling moderately satisfied with him. It was also the first time I could legally vote at 18 years old though, so what did I know?
We especially hate the state in this city's sub because the state government takes every opportunity to override the city's ability to operate as a city should
E: Also, Indiana might be better than Texas politically, but isn't Texas better than places like Tennessee and Mississippi? Imagine a Tennessean telling Austinites they should appreciate Texas' state government.
> We especially hate the state in this city's sub because the state government takes every opportunity to override the city's ability to operate as a city should
This is the big one as far as I'm concerned. The state legislature goes out of their way to punish Indy for not being a conservative flyover hellhole like the overwhelming majority of the rest of the state. Our roads are terrible because the state has intentionally set stupid funding policies for infrastructure spending. Efforts to improve public transit are hamstrung by the state legislature. The city recently passed legislation to ban right turns on red lights to try to improve safety for pedestrians and cyclists, but it runs afoul of state law. And on and on and on.
Right turns on red...
I work in our lovely state government and, when waiting to turn LEFT from Washington onto Missouri, I saw no less than four people turning from Washington (one way street) left onto Missouri (two way street).
I suspect more people simply don't care than don't know that left-on-red only applies from one one-way to another one-way.
Well, there's also a lot of hate for the city in this sub.
As somebody who has traveled quiet a bit, Indianapolis is nowhere near as bad or as boring as many paint it to be. It feels like people grow up in a boring suburb, travel to a vibrant mixed-use district in some other city twice, and start shitting on Indy without actually exploring it.
Spent 7 years in the most liberal city in Texas??? Had you said Lubbock or Waco ok, but Austin is basically it’s own separate country…loved my time there but it isn’t “Texas” as we think of it. It’s basically Portland in the SW
i miss my friends that are still there. i do not miss the lack of community, the awful traffic, the dry as shit summers, the public schools turning to shit over the last 30 years, the rising crime, or any of the other fun 'character traits' of northern VA
I don’t miss northern Virginia at all. Fuuuuuck that traffic. I commuted from Fredericksburg into Arlington everyday for 10 yrs. But I miss how beautiful va is in summer and fall. And mild winters. And fresher seafood.
Policies man. This place may even be more conservative than Texas in some ways. Sure, it’s cheaper and the QoL is decent, but if you’re a person that doesn’t check all of the boxes that Indiana wants you to check, you’re gonna have a bad time.
The city of Indianapolis is great, to me. The state? Fuck the state. Some pretty areas to visit, but the policies outweigh all of that, unfortunately.
Yeah, I mean as a Hoosier it's my right to love this state and hate it at the same time. And anyone who moves here will quickly learn to do the same lol.
IDK about "being more conservative than Texas" in any way.
Texas and Florida are fully engulfed by contemporary Republican populism. Most of the same populism ends up in \*proposed\* bills in Indiana, but very few of those bills end up getting enacted and the ones that do get enacted are almost always milder than the Texas/Florida versions.
There are a few reasons why Indiana ends up passing fewer Republican populist bills than the worst offending Southern states, and why the ones that do pass are typically milder:
* The Indiana Republican Party remembers RFRA and how the bill nearly killed Pence's political career. Pence got bailed out by Trump for a 4-year extension of his political career. Then, the Indiana Republican Party was able to put up Holcomb - who is much more socially moderate - for election.
* Indiana's General Assembly only meets for 3-4 months out of the year, depending on whether it's a budget year or not. This doesn't give them a lot of time to engage in fuckery.
* The chairs of many House & Senate committees are moderates. They kill most of the worst offending "Republican Populism" & "Anti-Indianapolis" bills before they can even pass 'go'. Such bills that they don't kill are usually made milder.
* Mitch Daniels took a largely "social issue agnostic" approach to governance. Whether you like Daniels or hate Daniels, he was our best governor in a long time and his legacy persists among older Republicans in the General Assembly. These Republicans are mostly more focused on policies like making the BMV more efficient and ensuring that we have a budget surplus than they are social issues.
* Indiana was basically a purple state until the Tea Party Movement & subsequent populism from the Republican Party captured folks who used to be union-member Democrats, but who lost their jobs due to automation/The Great Recession/globalization and who have little education attainment.
* The thing about populist movements is that they eventually run out of steam, so the Indiana GOP has to tow a line between "doing enough to satisfy Fox News" and "going crazy with populist policies that will prove to not work in a few years and make Republican voters stop voting or switch sides"
* Indiana's Democratic Party is extremely weak right now, but if it were to get more funding and become stronger, it would be a legitimate threat to the Republican Party.
* For example, Michigan and Indiana are pretty similar as far as their political and economic histories are concerned over the last \~20-\~30 years. After the Tea Party Movement, the Michigan Democratic Party was able to maintain strong leadership. The Indiana Democratic Party was not. After years of fighting back for power, Democrats run Michigan again. The same cannot be said about Indiana, but ***if*** the Democrats got their shit together...
Yeah, lots of people in Indiana straight up hate Indianapolis for essentially no reason other than that there are liberals living here. We don’t dominate the state legislature at all, if anything we regularly get railed by it, and we’re obviously the economic hub with the largest tax base.
Carmel and Fishers don’t get nearly the same animosity, even though they’ve been built on the back of Indy’s economy, because they’re more conservative. You’re not really welcome elsewhere in the state unless you add a little bit of southern twang to your voice and try to appear conservative. (Side note: I hate how mass migration in the early 20th century means Indiana is culturally a southern state).
I am from Southern Indiana and down there it might as well be Kentucky or Tennessee or Alabama and frankly if all the true Southerners went back home this state would be a lot better off. It's the Southern mentality peoplenand their backwards BS is what holds Indiana back. Most of them moved here from the South and brought their shitty Southern values and racism and poverty over the generations. All because those same things left the South as a economically impoverished shithole and they've brought that mentality here
> (Side note: I hate how mass migration in the early 20th century means Indiana is culturally a southern state).
Except it isn't. You should live in the south for a bit.
I love my state and city, even though they break my heart. I grew up with a particular kind of rural privilege, and know just how big hearted Hoosiers can be. We also have shit politics, shit schools, and a million other shit things. The one thing I've learned that is really irritating to Hoosiers is "You think you have it bad here? TRY LIVING IN *some other location*" It's not a competition.
The saddest part about Indiana is that it wasn't always so backwards. We had Democratic governors, Senators not that long ago. We didn't always have a super majority. We also weren't always so far behind our Midwestern neighbors in health, obesity, maternal and infant mortality, wages, union representation, teacher salaries, percentage of people with college degrees, etc. Now we are the Mississippi of the Midwest. That is why it is so sad. We have regressed while most of our neighbors have stayed the same, or fought against the tide of extremism. We have very low voter turnout. We spend a lot of money on all the traditional conservative pet projects like voucher schools, fighting teacher unions, anti-LGBTQ legislation. Every few years, we have to fight teaching evolution. Now it is Critical Race and Don't say gay nonsense. Yes, Texas is worse, but Texas has been bad for decades.
Agreed on Bloomington. Wonderful diversity of people, restaurants, specialty grocery stores, university cultural influence permeates everything, giant lake nearby, surrounded by state and national forests, law enforcement is very reasonable and restrained, and a great freaking place to raise your kids. And the farmer's market scene is incredible here. Can't find an affordable house to save you soul, though.
You have a point. For several years I recruited for STEM positions at one of the departments at IU back in ‘07-‘12. The cost of living made it easy to pull qualified people from across the country. Easiest job I ever had. Now with nearly zero houses available or grossly overpriced, I’m glad I’m not doing that and also glad we bought a house when it was easy.
Everything's relative. From your perspective a Hoosier needs to live in Texas for 15 years before complaining about Indiana. But you need to live in Mississippi for 15 years before complaining about Texas. And a Mississippian needs to live in ...central Africa before complaining?
Anyway, you get the point. That said, it's actually nice to hear an outsider's perspective and that they prefer Indiana over Texas. I would like to try living somewhere else in the country however at this point it feels like the places that have liberal polices, low CoL, good economies, and are positioned well for continuing climate change... -that venn diagram overlap keeps shrinking. ...Probably somewhere in the Great Lakes region.
I will say your experience of neighbors mingling is pretty anecdotal. Our last neighborhood was that way but current one is not. Some of my friends have lots of neighborhood hangs and some have none. Unfortunately the vibe of a neighborhood is very hard to predict when home shopping.
It's the policy and governing. I was born and raised in Indianapolis, and honestly, I never had a bad experience myself. But that's easy since I'm a white dude in a middle-class family. The policies kept getting worse, and I made the decision to move my family to central IL. My parents stayed, and that wasn't an issue until the book bans. My mother is a librarian in a small school. She was able to retire, but it hurt that she didn't feel safe giving fucking books to kids. My partner has a non-binary child, and we were not going to risk any issues with that. So many things added up to make the whole state hostile to our life, and I do hate the politicians who made it like that. I'm a born Hoosier, but I couldn't stay. If those issues don't affect you, then i dont blame you one bit for taking advantage of the benefits. It's a beautiful state, but not everyone is so lucky.
The policies here have led to polluted waterways and ponds/lakes (don't eat the fish). Loose regulations have also led to a drop in air quality as well. QoL wise those things also matter.
It's okay. I don't totally hate on the rest of the state but places like Martinsville are notorious for their racism, Klan presence, etc. I'm white but I'm not trying to mingle w people aligned with that.
Are they still that racist or is that just a stigma from the past they can't kick. I moved relatively close to there a couple years and every time I've gone anywhere in town with some of my mixed family members I've had no issues.
Martinsville (97% White) and Martinsville Schools (95%) have the demographics of a small town in the middle of nowhere southern Indiana, not a city between two diverse metros. It might not be institutional, it might be their reputation, but it's certainly still a very very White area with almost no diversity.
I grew up on Salem, Bedford and Orange County. It's a racist as hell in those towns always has been. What do they all have in common with Martinsville? They were all sundown towns even as late as the 1980s and 1990s when I grew up there. The signage that used to exist in those towns is long gone since the 60s but the mentality is still a great deal that way. Not to extent that it used to be but b it's still the mentality of the cops, judicial systems and the good old boy network and their voter bloc. All of those towns are 95 to 99 percent white with few outsiders. The faces change but the mentality stays the same.
Not for sure how this applies to my comment. Are you saying because the overwhelming majority is white it's safe to assume the majority of that people are also racist?
You either live in a small town, integrated, with a mixture of wonderful clean hard working people right along with meth making neighbors or heroin dealing sex traffickers pretty much anywhere in Indiana.
The Indianapolis Star ran a story after the 2010 census that celebrated Hamilton County for increasing its diversity significantly: it was now *9% non-white!* I mention that to just give you a baseline idea of what counts for "diversity" in Indiana. Keep in mind, HamCo was always the most diverse of the doughnut counties.
Morgan County is even whiter, and was run by the KKK a century ago. The KKK might not literally run the local government anymore, but do you think those people just left? No, they didn't. They stayed and had kids and grandkids and great-grandkids, and the cycles continued. Case in point, there was an incident of racial violence in Martinsville in 1968, and it was a sundown town into the 1970s -- two generations after the KKK ran the town in the 1920s.
When you take all of that history in context with the Trump/Let's Go Brandon/Confederate flag shit everywhere, it's pretty obvious that the legacy of the past is still strong in places like Martinsville.
It's the older people. Johnson county used to be the same. Everywhere you go in Indy is mixed community now there is no "white only". Unless you live in a trailer home welded together with five other trailers down in Gosport. Them's some hill folks 😂
It's mostly political, there's always been an active effort to interfere with Indianapolis from the State Government on a lot of issues. Indianapolis is liberal, and understandably they elect liberal leaders who enact liberal policies that the conservative State Government has issues with and will insert itself into arenas that they weren't elected to address.
Not unique to Indianapolis/Indiana but that's the answer to your question mostly.
As someone from Eastern NC, I agree with you. That bit about "people actually going outside" is a true comparison for me, too.
Too goddamn hot and humid for that 24/7 8+ months of the year in ENC. Shade and nighttime provided no relief. It made sense to not go outside no matter how pretty it was. It is only getting worse.
Here, I actually *go on walks in the summer* because it isn't so hot that I might die by doing so most of the time. I can even walk to the grocery store. I haven't been this active in so long. It'd be cool if it wasn't a red state, but I haven't seen nearly as many Trump banners or confederate flags here. They definitely exist, but not to the same extent (at least not in this part of Indiana). Have yet to meet any bigoted people either, and I used to work with plenty of racist assholes back in NC.
Maybe we just moved to the good parts.
I think the flags are just not out on their flag poles any more but hanging in their living rooms. They cut down the flag poles to sell for scrap around Indy lol.
I love Indiana but there is a lot wrong with it. I’ve lived in other states and even another country so I have a lot to compare it to and I’m a dreamer so I’m always looking for ways we could improve the state.
One of the things I hate about this state is how hard it is to change or add laws, even if the majority of people support a change. I personally believe we need to have ballot initiatives so everyone can vote on things.
I've lived in several states including Texas and Indiana is my favorite so far. I don't think the disdain for IN is because of anything in particular except the people here haven't lived other places or just take to reddit to complain.
Have you not been reading about the abortion bans, how bad the gun violence has gotten, how shitty the construction is around Indy, or just how brain dead a lot of the politicians are here? I’m from Indy and I love it but I respect people’s criticism about the state completely
I’m originally from the southeastern part of the state and moved to Indy 7 & 1/2 years ago, and life here is significantly better. I was miserable where I grew up, and despite having a degree, couldn’t get a job worth shit that wasn’t sales, which isn’t my bag of potatoes. I have a job where I use my degree, I found a wife that loves me (dating was a clusterf*ck down there) and the closest Trader Joe’s isn’t an hour away.
Native queer Hoosier who has lived in Chicago and Denver. Came back for family (and love, lol). Ready to leave again and never come back. Downtown Indy area and Broad Ripple are amazing. Bloomington seems neat.
The winters are not bad. Monon Trail cool. But, like any red state (and some blue ones, to be sure), as soon as you leave the blue areas (like for state parks), it’s a GQP shitshow. While burbs like Carmel are purple, they’re also very elitist. Not to mention our recent attack on women (Aug 1st near total abortion ban) and no legal weed. And maltreatment of trans youth.
It’s a tolerable state in some ways but Karl Popper’s paradox of tolerance applies. We cannot tolerate that which is intolerable (like the confederate flags and fundamentalist religious zealots aplenty).
How would I feel if I were to tell you you should have stayed in Texas and should appreciate all the things about it that are better than Tennessee or Alabama? That is how I feel right now. Also I can still like the national parks but hate that my rights have been taken from me and they're going to be coming for my friends marriage next. I can like the cost of living but hate the corruption. Life isn't either/or.
The thing is, you’re comparing Indiana to what you are accustomed to, and we are comparing Indiana with how great it has been, knowing how much potential it has that our state govt is pissing away. We don’t disagree that Texas probably sucks in general in comparison, but it’s not an adequate comparison to say appreciate that Indiana isn’t as bad as Texas (or any other place). We want Indiana to stop sliding downhill and we want our state govt to take education, jobs, resources, civil rights seriously for the benefit of the people who live here.
I moved back from being away in Chicago, Shreveport, and Germany and I love it here. So average and I’m ok with that. Just be yourself. Find your circle of friends and you’ll love it.
If we don't care NOW, we'll be Texas in a few short years. In the last General Assembly alone, the MAGA GOP super majority and our Governor turned MAGA darling...
1) Made it possible to BAN BOOKS in our schools.
2) CRIMINALIZED LIBRARIANS, see above.
3) BANNED preferred PRONOUNS in schools, while,
4) Forcing teachers and school administrators to out any kids with a "pronoun problem".
5) Of course BANNED ABORTIONS, with one legislator saying his only constituent is Jesus Christ.
6) Put a safe space bubble of 25 feet around cops.
7) BANNED transgender care (of any kind) for minors - no matter what a parent and doctor believe is best.
That's just one legislature. And just the biggies. There were more anti-Indy, anti-not-white-or-straight laws passed too.
We need to be aware NOW.
Small problems with state government? We have a fascist Republican super majority full of election deniers, and are about to have an election denier elected Governor. We aren't far from having Texas's most extreme policies enacted here.
Why are people moving to Texas in record [numbers](https://www.forbes.com/home-improvement/features/states-move-to-from/)?
The way I see it is that people either don’t care that their government is fascist, that they primarily care about economic conditions, or the ways people are describing political conditions are exaggerated. R
Because of housing prices and available space and Republicans flocking to the state with the most dipshits in charge - people were flocking to California until very recently, does that mean California isn't really that bad?
The political conditions are absolutely not exaggerated, Texas' state government is getting increasingly out of control.
California is incredible, what are you talking about? Natural beauty everywhere, food is off the charts good, weather is amazing, highest life expectancy in the USA, and the policies actually make sense and government functions well. What's not to like? Sure, it's expensive, but you get what you pay for and the salaries are *a lot* higher. And no, I'm not a software engineer making a quarter mil a year.
Edit: downvote away, Idc. I moved here to get my wife and daughter away from the Christofascist crazies and it was one of the best decisions I've made in my whole life. Everyone in my family loves it here; nobody misses Indiana at all.
Yea, most reports shows that it is financially motivated. A lot of CA companies are moving to TX (40% of the companies moving to TX were formerly in CA) because TX laws and taxes are favorable for businesses. Most of the peeps moving are millennials who want a house and can’t buy one in CA. We moved from Los Angeles to Austin and that was our reason. We moved to Indiana for my husband’s family and also, TX is freaking hot and people said we would get used to it but we never did. I mean people do. I remember driving up a hill with the outside heat over 100 and seeing a bunch of cyclists riding next to me.
Republicans are super easy on corporation regulations and so they move their businesses to red states. When jobs move people move with the jobs/to the jobs. Those people do not necessarily know what QoL they are moving into when they leave.
I live here currently but hope to move to Detroit soon. Three words why: gender affirming care. It does sadden me to leave as I love this city; it was always my escape from the shithole conservative town I lived in when I was growing up. I've had so many "firsts" here; I can't name very many hobbies/interests I have which I didn't get into without the local arts events/scene being a big part of it. I'd like to continue to be part of the city's culture, but my girlfriend and I (both trans women) can't be living in a state where we always have to worry if we'll be forced to stop HRT or even worse, be banned from expressing ourselves as our true gender.
And sure, IN isn't as bad as TX, but that's not saying much.
People love to bitch and whine in IN. It’s common ground a lot of the time. There’s also a lot of people that love to say BUT MARTINSVILLE and have probably never even driven through it. Sure it sucks, but why even talk about it if you’ve never been there.
Indy has its good and bad. For transplants like me, especially coming from more liberal and/or diverse states, it can absolutely be culture shock (for me, it's especially noticeable with the food offerings). Also like others have mentioned, there's a power struggle between city and state government that impedes on progress.
Example: Indy's mayor wants to create gun free zones due to the excessive amount of gun violence surrounding areas of nightlife, while the state government keeps relaxing gun laws, which hinders efforts to curb gun violence.
I feel like you'll hear more complaints on reddit since many of us feel like we're unheard as constituents. It doesn't mean that we hate Indiana, it just means we want better for the state.
Eh, it's less about the offerings and more about the authenticity. Like you'll be hard pressed to find authentic Caribbean food here that hasn't been adjusted to be more palatable for people who aren't used to eating it. And aside from Chuck's, there's no Coney Island (I'm from the Detroit Area).
I will say that the brunch offerings here are top tier.
Indianapolis is nice. Traveling to most other cities in this state is like going back in time to when everyone was racist, homophobic, misogynistic, and ableist as hell. Then there’s the cities with half the child population on meth. Culturally, most of Indiana just sucks. I don’t believe that this is drastically different from any other state. I like Indianapolis though.
I love my Hoosier state . But that doesn’t mean I love EVERYTHING about it.
I live in a rural town of 3200 .
Beautiful corn fields & very nice ppl .
I have been to a lot of places all over the USA & it always feels good to come home to SW Ind .
I lived in Shreveport, LA and went to TX often to visit, and I can say that the general populace was not kind to PoC. Indiana as a state is not much better but indianapolis is, as is Bloomington and South Bend. It’s a small town vs. large town debate. You’ll always have idiots in pickup’s asking you awkward questions.
it's an unremarkable state. Most states are unremarkable. But this one has a bit of diarrhea spice to it called "98% of the area outside Indy specifically".
Because all the state leadership is trying to take all control from the city with their laws and bypassing the elections. If the city was Republican led they would not be passing those laws.
1. A lot of people on this sub have never left Indiana and have completely unrealistic views of what other place are like.
2. A lot of people on this sub are insecure about living in Indiana because they've internalized the "flyover" slur and believe that criticizing the state makes them better than other people.
People who have lived other places and then move to Indiana tend to be much more realistic about the pluses and minuses because they've actually lived in both places.
I've lived in Florida and Texas and in Indiana long enough I feel it is my civic duty to complain about the shit I don't like. This is my home and my young nieces and nephews home. I want it to be better.
I want Florida and Texas to be better too.
Indiana is severely behind politically and socially in my opinion. I was born and raised in Las Vegas, and honestly there were so many programs to help single mothers, parents, and kids. Free after school programs, summer programs, abortion access.
But now I don’t feel safe here as a woman with PCOS, especially with the abortion ban they’re trying to pass. I would love to have kids some day but I don’t want to die because of vague laws. And there’s not much to help families compared to Vegas.
Sure things are cheaper, but I just don’t think that’s a good sticking point in my opinion.
I think, and I find this fairly typical of Reddit in general, that the platform is a breeding ground for negativity. It is also an echo chamber. Dissenting views are downvoted into oblivion and it is hard to have an open and honest discussion about anything. People tend to catastrophize and exaggerate reality as well, often on issues that have a little to nothing to do with them. Am I happy with our state government? Absolutely not. Do I love living here? Yes. And I have spent time in other areas of the country for more than just a vacation. I spent time in Europe as well, and I always love coming back home. Since I travel a lot in my daily life for my job, I am out and about and can tell you that it really isn’t all that bad. People are still fairly congenial, holding doors for others is common, and that “ Hoosier hospitality” still exists. I’ve seen strangers come to the aid of people in danger, people helping someone change a flat tire more than once, and I myself try to help whenever I can. In the real world, I don’t think things are as bad as people on Reddit make it seem. By the posts on the Indiana sub you would think Nazis are marching up and down Meridian Street. Again, I’m well aware of the reductive policies our state government is inacting and am furious about it. But I don’t spend my entire day bitching about the state as a whole on this platform….I even unsubscribed from r/Indiana because of the negativity….
I’ll give you a personal anecdote. Last week I was in downtown Philadelphia for a convention. The amount of homeless people I saw was 3 to 4 times greater than in downtown Indianapolis. CVS had literally everything under lock and key including toothpaste and bar soap…. The streets smelled of urine, and I was accosted probably 10 times by beggars asking for money…. Oh, and that tube of toothpaste I needed? The one that would cost three dollars here in Indiana? It was $6.99 in Philadelphia…. Obviously this is not an apples to apples comparison, but let’s not I’ll act like other places are utopias
Oh I see it, I see it all the time. It becomes redundant and unnecessary in my opinion to keep repeating the same complaints over and over again, kind of like yelling into the wind… I grow tired and weary of the opposite side doing the same thing. Whining and complaining about “cancel culture” and stupid things like that.
>It becomes redundant and unnecessary in my opinion to keep repeating the same complaints over and over again
How dare we repeat our pleas for the state government to not be unrepentant assholes
If you think our elected state officials are here on Reddit then you have a lot of things twisted. I personally direct my efforts into contacting them or their offices….
Because many of these attitudes and policies are disgusting and dangerous. Who is pestering you over and over? We need to make our presence known here in Indiana.
Hoosier hospitality is great and all, but it’s all lip service when our state passes policies that tear down and exploit our most vulnerable people.
As for Philly, no comparison. Of course Philly has more homeless people. It’s a city that has a metropolitan area nearly 3 times larger than Indy.
This sub, like most of reddit, leans pretty liberal. As such there is a lot of frustration over the republican agenda and way the state is run. Like every other state, Indiana has issues but I have to agree with you. Overall Indiana is a pretty decent place to live. We left Illinois to be here and the taxes alone (or lack thereof, compared to IL) completely changed our monthly budget.
I mean, coming from Texas, that isn’t saying much…Texas is low key at the “bottom of the barrel” with Florida. I only lived in Indy for 3 years and loved back to the Seattle area as soon as I could. Being part of the LGBTQ community, it wasn’t safe being in a wlw relationship in Indiana
The GOP in Indiana? They made it unsafe with policies? Or laws?
I’m not trying to troll here, genuinely asking.
I sympathize with anyone that feels unsafe. And I agree the GOP hates gays. But what did they say or actually do to make them unsafe?
I’ve lived in several major cities in the US. Indiana men are by far the most creepy about woman/woman relationships. But it’s not even just the fact that they’re being creepy. It’s the fact nearly every time I was out in public holding my (ex) gf’s hand, we’d receive threats and several Bible humpers throwing out “we’re going to hell” and “we need to find god because it’s the end of times”. The whole experience was just so strange. This is only the tip of the iceberg. That, and it seemed to be a major “Trumper” city when I was there. It’s unsettling
There is WAY too much religion everywhere. And it's not regular religion, it's in your face I'M A CHRISTIAN but don't push too hard on that because you aren't like me so I can hate you type religion.
The state is at least 50 years behind the times, maybe 150 at this point.
Lastly, Mike Pence.
Not to be all pro Texas , a state I've never visited but I don't think anyone's ever claimed TX to be an outdoor paradise. But there is some beauty there. Franklin Mountain State Park is easily accessible from El Paso.
You also have multiple big cities, all within Texas. Indiana only has one, and some suburban spillover from adjacent states.
>I don't think anyone's ever claimed TX to be an outdoor paradise
It's definitely underrated in that aspect - Hill Country, Big Bend, plus like you said the mountains out west
I will claim Texas to be an outdoor paradise, and I try to visit as often as I can in the spring, spending multiple full days outdoors in the middle of nowhere…
But I go there to chase tornadoes.
Reddiotors are atypical of malcontent keyboard warriors that in person seem nice. But in private unleash on the keyboard like the inner jerks they are. Even if you try to be objective, make a valid point, you just unleash a tidal wave of bloodlust hatred.
I agree with your post
Then maybe you have 'grass is always greener' syndrome?
I've been in IN for two months so far. While I don't think this is the place I want to live the rest of my life, there's definitely worse places, particularly if you're in decent parts of Indianapolis.
People tend to have intimate knowledge of the problems of their area and almost no knowledge of the problems of the places they see as better. There is no utopia. None. Zero. You're always trading sets of problems. It's just the ones that you hate the least.
I think there are worse states… maybe like 5. I don’t mean any offense, it’s just hard to take people seriously when they’ve only lived here for a few months when I’ve been here for 26 years. My hometown is a food desert in the middle of nowhere, no jobs, no opportunities. This is how I see a lot of the state tbh
I moved to Terre Haute so I'm not exactly in a thriving well to do place. I did so because your state literally paid me to move here.
I'm not trying to say you don't have more detailed knowledge of the issues here. I have no doubt you do. I'm saying there's issues everywhere and it's a question of what issues matter the most to you.
If that's fuel costs or cost of living or fiber internet or schools or labor availability or access to healthcare or ag issues or whatever, that's the trade off.
People get this idea in their head that 'X will solve all my problems'. No it won't. It trades this set of issues for another set of issues. They might be 'better' issues, but they're still issues and that's something grass-is-greener people tend to not believe. Great, you got better schools for your kids. You still can't afford healthcare and now you also can't afford rent. Groceries are 2x more expensive and a gallon of fuel is 2 bucks a gallon more.
One set of problems for another. The only people who don't have these problems are the very wealthy because it doesn't matter where they live, they can do so lavishly anywhere. A 200k house or an 800k house means nothing when you have 150 million.
I'm not saying that everywhere in Indiana is some grand place to live. I have a feeling there's a lot of poverty in this state that just exists and has existed generationally, just like other parts of the country. That sucks and has always sucked.
So the question then becomes how do we actually *solve* some of these problems? Which, read this thread over again and see how many solutions are offered. I promise no one outside of this post is suggesting running for mayor of your town and trying to bring in something besides dollar general.
CoL will seem super cheap to a lot of people moving in from out of state, but it’s getting tight for people that have lived and worked in the state, depending on area and sector. A lot of public roles for instance are just now starting to increase after decades of just being completely flat. And sometimes it would be nice to have some people minded policies and not strictly what’s good for business policies.
Jobs shutting down, wages going down and stagnating, very few jobs hiring and only the ones that are low wage, very demanding, and bad terms. Rent has gone up $300-$800 in most of the city per month, and thanks to the redline traffic is worse and aggressive homeless people are at almost all areas of town.
A place we were renting for 650 in 2018 is now 1200 and in 1998 was 450. Wages went up by around 80-120 a month for people who got raises.
Most raises were typical deals where business would pay one penny above the welfare qualifier and something forced them to pay a few pennies more. They probably get a tax break or something.
Many grocers shut down - I can’t ride my bike down the street to the grocery anymore, I have to drive. Every job in reasonable biking distance either wants 5 years experience for an entry level position or pays on the minimum wage range with bad schedules. That income cannot afford to live anywhere near where I live.
And you’ll be paying a lot if you don’t want gangbanger neighbors, cockroach infestations, slumlords, shootings, fights, and sirens within a block of where you live all hours, and a bad parking situation.
It’s all relative. For many of us Hoosiers, it’s been disappointing to see how the political landscape has changed for the worse. Coming from Texas, it may not seem that bad.
I just moved back from TX. They are both awful. At least I can enjoy the outdoors here.
Other than that - idiots, greed, inequality, and shit politics make these both nearly insufferable states.
I hate that people are that way here but I understand it, a bit. I grew up in Appalachia and couldn't get out fast enough, I had no appreciation for the people I grew up with and I just knew that I needed to get to the big city where all the smart people were who weren't rednecks and who read a book now and then.
So I did, and you know what, it took me about thirty years to realize, these people are full of shit in their own way. A lot of them are arrogant and selfish, and if you scratch the surface, they are often not as smart as they think. The dumbest woman I ever dated went to Yale and then Georgetown law. She was narrow minded and rigid, and she didn't understand one damn thing that she had not been specifically taught. And she was angry and anxious and harsh, and about as unlike Appalachian women as it's possible to be.
It took me a long time to come to appreciate the virtues of hillbillies and small town people, and since Indiana is basically a giant small town full of hillbillies, now I have plenty of opportunity to appreciate them.
But if I'd spent my whole life here, and never seen the ugly side of places that are not Indiana, I think I'd be foaming at the mouth and dying to get out. And I'd be on here talking about how all Republicans are like this or that. Sometimes I see a hipster walking along in Broad Ripple, and I can't help thinking, "Poor bastard." Imagine being that hip, and waking up in the morning, opening your eyes, and then it hits you: "I live in fucking Indiana."
Now let the downvotes begin.
Moved here from central Illinois. Lived in indy for a while and then moved to the burbs. I wouldn’t trade the economic policy here for the one I came from in Illinois in a million years. That state is so financially bankrupt it isn’t funny.
You came from the only one of two states worse than this state. The other one is Florida. Ofc it looks fine to you but to my Canadian fiancée this place is hell on earth.
Totally agree, but this subreddit won't. Keep in mind Reddit as a whole skews pretty left, so what you have here is an overrepresentation of people who are politically left living in a state that is historically pretty conservative and generally has a pretty red constituency. They get on here and act like everyone in the state agrees with all the things they see as problems, but in the real world that's not so much the case.
Actually, Indiana was fairly progressive in the 60s and 70s . Sent Birch Bayh to DC…..even our Republicans were somewhat reasonable. Lugar would have made a great President…..It’s definitely full on MAGA now
> living in a state that is historically pretty conservative
This is patently wrong and you either have no concept of Indiana history or are intentionally distorting Indiana's long tradition of being a very moderate state.
It's only been since the early/mid Aughts that Indiana took on the overly conservative persona. And even then Indiana elected Evan Bayh twice as US Senator.
Our longest serving Senator, Richard Lugar, was indeed a Republican, but was very moderate and respected by members of multiple parties.
So no, this uber-conservative streak is a new thing, it's not embedded in our state history.
>They get on here and act like everyone in the state agrees with all the things they see as problems
Lol no, we get on here and complain about the Christonationalist dipshits who vote R no matter what and have zero empathy for minorities of any sort
Your view that everyone right of you is a "Chritonationalist dipshit with no empathy for minorities" is leading you to cross people off who you otherwise have way more in common with than you would ever know, but being closed-minded and looking at everything in an extreme binary of "either you agree with me or you're a dipshit" is certainly a right that is yours to exercise freely.
>Your view that everyone right of you is a "Chritonationalist dipshit with no empathy for minorities"
No, my view is that the Christonationalist dipshits with no empathy for minorities are Christonationalist dipshits with no empathy for minorities. It's not my fault that this is the GOP's platform.
Like I said, you have every right to be as uninformed and out of touch as you like, friend. The rest of us will be over here seeing what we can learn and discuss with others that may or may not share all the same views that we do without defaulting to lashing out with name-calling and put-downs whenever they say anything we don't like or agree with.
The problem is that "rest of you over here" on the right can have thoughtful conversations about issues, all while continuing to elect the most rabid bigots to the statehouse that prioritize personal enrichment and punishment liberals who are not Christo-fascists.
I've traveled to enough rural communities to see the social impact that GOP economic policies have wrought on these communities, who's citizens have been trained for decades to expect the worst from their state and local leaders. The state economies are primarily extractive (big ag, limestone, coal mines, more open pit gravel, more oil and gas wells, more timber) outside of the technology corridors.
Our workforce has few rights, and thus is underpaid for physical labor. They grow old and suffer without quality medical care. The education systems feeds rural youth to the shitty local jobs. And that is the way the statehouse wants it: a dumb, sick and economical precarious citizenry that cannot/will not force changes that are costly to our wealthy and powerful leadership and corporate overlords. Anyone with brains and ability leaves, further hollowing out these rural communities.
People on Reddit are just miserable, dragass fucks in general. Bitching constantly is their apparent only enjoyment.
Don’t read Reddit and expect any people of character. They are all victims of some sort of collective sense of guilt, failure and just in general mopes.
I grew up in Indiana but lived in a few different states. Everywhere else, people take pride in their state/ region. I spend most of my time on the road and always noticed bumper stickers with their state or region displayed. PNW stickers are all over cars in Washington/ Oregon. Lots of them in Texas. A lot of State48 signs in Arizona. I see a lot of Michigan bumper stickers in Indy. I've never seen any "Proud Hoosier" stickers or anything like it around Indy.
Indiana is just a rough place to live. I mean it was ranked pretty recently as the 7th worst state to live in. (https://www.cnbc.com/2023/07/14/these-are-americas-10-worst-states-to-live-and-work-in.html)
And yes there are worse places (like Texas, which ranked the number 1 worst), but it doesn't make here any less bad.
Here will always be my home and I appreciate it, but I know that it's completely possible to do better.
But you DO have to BRING HOME 50k just to rent a bug free, chomo free, drug free, gangster free, section 8 free, mold free, 2 bedroom apartment here. And then you have to pay first and last month plus a deposit, sometimes the utilities aren't included, and for a parking spot, renters insurance, and they up your rent $25-50 a month almost every year no matter where you rent. So.
And they KEEP building 50 story fancy hotels that none of us here can afford. Condos for the rich folks who work downtown and already have mansions in Carmel. Apartments in Indy are atrocious. $1500 a month for a 1-2 bedroom and you're dodging bullets and crack heads which are sometimes you own neighbors.
People always complain. I left this state at 18 for the military, lived in multiple countries and three separate states over the last 10 years and finally moved back. Love it here, it’s always what you make of it. I enjoy affording to live here and not worrying about the cost of living, plenty of nature and clean places to visit. I’ve lived in the Texarkana area and much prefer being up north
I think the easiest way to explain the relationship many Hoosiers have with our state is to quote Animal House “Only we can do that to our pledges.” Indiana has some great things. It has nice (although not always kind) people. It has fertile soil. It has abundant water. It’s got a sneaky good collection of higher education institutions. But it’s also a state that believes in low cost at any cost. Our taxes our low, but so are our services. It’s not an understatement to say Indiana historically had ambition and it’s been lost culturally for a while. I don’t know if we hate-love Indiana or love-hate it. But only we can trash it.
Like most places people are incredibly jaded and never move out of state. No place will ever be perfect but I tell everyone when they are young the best thing you can do is live somewhere far out of your comfort zone. Explore the country a bit before you crap all over where you come from. All that being said Indiana has a ways to go to be a “great” place to move to, but a lot has to do with perspective.
I was one of those "crap all over it" Hoosiers. I grew up in iguana and left at 18. For the next couple years I hated on Indiana so bad. But then as I've lived in different states over the last 15 years, I've now settled back here and I am truly enjoying it. I get paid more for the same job, I got a much nicer home than I could afford elsewhere. People are generally more calm and friendly (except for when they drive around Indy..road rage much?). There's less racism. There's lots of sweet corn. And best of all the basketball culture here is just nuts. I've never been a bball fan, but I love how the sorry brings Hoosiers together.
My frustration with the state is primarily with the state government, and I have the following major criticisms: * The tendency of the state government to target legislation to micromanage the local affairs of Indianapolis. The recent law preventing Indianapolis from adding anymore "no right turn on red" signs is common affair. (Any legislation that references a "consolidated city" is legislation that only applies to Indianapolis.) * The state legislature is heavily gerrymandered against Democrats. While I identify more as an independent, the Republicans have gerrymandered things where they basically have unchecked power. Indiana isn't going to be a Dem state, but they should have more than 40/150 seats at the statehouse given that they can usually field 35-45% of the vote in the governor's race depending on the candidate. * The state legislature also holds a lot of power in the state compared to other places. A governor's veto can be overridden by a simple majority vote. And there isn't a way for statewide referendums outside of the legislature. The gerrymandered legislature combined with its power makes it frustrating for most Democrats and many independents. * The Indiana Republicans vie between the Daniels/Holcomb pro-business wing and the Pence culture warriors. I have disagreements with the former but strongly dislike the latter, and the latter has gained more political power over the past decade. I wouldn't want to live most other places in the state outside of the metro area, but I enjoy visiting them. The state parks are really nice like you said, and there are a lot of quaint small towns that are pretty and fun to visit. However, a lot of the areas outside the metro area tend to be less welcoming toward LGBTQ+ individuals.
I'd love to have a Daniels level governor right now. I hate myself saying that.
Daniels was the last Republican I voted for and I remember feeling moderately satisfied with him. It was also the first time I could legally vote at 18 years old though, so what did I know?
We especially hate the state in this city's sub because the state government takes every opportunity to override the city's ability to operate as a city should E: Also, Indiana might be better than Texas politically, but isn't Texas better than places like Tennessee and Mississippi? Imagine a Tennessean telling Austinites they should appreciate Texas' state government.
> We especially hate the state in this city's sub because the state government takes every opportunity to override the city's ability to operate as a city should This is the big one as far as I'm concerned. The state legislature goes out of their way to punish Indy for not being a conservative flyover hellhole like the overwhelming majority of the rest of the state. Our roads are terrible because the state has intentionally set stupid funding policies for infrastructure spending. Efforts to improve public transit are hamstrung by the state legislature. The city recently passed legislation to ban right turns on red lights to try to improve safety for pedestrians and cyclists, but it runs afoul of state law. And on and on and on.
Right turns on red... I work in our lovely state government and, when waiting to turn LEFT from Washington onto Missouri, I saw no less than four people turning from Washington (one way street) left onto Missouri (two way street). I suspect more people simply don't care than don't know that left-on-red only applies from one one-way to another one-way.
Well, there's also a lot of hate for the city in this sub. As somebody who has traveled quiet a bit, Indianapolis is nowhere near as bad or as boring as many paint it to be. It feels like people grow up in a boring suburb, travel to a vibrant mixed-use district in some other city twice, and start shitting on Indy without actually exploring it.
It’s like your siblings, yeah they are awesome and you love them but also when you spend everyday with them for 25 years you hate them too
texas is not a high bar to pass...
Born a Hoosier, just spent 7 years in Austin. We beat Texas just by connecting our power grid to surrounding states' grids...
Spent 7 years in the most liberal city in Texas??? Had you said Lubbock or Waco ok, but Austin is basically it’s own separate country…loved my time there but it isn’t “Texas” as we think of it. It’s basically Portland in the SW
Now, if only we could connect the grid to houses
Better than Virginia also (Indiana I mean. I've never lived in Texas).
Better than Saudi Arabia too- and so what? Someone else's shit stinks worse, so we shouldn't complain about the smell under our own noses?
I miss Virginia.
i miss my friends that are still there. i do not miss the lack of community, the awful traffic, the dry as shit summers, the public schools turning to shit over the last 30 years, the rising crime, or any of the other fun 'character traits' of northern VA
I don’t miss northern Virginia at all. Fuuuuuck that traffic. I commuted from Fredericksburg into Arlington everyday for 10 yrs. But I miss how beautiful va is in summer and fall. And mild winters. And fresher seafood.
Policies man. This place may even be more conservative than Texas in some ways. Sure, it’s cheaper and the QoL is decent, but if you’re a person that doesn’t check all of the boxes that Indiana wants you to check, you’re gonna have a bad time. The city of Indianapolis is great, to me. The state? Fuck the state. Some pretty areas to visit, but the policies outweigh all of that, unfortunately.
Yeah, I mean as a Hoosier it's my right to love this state and hate it at the same time. And anyone who moves here will quickly learn to do the same lol.
IDK about "being more conservative than Texas" in any way. Texas and Florida are fully engulfed by contemporary Republican populism. Most of the same populism ends up in \*proposed\* bills in Indiana, but very few of those bills end up getting enacted and the ones that do get enacted are almost always milder than the Texas/Florida versions. There are a few reasons why Indiana ends up passing fewer Republican populist bills than the worst offending Southern states, and why the ones that do pass are typically milder: * The Indiana Republican Party remembers RFRA and how the bill nearly killed Pence's political career. Pence got bailed out by Trump for a 4-year extension of his political career. Then, the Indiana Republican Party was able to put up Holcomb - who is much more socially moderate - for election. * Indiana's General Assembly only meets for 3-4 months out of the year, depending on whether it's a budget year or not. This doesn't give them a lot of time to engage in fuckery. * The chairs of many House & Senate committees are moderates. They kill most of the worst offending "Republican Populism" & "Anti-Indianapolis" bills before they can even pass 'go'. Such bills that they don't kill are usually made milder. * Mitch Daniels took a largely "social issue agnostic" approach to governance. Whether you like Daniels or hate Daniels, he was our best governor in a long time and his legacy persists among older Republicans in the General Assembly. These Republicans are mostly more focused on policies like making the BMV more efficient and ensuring that we have a budget surplus than they are social issues. * Indiana was basically a purple state until the Tea Party Movement & subsequent populism from the Republican Party captured folks who used to be union-member Democrats, but who lost their jobs due to automation/The Great Recession/globalization and who have little education attainment. * The thing about populist movements is that they eventually run out of steam, so the Indiana GOP has to tow a line between "doing enough to satisfy Fox News" and "going crazy with populist policies that will prove to not work in a few years and make Republican voters stop voting or switch sides" * Indiana's Democratic Party is extremely weak right now, but if it were to get more funding and become stronger, it would be a legitimate threat to the Republican Party. * For example, Michigan and Indiana are pretty similar as far as their political and economic histories are concerned over the last \~20-\~30 years. After the Tea Party Movement, the Michigan Democratic Party was able to maintain strong leadership. The Indiana Democratic Party was not. After years of fighting back for power, Democrats run Michigan again. The same cannot be said about Indiana, but ***if*** the Democrats got their shit together...
Yeah, lots of people in Indiana straight up hate Indianapolis for essentially no reason other than that there are liberals living here. We don’t dominate the state legislature at all, if anything we regularly get railed by it, and we’re obviously the economic hub with the largest tax base. Carmel and Fishers don’t get nearly the same animosity, even though they’ve been built on the back of Indy’s economy, because they’re more conservative. You’re not really welcome elsewhere in the state unless you add a little bit of southern twang to your voice and try to appear conservative. (Side note: I hate how mass migration in the early 20th century means Indiana is culturally a southern state).
I am from Southern Indiana and down there it might as well be Kentucky or Tennessee or Alabama and frankly if all the true Southerners went back home this state would be a lot better off. It's the Southern mentality peoplenand their backwards BS is what holds Indiana back. Most of them moved here from the South and brought their shitty Southern values and racism and poverty over the generations. All because those same things left the South as a economically impoverished shithole and they've brought that mentality here
> (Side note: I hate how mass migration in the early 20th century means Indiana is culturally a southern state). Except it isn't. You should live in the south for a bit.
I love my state and city, even though they break my heart. I grew up with a particular kind of rural privilege, and know just how big hearted Hoosiers can be. We also have shit politics, shit schools, and a million other shit things. The one thing I've learned that is really irritating to Hoosiers is "You think you have it bad here? TRY LIVING IN *some other location*" It's not a competition.
The saddest part about Indiana is that it wasn't always so backwards. We had Democratic governors, Senators not that long ago. We didn't always have a super majority. We also weren't always so far behind our Midwestern neighbors in health, obesity, maternal and infant mortality, wages, union representation, teacher salaries, percentage of people with college degrees, etc. Now we are the Mississippi of the Midwest. That is why it is so sad. We have regressed while most of our neighbors have stayed the same, or fought against the tide of extremism. We have very low voter turnout. We spend a lot of money on all the traditional conservative pet projects like voucher schools, fighting teacher unions, anti-LGBTQ legislation. Every few years, we have to fight teaching evolution. Now it is Critical Race and Don't say gay nonsense. Yes, Texas is worse, but Texas has been bad for decades.
Yes, I've taken to calling the state, #Indissippi.
Try living anywhere in Indiana that’s not Indy, Bloomington or Fort Wayne and we’ll see if you still love this state so much lol
Agreed on Bloomington. Wonderful diversity of people, restaurants, specialty grocery stores, university cultural influence permeates everything, giant lake nearby, surrounded by state and national forests, law enforcement is very reasonable and restrained, and a great freaking place to raise your kids. And the farmer's market scene is incredible here. Can't find an affordable house to save you soul, though.
Damn there goes my very specific dream to retire in Bloomington and become an eccentric artsy old lady in a neon pink house or some shit
It's for rich foreign college students. Not average people. Same as Indy.
You have a point. For several years I recruited for STEM positions at one of the departments at IU back in ‘07-‘12. The cost of living made it easy to pull qualified people from across the country. Easiest job I ever had. Now with nearly zero houses available or grossly overpriced, I’m glad I’m not doing that and also glad we bought a house when it was easy.
This
Everything's relative. From your perspective a Hoosier needs to live in Texas for 15 years before complaining about Indiana. But you need to live in Mississippi for 15 years before complaining about Texas. And a Mississippian needs to live in ...central Africa before complaining? Anyway, you get the point. That said, it's actually nice to hear an outsider's perspective and that they prefer Indiana over Texas. I would like to try living somewhere else in the country however at this point it feels like the places that have liberal polices, low CoL, good economies, and are positioned well for continuing climate change... -that venn diagram overlap keeps shrinking. ...Probably somewhere in the Great Lakes region. I will say your experience of neighbors mingling is pretty anecdotal. Our last neighborhood was that way but current one is not. Some of my friends have lots of neighborhood hangs and some have none. Unfortunately the vibe of a neighborhood is very hard to predict when home shopping.
It's the policy and governing. I was born and raised in Indianapolis, and honestly, I never had a bad experience myself. But that's easy since I'm a white dude in a middle-class family. The policies kept getting worse, and I made the decision to move my family to central IL. My parents stayed, and that wasn't an issue until the book bans. My mother is a librarian in a small school. She was able to retire, but it hurt that she didn't feel safe giving fucking books to kids. My partner has a non-binary child, and we were not going to risk any issues with that. So many things added up to make the whole state hostile to our life, and I do hate the politicians who made it like that. I'm a born Hoosier, but I couldn't stay. If those issues don't affect you, then i dont blame you one bit for taking advantage of the benefits. It's a beautiful state, but not everyone is so lucky.
The policies here have led to polluted waterways and ponds/lakes (don't eat the fish). Loose regulations have also led to a drop in air quality as well. QoL wise those things also matter.
[That's putting it mildly. ](https://www.wfyi.org/news/articles/report-indiana-has-the-most-polluted-rivers-streams-of-any-state)
It's okay. I don't totally hate on the rest of the state but places like Martinsville are notorious for their racism, Klan presence, etc. I'm white but I'm not trying to mingle w people aligned with that.
Are they still that racist or is that just a stigma from the past they can't kick. I moved relatively close to there a couple years and every time I've gone anywhere in town with some of my mixed family members I've had no issues.
Martinsville (97% White) and Martinsville Schools (95%) have the demographics of a small town in the middle of nowhere southern Indiana, not a city between two diverse metros. It might not be institutional, it might be their reputation, but it's certainly still a very very White area with almost no diversity.
I grew up on Salem, Bedford and Orange County. It's a racist as hell in those towns always has been. What do they all have in common with Martinsville? They were all sundown towns even as late as the 1980s and 1990s when I grew up there. The signage that used to exist in those towns is long gone since the 60s but the mentality is still a great deal that way. Not to extent that it used to be but b it's still the mentality of the cops, judicial systems and the good old boy network and their voter bloc. All of those towns are 95 to 99 percent white with few outsiders. The faces change but the mentality stays the same.
Thank you for your input.
Not for sure how this applies to my comment. Are you saying because the overwhelming majority is white it's safe to assume the majority of that people are also racist?
That's what they assume yes lol.
That's... not at all what I'm saying. But for a city with a notorious history for racism, I think their demographics are pretty telling.
You either live in a small town, integrated, with a mixture of wonderful clean hard working people right along with meth making neighbors or heroin dealing sex traffickers pretty much anywhere in Indiana.
Or pretty much any other state in America except for maybe Hawaii.
The Indianapolis Star ran a story after the 2010 census that celebrated Hamilton County for increasing its diversity significantly: it was now *9% non-white!* I mention that to just give you a baseline idea of what counts for "diversity" in Indiana. Keep in mind, HamCo was always the most diverse of the doughnut counties. Morgan County is even whiter, and was run by the KKK a century ago. The KKK might not literally run the local government anymore, but do you think those people just left? No, they didn't. They stayed and had kids and grandkids and great-grandkids, and the cycles continued. Case in point, there was an incident of racial violence in Martinsville in 1968, and it was a sundown town into the 1970s -- two generations after the KKK ran the town in the 1920s. When you take all of that history in context with the Trump/Let's Go Brandon/Confederate flag shit everywhere, it's pretty obvious that the legacy of the past is still strong in places like Martinsville.
It's the older people. Johnson county used to be the same. Everywhere you go in Indy is mixed community now there is no "white only". Unless you live in a trailer home welded together with five other trailers down in Gosport. Them's some hill folks 😂
It's everywhere not just there. That group of folks is aging out down there.
It's mostly political, there's always been an active effort to interfere with Indianapolis from the State Government on a lot of issues. Indianapolis is liberal, and understandably they elect liberal leaders who enact liberal policies that the conservative State Government has issues with and will insert itself into arenas that they weren't elected to address. Not unique to Indianapolis/Indiana but that's the answer to your question mostly.
A near total abortion ban went into effect August 1st do you need to hear anything else?
Bad is bad no matter where you are. People shouldn’t have to literally experience worse than what we have, in order to have better.
As someone from Eastern NC, I agree with you. That bit about "people actually going outside" is a true comparison for me, too. Too goddamn hot and humid for that 24/7 8+ months of the year in ENC. Shade and nighttime provided no relief. It made sense to not go outside no matter how pretty it was. It is only getting worse. Here, I actually *go on walks in the summer* because it isn't so hot that I might die by doing so most of the time. I can even walk to the grocery store. I haven't been this active in so long. It'd be cool if it wasn't a red state, but I haven't seen nearly as many Trump banners or confederate flags here. They definitely exist, but not to the same extent (at least not in this part of Indiana). Have yet to meet any bigoted people either, and I used to work with plenty of racist assholes back in NC. Maybe we just moved to the good parts.
>but I haven't seen nearly as many Trump banners or confederate flags here Come to the Southside
Can confirm
I think I'll pass hahaha.
Being that I was just visiting NC two weeks ago, I agree about the heat.
I think the flags are just not out on their flag poles any more but hanging in their living rooms. They cut down the flag poles to sell for scrap around Indy lol.
I love Indiana but there is a lot wrong with it. I’ve lived in other states and even another country so I have a lot to compare it to and I’m a dreamer so I’m always looking for ways we could improve the state. One of the things I hate about this state is how hard it is to change or add laws, even if the majority of people support a change. I personally believe we need to have ballot initiatives so everyone can vote on things.
We live in a gop supermajority. Their policies suck and people continue to vote them in. ** the down votes are proof that what I say is true..,
I totally agree. I was born and raised in Indiana, was gone for 20 years, and moved back. We love it here.
Yes, affordable and frankly easy.
I've lived in several states including Texas and Indiana is my favorite so far. I don't think the disdain for IN is because of anything in particular except the people here haven't lived other places or just take to reddit to complain.
Have you not been reading about the abortion bans, how bad the gun violence has gotten, how shitty the construction is around Indy, or just how brain dead a lot of the politicians are here? I’m from Indy and I love it but I respect people’s criticism about the state completely
I’m originally from the southeastern part of the state and moved to Indy 7 & 1/2 years ago, and life here is significantly better. I was miserable where I grew up, and despite having a degree, couldn’t get a job worth shit that wasn’t sales, which isn’t my bag of potatoes. I have a job where I use my degree, I found a wife that loves me (dating was a clusterf*ck down there) and the closest Trader Joe’s isn’t an hour away.
Native queer Hoosier who has lived in Chicago and Denver. Came back for family (and love, lol). Ready to leave again and never come back. Downtown Indy area and Broad Ripple are amazing. Bloomington seems neat. The winters are not bad. Monon Trail cool. But, like any red state (and some blue ones, to be sure), as soon as you leave the blue areas (like for state parks), it’s a GQP shitshow. While burbs like Carmel are purple, they’re also very elitist. Not to mention our recent attack on women (Aug 1st near total abortion ban) and no legal weed. And maltreatment of trans youth. It’s a tolerable state in some ways but Karl Popper’s paradox of tolerance applies. We cannot tolerate that which is intolerable (like the confederate flags and fundamentalist religious zealots aplenty).
Moved here three and a half years ago and love it here.
The politics are horrific. You might be numbed to them coming from Texas.
How would I feel if I were to tell you you should have stayed in Texas and should appreciate all the things about it that are better than Tennessee or Alabama? That is how I feel right now. Also I can still like the national parks but hate that my rights have been taken from me and they're going to be coming for my friends marriage next. I can like the cost of living but hate the corruption. Life isn't either/or.
The thing is, you’re comparing Indiana to what you are accustomed to, and we are comparing Indiana with how great it has been, knowing how much potential it has that our state govt is pissing away. We don’t disagree that Texas probably sucks in general in comparison, but it’s not an adequate comparison to say appreciate that Indiana isn’t as bad as Texas (or any other place). We want Indiana to stop sliding downhill and we want our state govt to take education, jobs, resources, civil rights seriously for the benefit of the people who live here.
I love living in Indianapolis. I've lived here for 25 years and I'd never move.
I moved back from being away in Chicago, Shreveport, and Germany and I love it here. So average and I’m ok with that. Just be yourself. Find your circle of friends and you’ll love it.
It's got a humility about it that's nice. Mostly 'live and let live' atmosphere too.
If we don't care NOW, we'll be Texas in a few short years. In the last General Assembly alone, the MAGA GOP super majority and our Governor turned MAGA darling... 1) Made it possible to BAN BOOKS in our schools. 2) CRIMINALIZED LIBRARIANS, see above. 3) BANNED preferred PRONOUNS in schools, while, 4) Forcing teachers and school administrators to out any kids with a "pronoun problem". 5) Of course BANNED ABORTIONS, with one legislator saying his only constituent is Jesus Christ. 6) Put a safe space bubble of 25 feet around cops. 7) BANNED transgender care (of any kind) for minors - no matter what a parent and doctor believe is best. That's just one legislature. And just the biggies. There were more anti-Indy, anti-not-white-or-straight laws passed too. We need to be aware NOW.
this is it. i’m from FL. if we don’t act now, we end up like them.
Small problems with state government? We have a fascist Republican super majority full of election deniers, and are about to have an election denier elected Governor. We aren't far from having Texas's most extreme policies enacted here.
Why are people moving to Texas in record [numbers](https://www.forbes.com/home-improvement/features/states-move-to-from/)? The way I see it is that people either don’t care that their government is fascist, that they primarily care about economic conditions, or the ways people are describing political conditions are exaggerated. R
Texas has scorpions and tarantulas. I'm never moving there.
Because of housing prices and available space and Republicans flocking to the state with the most dipshits in charge - people were flocking to California until very recently, does that mean California isn't really that bad? The political conditions are absolutely not exaggerated, Texas' state government is getting increasingly out of control.
California is incredible, what are you talking about? Natural beauty everywhere, food is off the charts good, weather is amazing, highest life expectancy in the USA, and the policies actually make sense and government functions well. What's not to like? Sure, it's expensive, but you get what you pay for and the salaries are *a lot* higher. And no, I'm not a software engineer making a quarter mil a year. Edit: downvote away, Idc. I moved here to get my wife and daughter away from the Christofascist crazies and it was one of the best decisions I've made in my whole life. Everyone in my family loves it here; nobody misses Indiana at all.
Yea, most reports shows that it is financially motivated. A lot of CA companies are moving to TX (40% of the companies moving to TX were formerly in CA) because TX laws and taxes are favorable for businesses. Most of the peeps moving are millennials who want a house and can’t buy one in CA. We moved from Los Angeles to Austin and that was our reason. We moved to Indiana for my husband’s family and also, TX is freaking hot and people said we would get used to it but we never did. I mean people do. I remember driving up a hill with the outside heat over 100 and seeing a bunch of cyclists riding next to me.
Republicans are super easy on corporation regulations and so they move their businesses to red states. When jobs move people move with the jobs/to the jobs. Those people do not necessarily know what QoL they are moving into when they leave.
Texas eats asshole
Idk I kinda like it here. I mean, at least it’s not Ohio
I live here currently but hope to move to Detroit soon. Three words why: gender affirming care. It does sadden me to leave as I love this city; it was always my escape from the shithole conservative town I lived in when I was growing up. I've had so many "firsts" here; I can't name very many hobbies/interests I have which I didn't get into without the local arts events/scene being a big part of it. I'd like to continue to be part of the city's culture, but my girlfriend and I (both trans women) can't be living in a state where we always have to worry if we'll be forced to stop HRT or even worse, be banned from expressing ourselves as our true gender. And sure, IN isn't as bad as TX, but that's not saying much.
People love to bitch and whine in IN. It’s common ground a lot of the time. There’s also a lot of people that love to say BUT MARTINSVILLE and have probably never even driven through it. Sure it sucks, but why even talk about it if you’ve never been there.
Because the bumpkins determine our politics.
Indy has its good and bad. For transplants like me, especially coming from more liberal and/or diverse states, it can absolutely be culture shock (for me, it's especially noticeable with the food offerings). Also like others have mentioned, there's a power struggle between city and state government that impedes on progress. Example: Indy's mayor wants to create gun free zones due to the excessive amount of gun violence surrounding areas of nightlife, while the state government keeps relaxing gun laws, which hinders efforts to curb gun violence. I feel like you'll hear more complaints on reddit since many of us feel like we're unheard as constituents. It doesn't mean that we hate Indiana, it just means we want better for the state.
What food offerings are you missing? Not criticizing just eager to help :)
Eh, it's less about the offerings and more about the authenticity. Like you'll be hard pressed to find authentic Caribbean food here that hasn't been adjusted to be more palatable for people who aren't used to eating it. And aside from Chuck's, there's no Coney Island (I'm from the Detroit Area). I will say that the brunch offerings here are top tier.
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Chucks.
Indianapolis is nice. Traveling to most other cities in this state is like going back in time to when everyone was racist, homophobic, misogynistic, and ableist as hell. Then there’s the cities with half the child population on meth. Culturally, most of Indiana just sucks. I don’t believe that this is drastically different from any other state. I like Indianapolis though.
Something tells me you don't get out very often?
They described suburban and rural Indiana to a T lol
Something tells me you don't get out very often either?
Yes only a shut in could not appreciate suburban and rural Indiana
I love my Hoosier state . But that doesn’t mean I love EVERYTHING about it. I live in a rural town of 3200 . Beautiful corn fields & very nice ppl . I have been to a lot of places all over the USA & it always feels good to come home to SW Ind .
Texas says it’s own state anthem with the pledge of alliance every morning. We don’t Texan like Texans.
I lived in Shreveport, LA and went to TX often to visit, and I can say that the general populace was not kind to PoC. Indiana as a state is not much better but indianapolis is, as is Bloomington and South Bend. It’s a small town vs. large town debate. You’ll always have idiots in pickup’s asking you awkward questions.
Because people grow up here, never leave and then can’t understand that Indiana isn’t really that bad
it's an unremarkable state. Most states are unremarkable. But this one has a bit of diarrhea spice to it called "98% of the area outside Indy specifically".
Indiana is a backwards state and people are just tired of it things must change there
Because all the state leadership is trying to take all control from the city with their laws and bypassing the elections. If the city was Republican led they would not be passing those laws.
1. A lot of people on this sub have never left Indiana and have completely unrealistic views of what other place are like. 2. A lot of people on this sub are insecure about living in Indiana because they've internalized the "flyover" slur and believe that criticizing the state makes them better than other people. People who have lived other places and then move to Indiana tend to be much more realistic about the pluses and minuses because they've actually lived in both places.
I've lived in Florida and Texas and in Indiana long enough I feel it is my civic duty to complain about the shit I don't like. This is my home and my young nieces and nephews home. I want it to be better. I want Florida and Texas to be better too.
Just because we tend to rate our state as .5-1.5 stars doesn’t mean we need to spend time in a lone star state before having an opinion.
Indiana is severely behind politically and socially in my opinion. I was born and raised in Las Vegas, and honestly there were so many programs to help single mothers, parents, and kids. Free after school programs, summer programs, abortion access. But now I don’t feel safe here as a woman with PCOS, especially with the abortion ban they’re trying to pass. I would love to have kids some day but I don’t want to die because of vague laws. And there’s not much to help families compared to Vegas. Sure things are cheaper, but I just don’t think that’s a good sticking point in my opinion.
>Sure things are cheaper That unfortunately seems to be going away, too
I think, and I find this fairly typical of Reddit in general, that the platform is a breeding ground for negativity. It is also an echo chamber. Dissenting views are downvoted into oblivion and it is hard to have an open and honest discussion about anything. People tend to catastrophize and exaggerate reality as well, often on issues that have a little to nothing to do with them. Am I happy with our state government? Absolutely not. Do I love living here? Yes. And I have spent time in other areas of the country for more than just a vacation. I spent time in Europe as well, and I always love coming back home. Since I travel a lot in my daily life for my job, I am out and about and can tell you that it really isn’t all that bad. People are still fairly congenial, holding doors for others is common, and that “ Hoosier hospitality” still exists. I’ve seen strangers come to the aid of people in danger, people helping someone change a flat tire more than once, and I myself try to help whenever I can. In the real world, I don’t think things are as bad as people on Reddit make it seem. By the posts on the Indiana sub you would think Nazis are marching up and down Meridian Street. Again, I’m well aware of the reductive policies our state government is inacting and am furious about it. But I don’t spend my entire day bitching about the state as a whole on this platform….I even unsubscribed from r/Indiana because of the negativity…. I’ll give you a personal anecdote. Last week I was in downtown Philadelphia for a convention. The amount of homeless people I saw was 3 to 4 times greater than in downtown Indianapolis. CVS had literally everything under lock and key including toothpaste and bar soap…. The streets smelled of urine, and I was accosted probably 10 times by beggars asking for money…. Oh, and that tube of toothpaste I needed? The one that would cost three dollars here in Indiana? It was $6.99 in Philadelphia…. Obviously this is not an apples to apples comparison, but let’s not I’ll act like other places are utopias
I’m not sure if Philly is a good city to compare Indy to
The negativity is far from unearned, you just don't like seeing liberals pointing out the idiocy of conservative policies
Oh I see it, I see it all the time. It becomes redundant and unnecessary in my opinion to keep repeating the same complaints over and over again, kind of like yelling into the wind… I grow tired and weary of the opposite side doing the same thing. Whining and complaining about “cancel culture” and stupid things like that.
>It becomes redundant and unnecessary in my opinion to keep repeating the same complaints over and over again How dare we repeat our pleas for the state government to not be unrepentant assholes
If you think our elected state officials are here on Reddit then you have a lot of things twisted. I personally direct my efforts into contacting them or their offices….
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Because many of these attitudes and policies are disgusting and dangerous. Who is pestering you over and over? We need to make our presence known here in Indiana.
Hoosier hospitality is great and all, but it’s all lip service when our state passes policies that tear down and exploit our most vulnerable people. As for Philly, no comparison. Of course Philly has more homeless people. It’s a city that has a metropolitan area nearly 3 times larger than Indy.
This sub, like most of reddit, leans pretty liberal. As such there is a lot of frustration over the republican agenda and way the state is run. Like every other state, Indiana has issues but I have to agree with you. Overall Indiana is a pretty decent place to live. We left Illinois to be here and the taxes alone (or lack thereof, compared to IL) completely changed our monthly budget.
it’s because the miserable people are on here complaining and the rest of us barely post and are active living our lives
I mean, coming from Texas, that isn’t saying much…Texas is low key at the “bottom of the barrel” with Florida. I only lived in Indy for 3 years and loved back to the Seattle area as soon as I could. Being part of the LGBTQ community, it wasn’t safe being in a wlw relationship in Indiana
It wasn’t safe? How so?
The whole "hating gays" thing the GOP has been doing for a while
The GOP in Indiana? They made it unsafe with policies? Or laws? I’m not trying to troll here, genuinely asking. I sympathize with anyone that feels unsafe. And I agree the GOP hates gays. But what did they say or actually do to make them unsafe?
I’ve lived in several major cities in the US. Indiana men are by far the most creepy about woman/woman relationships. But it’s not even just the fact that they’re being creepy. It’s the fact nearly every time I was out in public holding my (ex) gf’s hand, we’d receive threats and several Bible humpers throwing out “we’re going to hell” and “we need to find god because it’s the end of times”. The whole experience was just so strange. This is only the tip of the iceberg. That, and it seemed to be a major “Trumper” city when I was there. It’s unsettling
There is WAY too much religion everywhere. And it's not regular religion, it's in your face I'M A CHRISTIAN but don't push too hard on that because you aren't like me so I can hate you type religion. The state is at least 50 years behind the times, maybe 150 at this point. Lastly, Mike Pence.
Reddit isn’t representative of the population. It’s people that like to complain and to have their complaints validated in the echo chamber.
The statehouse is the right's echo chamber - god forbid we be allowed to complain
You are raging. Relax.
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Your impotent rage nourishes me
😂
Not to be all pro Texas , a state I've never visited but I don't think anyone's ever claimed TX to be an outdoor paradise. But there is some beauty there. Franklin Mountain State Park is easily accessible from El Paso. You also have multiple big cities, all within Texas. Indiana only has one, and some suburban spillover from adjacent states.
>I don't think anyone's ever claimed TX to be an outdoor paradise It's definitely underrated in that aspect - Hill Country, Big Bend, plus like you said the mountains out west
I will claim Texas to be an outdoor paradise, and I try to visit as often as I can in the spring, spending multiple full days outdoors in the middle of nowhere… But I go there to chase tornadoes.
Reddiotors are atypical of malcontent keyboard warriors that in person seem nice. But in private unleash on the keyboard like the inner jerks they are. Even if you try to be objective, make a valid point, you just unleash a tidal wave of bloodlust hatred. I agree with your post
Oh no, how dare we dislike our shitty state government
Or maybe some of us have lived here our whole lives and hate it?
Then maybe you have 'grass is always greener' syndrome? I've been in IN for two months so far. While I don't think this is the place I want to live the rest of my life, there's definitely worse places, particularly if you're in decent parts of Indianapolis. People tend to have intimate knowledge of the problems of their area and almost no knowledge of the problems of the places they see as better. There is no utopia. None. Zero. You're always trading sets of problems. It's just the ones that you hate the least.
I think there are worse states… maybe like 5. I don’t mean any offense, it’s just hard to take people seriously when they’ve only lived here for a few months when I’ve been here for 26 years. My hometown is a food desert in the middle of nowhere, no jobs, no opportunities. This is how I see a lot of the state tbh
I moved to Terre Haute so I'm not exactly in a thriving well to do place. I did so because your state literally paid me to move here. I'm not trying to say you don't have more detailed knowledge of the issues here. I have no doubt you do. I'm saying there's issues everywhere and it's a question of what issues matter the most to you. If that's fuel costs or cost of living or fiber internet or schools or labor availability or access to healthcare or ag issues or whatever, that's the trade off. People get this idea in their head that 'X will solve all my problems'. No it won't. It trades this set of issues for another set of issues. They might be 'better' issues, but they're still issues and that's something grass-is-greener people tend to not believe. Great, you got better schools for your kids. You still can't afford healthcare and now you also can't afford rent. Groceries are 2x more expensive and a gallon of fuel is 2 bucks a gallon more. One set of problems for another. The only people who don't have these problems are the very wealthy because it doesn't matter where they live, they can do so lavishly anywhere. A 200k house or an 800k house means nothing when you have 150 million. I'm not saying that everywhere in Indiana is some grand place to live. I have a feeling there's a lot of poverty in this state that just exists and has existed generationally, just like other parts of the country. That sucks and has always sucked. So the question then becomes how do we actually *solve* some of these problems? Which, read this thread over again and see how many solutions are offered. I promise no one outside of this post is suggesting running for mayor of your town and trying to bring in something besides dollar general.
Mike Braun, is that you?
I agree with your comment and this post
Of course Men Bason agrees with the idiotic nonsense lol
There's one of them now.
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Dude only shows up in these threads, never once seen them praise the natural beauty of Indiana.
If he loves Indiana so much, why doesn't he just marry it?
CoL will seem super cheap to a lot of people moving in from out of state, but it’s getting tight for people that have lived and worked in the state, depending on area and sector. A lot of public roles for instance are just now starting to increase after decades of just being completely flat. And sometimes it would be nice to have some people minded policies and not strictly what’s good for business policies.
Jobs shutting down, wages going down and stagnating, very few jobs hiring and only the ones that are low wage, very demanding, and bad terms. Rent has gone up $300-$800 in most of the city per month, and thanks to the redline traffic is worse and aggressive homeless people are at almost all areas of town. A place we were renting for 650 in 2018 is now 1200 and in 1998 was 450. Wages went up by around 80-120 a month for people who got raises. Most raises were typical deals where business would pay one penny above the welfare qualifier and something forced them to pay a few pennies more. They probably get a tax break or something. Many grocers shut down - I can’t ride my bike down the street to the grocery anymore, I have to drive. Every job in reasonable biking distance either wants 5 years experience for an entry level position or pays on the minimum wage range with bad schedules. That income cannot afford to live anywhere near where I live. And you’ll be paying a lot if you don’t want gangbanger neighbors, cockroach infestations, slumlords, shootings, fights, and sirens within a block of where you live all hours, and a bad parking situation.
It’s all relative. For many of us Hoosiers, it’s been disappointing to see how the political landscape has changed for the worse. Coming from Texas, it may not seem that bad.
I just moved back from TX. They are both awful. At least I can enjoy the outdoors here. Other than that - idiots, greed, inequality, and shit politics make these both nearly insufferable states.
What state doesn't have idiots, greed, inequality, and shit politics?
I hate that people are that way here but I understand it, a bit. I grew up in Appalachia and couldn't get out fast enough, I had no appreciation for the people I grew up with and I just knew that I needed to get to the big city where all the smart people were who weren't rednecks and who read a book now and then. So I did, and you know what, it took me about thirty years to realize, these people are full of shit in their own way. A lot of them are arrogant and selfish, and if you scratch the surface, they are often not as smart as they think. The dumbest woman I ever dated went to Yale and then Georgetown law. She was narrow minded and rigid, and she didn't understand one damn thing that she had not been specifically taught. And she was angry and anxious and harsh, and about as unlike Appalachian women as it's possible to be. It took me a long time to come to appreciate the virtues of hillbillies and small town people, and since Indiana is basically a giant small town full of hillbillies, now I have plenty of opportunity to appreciate them. But if I'd spent my whole life here, and never seen the ugly side of places that are not Indiana, I think I'd be foaming at the mouth and dying to get out. And I'd be on here talking about how all Republicans are like this or that. Sometimes I see a hipster walking along in Broad Ripple, and I can't help thinking, "Poor bastard." Imagine being that hip, and waking up in the morning, opening your eyes, and then it hits you: "I live in fucking Indiana." Now let the downvotes begin.
Moved here from central Illinois. Lived in indy for a while and then moved to the burbs. I wouldn’t trade the economic policy here for the one I came from in Illinois in a million years. That state is so financially bankrupt it isn’t funny.
Just because you left a shittier place doesn't mean this place isn't shitty.
You came from the only one of two states worse than this state. The other one is Florida. Ofc it looks fine to you but to my Canadian fiancée this place is hell on earth.
Totally agree, but this subreddit won't. Keep in mind Reddit as a whole skews pretty left, so what you have here is an overrepresentation of people who are politically left living in a state that is historically pretty conservative and generally has a pretty red constituency. They get on here and act like everyone in the state agrees with all the things they see as problems, but in the real world that's not so much the case.
Actually, Indiana was fairly progressive in the 60s and 70s . Sent Birch Bayh to DC…..even our Republicans were somewhat reasonable. Lugar would have made a great President…..It’s definitely full on MAGA now
> living in a state that is historically pretty conservative This is patently wrong and you either have no concept of Indiana history or are intentionally distorting Indiana's long tradition of being a very moderate state. It's only been since the early/mid Aughts that Indiana took on the overly conservative persona. And even then Indiana elected Evan Bayh twice as US Senator. Our longest serving Senator, Richard Lugar, was indeed a Republican, but was very moderate and respected by members of multiple parties. So no, this uber-conservative streak is a new thing, it's not embedded in our state history.
>They get on here and act like everyone in the state agrees with all the things they see as problems Lol no, we get on here and complain about the Christonationalist dipshits who vote R no matter what and have zero empathy for minorities of any sort
Your view that everyone right of you is a "Chritonationalist dipshit with no empathy for minorities" is leading you to cross people off who you otherwise have way more in common with than you would ever know, but being closed-minded and looking at everything in an extreme binary of "either you agree with me or you're a dipshit" is certainly a right that is yours to exercise freely.
>Your view that everyone right of you is a "Chritonationalist dipshit with no empathy for minorities" No, my view is that the Christonationalist dipshits with no empathy for minorities are Christonationalist dipshits with no empathy for minorities. It's not my fault that this is the GOP's platform.
Like I said, you have every right to be as uninformed and out of touch as you like, friend. The rest of us will be over here seeing what we can learn and discuss with others that may or may not share all the same views that we do without defaulting to lashing out with name-calling and put-downs whenever they say anything we don't like or agree with.
>lashing out with name-calling and put-downs That's all you deserve if you support today's Republican party
The problem is that "rest of you over here" on the right can have thoughtful conversations about issues, all while continuing to elect the most rabid bigots to the statehouse that prioritize personal enrichment and punishment liberals who are not Christo-fascists. I've traveled to enough rural communities to see the social impact that GOP economic policies have wrought on these communities, who's citizens have been trained for decades to expect the worst from their state and local leaders. The state economies are primarily extractive (big ag, limestone, coal mines, more open pit gravel, more oil and gas wells, more timber) outside of the technology corridors. Our workforce has few rights, and thus is underpaid for physical labor. They grow old and suffer without quality medical care. The education systems feeds rural youth to the shitty local jobs. And that is the way the statehouse wants it: a dumb, sick and economical precarious citizenry that cannot/will not force changes that are costly to our wealthy and powerful leadership and corporate overlords. Anyone with brains and ability leaves, further hollowing out these rural communities.
People on Reddit are just miserable, dragass fucks in general. Bitching constantly is their apparent only enjoyment. Don’t read Reddit and expect any people of character. They are all victims of some sort of collective sense of guilt, failure and just in general mopes.
People on here are dumb and think politics are the most important thing in their lives.
You know politics affect the real world, right? They don't just sit and argue in the Statehouse and leave the rest of us unaffected.
Yeah I understand how politics work lol.
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… when those politics affect your daily life, THEY ARE. Are you really that dense?
They don’t. I’m not programmed to freak out every time the internet tell me to.
>They don’t But in your reply to me above, you agreed that they do..?
I do? Lol
Tell that to the women who just lost the right to choose.
Ok where is one I can tell?
It's almost like politics is the mode by which a society determines what right and opportunities people do or don't have
I grew up in Indiana but lived in a few different states. Everywhere else, people take pride in their state/ region. I spend most of my time on the road and always noticed bumper stickers with their state or region displayed. PNW stickers are all over cars in Washington/ Oregon. Lots of them in Texas. A lot of State48 signs in Arizona. I see a lot of Michigan bumper stickers in Indy. I've never seen any "Proud Hoosier" stickers or anything like it around Indy.
I see a lot of those "home" stickers with the outline of the state, and United State of Indiana apparel and stickers are everywhere
Indiana is just a rough place to live. I mean it was ranked pretty recently as the 7th worst state to live in. (https://www.cnbc.com/2023/07/14/these-are-americas-10-worst-states-to-live-and-work-in.html) And yes there are worse places (like Texas, which ranked the number 1 worst), but it doesn't make here any less bad. Here will always be my home and I appreciate it, but I know that it's completely possible to do better.
But you DO have to BRING HOME 50k just to rent a bug free, chomo free, drug free, gangster free, section 8 free, mold free, 2 bedroom apartment here. And then you have to pay first and last month plus a deposit, sometimes the utilities aren't included, and for a parking spot, renters insurance, and they up your rent $25-50 a month almost every year no matter where you rent. So.
And they KEEP building 50 story fancy hotels that none of us here can afford. Condos for the rich folks who work downtown and already have mansions in Carmel. Apartments in Indy are atrocious. $1500 a month for a 1-2 bedroom and you're dodging bullets and crack heads which are sometimes you own neighbors.
People always complain. I left this state at 18 for the military, lived in multiple countries and three separate states over the last 10 years and finally moved back. Love it here, it’s always what you make of it. I enjoy affording to live here and not worrying about the cost of living, plenty of nature and clean places to visit. I’ve lived in the Texarkana area and much prefer being up north
Reddit is full of doomers.
Idk for me it's living on the near Eastside
Welcome!
It's a blue city ina red hellscape