Why They Hate Us In California

The success of the state that won't conform to the rest of the country drives some people crazy.

In my work as a journalist for Jewish News Syndicate, my daily 9-5 writing routine tends to go one of two ways.

My favorite days are when I log on in the morning and my editor already has a pile of assignments waiting for me. On a really good day, I can knock out as many as eight, nine, or even ten news articles in a day. These are each generally 150-250 words, and they usually don’t carry my byline; we’re a wire service, and others will usually expand on the bare bones that I assemble.

These pieces offer a quick summary of some small item or another, often an announcement from a congressman about some bill they're supporting, or the Department of Education announcing an investigation into alleged antisemitic discrimination on campus, or the State Department naming businesses being punished for their involvement with breaking the sanctions against Iran. I might also find myself writing about hate crime investigations and prosecutions.

But it's not all doom and gloom. Sometimes I'm assigned good news to write about, too! For instance, sometimes I get to interview people like Alan Dershowitz or Orthodox Jewish comedians. Or I might be asked to write about a Jewish celebrity, like Adam Sandler or Gal Gadot, and something neat they're doing. Did you know Gadot invested in a mac and cheese business? It’s called Goodles, and they include lines of vegan and Kosher products.

Those are the best days—when my work is mapped out for me first thing, and I can just knock out one article after another.

But not all days are like that.

Some days, my editor hasn't had time to find the stories that he wants me to write up. So instead, it'll be on me to go out and hunt for things to write about. I'll go through my dozens of Google Alerts on key topics and people of note. I'll check through a bunch of different news websites. I'll hear from PR people and organizations’ communications folks pitching me on stories they'd like to see covered. I'll have YouTube and HBOMax's CNN livestream up regularly on the TV, checking to see if there's anything big and breaking that might have a Jewish angle.

Worst of all, though, I'll have to see what people are talking about on that evil website formerly known as Twitter. I'll search for what people are saying about the subjects of antisemitism and Jews—and let me tell you, it's pretty damn gross most of the time. It’ll just be a little army of Happy Merchant memes on parade.

Some days, I could be in for hours and hours of this "hunting for briefs": finding little items and then pitching them to my editor to see if he's interested.

Most weeks, these two sorts of days will vary up. But unfortunately, this past week, I’ve had work days almost entirely of the latter variety. Rather than focusing on one article after another, I’ve had to immerse myself in taking in media from all over the web. I may as well be drinking poison all day.

And one message has come in loud and clear from this overdose of media this week. It's a refrain that I certainly know well, but which try not to think about very much:

They hate us out here in California.

Now, I'm not saying everyone outside of California hates us. I know they don't. But a whole lot of people certainly do. And we see it in the widely varying reactions to the horrendous LA wildfires that still rage 160 miles away from us in Yucca Valley, where we live near the entrance of Joshua Tree National Park. For days, we’ve felt the intensity of the Santa Ana winds responsible for spreading the flames. Three times our power has gone out for at least two hours, apparently a preventive measure so the electric company can check to ensure no damage. And our town is strained to the point of overflow with frightened people fleeing the devastation a couple of hours to the west.

In writing about antisemitism all day for almost two years now, the expression that I’ve returned to over and over to describe the emotions of seeing one act of hate after another has hit home yet again: Not surprised, still shocked. It’s become a mantra of sorts.

And now it also applies to the way in which many people outside of the state have chosen to react to this devastation.

The argument promulgated endlessly through all forms of media seems to go something like this:

The reason why the wildfires have gotten so bad is because of the incompetence and stupidity of California's liberal political leaders like Gov. Gavin Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass!

And why does California have incompetent and stupid leaders who are too liberal? Because we as Californians are apparently too liberal, incompetent, and stupid too.

We have elected leaders who failed us because we’re naïve idiots who didn't know any better. Thus, we are now reaping what we’ve sown. We do not deserve anyone's sympathy—or federal assistance—since we are apparently to blame for what has happened to us.

It's the middle of a national disaster, and people want to play politics. They want to blame those they already hate. Why not just kick their usual scapegoat? Everything wrong in the world is just the liberals’ fault!

Of course, there are people of other ideologies who want to bang the drum for their issues of choice. I'm sorry, left-wing folks, but how about you pick another time to let loose with your usual histrionic lectures about climate change and how those not obsessed with it aren’t as moral as you are? And this is California we're talking about. You're preaching to the choir.

Would you like to take a guess what the Islamists are saying? According to them, these fires represent some kind of divine justice: retribution for the United States' support of Israel. Yes, the Jews are to blame. Christian Nationalists' response mirrors the Islamist radicals: God is supposedly striking down vengeance because LA is too tolerant of trans people and there are too many gay people here.

And, of course, there are the conspiracists suggesting that the government intentionally started the fire, or that a foreign entity paid homeless people to do it.

But the overall message from many people is clear: We don't like your liberal politics, we don't like your secular, multicultural “alternative lifestyles,” and we don't like your arrogant Hollywood celebrities telling us how to live, so fuck you. You all can just burn. Lost your million-dollar house? Well, too bad! Don't vote Democrat next time! That’ll teach them America-hating libtards!

This is America today. Political polarization has grown so intense that people can choose to mock and insult Californians as their houses burn down, as people die, as they fear for their lives and lose all of their worldly possessions.

So is it any wonder why many of us choose to live in California, away from all those people East of the Rockies who apparently hate us so much they're happy to see us die?

Is it any wonder that so many people have been so eager to move West over the last 200 years, in spite of the cost and difficulty in doing so? When so many of the cultural tendencies of Eastern cultures are so oriented around cruelty and hatred of "the other?"

People in the rest of the country hate California and those of us who live here because this state has become a refutation of the cultures and values that so many cling to so desperately. California is the wealthiest state in the country—indeed, ours is the world's fifth-largest economy. California is the cultural leader, having churned out the movies and TV shows which dominate the world for a century now. It is the technological leader, responsible for the personal computers, smart phones, internet, and all those websites so many of us are addicted to, whether in states red, blue, or purple.

And we're not majority white, nor is fundamentalist Christianity dictating the shots in our communities. California shows what can happen when differing cultures and ethnicities come together to innovate and to build what did not exist before.

Our state is a success—a massive success—and because of that, we are hated by those whose states are poorer and whose cultures have not produced great value that has transformed the planet.

And so, to those who hate our state, who laugh and preen while our people suffer a great national disaster, there's only one thing to say:

Go fuck yourselves, because we're not going anywhere.

LA will rebuild, and it'll continue being one of the few great cities on the planet.

California is going to keep creating more wealth, more technology, and more culture, and there isn't a damn thing you can do about it.

We're going to keep existing, standing as a perpetual middle finger, reminding the rest of America and the whole world of the value that can be created when a state nurtures the individual rather than demanding submission to the collective, when it values diverse perspectives rather than a straight, white, patriarchal, Christian-fundamentalist mono-culture.

I'll say it again, to all those mocking and crowing and pushing your cookie cutter culture: Go fuck yourselves.

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