My experience: A conservative with a week in the Bay Area.

I went to the Bay Area for a week to spend some time with some friends of mine from high school. They moved there to work in the tech industry. I was fully prepared to enter the belly of the beast, the place I was always warned about for being the ground zero of progressive fascism.

Granted, most of my time was spent an hour outside of San Francisco. I really only spent a day there and a day in Oakland. Here’s a couple of tidbits from my time:

1. The people who drive there do not give a frick. Seriously. If you drive the speed limit, be prepared to get honks and stares. I’m pretty sure there’s no such thing as a speeding ticket. Traffic is pretty comparable to Dallas, minus the no speeding tickets.

2. The majority of people you will encounter will be Latino origin. You can speak no English and live there 100% comfortably. Spanish is everywhere. This is more so than East Texas.

3. The weather is 45-65 degrees in May (this is irrelevant to politics, but it was a noted contrast to my Louisiana life).

4. The homeless population I witnessed wasn’t much different from New Orleans (granted, I didn’t spend too much time in the city, so I’m sure I missed a ton. This is only what I saw).

5. Gas is $5.85-6.30 a gallon. Groceries are pretty comparable to Louisiana. An 1,800 square foot house built in the 1940’s in a solid neighborhood will cost you $1.5-2 million.

6. From where I was, I saw no political activism. I only saw one book store with a sale outside. There, I witnessed two anti-Trump books for sale.

7. There isn’t many overweight/obese people. At all. (Being from Louisiana, this is fairly uncommon).

8. Most of the people were very friendly. I didn’t have anyone act rudely towards me or ask me about anything political when they figured out I was from the south. Everyone was extremely nice and they will greet you back when you say “good morning, or hello”.

9. Most people, outside of the city, at least, are normal working-class citizens just trying to make a living to provide for their families. Ones I spoke with did say it was very hard in a place that costs so much to live. Overall, I had a great time and saw some great scenery. I would go back.


The moral of my story is, don’t get so lost in what the news says. My family tried like hell to tell me not go because they basically thought there’s a damn civil war going on in California because of the progressives who live there. That’s what too much Facebook and Fox News can do for you.

All news stations and media outlets report the extremes and create inflammatory stories for one thing. PROFIT. It’s in their financial best interest to divide us and keep us divided. They are for-profit companies owned by rich business men.

Most people in this country are JUST LIKE US. They’re trying to mind the law and raise their families. I’m a Trump supporting conservative, but I was able to go over there and have a great time while bonding with some great locals I met.

Unplug from the news a little bit if you feel overwhelmed by what’s going on. It’s their job to make you feel that way.