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Listen, I love pretension just as much as the next guy. I’ll munch on some caviar if it’s available. I’ll listen to Chet Baker or Miles Davis in my living room unironically and I’m not afraid to send back a bottle of Pinot Noir if it’s not to my liking.
Upper-middle-class activities are a delight to my delicate sensibilities. I could talk your ear off for hours about croquet strategy and proper gamesmanship while you’re on the lawn if you allow me to do so. And if you have ever read something that I’ve written before, you know that I love to rip on things. It’s a big part of my personality.
I was in my bed last night and couldn’t get to sleep. I fell into a rabbit hole on Twitter of people who work in media out in L.A., and what I came to find was that they’re all fucking dickheads solely because they live there. None of these people are particularly successful, but it’s clear from their tweets that they believe themselves to be a part of some higher stratosphere of society than anyone who doesn’t live in or around the Hollywood hills.
When I look at a city like Los Angeles, I can tell that what it means to be pretentious out there is a totally different definition than what it means out here in the midwest or on the east coast.
I follow several people on Twitter from the great state of California and they all seem to have a particular air of snobbishness that I can’t quite pin down.
Take a look at someone’s Instagram that currently resides in L.A. I’m talking about the Instagram “models” I rail against on a frequent basis, of course. From the looks of things out there, the only activities available are hiking, sitting next to a pool, and drinking wheatgrass all whilst paying for crazy surge pricing on Uber.
It’s especially true of the people I follow and know personally that live in L.A. They’re just different in the way that they tear people down and discuss their disdain for things.
In theory, L.A. should be a perfect place for a person such as myself. There’s nothing I love to do more than tear people down and make fun of things that I don’t find particularly interesting. I love to hate on people, activities, and shit that is popular because it’s fun for me and it really gets a visceral reaction out of people. That seems to be what people in L.A. love to do as well, except for they do it in a different way.
In Los Angeles, you have to at least pretend that you’re working in show business or in digital media. You have to identify yourself as a tastemaker in L.A. because that’s where things pick up speed and become popular.
The attitude I seem to get from native Los Angeleans and transplants who live there is simple – “I’m better than you because I live in L.A.” And from what I can tell there really isn’t any other reason why people think they’re better than you. It’s a level of pretension that I don’t see anywhere else in the country.
Even in New York City, you’ll hear a lot of people saying things like, “Yeah, [insert smaller city they are visiting for the weekend here] is great, but it’s not New York, you know?”
Why anyone would want to live in L.A. if they weren’t a successful actor is beyond me. I see people on social media yearning to leave wherever it is they live at the moment and take a weekend vacation to fucking L.A. But why? There’s nothing there except movie sets and shitty people.
They hate sports, Southern Cal has no real personality when it comes to seasonal weather (it’s the same forecast pretty much year around), and everyone is a narcissistic asshole looking out for themselves and no one else.
I may have just inadvertently convinced myself to move to L.A.
I may have just one too many beers with my lunch just now.
Guess I won’t know if I really like it out in Van Nuys or Hollywood until I try it though, right? .
Image via Unsplash
Respond
jduda@grandex.co
LA is the most overrated city in the country. Smog, traffic, no public transportation, and shitty sports fans. And unlike New York and Chicago, there are way better places to live in close proximity. San Diego, San Luis Obispo, and Santa Barbara are all 1000% better than that concrete shithole.
LA’s metro/light rail ran on the “honor system” until 2012 because they wanted to encourage people to use it. They didn’t.
SD is hands down the best city in California. Santa Barbara and SLO…I’m not convinced those are that great past college
Santa Barbara as a post grad is great once you get outside the Isla Vista area. There’s really great wine tasting downtown, and tasting room hopping is a great way to catch a nice day drinking buzz
Even though it kicks a lot of ass, let’s not overlook the fact that “the Funk Zone” is a terrible, terrible name.
My Mom lives there and loves the name, which is all the evidence I need
For those of us who don’t live in California, I would guess that we use “LA” to mean “Everything in CA that’s between San Fran and San Diego.”
That would be like someone saying that Minneapolis, St. Paul, Madison, and Detroit are all “Chicago”
Those all sound about the same to me
“None of these people are particularly successful, but it’s clear from their tweets that they believe themselves to be a part of some higher stratosphere of society than anyone who doesn’t live in or around the Hollywood hills.”
Now replace “Hollywood hills” with “Capital Hill” and you exactly describe my feelings about people in DC.
Well DC is just LA for ugly people.
*People without cosmetic surgery*
Your outfits are certifiably #theworst
He looks like a Silverlake resident
I think everyone, everywhere is the worst. Guys, it’s time to put all of our nuclear weapons to good use and just take out the entire planet. If the “illuminated” ones in our society keep saying “He/She’s in a better place now” after they die then wouldn’t that suggest that we’re all going to be in a better place when we die? I’ve done DMT, I’ve seen what dying is like and it’s pretty wild stuff. Everyone is a piece of shit in one form or another at one point or many points in their lives yet they always seem to be going to “better places” regardless. Let’s all migrate over to this better place everyone who has no idea about it keeps talking about…the first person who says “you first”, probably lives in LA which should be the epicenter for when humanity combusts itself, our you’re from middle America and the fact that you wouldn’t agree with me just blows my mind after I spent 5 minutes there. Lol. I love you
Perfect weather, beautiful women and a deep and unyielding social pressure to be unbelievably healthy. What’s not to love?
“If I got to choose a coast I got to choose the East, I live out there, so don’t go there
But that don’t mean a “playa” can’t rest in the West, see some nice breast in the West, some nice sess in the West, y’all “playas” is a mess thinking I’m gon stop, giving LA props” – the great philosopher Biggie summed it up well for me
My uncle moved to LA at 50 and started saying Hella.
Thanks for ruining Thanksgiving, LA.
that’s a norcal thing…
^can confirm it’s a NorCal thing. Might as well be another state. Your Uncle sounds like turd
Born and raised in LA. Every city has its own flavor of douchebag, you just get used to a certain type after a while.
Duda ripping on things vs Duda ripping heaters. Can’t decide
I’d love to hear Duda’s take on San Francisco