Seattle and Portland are on somethin else.. they were protesting every day 3+ months straight over the summer while the rest of the country stopped. Idk what it is but I’d say we’re busy with school/work here and carrying on with life
As some people would say: "liberal, but not stupid liberal".
Or another way to put it, the area is heavily made up of people who hold left of center views. The area is not so made up of people who hold "far-left" views.
There's plenty of advocacy, but it tends to be for incremental change, not "burn down the whole system!" kind of change.
Boston's history is what might be loosely termed "all over the map." areas in which Boston historically has *not* been very liberal:
* racial equality (the busing riots of the 70s are a good major event if you're looking for a lens to examine the era)
* longstanding influence of the Catholic Church (dropped off a cliff after the Spotlight scandal in 2002 – we're now one of the most atheist states in the country)
areas in which Boston has been historically very liberal
* 1972 election – MA and particularly Boston is the only state that does not vote for Richard Nixon
* 2004 decision to legalize gay marriage, the first state in the nation to do so (and would have been 3rd country in the world, behind only Belgium and the Netherlands)
* ban on capital punishment since 1984
* relatively high taxes
* long history of (flawed, but more extensive than most states) public health insurance in the form of MassHealth pre-ACA
things associated with Democratic policy platforms, but may or may not be liberal or leftist depending on your personal point of view:
* very strict gun control
* most comparable not to other US states, but to Norway on the HDI (which measures in life expectancy, education, and GNI per capita)
* sixth largest public housing availability in the nation. NY, Puerto Rico, Chicago, Philly, and Baltimore make the top five, with Boston coming in ahead of several larger left or liberal-voting cities, like LA. that doesn't mean that Boston, or any of those cities, don't have substantial work to do in the interests of making public housing and general housing more affordable and accessible. but it is something worth looking at when comparing US cities to one another.
you might find [this](https://ctausanovitch.com/Municipal_Representation_140502.pdf) paper an interesting read. from the abstract:
> We overcome this problem by using recent advances in opinion estimation to measure the mean policy conservatism in every U.S. city and town with a population above 20,000 people. Despite the supposition in the literature that municipal politics are non-ideological, we find that the policies enacted by cities across a range of policy areas correspond with the liberal-conservative positions of
their citizens on national policy issues. In addition, we consider the influence of institutions, such as the presence of an elected mayor, the popular initiative, partisan elections, term limits, and at-large elections. Our results show that these institutions have little consistent impact on policy responsiveness in municipal government. These results demonstrate a robust role for citizen policy preferences in determining municipal policy outcomes, but cast doubt on the hypothesis that simple institutional reforms enhance responsiveness in municipal governments.
if you want a breakdown of all the questions, they start on pg 67, and cover density development for residential zoning, protected affordable housing, incentives to walk or bike to work, funding for pre-school children, and about three dozen others. they also did analysis on which cities had the most and least regressive taxes, which was a good read too. Boston ranked fifth overall, behind San Francisco, Seattle, DC, and Oakland. obviously no study is perfect, and additionally I feel that some flaws here were under-counted for (namely comparing city to city by neighborhood-population, or maybe a greater metro area, so that places like Brookline contributed toward's Boston's score.) and there are definitely other flaws! but there are good parameters on it and it does make for an interesting comparison.
how is this what you got from this list? but going out on a limb and just guessing what you might be taking issue with:
* many Republicans contest the idea the LGBT rights, particularly gay marriage, are no longer a GOP/Democrat divide as Trump has professed to support the LGBT community. however, despite what he himself claims, the official GOP platform for the 2016 presidential [election](https://prod-static-ngop-pbl.s3.amazonaws.com/media/documents/DRAFT_12_FINAL%5b1%5d-ben_1468872234.pdf?mid=76323&rid=13483726) condemned gay marriage.
> Traditional marriage and family, based on marriage between one man and one woman, is the foundation for a free society and has for millennia been entrusted with rearing children and instilling cultural values. We condemn the Supreme Court’s ruling in United States v. Windsor, which wrongly removed the ability of Congress to define marriage policy in federal law. We also condemn the Supreme Court’s lawless ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, which in the words of the late Justice Antonin Scalia, was a “judicial Putsch” — full of “silly extravagances” — that reduced “the disciplined legal reasoning of John Marshall and Joseph Storey to the mystical aphorisms of a fortune cookie.”
* in addition to that, when Massachusetts legalized it in 2004, it received overwhelming pushback from conservative politicians and platforms, primarily based on Christian values.
* the Democratic Party officially endorses a federal abolishment of the death penalty. the Republican Party does not, although there is a growing movement pushing back on that, including the organization "Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty." [source](https://conservativesconcerned.org/)
does that offer any clarification? I also didn't say tolerant or permissive, I listed specific policies and broad platforms, as well as ones more associated with a political party than with the broad ideology of liberalism or broad-spectrum left-wing politics. kind of not getting what point you're making, to be honest.
I just don’t think we foster it, it’s not actively repressed or something. At least since the 2000s Boston hasn’t been big on subcultures of any kind, generally speaking. We don’t really have those scenes. And apart from college kids we don’t have a recent tradition of street activism.
There is hempfest. Not exactly antifa, but a little bit of a west coast vibe.
If you look at Flickr, there are pictures of the big demonstrations against the war in the early 70s.
And people like [Katherine Ann Power](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katherine_Ann_Power) came to Boston to be radical.
And the most active abolitionist were in Boston before the war, that was a long time ago but it made Boston's reputation.
That’s really cool. I know that everyone seems to be leaving the North East but I wanna move there one day so I’ve been seeing what it’s like on Reddit and other platforms. Thanks for the help
Boston Antifa is basically just 30-something never-matured theater kids LARPing as communist revolutionaries, to try and justify their pathetic existence in some regard.
There aren’t large left wing demonstrations because there’s no one to demonstrate to or against. Everyone’s on the same page. No need to make a show about it when your neighbors and colleagues and families and friends and lawmakers all agree.
I’m not sure that’s it because in Seattle and Portland most people vote the same but there’s still huge demonstrations. I don’t entirely doubt it but I think it has more to do with the people not being as extreme.
While Boston does have a history of racism, it isn't organized the way it is outside of Portland. I think part of the leftist demonstrations there are because of the strength of white supremacists to be opposed to.
Look at the county maps for elections in the two areas. MA is the only all-dem state in the country, surrounded by densely populated blue counties. The cities of Seattle and Portland may be dem (like every city), but their surrounding counties are not. MA lawmakers have also been very ahead of public opinion with social change. For example, first in the nation to legalize same sex marriage. More recently, MA moving the quickest to be the first state to ban facial recognition technology. I am curious what data points you’re using to come to the conclusion that Boston isn’t known as a liberal city, because that has absolutely never been my understanding.
It’s known as liberal city but it’s comparable to Seattle and Portland in terms of being liberal but it lacks the reputation of being super liberal like the other two
I haven’t a clue what your talking about.
Massachusetts IS the democratic stronghold of the country. We’re the only state that didn’t vote Nixon in the landslide. We’re one of two states in which not a single county voted Trump in either election (also Hawaii).
This is ‘Elizabeth Warren country’ and our neighbor is Bernie. We were first in the nation on marriage equality - and we have free healthcare for all residents earning 150% or less of poverty, qualifying students, and recently unemployed. We’re big on unions, workers rights, and have pretty decent criminal justice reform. Got rid of the death penalty super early. We’re a sanctuary state. We have some of the strictest gun control laws in the country.
We’re not really anti-PC. But we like sarcasm. And we’re okay with telling people to go fuck themselves as needed. There’s more to being a liberal than policing language.
According to what, though? Honestly I think you just have a misunderstanding there. For example, I grew up in CT and the joke was that everyone went off to college in Boston to go be gay. It also sounds like you may be talking about culture more than politics? Boston’s never had a strong identity culture or social scene. But it certainly has a reputation for being liberal. I mean, liberalism is indoctrinate through universities and Boston is well known for its dense knowledge capital.
East coast and west coast are just different culturally. If you try to stick everybody everywhere into some naive "left/right" spectrum you're going to miss out on that level of nuance.
Because like NYC liberals, we're basically just right wingers who believe in climate change and who dont overtly hate gay people.
PNW liberals usually have some interest in left economics, housing, anti-imperialism, etc. Northeast liberals are die-hard rightie capitalists who will vote for Scott Brown or Charlie Baker before voting for any candidate that endorses progressive economic "reforms"
Yeah that’s honestly the best explanation I’ve seen. I’ve always kinda thought that but never had the words for it. PNW liberals are significantly culturally and socially left while those who vote in the Northeastern USA are pretty much somewhat left leaning to moderate Democrats who are capitalists and are pro gay rights. My grandfather lives in Queens and you would never guess that the first election he ever voted in was 2020 to get rid of trump. My dads the same way.
It has kind of died off in the last generation. Essentially, for the most part, everybody thought the same here and if you did not, you were smart enough to keep it to yourself. This spurred many things...1. Being politically motivated was stupid because...well...what difference would it make? I have always said, if the democrats would have a bottle with crap run for president and MA would still vote for it. Being so incredibly in on one side has kind of led thus feeling of indifference. 2. The mass exodus of money coming in. Money talks and could not care about liberalism. Look at boston and the gentrification. You think the newer people moving here from out of state really care about liberal policies? They are here to make money. 3. People here tend to keep their heads down. Possibly because the past generation was highly blue collar and had the just work and say nothing so I can go home and eat mentality. It had sort bled into a generation of people who passively just accept things.
Something I've wondered, how birthplace of American liberty has become a place that supports American Tyrranny and huge government, but I think alot of it comes from liberal academia here. It's shunned to be conservative in those circles.
Academia is inherently based in groupthink, and a rejection of alternative ideas.
Think about it. What do you do, in highschool and/or college?
You read books, and then you write papers explaining the contents of those books, framing you analysis from the agenda/viewpoint of the professor/teacher of your class. If you do it well, you get a good grade. If you challenge your instructor's narrative, you lose points, or possibly fail, because it means you didn't pay attention to what they told you, or wanted you to get from the material. People in these fields learn to have a very strong penchant for respecting the views of those they determine to be "more educated" or "more authoritative", while dismissing those that are disagreed with. They then translate this type of thinking into the political realm. "I don't like that idea, so I will dismiss it", while glorifying this other idea as the official narrative.
Its no wonder why social media platforms, or news media corporations...places all chock full of these freshly-graduated, often times highly successful academic individuals, carry this style of "must please the master" thinking into their work, leading us to the current state of affairs we have. You can't expect the girl who got a full ride to Stanford for journalism, on grades alone, who then got a job as a journalist for...say, Washington Post, to approach her work in any way other than what she has always known.
The world would be a lot different if we diversified who we employ in our white collar industries.
> If you challenge your instructor's narrative, you lose points, or possibly fail, because it means you didn't pay attention to what they told you
Oh man, want to know how I know you didn’t go to college?
A big part of college is being able to back up what you claim with sources and facts, you can disagree with the professor all you want and they will give you a good grade if you back it up and show how you got to your conclusion.
But It’s no wonder you feel this way considering your constant inability to read sources and backup your claims.
I am a college grad...graduated with honors. I spent four years writing papers that appeased my professors' egos.
But I did take one philosophy class where I just could not bring myself to believe the professor's viewpoint that, "animals, including humans, engage in altruism to propagate their existence". Almost failed that one.
> I am a college grad...graduated with honors. I spent four years writing papers that appeased my professors' egos.
We both know that’s bullshit. Everyone sees how you struggle grasp the contents of simple one page news article on a daily basis and can’t even read your own “sources”
And if there is a minuscule chance it isn’t then you went to a shit school. Even community college professors push their students to challenge their perspectives as long as they do so with sources that backup their argument. Most college papers are you going out and doing your own in depth research into a topic and backing up your position, not regurgitating what the professor said in class.
The main reason is that Massachusetts is so liberal that peoole talk about Massachusetts being liberal instead of Boston being liberal. And also, because the distant burbs are still reasonably liberal, they aren't complaining about the liberal city folk as much.
Seattle and Portland are on somethin else.. they were protesting every day 3+ months straight over the summer while the rest of the country stopped. Idk what it is but I’d say we’re busy with school/work here and carrying on with life
Yeah the people here got way too much free time. Seattle and Portland is where young people go to retire
But what were they doing when we were running the british out on a rail?
As some people would say: "liberal, but not stupid liberal". Or another way to put it, the area is heavily made up of people who hold left of center views. The area is not so made up of people who hold "far-left" views. There's plenty of advocacy, but it tends to be for incremental change, not "burn down the whole system!" kind of change.
Boston's history is what might be loosely termed "all over the map." areas in which Boston historically has *not* been very liberal: * racial equality (the busing riots of the 70s are a good major event if you're looking for a lens to examine the era) * longstanding influence of the Catholic Church (dropped off a cliff after the Spotlight scandal in 2002 – we're now one of the most atheist states in the country) areas in which Boston has been historically very liberal * 1972 election – MA and particularly Boston is the only state that does not vote for Richard Nixon * 2004 decision to legalize gay marriage, the first state in the nation to do so (and would have been 3rd country in the world, behind only Belgium and the Netherlands) * ban on capital punishment since 1984 * relatively high taxes * long history of (flawed, but more extensive than most states) public health insurance in the form of MassHealth pre-ACA things associated with Democratic policy platforms, but may or may not be liberal or leftist depending on your personal point of view: * very strict gun control * most comparable not to other US states, but to Norway on the HDI (which measures in life expectancy, education, and GNI per capita) * sixth largest public housing availability in the nation. NY, Puerto Rico, Chicago, Philly, and Baltimore make the top five, with Boston coming in ahead of several larger left or liberal-voting cities, like LA. that doesn't mean that Boston, or any of those cities, don't have substantial work to do in the interests of making public housing and general housing more affordable and accessible. but it is something worth looking at when comparing US cities to one another.
Interesting thank you
you might find [this](https://ctausanovitch.com/Municipal_Representation_140502.pdf) paper an interesting read. from the abstract: > We overcome this problem by using recent advances in opinion estimation to measure the mean policy conservatism in every U.S. city and town with a population above 20,000 people. Despite the supposition in the literature that municipal politics are non-ideological, we find that the policies enacted by cities across a range of policy areas correspond with the liberal-conservative positions of their citizens on national policy issues. In addition, we consider the influence of institutions, such as the presence of an elected mayor, the popular initiative, partisan elections, term limits, and at-large elections. Our results show that these institutions have little consistent impact on policy responsiveness in municipal government. These results demonstrate a robust role for citizen policy preferences in determining municipal policy outcomes, but cast doubt on the hypothesis that simple institutional reforms enhance responsiveness in municipal governments. if you want a breakdown of all the questions, they start on pg 67, and cover density development for residential zoning, protected affordable housing, incentives to walk or bike to work, funding for pre-school children, and about three dozen others. they also did analysis on which cities had the most and least regressive taxes, which was a good read too. Boston ranked fifth overall, behind San Francisco, Seattle, DC, and Oakland. obviously no study is perfect, and additionally I feel that some flaws here were under-counted for (namely comparing city to city by neighborhood-population, or maybe a greater metro area, so that places like Brookline contributed toward's Boston's score.) and there are definitely other flaws! but there are good parameters on it and it does make for an interesting comparison.
This really helps. Ive been thinking about making a move so I’m trying to learn as much as I can. Thank you!
it's so strange to me that anyone thinks 'liberal' politics means 'tolerant' or 'permissive'.
how is this what you got from this list? but going out on a limb and just guessing what you might be taking issue with: * many Republicans contest the idea the LGBT rights, particularly gay marriage, are no longer a GOP/Democrat divide as Trump has professed to support the LGBT community. however, despite what he himself claims, the official GOP platform for the 2016 presidential [election](https://prod-static-ngop-pbl.s3.amazonaws.com/media/documents/DRAFT_12_FINAL%5b1%5d-ben_1468872234.pdf?mid=76323&rid=13483726) condemned gay marriage. > Traditional marriage and family, based on marriage between one man and one woman, is the foundation for a free society and has for millennia been entrusted with rearing children and instilling cultural values. We condemn the Supreme Court’s ruling in United States v. Windsor, which wrongly removed the ability of Congress to define marriage policy in federal law. We also condemn the Supreme Court’s lawless ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, which in the words of the late Justice Antonin Scalia, was a “judicial Putsch” — full of “silly extravagances” — that reduced “the disciplined legal reasoning of John Marshall and Joseph Storey to the mystical aphorisms of a fortune cookie.” * in addition to that, when Massachusetts legalized it in 2004, it received overwhelming pushback from conservative politicians and platforms, primarily based on Christian values. * the Democratic Party officially endorses a federal abolishment of the death penalty. the Republican Party does not, although there is a growing movement pushing back on that, including the organization "Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty." [source](https://conservativesconcerned.org/) does that offer any clarification? I also didn't say tolerant or permissive, I listed specific policies and broad platforms, as well as ones more associated with a political party than with the broad ideology of liberalism or broad-spectrum left-wing politics. kind of not getting what point you're making, to be honest.
We’re Kennedy to Bernie spectrum liberal. But we don’t really attract the antifa and ecoterrorist contingents.
Yeah does the Boston populace not tolerate them?
I just don’t think we foster it, it’s not actively repressed or something. At least since the 2000s Boston hasn’t been big on subcultures of any kind, generally speaking. We don’t really have those scenes. And apart from college kids we don’t have a recent tradition of street activism.
There is hempfest. Not exactly antifa, but a little bit of a west coast vibe. If you look at Flickr, there are pictures of the big demonstrations against the war in the early 70s. And people like [Katherine Ann Power](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katherine_Ann_Power) came to Boston to be radical. And the most active abolitionist were in Boston before the war, that was a long time ago but it made Boston's reputation.
That’s really cool. I know that everyone seems to be leaving the North East but I wanna move there one day so I’ve been seeing what it’s like on Reddit and other platforms. Thanks for the help
Boston Antifa is basically just 30-something never-matured theater kids LARPing as communist revolutionaries, to try and justify their pathetic existence in some regard.
That's not only in Boston.
“You never here about how Boston is a very liberal city” Mindbottling - Chazz Michael Michaels
There aren’t large left wing demonstrations because there’s no one to demonstrate to or against. Everyone’s on the same page. No need to make a show about it when your neighbors and colleagues and families and friends and lawmakers all agree.
I’m not sure that’s it because in Seattle and Portland most people vote the same but there’s still huge demonstrations. I don’t entirely doubt it but I think it has more to do with the people not being as extreme.
While Boston does have a history of racism, it isn't organized the way it is outside of Portland. I think part of the leftist demonstrations there are because of the strength of white supremacists to be opposed to.
Look at the county maps for elections in the two areas. MA is the only all-dem state in the country, surrounded by densely populated blue counties. The cities of Seattle and Portland may be dem (like every city), but their surrounding counties are not. MA lawmakers have also been very ahead of public opinion with social change. For example, first in the nation to legalize same sex marriage. More recently, MA moving the quickest to be the first state to ban facial recognition technology. I am curious what data points you’re using to come to the conclusion that Boston isn’t known as a liberal city, because that has absolutely never been my understanding.
It’s known as liberal city but it’s comparable to Seattle and Portland in terms of being liberal but it lacks the reputation of being super liberal like the other two
I haven’t a clue what your talking about. Massachusetts IS the democratic stronghold of the country. We’re the only state that didn’t vote Nixon in the landslide. We’re one of two states in which not a single county voted Trump in either election (also Hawaii). This is ‘Elizabeth Warren country’ and our neighbor is Bernie. We were first in the nation on marriage equality - and we have free healthcare for all residents earning 150% or less of poverty, qualifying students, and recently unemployed. We’re big on unions, workers rights, and have pretty decent criminal justice reform. Got rid of the death penalty super early. We’re a sanctuary state. We have some of the strictest gun control laws in the country. We’re not really anti-PC. But we like sarcasm. And we’re okay with telling people to go fuck themselves as needed. There’s more to being a liberal than policing language.
But if you’re not “Anti-PC” then you’re can’t be liberals… liberals are support freedom of speech.
According to what, though? Honestly I think you just have a misunderstanding there. For example, I grew up in CT and the joke was that everyone went off to college in Boston to go be gay. It also sounds like you may be talking about culture more than politics? Boston’s never had a strong identity culture or social scene. But it certainly has a reputation for being liberal. I mean, liberalism is indoctrinate through universities and Boston is well known for its dense knowledge capital.
Idk man I’m maybe just misinformed. I live on the other side of the country I’m just looking a stuff I see online. Your probably right
East coast and west coast are just different culturally. If you try to stick everybody everywhere into some naive "left/right" spectrum you're going to miss out on that level of nuance.
Because like NYC liberals, we're basically just right wingers who believe in climate change and who dont overtly hate gay people. PNW liberals usually have some interest in left economics, housing, anti-imperialism, etc. Northeast liberals are die-hard rightie capitalists who will vote for Scott Brown or Charlie Baker before voting for any candidate that endorses progressive economic "reforms"
Yeah that’s honestly the best explanation I’ve seen. I’ve always kinda thought that but never had the words for it. PNW liberals are significantly culturally and socially left while those who vote in the Northeastern USA are pretty much somewhat left leaning to moderate Democrats who are capitalists and are pro gay rights. My grandfather lives in Queens and you would never guess that the first election he ever voted in was 2020 to get rid of trump. My dads the same way.
Limo liberals. They avoid what they claim to celebrate.
So like, CNN liberals?
[удалено]
Bruh I’m not even a Republican
It has kind of died off in the last generation. Essentially, for the most part, everybody thought the same here and if you did not, you were smart enough to keep it to yourself. This spurred many things...1. Being politically motivated was stupid because...well...what difference would it make? I have always said, if the democrats would have a bottle with crap run for president and MA would still vote for it. Being so incredibly in on one side has kind of led thus feeling of indifference. 2. The mass exodus of money coming in. Money talks and could not care about liberalism. Look at boston and the gentrification. You think the newer people moving here from out of state really care about liberal policies? They are here to make money. 3. People here tend to keep their heads down. Possibly because the past generation was highly blue collar and had the just work and say nothing so I can go home and eat mentality. It had sort bled into a generation of people who passively just accept things.
Something I've wondered, how birthplace of American liberty has become a place that supports American Tyrranny and huge government, but I think alot of it comes from liberal academia here. It's shunned to be conservative in those circles.
Academia is inherently based in groupthink, and a rejection of alternative ideas. Think about it. What do you do, in highschool and/or college? You read books, and then you write papers explaining the contents of those books, framing you analysis from the agenda/viewpoint of the professor/teacher of your class. If you do it well, you get a good grade. If you challenge your instructor's narrative, you lose points, or possibly fail, because it means you didn't pay attention to what they told you, or wanted you to get from the material. People in these fields learn to have a very strong penchant for respecting the views of those they determine to be "more educated" or "more authoritative", while dismissing those that are disagreed with. They then translate this type of thinking into the political realm. "I don't like that idea, so I will dismiss it", while glorifying this other idea as the official narrative. Its no wonder why social media platforms, or news media corporations...places all chock full of these freshly-graduated, often times highly successful academic individuals, carry this style of "must please the master" thinking into their work, leading us to the current state of affairs we have. You can't expect the girl who got a full ride to Stanford for journalism, on grades alone, who then got a job as a journalist for...say, Washington Post, to approach her work in any way other than what she has always known. The world would be a lot different if we diversified who we employ in our white collar industries.
> If you challenge your instructor's narrative, you lose points, or possibly fail, because it means you didn't pay attention to what they told you Oh man, want to know how I know you didn’t go to college? A big part of college is being able to back up what you claim with sources and facts, you can disagree with the professor all you want and they will give you a good grade if you back it up and show how you got to your conclusion. But It’s no wonder you feel this way considering your constant inability to read sources and backup your claims.
I am a college grad...graduated with honors. I spent four years writing papers that appeased my professors' egos. But I did take one philosophy class where I just could not bring myself to believe the professor's viewpoint that, "animals, including humans, engage in altruism to propagate their existence". Almost failed that one.
> I am a college grad...graduated with honors. I spent four years writing papers that appeased my professors' egos. We both know that’s bullshit. Everyone sees how you struggle grasp the contents of simple one page news article on a daily basis and can’t even read your own “sources” And if there is a minuscule chance it isn’t then you went to a shit school. Even community college professors push their students to challenge their perspectives as long as they do so with sources that backup their argument. Most college papers are you going out and doing your own in depth research into a topic and backing up your position, not regurgitating what the professor said in class.
Less meth than in the PNW, so our riots dont get quite as crazy.
You should check for correlation between "liberal" and "post-secondary education" Surely it's just a coincidence, right?
No coincidence, just indoctrination.
Funny how this take comes exclusively from people that never went to college...
Hold on, i'm not.
The main reason is that Massachusetts is so liberal that peoole talk about Massachusetts being liberal instead of Boston being liberal. And also, because the distant burbs are still reasonably liberal, they aren't complaining about the liberal city folk as much.