Texas: makes fun of Californians who constantly preach about inequality; creates a pretty equal, egalitarian society that most citizens feel comfortable in.
Perhaps there's a substantive point to be made about California and Texas, but flat-out tribal/ideological provocation is the opposite of that, and not ok here.
> I used a bit of tongue in cheek snarkiness to drive the point home
But the dynamics from the outside are different. The snark doesn't "drive the point home"; it calls attention to itself, obscuring your point.
Of the people who read that, some will not experience it in a tongue-in-cheek way; of those, some will feel hurt and angry; some will typically respond with incivility—feeling justified, since they were provoked. These provoke others, and down the tedious spiral we go. Maybe it's their problem for being offended, but when is that not the case? The thread goes up in flames anyway.
This problem is intrinsic to a large semi-anonymous internet forum. Think of it like a campground in an area that's high-risk for forest fires. You'd automatically be careful there, to protect the shared space.
HN's solution to this problem is to require comments to be civil and substantive. A thoughtful comment like your reply here raises the whole quality of the discussion. You obviously have some nuanced things to say about this topic. Please give us the nuances.
The Gini coefficient of CA and TX are extremely similar [1]- CA is ranked #44 in the US, and TX is ranked #43.
However, social mobility of the poorest percentiles is significantly higher in Californian cities [2]. In fact, of the major US metropolises, the top four best cities for social mobility of children in the bottom quintile are: San Jose, San Francisco, Seattle, and San Diego, in order. [2] Social mobility in Texas is significantly lower, and extraordinarily lower throughout the rest of the southern US. (Texas is a nice exception)
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_Gini_co...
[2] http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/22/business/in-climbing-incom...
McCarthy's blacklists were justified because of widespread Communist infiltration?
Slavery was just a side issue in the Civil War?
No mention of Jim Crow or the Ku Klux Klan?
Four major thinkers who greatly influenced the Founding Fathers were Locke, Montesquieu, Blackstone, and Moses?
Science doesn't really fare well with the Texas State Board of Education, either.
Of course, the hard part is obtaining a middle-class income in Texas.
I grew up in California but moved to Houston half-way through high school. The school I wound up in in Houston was light-years better than the one I left in California.