> Many countries has regions and regional differences

Granted.

> as a Californian you are still closer to any other American in any measurable parameter you can think about than to people outside your country.

I disagree, we have very European centric Laws (the clean air act was inline with EU standards), our policy on immigration and foreign labor is very much like the EU--going so far as to defy the Federal Government as seen with its stnace of Ag labor against the Trumps administration, much of the US took massive crop losses while the CA ignored it entirely. To my surprise I have seen various signs written in both English as well Spanish, and in both Standard as well as metric systems to denote distance.

I've lived in Hawaii and to be honest, I think some of us, especially those of us from SoCal surf towns, have a greater cultural alliance with Hawaii than with the rest of the 48. Both are deeply rooted in its own respective rich History and has its own identity entirely--this is why we're always told we live in a bubble in CA, which I regret to say is true as that is not 'normal,' either. Only when I left did I realize just how perverse and toxic it could be, too. There is nothing positive about Hollywood culture, and its incredibly sordid History with Epstein and the like is just the tip of the Iceberg in my opinion.

Also California is massive, NorCal is like a different culture entirely itself--my family is originally from San Jose and Santa Cruz but I grew up all over the South and went to Europe in the summer. And the brief time I spent in the Valley, it mostly very dis-pleasurable.

Its a nice place to visit, or for business but I'd never live there again; the amount of Homeless is something I never got used to that is just normalized, and accepted. I have only ever seen something comparable in skidrow having grown up in the SoCal and its every where in the Bay Area. Everything is crowded, and expensive for no real reason other than the diaspora of People that flooded the housing Market, which in part I enjoy, but cannot justify as we have may more diversity in the South at a fraction of the cost(s). I don't know how anyone can live like that.

I live in CO now, and I can say this place is the US and despite the appearance sort of looking like Switzerland at times (where I've also lived and worked) its very American centric and still feels strange after living here all these years. When I first came in 2007 it felt even more mono-cultural and 'mountain folk-like' stripped of any cultural diversity outside of major towns. Which is interesting, but again, very different from where I was raised where you can literately visit 4-5 different Asian cultures in an hour going from North OC to the South.

> America didn't have lack of cohesion and identity, at those times when America could build it was overwhelmingly a north west European country with a certain set of value deriving from this.

You do realize that Columbus was Italian, and the Spanish conquistadors and colonizers/missionaries that followed were all Southern European, right? France followed in greater numbers than Germans or Nordics, too, hence why why Government documents are written in English/Spanish/French.

And I speak German, not well anymore if at all, but the presence of Germanic or Nordic People or its culture outside of the Great Lakes area is no where to be found, its blown out of proportion in relation to the amount of Spanish and French presence, especially in the West Coast and into Central and South America. Not only has California existed longer than the US, but so had what was called 'New Spain.' Which is why so many things are locations are written in Spanish well into the Midwest, Colorado being apt example.

> Turns out diversity is not a strength, it is a disaster and ruins social cohesion, solidarity and the ability to build. It is not going to get any better.

Honestly, I welcome the balkanization of not just the West, but the whole World. COVID has proven that large Nation-States/Empires cannot compete with City-States to not just contain a pandemic, but to provide the necessary PPE and other critical goods and the infrastructure for such a large population. In the process it has made us less safe, and on the brink of another economic Depression with obscene amounts of unemployment and unrest with Militarized Police all while we edge closer to World War with China/Russia/Iran vs US/UK/AUS/NZ/India/Hong Kong/Taiwan.

I"d argue that if there ever was a time for the Nation-State model, we have long surpassed it and there no anything to be gained from this modelin such an interconnected World and we should seek alternative to these horrible governing systems. We're going to have to re-negotiate with China, ideally without the belligerence of Xi and the CCP as well as Trump's imbecilic nature' so why not just cut to the BS posturing and saber rattling and have representatives from their respective provinces decide how to broker a deal in which Hong Kong gains Independence, as does Xianjing/Macau/Tibet/Taiwan and we can all go back to more pertinent things like advancing the Human Species with Space Exploration and reap the economic fruits of that instead of needless Warfare?

How we transition to that model is a mystery, but I pray it is without the need for more Bloody Revolution.