Why Texas is still the place

Last week, we wrote about the growing irrelevance of the red/blue and even urban/rural divide, as culture increasingly takes place on the internet, and leftist racial and sexual pathologies spread deeper and deeper into Real America.

I don’t think Texas’ cities are worse than any other red-state cities of comparable size. (There aren’t really any red-state cities of comparable size, but e.g. Atlanta, Charlotte, Louisville, etc. all have their share of demographic and cultural problems.)

But Texas has taken enough Ls recently — from Sharia cities in Dallas, to 90-foot bronze idols in Sugar Land, to 33,000-acre cartel-operated favelas buying off the governor — that it’s probably worth talking through why I still think Texas is the place.

The reason to move to Texas has nothing to do with its present electorate or state-level representatives — it isn’t about avoiding or being safe from anything.

To build what we need to build, we need three things:

1. A critical mass of very smart, very capable, “problem-aware” people. Competence and energy are hard to find — and it’s way easier to take a competent, energetic guy and get him reading the right books than it is to take a guy who reads the right books and make him competent. There are of course smart people everywhere, but this critical mass only exists in places with economic opportunity and population density.

2. An economy that will be robust across the broadest range of possible futures. If we’re going to build somewhere, and ask our friends to build with us, we need a place that will survive volatility, or even benefit from it. These places have the added benefit of attracting dynamic and interesting people.

3. A legal system and normie culture that is at least not radicalized in the wrong directions. This is the sense in which “red states” are still preferable to “blue states” — the inertia of cultural and legal expectation is still on your side on a whole host of issues, as long as you’re not dealing with protected classes in an inner-city jurisdiction.

If you consider all three of these elements to be non-negotiable, Texas is basically in a class by itself.

New York, San Francisco, and Seattle have a lot of smart, ideologically-activated people, but very risky to do business or raise kids there.

A bugout in a sleepy red state will make it easy to find aligned, friendly neighbors, but difficult to find and agglomerate talent — and rural locations with big clusters of remote-work “homesteaders” will become extremely precarious when the air goes out of the fake and gay economy. (Assuming that isn’t already happening before our eyes.)

Meanwhile, Texas is the nation’s largest energy producer, #2 in manufacturing, and #4 in agricultural output.

If things go well in America, they will go very well in Texas. If things go badly for America, Texas will still have the most attractive possibilities.

More importantly for our project specifically: the Texas Triangle has become a rally point for exactly our type of guy.

I decided to move to Austin after NatalCon 2023. At the afterparty, I met on-side guys in AI, crypto, biotech, robotics, charter cities — many of whom are employed or funded by on-side money, and almost all of whom have moved to Austin in the last five years for political/cultural reasons.

(You may have objections to carpetbagging in principle, but I’m not going to do a land acknowledgement for millennial hipsters with waxed mustaches. They’re not from around here either.)

Every couple weeks I get an EXIT signup from another Bitcoin warlord building a fief outside Austin — soon it will be totally encircled, and we will impose a tough but fair tariff regime on the libtards.

There are red state towns all over the country with cheap, attractive land and nice neighborhoods to raise a family in — but if you want to raise your kids in that kind of place and build something big, it’s hard to beat central Texas.

And if you’re taking a serious short position in the present system, many of Texas’s downside risks just don’t matter that much.

Yes, the demographic and immigrant situation is out of control — way worse than anyone is admitting — but that's true of every meaningful population center in the country.

And if you’re worried about Texas “turning into California” electorally, well — you are imagining the American electoral system to be much more durable than I expect it to be.

If the American system of government still has those kinds of problems a decade from now, it will probably mean that we lost, decisively, and hopefully the people we care about are already out of the country.

But if we have moved into other modes of resolving political disagreements by then, raw headcount will be less significant. The main thing will be to have lots of really capable, really close friends.

Texas is the place for EXIT HQ — but obviously we have guys committed to other places and projects.

My hope is that what we do out here will provide a pilot for other chapters around the country. Main projects we’re exploring:

• Residential: We’ll be touring a potential site in the Hill Country later this week. It looks like the sweet spot for attractive land with decent amenities is about an hour from downtown.

• Social: We’re working on a place to get together, work on projects, lift weights, hang the flag, etc. (The Dallas guys are leading the way on this with their space at theHightower.)

• Industrial: For the last several months, we’ve been assessing a manufacturing business for possible acquisition. We are looking for businesses that that would benefit from the EXIT guys’ automation and AI expertise — ideally with owners who are ready to retire.

More to come on all these projects — if you want to get involved, sign up at exitgroup.us.

EXIT News

• Last week’s full-group call (4/15) was on family traditions, especially around the Easter season. Creating traditions for kids to grow up with is one of the most important vectors for thick culture, because kids are able to absorb these traditions as “real” in a way that is very difficult to do for adults.

• This week’s full-group call (4/22) was on responding to recent volatility, and prognosticating about the political situation through the 2026 midterms.

• On Thursday night (4/24), we will have an estate-planning attorney host the first in a series of three calls on How to Build a Great House.

• Member Meetup Schedule:

  • Seattle meetup will be this Saturday, 4/26. Check #pnw in the chat for details.

  • Houston meetup will be Saturday, 5/10. Check #texas in the chat for details.

  • Austin meetup will be Friday, 5/16 through Sunday, 5/18. We will be spending a weekend at an Airbnb south of town. Several of the guys are coming from out of town to check out the area.Cocktail hour on Saturday, 5/17 for EXIT members, Substack subscribers, and guests. Check #texas in the chat for details.

• Cocktail hour invites for Seattle (4/26), Houston (5/10), and Austin (5/17) available to subscribers below the paywall. EXIT cocktail hours are a great way to get to know the EXIT guys in your area and see if the group is right for you.