I've lived in Orlando and Cocoa Beach and my family (mother, aunt, uncle, several cousins and their families) still live outside Jacksonville to this day. I was born and raised in the Southern U.S. and have lived here for 42 years, including many years in Florida. I have a graduate degree in U.S. History with an emphasis in the South (focus on civil rights).
As I said, this is just my opinion, but it doesn't come from a place of ignorance.
The northern half of the state does not have this type of high crime and transient population.
If you go through my comment history far enough you'll see a comment where I explain the difference in the southern and northern part of Florida, just as you've described.
I'm well aware of the Yankee population in Florida. Maybe they've brought the crazy down south, I don't know. But, I never said this was indicative of southerners, in general.
When talking about "FloridaMan" I wasn't talking about "crime", in general. The subreddit isn't about all types of crime, it's about the "weird", sometimes, funny ones. A lot of these crimes or "incidents" involve alcohol and drugs. Florida has beaches bringing in tourists who come down to drink (and sometimes stay put), and poverty in the northern part of the state (which is more or less culturally the same as southern GA/AL), which brings with it self-medicating. This is where I think most of the classic FloridaMan material comes from.
And when the "partiers" come up against "conservatism" (I didn't say anything about democrats or republicans) it makes for a special brand of crazy. Sav'h and Austin have similar issues for the same reason. Everything's more out in the open because there's dissent.
I'm still here. I don't hate Florida or the South. I love it here. I'm in Florida regularly. I don't go there because I don't like it. I chose to study this region of the country exclusively in my grad degree because I have an affinity for it and the people here.
All areas of the country have their own special kind of nuts. For instance, liberals in the North West and Southern California are the ones drumming up all the anti-vax bullshit, which far from being "funny nuts" is actually "dangerous nuts". We could easily have a OregonMan subreddit about people naming their livestock before eating it or using magic crystals to cure cancer or whatever they're up to up there. But, we won't because there isn't enough of a conservative element (dissenting population) or transient population to point it out. They'll just go about their own brand of crazy in peace.
I think this is a case of maybe you feeling attacked and reading more into what I said than I actually meant. Or maybe it came across harsher than I intended as I was walking out the door when I jotted it down.
I get it. I live in Texas now and after one school principal had a single student arrested for something stupid, for days the front page was all about how stupid Texans are (ironic considering the general complaint about the principal was that he was lumping everyone of a group together). I know Texas is diverse, has a thriving economy, a hub of top notch higher education, and so on, but that's not what you hear about.
So, if in my attempt at brevity and humor failed and I offended you, I apologize. I am a proud Southerner, but I laugh about us sometimes. I do understand that it's not funny coming from outsiders who don't know better. Rest assured, I'm not one of those people. I still believe these are Florida's particular problems, but as I stated, it's just my opinion. And you may have a different opinion, but I'm not coming from a place of hate or ignorance.