• Tug@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    I’m from New England, and as far as I’m concerned, Dixie starts at the George Washington Bridge.

        • AVincentInSpace@pawb.social
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          3 months ago

          When early settlers traveled west they hit the Rockies and decided that was as far as they felt like going in horse and buggy, so they called it “the West” even though it was fully within the east half of the continent.

          Believe me, you are not the first person to be bothered by the fact that, from east to west, the four regions of the US are “east coast”, “Midwest”, “central”, and “west”

        • stupidcasey@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          The new world is sometimes referred to as the west and that is the middle of the continent so I guess by that logic No Mexico would be the Mid-West

            • Hildegarde@lemmy.world
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              3 months ago

              the actual actual answer is that people east of the mississippi river haven’t looked at a map since 1803.

      • jqubed@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        It’s interesting to see some out of Pennsylvania identifying themselves as Midwest, but having driven up I-79 there’s definitely a portion of northwest Pennsylvania that geographically feels “Midwest” to me. In fact I think I could argue (and anger many people in the process) that Buffalo, NY is a Midwest city geographically based on its proximity to Lake Erie. I’d never considered it before, but it feels like regions of US states touching a Great Lake automatically makes them part of the Midwest, except for Lake Ontario for some reason. Maybe it’s the proximity of the mountains in New York.

        • Ech@lemm.ee
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          3 months ago

          Pittsburgh is an amalgamation of East Coast and Midwest.

      • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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        3 months ago

        So then what are Idaho and Montana (and Utah)? Great Basin is the closest I can think of and I’m pretty sure Montana isn’t totally in it.

    • wreckedcarzz@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      It’s the middle of the west, so basically Nevada, Idaho and Utah.

      I’ve always hated this term not making any sense (and fuck “it [the east] was west like 3 trillion years ago when nobody could walk west because of an invisible wall”) so you can’t change my mind.

  • faltryka@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    I had a conversation with someone recently about what the Midwest was. I live in Kansas and always just assumed that must mean Kansas because it doesn’t really get any more… mid… and we’re west of where the US started defining things at.

    But apparently everyone seems to also think they’re Midwest and has all sorts of reasoning. It would be interesting to see a map of what different regions self identified as.

      • GluWu@lemm.ee
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        3 months ago

        Has the Midwest discussed ditching Ohio and adopting Oklahoma?

          • Buelldozer@lemmy.today
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            3 months ago

            Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho are “Rocky Mountain West” but hardly anyone seems to remember that term. No one living west of I25 is part of the Mid-West. They all belong to a differently named Geo-Graphic group.

            • faltryka@lemmy.world
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              3 months ago

              I’ve always thought the demarcation line should be the Mississippi River. In my head anything east of that is… well… east, not Midwest…

          • Lexam
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            3 months ago

            You’re the bastard step child of New England!

  • 1ostA5tro6yne@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    3 months ago

    itt people trying to logic out a definition from an english word as if it’s meant to be anally descriptive jargon and not a colloquial term with tons of historical context

  • crawancon@lemm.ee
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    3 months ago

    I just thought it was everything in between east of the continental divide /rockies and west of the Mississippi river. pretty clear map that way.

  • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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    3 months ago

    I’m curious about Midwest California, and non-Midwest Vermont.

    The rest of it seems legit, at least if you talk to people from the mixed states.

  • southsamurai@sh.itjust.works
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    3 months ago

    Dammit, now I gotta grow corn and never see a tree again.

    !is that isn’t what the midwest is actually like, please don’t ruin it for me!<

  • Lightscription@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    still also 300 miles from the boarder of Canada (DHS boarder control)

    pretty much everywhere in the US is homogeneous unless you go to Territories or HI and even then very interchangeable

    Why would costal not be Midwest? There are international cities in the interior with a lot of country of origin diversity.

    And rural is not that different from megalopolis (LA, Chicago, Seattle, etc). It’s all subdivided into manageable small segments for effortless social control. The scale difference is not really categorical. You can feel just as isolated in a small town as a big city; still connect to the world via the internet and a library in a small town; get groupthink in a multicultural city; be a liberal in the countryside. . .

      • Lightscription@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Never been to Alaska. Since you are Canadian, I wager, you might know more about Alaska. But I suspect the entire North American continent is fundamentally interchangeable and I have been pretty much every state. Same power structure. Same labeling system. The subconscious “flags” will start going off. Probably the same in Europe or anywhere in the world these days unless you are someplace like Papua New Guinea. The NWO is no lie.

        The American South is unpleasant in many ways. But anywhere might be nice if you are showering everyone in your extravagant displays of opulence for limitless durations.

        The redder states aren’t going to be much better than the blue, but all people anywhere care about is money, which makes matters difficult when looking for a heart of gold. (I always say me and mine will pick out the color of our leer jet and which private island after I know she loves me for who I am as a person and not as an objectified, prodigious bank account. The gold digging. Know what I mean?)

        New Orleans looks nice, but nowhere is good unless you are rich.

        • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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          3 months ago

          Oh, well sure, if any contact with American culture makes a place the same, then almost everywhere is the same. Definitely Hawaii. Hawaii is basically a big tourist resort for Americans at this point.

          As for money and status-seeking, that’s as old as agriculture, as is people who don’t money and status suffering.

          • Lightscription@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            Yep. But as a student of history around the world, it certainly used to be possible to travel to a new place. Imagine Persia for the Greeks or China for Marco Polo. The journey wasn’t impossible and the destination was completely different. That was true to some extent even in the US. The homogeneity of today is just staggering. Same bullshit everywhere and no variations really on the overplayed theme.