EPTDo U.S. states have their own culture or identity? - Page 6
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Ventris
Germany1226 Posts
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U_G_L_Y
United States516 Posts
In the UK, the accents are very distinct from town to town. Manchester to Liverpool are night and day. Nottingham to Sheffield is also a huge change in like 20 miles, but the culture is probably more hemogenous, accents aside. Though people from London would look at me and ask "what did he say?" When someone from Newcastle was speaking. | ||
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Randomaccount#77123
United States5003 Posts
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Copymizer
Denmark2091 Posts
On May 03 2013 23:13 Ventris wrote: My impression was that the US are quite diverse, but it seemed to be based on regions rather that state borders. And i guess thats true in every country. I've grown up in Hanover; Lower Saxony, now i live in the south of Baden and everyone here can tell i'm from northern germany, many even get the city right. my uncle moved from southerm baden württemberg with his family where he has lived his entire live to Bremen, i wonder what noticeable difference there is from baden württemberg and niedersachsen (sorry off topic) | ||
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dotHead
United States233 Posts
On May 04 2013 00:01 Barrin wrote: Resounding YES! I guess I'll start with my state: Florida, the Sunshine State *cough*swamp*cough*. You think you know summer? You don't know summer. We go to the beach. Hot babes. Rich old people like to retire with expensive houses down here. Though the farthest south you can't really call us the cultural "south". Increased anger level of most people by a few notches due to the heat. Disney World :>. Texas. Where everything is big, 'MURICA! Cowboys! Lol, depending on where you go in Texas you can find yourself in very different landscapes with quite different people tbh. It's a big place. California. Significant liberal/progessive slant. Lots of cool landscape/mountains including tons of beach, south gets hot north gets snow. Hot skinny chicks. Gangs. Governator, lolol (will never get old). Disney Land :> Utah. Mormons. Big lake. (currently) Washington, Colorado. Marijuana! Idaho, Oregon. Potatoes. Nevada. Desert. Arizona. Grand Canyon! More desert. Alaska. Way too cold.. snow... they badass up there. New York. Really tall cities! Wall Street. Rhode Island just wants to be left alone. Hawaii. Surfing, hula girls, ukuleles. It's almost like you only know anything about this country because you watched television shows? "New York. Really tall cities!"... That defines culture? Dubai, Mecca, Taipei... They have tall buildings too, they must be culturally the same as New York. Thanks for clearing that up. They can lock the thread now. | ||
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Ventris
Germany1226 Posts
On May 04 2013 00:02 Copymizer wrote: my uncle moved from southerm baden württemberg with his family where he has lived his entire live to Bremen, i wonder what noticeable difference there is from baden württemberg and niedersachsen (sorry off topic) Aside from the obvious things like dialect, cuisine and traditions there is a really severe difference in mentality between Baden-Württemberg and Niedersachsen. Heck, there is even one between Baden and Württemberg. (That one is founded in history) In Hanover most people were rather closed up and had some kind of "mean what they say, no smalltalk" mentality. The first six months in Freiburg felt like living in a country full of ever friendly hedonists. edit: Though to be honest the south is far more diverse. You could easily argue for the existence of a distinct North-German culture. Thanks to the Prussians. | ||
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Tewks44
United States2032 Posts
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hoby2000
United States918 Posts
On May 03 2013 16:00 Tatari wrote: I don't think it's really limited to each state, but particular regions. My philosophy teacher said California is the perfect example of a melting pot, and in Idaho you get people thinking Taco Bell is the real deal when it comes to Mexican food. Texas and the other southern states have their own culture, and the west and east coasts are very different from each other. Phyren brings up a good point about the accents. There's some subtle to absolutely horrendous variations on pronunciations throughout the states. This dude pointed out the exact problem of the OP, and he did it on accident. I'm from Idaho. Everyone I know does NOT think Taco Bell is "the real deal when it comes to mexican food." Much like the person mentioned by the OP, you are making a generalization about an entire community without actually understanding the inner workings of that community. Briton made a comment suggesting that US states have little to no identity, but the fact of the matter is if you live in any of these states, you see a HUGE difference between who YOU are, and people from other states. Of course, you will make generalizations about ALL people in that state, but once you understand that environment, you will no longer think that. This conversation is similar to music conversations I have. I know a lot of people that will say that "All rap music is crap" or "all metal is, is blaring guitars and screaming" or "country songs are all about how your dog died, your wife left you, and your truck is broken." But anyone who genuinely listens to any of these genres would completely disagree. When I bring up Macklemore to people, they immediately assume he's a one hit wonder - but the people who say that have heard maybe 1 or 2 songs of his, MAYBE. If they heard the rest of his songs, they wouldn't say that. The point is that Briton made a generalization because (no offense) of his ignorance to the environment that is the states of the US. The post I have quoted did the same thing about Idaho, and people have been making these same generalizations for a long time (see: music example). I won't say it's "human nature" because I fucking hate when people say that. It's not human nature, it's society's pressures of intelligence. I'm going to have to write a blog about this... | ||
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m4inbrain
1505 Posts
On May 04 2013 00:18 Tewks44 wrote: I live in North Carolina, and the cultural difference between North Carolina and South Carolina is pretty astounding. I love how people that don't live here try to tell us our states don't have culture. I actually think that's based on language-barriers. Many people think of "culture" as in "developed by history", hard to explain. I actually can't pinpoint exactly what i mean in english. I do think that different states have different cultures (influenced alot by immigrants for example) - but i do understand when someone says that america didn't really.. develop something? I can't explain what i mean, frustrating. -.- Well, that was a helpful post again. At least i tried. :/ | ||
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Sermokala
United States13973 Posts
Our politics are also awesome. You want to know how Tim paulenty got elected governor? In 2 weeks left in the race his opponent was up by 16% in the polls. What did the guy do to lose that race? He yelled at a reporter and all of Minnesota switched their vote on him not being "Minnesota nice". We also send the shittiest representative to congress and the first muslum to congress. and yes we elected a professional wrestler to governor in Minnesota. I still don't know why we did it but it felt like a good decision at the time. | ||
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SCkad
Scotland97 Posts
On May 03 2013 20:53 sc_a.M wrote: Op, pro tip: Find less retarded friends (: America is straight out the country with the most culture of the world this century, and I say this as a German living in Vienna. next time link your friends to wikipedia, they show the amount of American culture quite nicely (I hope he can read!). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_the_United_States regards so yes i am the one the OP was talking about and i dislike the retarded comment  .for the record i did not say that america had no culture, what i said and stand by is that if you were to take two states and swap half of there people/ area you would not have as big a cultural difference as if you took Britain and France(or other European countries) and swapped them. i'll admit to being ignorant on the vast majority of all the states local history, and i don't deny that each state will have its own identity but to say that the difference between a New York resident and a Washington DC resident is more varied than a Londoner and a Berlin resident is silly to me. @OP: nice to see a discussion on this  i'm enjoying the examples of the difference in US culture appearingEdit: rereading the OP can i point out i did not at any point say the United states had only one culture but instead had one that was not as markedly diverse as Europe does | ||
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-VapidSlug-
United States108 Posts
On May 04 2013 00:28 hoby2000 wrote:The point is that Briton made a generalization because (no offense) of his ignorance to the environment that is the states of the US I have personally dealt with this and it is true. Saying regions of the US all have the same culture is about as ignorant as saying Kenya and Ethiopia are the same. For example, the cultural differences between California and the states right on its border are MASSIVE. | ||
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docvoc
United States5491 Posts
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Mr. Black
United States470 Posts
Sorry about that. More seriously, Texas (due to it formerly being an independent nation) definitely has its own thing going on culturally. Our State constitution even claims supremacy over all others (namely the federal constitution)--which causes our state supreme court to occasionally rule in direct opposition to the SCOTUS. And our jackass Governor jokes about seceding whenever the Feds do something he doesn't like--which, technically, is a unique right that Texas still has under the terms under which the Republic of Texas became a United State (EDIT: NOT TRUE--Though I was taught that Texas reserved the right to secede in school, it is a myth.), but would never happen. That said, all Americans live in the United States of Wal-Mart, where every city has a Target, a Chili's, and 50 other chain stores that make it increasingly difficult to tell one place from another. IMO there is culture and uniqueness to be found all across America--if you look for it. There is also a ton of blandness, mindless conformity, runaway consumerism, waste and stupidity--but I prefer to focus on the good stuff. | ||
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sigma_x
Australia285 Posts
On May 04 2013 00:38 SCkad wrote: so yes i am the one the OP was talking about and i dislike the retarded comment .for the record i did not say that america had no culture, what i said and stand by is that if you were to take two states and swap half of there people/ area you would not have as big a cultural difference as if you took Britain and France(or other European countries) and swapped them. i'll admit to being ignorant on the vast majority of all the states local history, and i don't deny that each state will have its own identity but to say that the difference between a New York resident and a Washington DC resident is more varied than a Londoner and a Berlin resident is silly to me. @OP: nice to see a discussion on this i'm enjoying the examples of the difference in US culture appearingEdit: rereading the OP can i point out i did not at any point say the United states had only one culture but instead had one that was not as markedly diverse as Europe does On reflection, I really think the OP's post is pointless. Of course countries have regional differences. Heck, any collection of people are going to have 'cultural differences' - just look at schools, universities or inside a workplace; let alone within a city or a state or a country. The only real way to make sense of the OP's post is to compare the degree of cultural variation within the US to other countries. And yes, i don't think anyone can reasonably disagree that there is less cultural variation in the US than in Europe. | ||
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Hitch-22
Canada753 Posts
It's easy to have many different identities as "Americans" when you have 360+ million people living in your nation; each person calls themselves American yet they can be polar opposites. | ||
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Influ
Germany780 Posts
North America has just more of a mixture of cultures everywhere thats why a lot of people from all over the world even came to america because they were suppressed or haunted in their home. | ||
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docvoc
United States5491 Posts
On May 04 2013 01:15 sigma_x wrote: On reflection, I really think the OP's post is pointless. Of course countries have regional differences. Heck, any collection of people are going to have 'cultural differences' - just look at schools, universities or inside a workplace; let alone within a city or a state or a country. The only real way to make sense of the OP's post is to compare the degree of cultural variation within the US to other countries. And yes, i don't think anyone can reasonably disagree that there is less cultural variation in the US than in Europe. That's actually not true. I would probably argue there is more simply due to the amount of cultures that have settled here. There are micro cultures here, just as there are in Europe, but the difference between a Londoner and a Berliner is going to be similar to a New York kid and a California kid, they might speak english, but the dialects, slang, everything about their personalities and how they view life or the world itself is going to vary enormously. Just because we are all in the same country doesn't mean that we all see things in any similar sort of way. | ||
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Holy_AT
Austria978 Posts
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ZenithM
France15952 Posts
+ Show Spoiler + Huehuehuehue, j/k :D | ||
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