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At the very least, states all have stereotypes. The culture may not differ too greatly between them (especially those out in the midwest with no major (MAJOR) cities.
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On May 04 2013 01:46 ZenithM wrote:What is certain is that you guys can't cook to save your life. + Show Spoiler +
I laughed longer than i should have :3
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On May 04 2013 01:15 sigma_x wrote:Show nested quote +On May 04 2013 00:38 SCkad wrote: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_Statesregards 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 appearing Edit: 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.
Actually, "reason" in this instance would predicate a refusal to make a judgement as cursory as that; given that you almost certainly do not have enough experience with either locale, making a judgement such as this can only be called hasty. Furthermore, any sort of cultural variation comparison is going to run into enormous problems when it comes to clarifying terms and precisely how we measure "culture". Music, art, theatre, language, civics, architecture, food scene, religion, sports, parks/natural features, roadway design, bar scene/drinking culture, university/student culture, ethnic neighborhoods, suburban design, public transportation, fashion, age demographics, the list goes on. All of these are variables with variable value in the eyes of the beholder, making any sort of objective declarations rather silly. Unless one puts an inordinate amount of importance on language, justifying the claim that Europe is more diverse than the US will be supremely difficult.
I was born in Connecticut, and was raised and went to college in the Great Swing State, Ohio. To throw out some of Ohio's cultural aspects: FOOTBALL, egg farms, flat land, auto industry, dum dum lollipops, Polish, Irish, and German centric ethnicities, LeBron, more presidents than any other state, more men in space than any other state, and I could most certainly go on.
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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 think, what most people critisize about USA is not directly put towards you as individuals but as a society. Because, what imanates if you take an outside look is not heterogene at all, actually postmodernists would argue that USA, in its liberalism, promotes homogeneity of identies and the hyper individualism inherent from the capitalist view's USA is spreading around the world under the form of hegemony and world market laws. Lyotard, foucault are amongst those you can read on the postmodern condition in which we live now with globalization.
although it couldnt be more true that there are subcultures in USA people in NYC arent the same than in LA that is not the question.
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I grew up in Vermont and moved to Florida a few years ago. The biggest cultural differences I've noticed is that in Florida people are a lot more religion focused compared to VT. Growing up, I didn't know a single kid who went to church regularly but here in FL I meet people who do all the time. Other than that I can't really say. There is less stoner culture here, people are a lot less into the outdoors (not counting the beach), but that's all I've noticed.
I can't really speak for the educational system since I never went to school here but from what I've heard it's rather lackluster and very test-focused.
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as a *foreigner*,i think the answer to your question is to slowly absorb singapore and ghana,as to be sure that you have different cultures in the us.this could be done in a number of ways,which im sure you can imagine.
The only problem you be the god-given absolute freedom to bear arms,which they might not agree to.
more cultural diversity,just what the doctor prescribed!
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On May 04 2013 01:53 farvacola wrote:Show nested quote +On May 04 2013 01:15 sigma_x wrote:On May 04 2013 00:38 SCkad wrote: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_Statesregards 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 appearing Edit: 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. Actually, "reason" in this instance would predicate a refusal to make a judgement as cursory as that; given that you almost certainly do not have enough experience with either locale, making a judgement such as this can only be called hasty. Furthermore, any sort of cultural variation comparison is going to run into enormous problems when it comes to clarifying terms and precisely how we measure "culture". Music, art, theatre, language, civics, architecture, food scene, religion, sports, parks/natural features, roadway design, bar scene/drinking culture, university/student culture, ethnic neighborhoods, suburban design, public transportation, fashion, age demographics, the list goes on. All of these are variables with variable value in the eyes of the beholder, making any sort of objective declarations rather silly. Unless one puts an inordinate amount of importance on language, justifying the claim that Europe is more diverse than the US will be supremely difficult. I was born in Connecticut, and was raised and went to college in the Great Swing State, Ohio. To throw out some of Ohio's cultural aspects: FOOTBALL, egg farms, flat land, auto industry, dum dum lollipops, Polish, Irish, and German centric ethnicities, LeBron, more presidents than any other state, more men in space than any other state, and I could most certainly go on.
Well, I'm not going to hold myself out as being a specialist in American and European anthropology, but I will say that I have spent time in both places. I don't know how one would measure 'culture', but unless you and I have vastly differing notions of the word (and judging by your list, we don't), you'd have to be pretty insular and parochial to disagree with the rather innocuous claim that European cultures differ between themselves far more than US states.
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Having lived in a number of states in my life, they all definitely have been different. And in most cases, cities are different than other cities within a state.
Spokane, in eastern Washington is entirely different than Seattle in western Washington.
Houston is entirely different than Dallas or Austin.
Wyoming is more cowboy than anything I have seen in Texas.
And from what I remember, New Mexico is different than them as well in its own ways.
Culture, slang, even the way we talk is different wherever you go.
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Sure, there are different cultures in each state, but you can't make any comparison to a region like the EU. Relatively speaking, the US is really lacking in culture because it's a "new" country. That's not necessarily a terrible thing, and I plan on moving permanently to California in 1-2 years anyway : )
Sweden only has 9 million people (less than population of Los Angeles), and there are lots of different cultures and so many different dialects, so it's almost kind of a pointless discussion IMO
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On May 04 2013 02:20 sigma_x wrote:Show nested quote +On May 04 2013 01:53 farvacola wrote:On May 04 2013 01:15 sigma_x wrote:On May 04 2013 00:38 SCkad wrote: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_Statesregards 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 appearing Edit: 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. Actually, "reason" in this instance would predicate a refusal to make a judgement as cursory as that; given that you almost certainly do not have enough experience with either locale, making a judgement such as this can only be called hasty. Furthermore, any sort of cultural variation comparison is going to run into enormous problems when it comes to clarifying terms and precisely how we measure "culture". Music, art, theatre, language, civics, architecture, food scene, religion, sports, parks/natural features, roadway design, bar scene/drinking culture, university/student culture, ethnic neighborhoods, suburban design, public transportation, fashion, age demographics, the list goes on. All of these are variables with variable value in the eyes of the beholder, making any sort of objective declarations rather silly. Unless one puts an inordinate amount of importance on language, justifying the claim that Europe is more diverse than the US will be supremely difficult. I was born in Connecticut, and was raised and went to college in the Great Swing State, Ohio. To throw out some of Ohio's cultural aspects: FOOTBALL, egg farms, flat land, auto industry, dum dum lollipops, Polish, Irish, and German centric ethnicities, LeBron, more presidents than any other state, more men in space than any other state, and I could most certainly go on. Well, I'm not going to hold myself out as being a specialist in American and European anthropology, but I will say that I have spent time in both places. I don't know how one would measure 'culture', but unless you and I have vastly differing notions of the word (and judging by your list, we don't), you'd have to be pretty insular and parochial to disagree with the rather innocuous claim that European cultures differ between themselves far more than US states.
It is neither insular nor parochial to suggest that making objective claims insofar as comparing cultural variation among European nations and US states is, in fact, insular and parochial.
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Having spent my teen years in southern louisiana I would have to say yes.
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Anyone who lives in the states knows each state has it's own culture and feel to it- even intra-state differences can be substantial (CA, NY, TX).
edit for being obtuse.
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Living in Florida is a whole entirely different thing then living in say Michigan from my experiences. Just how you generally eat, speak, do stuff is not quite the same.
Easiest example is peoples uses of words like Soda vs Pop. However if you want something a tad more sophisticated the style of music sub genre's change all over due to location(Detroit Jazz vs New Orleans Jazz) *shrug* I suppose unless you really went looking you'd not notice too many of these things but if you live in these places it just seems common knowledge.
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I live in Memphis, TN. I can drive a couple hours and end up in Union City, TN. Completely different worlds. Hell, I can drive a few blocks and be in the middle of Orange Mound. But I wouldn't. The culture there is too vibrant and diverse, and I might get robbed.
The only way to think that there isn't massive variation in "culture" (however you want to define it) in the U.S. is to not pay attention.
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On May 04 2013 02:24 farvacola wrote:Show nested quote +On May 04 2013 02:20 sigma_x wrote:On May 04 2013 01:53 farvacola wrote:On May 04 2013 01:15 sigma_x wrote:On May 04 2013 00:38 SCkad wrote: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_Statesregards 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 appearing Edit: 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. Actually, "reason" in this instance would predicate a refusal to make a judgement as cursory as that; given that you almost certainly do not have enough experience with either locale, making a judgement such as this can only be called hasty. Furthermore, any sort of cultural variation comparison is going to run into enormous problems when it comes to clarifying terms and precisely how we measure "culture". Music, art, theatre, language, civics, architecture, food scene, religion, sports, parks/natural features, roadway design, bar scene/drinking culture, university/student culture, ethnic neighborhoods, suburban design, public transportation, fashion, age demographics, the list goes on. All of these are variables with variable value in the eyes of the beholder, making any sort of objective declarations rather silly. Unless one puts an inordinate amount of importance on language, justifying the claim that Europe is more diverse than the US will be supremely difficult. I was born in Connecticut, and was raised and went to college in the Great Swing State, Ohio. To throw out some of Ohio's cultural aspects: FOOTBALL, egg farms, flat land, auto industry, dum dum lollipops, Polish, Irish, and German centric ethnicities, LeBron, more presidents than any other state, more men in space than any other state, and I could most certainly go on. Well, I'm not going to hold myself out as being a specialist in American and European anthropology, but I will say that I have spent time in both places. I don't know how one would measure 'culture', but unless you and I have vastly differing notions of the word (and judging by your list, we don't), you'd have to be pretty insular and parochial to disagree with the rather innocuous claim that European cultures differ between themselves far more than US states. It is neither insular nor parochial to suggest that making objective claims insofar as comparing cultural variation among European nations and US states is, in fact, insular and parochial.
But why stop there? Do you, in your heart, honestly feel that you cannot say anything about the cultural variation between German states compared to US states? Or German cities and US states? Or neighbouring Bavarian villages and US states?
Just because you cannot find a completely objective metric doesn't mean you cannot make relative true statements or have a general consensus (even about ill defined words like cultural diversity). That being said how exactly did you reach the conclusion that taking language as one of the most important features of culture is inordinate? A random Swede can literally not understand a big part of Spanish cultural products, that sounds like it should be a big deal (given that everything else is immeasurable and ill defined).
Not that the cultural diversity penis swinging contest is all that interesting. As far as I'm concerned the cultural coordinates in the US and the EU are almost the same and people tend to overemphasize differences for building their identities (e.g. an asshole from your home state is an asshole, but an asshole from New York is a New York asshole).
However, I do think that the cultural identity of being American is a lot stronger than that of being an EU citizen and although I have no objective way to measure this statement I would believe it is not contentious. Actually, I would assume that the identity of being a citizen of any given EU country is stronger than that of living in any US state (well perhaps excluding Texas from what I read here ^^).
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On May 04 2013 03:06 HULKAMANIA wrote:
I live in Memphis, TN. I can drive a couple hours and end up in Union City, TN. Completely different worlds. Hell, I can drive a few blocks and be in the middle of Orange Mound. But I wouldn't. The culture there is too vibrant and diverse, and I might get robbed.
The only way to think that there isn't massive variation in "culture" (however you want to define it) in the U.S. is to not pay attention.
Memphis is one of my favorite cities in the country. Excellent music scene (I'm a sucker for Three Six Mafia ), awesome food, and the people seem so friendly. I have a strange sort of fascination with urban decay though.
On May 04 2013 03:09 silynxer wrote:Show nested quote +On May 04 2013 02:24 farvacola wrote:On May 04 2013 02:20 sigma_x wrote:On May 04 2013 01:53 farvacola wrote:On May 04 2013 01:15 sigma_x wrote:On May 04 2013 00:38 SCkad wrote: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_Statesregards 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 appearing Edit: 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. Actually, "reason" in this instance would predicate a refusal to make a judgement as cursory as that; given that you almost certainly do not have enough experience with either locale, making a judgement such as this can only be called hasty. Furthermore, any sort of cultural variation comparison is going to run into enormous problems when it comes to clarifying terms and precisely how we measure "culture". Music, art, theatre, language, civics, architecture, food scene, religion, sports, parks/natural features, roadway design, bar scene/drinking culture, university/student culture, ethnic neighborhoods, suburban design, public transportation, fashion, age demographics, the list goes on. All of these are variables with variable value in the eyes of the beholder, making any sort of objective declarations rather silly. Unless one puts an inordinate amount of importance on language, justifying the claim that Europe is more diverse than the US will be supremely difficult. I was born in Connecticut, and was raised and went to college in the Great Swing State, Ohio. To throw out some of Ohio's cultural aspects: FOOTBALL, egg farms, flat land, auto industry, dum dum lollipops, Polish, Irish, and German centric ethnicities, LeBron, more presidents than any other state, more men in space than any other state, and I could most certainly go on. Well, I'm not going to hold myself out as being a specialist in American and European anthropology, but I will say that I have spent time in both places. I don't know how one would measure 'culture', but unless you and I have vastly differing notions of the word (and judging by your list, we don't), you'd have to be pretty insular and parochial to disagree with the rather innocuous claim that European cultures differ between themselves far more than US states. It is neither insular nor parochial to suggest that making objective claims insofar as comparing cultural variation among European nations and US states is, in fact, insular and parochial. But why stop there? Do you, in your heart, honestly feel that you cannot say anything about the cultural variation between German states compared to US states? Or German cities and US states? Or neighbouring Bavarian villages and US states? Just because you cannot find a completely objective metric doesn't mean you cannot make relative true statements or have a general consensus (even about ill defined words like cultural diversity). That being said how exactly did you reach the conclusion that taking language as one of the most important features of culture is inordinate? A random Swede can literally not understand a big part of Spanish cultural products, that sounds like it should be a big deal (given that everything else is immeasurable and ill defined). Not that the cultural diversity penis swinging contest is all that interesting. As far as I'm concerned the cultural coordinates in the US and the EU are almost the same and people tend to overemphasize differences for building their identities (e.g. an asshole from your home state is an asshole, but an asshole from New York is a New York asshole). However, I do think that the cultural identity of being American is a lot stronger than that of being an EU citizen and although I have no objective way to measure this statement I would believe it is not contentious. Actually, I would assume that the identity of being a citizen of any given EU country is stronger than that of living in any US state (well perhaps excluding Texas from what I read here ^^).
I think approaching the issue from the perspective of identity is far more useful, as it avoids the cultural diversity penis measuring contest that we both clearly consider silly. My point in bringing up the variable gravity of language differences deals in how deceiving having a shared language can be in terms of cultural commonality. I would argue that the differences in cultural perspective between a Swede and a Spainiard and those between a Californian and a Virginian are far more equitable than one might think.
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On May 03 2013 22:48 TheFish7 wrote:
I have a perfect example. I work at a big corporation that has employees all over the country and I'm based out of Connecticut. The other day we had a conference call with some of our employees in West Virginia. One of the Virginians greeted my boss with a "Howdy, Ma'am!". This was a big mistake because my boss was very offended at being called "Ma'am". In West Virginia, this is a sign of respect but in Connecticut calling someone Ma'am is considered condescending, or implying that she is an old lady. .
holy shit. I never knew Ma'am could be offensive.
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The only thing you need to know is that California is by far the best state in the US
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I recognize an American when I see (or hear) one so... I would say they certainly have identifiable traits. Whether that amounts to culture is a matter of semantics.
On May 04 2013 03:10 Whole wrote:Show nested quote +On May 03 2013 22:48 TheFish7 wrote:
I have a perfect example. I work at a big corporation that has employees all over the country and I'm based out of Connecticut. The other day we had a conference call with some of our employees in West Virginia. One of the Virginians greeted my boss with a "Howdy, Ma'am!". This was a big mistake because my boss was very offended at being called "Ma'am". In West Virginia, this is a sign of respect but in Connecticut calling someone Ma'am is considered condescending, or implying that she is an old lady. . holy shit. I never knew Ma'am could be offensive.
It's a French legacy: Mademoiselle - unmarried (≈ young) woman, Madame - married (≈ old) woman
The opposite is sometimes true as well: there are some strange elderly women who want to be called Mademoiselle, purely since they are unmarried.
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EPT
