Do U.S. states have their own culture or identity? - Page 9
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koreasilver
9109 Posts
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Wuster
1974 Posts
On May 04 2013 06:23 Influ wrote: It's about an argument with a briton so obviously it's a comparison to europe. I think it's more about how Briton's take pride in their regional differences (Northerners, Welsh, ect), which are definitely more pronounced than American regional differences. But it's pretty clear reading some responses here that people have *never * been to the US or more than one place in the US; because regional differences definitely exist in the US (gun culture, accents, diet vary quite different across the country for one). Although, I'm not sure I'd put it as finely as on a state-by-state level. | ||
arb
Noobville17921 Posts
(I live in North Carolina tho) And the country is divided into alot more than just the "North vs South" thing that most people seem to believe | ||
Randomaccount#77123
United States5003 Posts
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hfglgg
Germany5372 Posts
On May 04 2013 05:35 DannyJ wrote: Maybe I've missed some posts, but why are Europeans comparing it to Europe in the first place, as if that was somehow what the OP was about? someone said that the cultural differences between state/regions are as big as going from england to france which still is bullshit. | ||
NoobSkills
United States1599 Posts
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Thienan567
United States670 Posts
On May 04 2013 05:12 Acertos wrote: People are misunderstanding alot in this thread. Ofc each city is different from one another, each states is different but it's nowhere near comparable to what happens in Europe. In Europe each country has a really really strong identity because they are rly old and have been going at war since their creation. In every country of Europe you have dozens of local and old languages (that are dying). Every country of Europe has it's own food and it's own variation for each region. Now with the globalisation and the expansion of liberalism since the XXth sigle, a global model has grown and is still growing. There are malls and cities grow in length instead of height in Europe but even then it's not like that in all of the countries. Now in the US, the food is essentially the same for everybody with steak, sandwiches, raw vegetables, fries and other awful shit. While near the coast, you can have fresh fish. The language is English for everybody. Same educationnal system or at least viability of diplomas in every states etc... The only big differencies of culture, I've seen in the US are because of the mexicans / former mexicans coming with their own culture but still they are everywhere in the country and they tend to adopt the global american culture. I can tell from this single paragraph that you actually haven't seen any of the US. East Coast cheesesteaks are NOT the same as West Coast cheesesteaks. Basically the only kind of meat eaten in the midwest is beef, while on the coasts it's a whole lot of seafood. Corn from Illinois is like none other in the world. Texas cuisine, like the rest of Texas, is big. BBQs vary stylistically from region to region. Damn I'm not even that patriotic but when you lump all US food into one big lump you clearly haven't seen anything. How can you say food in the US sucks when all you list are the fast food shit? That's like me saying all the French are raging alcoholics because all they drink is wine. While I will admit some dishes are homogeneous throughout the US like pizza and cheeseburgers, the same is true for France, isn't it? | ||
Mohdoo
United States15703 Posts
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Gamegene
United States8308 Posts
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sumsaR
Sweden1812 Posts
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HungrySC2
United States191 Posts
This is especially true in lower population density regions where the ethnicity and migrant background have a lot of influence on daily life. For example I am english/german, but I grew up in a largely Norwegian region of the state. The religious affiliations, foods, and recreation was definitely affected by this. Not to mention the sport of choice is hockey. This is only the case in 1 or 2 small areas in the country. This leads into the second point. It's not just the nationalities etc. of the people that live in an area that determine "culture". It's the geography. Cultural differences may not be noticeable along state lines, but they definitely are noticeable between different geographical regions. There can be many regions within a state (examples might be Minnesota, Arizona etc) or there may be many states within a region (north/south dakota, most of montana, etc) | ||
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Whitewing
United States7483 Posts
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Toxi78
966 Posts
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Shinta)
United States1716 Posts
Meet rural people from each state and tell me they are culturally the same. Go to Los Angelos, Seattle, Milwalkee, Austin, New York, Orlando, Nashville, etc, and tell me that they have the same culture/personality. This can't even be a serious question. They are so completely totally different. This question is like saying Seoul, Beijing and Tokyo have the same culture. No....... | ||
archonOOid
1983 Posts
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Alabasern
United States4005 Posts
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EpiK
Korea (South)5757 Posts
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DystopiaX
United States16236 Posts
On May 04 2013 18:01 EpiK wrote: Seattle, Washington and Portland, Oregon are pretty similar I'd say. Seattle just has more money. Yeah I don't think it's statewide necessarily but different regions in the US will have different cultures. | ||
urashimakt
United States1591 Posts
Pointing to our political system being two party isn't very useful, either. That's not a product of the people but a product of the system. We use first-past-the-post voting at the local, state and national level, which engenders (even enforces) a two-party political system. | ||
Wrongspeedy
United States1655 Posts
On May 04 2013 14:43 Mohdoo wrote: Compare Portland, OR to the bible belt and tell me there are no differences lol Represent! ![]() Each state has different Laws which lead to a number of little quirks that separate us. Then you add on that really every state will have different %'s of minorities of different types (ie Cubans in Florida, Chinese on the West Coast) so each states culture becomes partially defined by the cultural backgrounds of the people making up the state. The time zones break up our cultures as well, west coast sports teams play later in the day than east coast teams and will always get more coverage because tbh people on the east coast are sleeping while people on the west are sitting down to watch news, sports, tv. Its such a complicated issue to discuss really, I only scratched the surface but listed a few topics people could discuss for days. Most states are the size of countries and act like countries because logistically it just makes more sense for them to act that way. Music, food, sports, language, manners, personalities are all kind of guided by where you grew up. Yes people choose to broaden their horizons but someone who grew up in Oregon is going to probably be vastly different from someone who grew up in New Jersey (once you travel a bit you start to normalize a little but you still have a lot of regionalism). Someone who grew up in New York City and was crammed into a tiny area with 10 million people is going to have a different way of socializing than someone who grew up in Buttfuck Montana. If I (an Oregonian) go to Alabama and go to the store to buy "pop" I will get strange looks when I ask "where is the pop?", "Oh you mean Soda?" or "Oh you mean Coke". You could write books and books on this kind of thing and not get anywhere. To put it in the simplest terms I can think of. Each state is an amalgamation of the cultures that already exist there and the flow of new culture trying to make its way there. Its moving all the time and the Border States see the most rapid changes because they have the most influx of new culture (generally speaking, not a rule). Its complicated because you are not talking about one issue, your trying to lump a dozen topics into one discussion. | ||
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