10% of Tennessee is so high on hillbilly heroin they don’t know which question they got asked and just said “yes” on the off chance it was “would you like some free oxy?”
13% of Tennessee West Virginia is so high on hillbilly heroin they don’t know which question they got asked and just said “yes” on the off chance it was “would you like some free oxy?”
I bet you that 10 percent are the people who are in the very northwest corner of TN so it would make some sense for them to answer yes given that they’re not far from Missouri.
Eastern Wyoming and Montana are the Great Plains, so that at least makes a little sense. Idaho though, there you have me. I am at a loss. Maybe it’s their poor public education system?
It’s because the US started on the east coast and expanded westward, it was named back when it actually was the middle of the west and just never changed it. Same way we still refer to the art movement that began in the late 1800s as “modern art”.
I was born in Nebraska and lived there until my early 20s when I moved to Wyoming and I’ve been here for 30 years. I’m very familiar with both areas. The “Great Plains” stops somewhere in the western panhandle of Nebraska. The pine forests up around Chadron (NW corner) have nearly nothing in common with the Cottonwood infested prairie down around Lincoln (SE corner). If you want to stick along I-80, which makes the discussion easier, there’s a solid argument that the “Great Plains” ends somewhere West of North Platte and East of Sidney.
The drastic reduction in precipitation is mirrored by a change in the soil as somewhere around there the soil changes from the rich dark farmland of the East to the tan sand hills of the West. Following the water and soil change the plant life itself becomes notably different; its not only less dense it also has far less of the native prairie grasses in it. The change in plant life also makes the animal life different; for example there are no Antelope on the Eastern side but as you go West they start appearing. Deer and Elk are also different with White Tails disappearing as you move West but Mule Deer and Elk starting to appear. Nebraska has not Native Moose population that I’m aware of but by they can be found even in South Eastern Wyoming.
I’ve stomped around Colorado and Montana a fair bit too over the last 30 years and it’s no different there. The Border Area of Colorado and Kansas is vastly different than the area around Lawrence, Kansas or Manhattan on the East Side. It’s the same with the Eastern Border of Montana up against the Dakota’s; there’s notable and large differences between that area and everything East of North Platte, Nebraska.
The Great Plains as embodied by Iowa, Eastern Nebraska, and Eastern Kansas are separate and distinct from the High Plains of Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana.
I mean, southwest Colorado was part of the Dust Bowl. Culturally it’s definitely part of the Great Plains area. I would argue that eastern Wyoming and Montana are as well. They have more in common with the Dakotas than they do with the Rockies.
I still wouldn’t consider it the Midwest, but at least there’s a tenuous thread of logic to the idea.
Southwest Colorado would be Durango / Montrose which is on west side of the Rockies! You think that’s part of the Great Plains area?
Even SE Colorado such as Pueblo and Lamar are very distinct from towns and cities east of North Platte, Nebraska.
Culturally Eastern Nebraska is heavily Germanic / Western European Immigrant. Hell up into the 2000s there were still lots of little churches with at least one weekly service conducted in German. You won’t find that in Pueblo.
I’m struggling to understand all of these cultural similarities that some of you see. Yes they’re all Americans but everything from the type of soil they live on to their ancestry and immigration patterns is WILDLY different between Lincoln and Pueblo.
I lived in the States for five years and I still don’t really get what Americans mean when they say the midwest. I guess that’s partly because Americans also don’t know, so you never get the same explanation twice.
It’s all the middle junk nobody wants which is why there’s so much of it.
Seriously tho, the historic context is that “The West” was west of the Mississippi river, which iirc got started calling that after the Louisiana Purchase. So the previous “west” wasn’t accurate enough so the states between the Mississippi and the Appalachian mountains (chiefly the northern states around the Great lakes). Then the area has just kind of expanded to include the plains states since they’re also flyover country
Pretty much, there’s some pretty clear distinction as well. Like you won’t find anyone on any part of a coast calling themself a midwesterner obv, but also the south east has the distinct trait of being The South, for better or worse. Usually worse. Southwest also gets a similar effect from being what everyone thinks of as “cowboy country”.
As someone born and raised in the Midwest (Ohio and Illinois) and is currently a resident on the West Coast (Oregon), the way I define it is as such: if there is corn, it's the Midwest. If there are cowboys on horses, it's the west or southwest. Does your state touch the Atlantic or Pacific? That's what coast you are on (Hawaii and Alaska excepted).
Yep, and it’s really obvious if you’ve driven into the state from the east. You find yourself wondering when you’re gonna get to Colorado and realize you’ve been driving in it for 3 hours, it just looks exactly the same as the last 10 hours.
Same thought. No one here thinks it’s the midwest. It’s the west and very apparent. Ghost towns start popping up for attractions, everything’s about the mountains, camping, hiking, skiing/snowboarding.
In fact, weird outliers are a sign that the numbers weren’t cooked. In polling, you’ll always find a Christian who thinks Jesus isn’t real, an Atheist who thinks the ten commandments should be posted in classrooms, people who think Sonic tastes good, and other equally strange and nonsensical results.
I know a dude from Michigan who insists Minnesota is not the Midwest. I won’t show him this map because offering facts and statistics doesn’t change his mind about anything.
78% of people polled in Ohio believe they are midwestern. People living on that border in Western Pennsylvania might identify geographically or culturally as midwestern, so 9% isn’t that surprising. Now if you broke it down and it showed that people living near Philly thought they were midwestern, that would be laughable.
Have you met anyone from Western Pennsylvania? You’d understand a number of them not knowing where they are on a map!
Lol I kid. Western PA, aka Pennsyltucky, is our Florida Man territory.
Ohio I definitely consider the start of the Midwest.
The others are right though mentioning the obscene number of rebel flags in PA though. My brother was guilty of it for a while in sad to say too. I’m in the Southeast, the most metropolitan part of the state, and they’re all over. They’re usually hung next to the MAGA stuff, which I’m sure comes as little surprise. Honestly I’d probably prefer the stars and bars to the Trump crap because at least the flag is aesthetically less ugly visually, and the person flying it could just be ignorant or is at least being honest about their beliefs instead of the poorly veiled hate the MAGA trash represents.
Arkansas was the surprising state to me. I guess I just don’t ever think about anything related to Arkansas so I lump it in with the Midwest instead of the South, which I think of as the tourist destination states.
I believe this is closer to reality. I forgot an east coast subgroup.
edit: It’s called the mid atlantic and people are big mad about its exclusion on a shitty, crude map in context to a discussion about the Midwest. lmao
Maybe an east coast subgroup could contain … OH I DON’T KNOW … MAYBE NEW YORK, NEW JERSEY, and most of PA!!! mfrs are pedantic af over a finger drawn map.
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