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Michigan and Ohio come to mind as stated by previous posters. These states have a lot of crime, economic problems are common and some of thier cities are not really livable. Decades of bad news and negativity have destroyed the ability for much state pride to exist. It's also hard to have a whole lot of pride when your scraping snow off your car in May. The dismal climate does not help the cause either
I know a lot of people from Ohio and most of them told you they where from Ohio without you asking them.....just saying.
No surprise the map shows NC, "the vale of humility", ranks lower in state pride than every state that borders it. We still have pride of course, but a bit more muted than our neighbors.
There's an interesting, weird dynamic when it comes to metro Atlanta involving this topic. I have met plenty of people from up there who would rather just say they are from "Atlanta" "ATL" or "The A" before they say Georgia, and many of them love to say negative things or belittle/downplay the rest of the state.............BUT at the same time I also know of many who do mention Georgia proudly and even still like to identify with "Southern" traits. I'm guessing most of the negative attitudes about the "rest" of Georgia I get come from Northeastern transplants.
How proud or not someone in metro Atlanta would be to claim "Georgia" and not just " Atlanta" can radically change from one extreme to the next depending on the person. I guess it comes down to Transplant Vs. actually being from a family that's been here for generations.
Example, I can show you some white guys in Metro ATL right outside Conyers or somewhere like that who are 100% proud Country Boy, Georgia Rednecks. I can show you some non-transplant blacks in South Fulton, South Dekalb, Bankhead, etc, who proudly know and acknowledge being Southerners from "GA" as much as they acknowledge being from "Atlanta"
To the contrary, I can just as easily find someone who'd have you believe it's nothing but dirt roads and kkk members outside of Metro ATL and they constantly have to go out of their way to bring up how "different" ATL is from the rest of the state and would never say Georgia, just Atlanta.
So it depends.
I think a lot of the mentality in Atlanta has to do with location within the metropolitan area, at least among the white population. The "New South" Atlanta is inside I-285, and along GA 400 and the Chattahoochee River to the north. Other than that, the rest of the metropolitan area outside of I-285 has plenty of rednecks and country boys.
Connecticut is just one big Long Island, Downstate New York, smaller Massachusetts, North NJ
While that may be true for Connecticut, that state definitely doesn't have a pride problem.
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Originally Posted by Turnerbro
This may be true for people from Pittsburgh and Philly but it's not for people from Central PA. People from that region have a lot of state pride.
I would I think the opposite. Philadelphia (city) has had an image problem for a long time, and many residents self loathed it, but that has changed quite a bit for the better since 2000. And the Philly suburbs know they are great and tend to think highly of themselves.
Pittsburgh is in a similar situation, just smaller scale.
As for rural PA, they love to trash Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and wallow in their own misery about the coal mine or some factory closing down throwing the town out of work. I think if Pittsburgh and Philadelphia were closer and were in one smaller state together, it would be a very prideful state, however the barren stretch in the middle is a hindrance for them.
People aside, Pennsylvania has a very beautiful natural landscape. Much better than Ohio, Illinois and other similar states.
Yeah, no shortage there in my experience. Maybe even too much pride.....Of the states I'm most familiar with (mostly Midwestern), I'd say the state with less than average pride could be Iowa. People that I've met from there almost apologize that they're from Iowa, and then follow it up by explaining why it's really a nice place -- better than people think. That's true for most of the Midwest (MN is up there as well), but I see it more with Iowa than other places. Or let me put it another way: Iowans are not boastfully proud of their state....they're more quietly proud of it.
Out of all Midwestern states, I think Minnesota has the most state pride. It helps that the city Minneapolis did not suffer massive population decline in its city borders, unlike most major Midwestern cities. I would think Ohio have a lot of state pride for a Midwest, considering it at least has more than one major metropolitan and by far the most of any Midwest state.
It must be difficult for New Yorkers to have state pride when most people would automatically assume you're from the city that goes by the same name.
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