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Need I say - Country Music. My mother LOVES country music. But the average New Yorker? Not as much lol.
Yep, I remember we (grew up on Long Island) didn't even a country music radio station. There's definitely more country music listeners in rural New England, but it's not as popular as in much of the middle of the country. Seems like a bigger thing in the western part of upstate NY.
PA is not connected to the Atlantic Ocean like Massachusetts is. We have no fishing industry in PA like they do Massachusetts. Boating is not a big thing in PA like it is in Massachusetts. It's a rare thing indeed you will ever find someone from PA vacationing somewhere like Cape Cod. That's a New England thing. People from PA tend to go south for a vacation. Honestly New England is the last region of the country where I'd ever want to live in. In PA we just don't interact with people from New England unless you have family that lives up there or have to travel there for work/business.
I'll just respond that you're focusing only on industry and geographical differences. I said there are some distinct differences, but you're neglecting to consider any similarities, such as very strong colonial/revolutionary history and links (see Boston and Philadelphia), distinct ethnic European heritage (both states contain strong Italian, Irish and Jewish communities, among others), strong local government (they're both commonwealths, after all), distinct town centers, strong history of open space/parkland preservation, "mill towns" (despite the fact that Massachusetts didn't produce steel or oil, it has a plethora of mill towns that are very reminiscent of post industrial towns in Pennsylvania). In terms of modern day industry, both are significant life sciences and higher education hubs.
I also have no idea what you're talking about in terms of Pennsylvanians not visiting New England, either, as I constantly hear of people visiting places like Cape Cod, Maine and Vermont (and very often see PA plates when I'm up there). Just because you may not visit or have connections doesn't mean others don't.
Politically, also, I think you're exaggerating quite a bit. Despite reputation, I actually think the general populace of New England, Massachusetts included, is fairly libertarian. The notion that there's still a super strong puritan influence there really has not been my experience whatsoever (let's also not forget that Pennsylvania has not exactly been unfamiliar with 'nanny state' laws--state liquor stores being a prime example of that).
It's not a perceived part of American Culture it is a part of American culture. Most of New England's culture is strictly found in New England but that doesn't mean it's not American culture. It's part of it just a regional part of the culture is all. However gun culture also comes from the fact we have the 2nd Amendment in the US Constitution which is what makes it apart of the national culture with only a few areas like most of New England being odd balls in this regard.
Also as far as regions go it's one of several and they are all important not just that one.
The same way the Liberty Bell and Gettysburg are not part of the culture either. That doesn't make PA not American because you won't find the same things venerated in NJ which is what I was getting at.
Pretty much how I feel about New England except for the exciting part. Does that mean New England is not American?
Religion isn't widespread in New England due to how religiously fanatic bigotry was once commonplace in New England and the that is an embarrassment to most people from that region. I'm not aware of the South burning witches and running around accusing others of witchcraft like New England did. Maybe that is a reason why religion is still very popular in the South? The Midatlantic states religion can be either popular or unpopular but it generally doesn't concern people like it does in the New England or the Deep South.
You can swap out religion with environmentalism and you get the same deal in some western states.
You're totally misunderstanding me. I'm not saying that any of these places are "less American" than others for these reasons, I'm simply disagreeing with the OP that there is a blanketed "American culture" that applies to everyone and for all, and that there are few differences across the board. There are ways in which Americans everywhere are all alike, and places in any state that feel like Any Small Town, America, but there are major regional cultural differences as well.
I'm not sure where JerseyGirl415 has been making her observations and comparisons. There are quite a lot of guns and firearms stores, hunting stores, shooting ranges, etc., all over New Jersey, New York, New England, etc.
The biggest gun "fanatic" I know is actually a New Yorker. Just because you're in a liberal area doesn't mean there is little or no gun culture. Have to explore your region more to see these things, I guess.
I've lived here my entire life and I promise you no one I have known or seen parades their gun ownership or use, even discusses it remotely unless they're hunters. There is a different attitude here regarding guns, and even very different laws than other states.
Vermont depending on how you measure it, has the laxest gun laws in the country. Still, considering how rural it is, Northern New England has somewhat lower gun ownership than some rural areas elsewhere:
Wisconsin has somewhat higher gun ownership than Vermont or Maine despite being less rural than either. Maine and Oregon have the same gun ownership despite Oregon containing Portland (well Maine does too but it's not as big). Biggest outlier is Hawaii, southern New England is near the bottom of the list but it's also not that rural. California is higher, despite it also have a low rural %.
As for no gun culture here, sure plenty of people own guns. But it's not as important a part of the general culture, you wouldn't find the guns icons in stores in New England (or upstate NY) much the way JerseyGirl found in Texas.
That last paragraph, yes thank you! Exactly what I'm saying. I'm mind-boggled that people don't see that. It's a different part of our culture in this region, it's much less loud and out there so prominently.
Also LINative, good points. You guys are talking about the exact types of differences I mean.
I've lived here my entire life and I promise you no one I have known or seen parades their gun ownership or use, even discusses it remotely unless they're hunters. There is a different attitude here regarding guns, and even very different laws than other states.
It is not an earth-shaking cultural difference when certain differences in lifestyle or attitudes fall along urban/rural or liberal/conservative lines. Those can be found in most places in the United States. Liberals in the northeast are much like liberals in the south or in the west. Same thing with conservatives in these regions. What seems to you like a big difference is actually pretty minor in the grand scheme of things.
It is not an earth-shaking cultural difference when certain differences in lifestyle or attitudes fall along urban/rural or liberal/conservative lines. Those can be found in most places in the United States.
That was the point the OP was trying to make.
I think it's more than that.
A cultural difference is still a cultural difference. Why are people so thick? Gun culture is NOT the same in the Northeast and South and that is a major difference. Laws are different, attitudes are different. Guns may be legal by the 2nd Amendment but that doesn't mean Americans straight across the board love their guns and have that mentality and cultural influence on their lives. I know I don't, and I don't want to be generalized as such.
Country music is NOT universal in the Northeast (it's getting popular but Nash FM is NYC metro's first ever country station and it launched like two years ago) like it is elsewhere. Why are most country singers from the South or Midwest? Because it's a cultural thing.
Whether cultural differences fall along a regional, political, or rural/urban divide, they still exist. My life here in NJ is very different than someone's life in Oklahoma, even an urban area, and it is mostly a cultural difference. I can move to Oklahoma tomorrow and do just fine in some aspects but I will experience many differences from what I am used to.
I actually think America is on the whole extremely similar culturally regardless of what state you're in, with only a few exceptions. Even places as different as New England and the Deep South are 90-95 percent the same, especially when one factors in the differences of urban and rural culture.
Rural Washington state has more in common with rural Alabama than either do with Seattle or Birmingham, respectively.
I also think the similarities present throughout America, with the possible exception of Hawaii and southern Louisiana are stronger than cross-border similarities between the northern US and adjacent Canadian regions. Fundamentally Bellingham, Washington has more in common with Jacksonville or South Bend than it does with Vancouver or Victoria because it's an American city full of Americans.
Even though Southerners for example are more conservative and religious than people on my native West Coast, I think this has more to do with the South having a higher proportion of rural residents. Somewhere like Asheville or Austin is very similar to Northwestern cities like Eugene and Olympia, and a rural part of Montana or Idaho is generally very similar to rural Ohio or Tennessee. You can find plenty of Christian fundies in the Western states and they aren't much different from their Southern counterparts, same with urban southern hipsters being cut-copies of the ones in Brooklyn and Portland.
I think the differences between regions of America are over-stated and the difference between America and other western countries is understated. I find Canada quite foreign in many ways so I imagine Australia, Ireland, etc are far moreso even.
Very fair assessment, though you'll get some blowback because of it.
It is not an earth-shaking cultural difference when certain differences in lifestyle or attitudes fall along urban/rural or liberal/conservative lines. Those can be found in most places in the United States. Liberals in the northeast are much like liberals in the south or in the west. Same thing with conservatives in these regions. What seems to you like a big difference is actually pretty minor in the grand scheme of things.
That was the point the OP was trying to make.
But the same point can be made virtually anywhere.
For example, most British people tend to be to the left of Americans, to the point that it is not jokingly pointed out the policy stances of the Conservative Party in the UK are pretty much identical to those of moderate Democrats - which may be why Obama and David Cameron seem to get along so well. However, you can find plenty of British people who would hold views broadly similar to right-wing Americans on political issues if you dug far enough - even to the point of privatizing NHS. Similarly, while I doubt American-style country music is a big thing in Britain, I am sure there are some fans. There are definitely a lot of fans of American hip-hop in the UK.
You can even make this point with quite different cultures. For example, Japanese people tend to be much shyer than Americans. However, you can undoubtedly find some Japanese people who are more outgoing than the average American, and some Americans shyer than the average Japanese person.
The GOP is only more aligned with libertarian ideals on economic policy, certainly not social policy. On matters of civil liberties and foreign there isn't a strict partisan divide in general. To my mind that would mean that an honest libertarian would look at each candidate individually and weigh the merits.
Considering things like smoking bans and other laws that usually get labeled as "nanny state" laws come from democrats and libertarians tend to view such laws as invasive on there civil liberties it makes sense they don't support Democrats. That and the progressive wing of the democratic party is almost the polar opposite of libertarians I can see why they default vote for Republicans.
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My mother LOVES country music. But the average New Yorker? Not as much lol.
