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I grew up in the south, went to school in the northeast, lived in the southwest, and now live in the midwest. Let me tell you- there are MAJOR differences between southern and midwest culture.
People in the midwest are generally more down to earth friendly than people in the south. People in the south generally put on more of a show of being friendly, but will easily talk down about you behind your back. People in the midwest are more reserved, and people in the south are more in your face about getting to know you. Both places, though, random people will say hi and smile to you, but I've experienced it in greater numbers in the midwest. People in the south are way more pushy about making sure you have a church to go to, religious beliefs, and generally try to conform you to their beliefs. People in the midwest generally are religious, but don't care nearly as much about what other people are doing religiously, but if you have a question on where to go to church, etc., they will gladly give you an answer. Food is completely different. Southern food is more soul food and greasy, whereas midwestern food is more meat and potatoes with a larger emphasis on brats. If you cross a Southerner, you'll probably regret it a lot more than if you cross a Midwesterner as Southerners are generally more vengeful.
This is just a short listing, but it goes a lot deeper. Sure, both have large expanses of rural, farming areas with people who hold deep country values; however, these core values are vastly different between the two.
Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Muhnay
Ok so the flag was not flown over Armies of the Confederacy? It was not used as a symbol for them at all? I was mistaken, I did not know it was about country life, about working hard.. ( I thought you all had slaves to do that ), about country music, ( are we talking Squeal like a pig country music ), good friends, family and all that.
So again why do all these hate groups gravitate to it so readily? I mean its a wholesome symbol, its about family hard work and all that right.. why do they use it? You would think they could find a better flag than that?
What Heritage are we honoring?
Only the rich owned slaves, most Southerners did have to do alot of hard labour on their farms.
Hitler took a Buddhist symbol and turned it around. That doesn't make the original symbol a symbol of hate, does it?
I think you're exaggerating. Moving from a NE city to a MW city wouldn't be a culture shock at all. Moving from a NE small town to a MW small town may be a culture shock. I'm under the impression that small towns in the NE are pretty liberal. That's not the case at all in the MW, at least in every single town in Illinois outside of Chicago that I've ever visited.
I'm not sure where Maryland truly calls but here the DC suburbs and inner city Baltimore are notoriously liberal, the Baltimore suburbs are moderate, and the rural Eastern Shore and Western Maryland are as conservative and religious as the smallest towns in states further South, which I consider to be a good thing. Pennsylvania small towns also tend to be conservative, maybe New England is different I don't know about NE small towns still being liberal.
I think the rural areas of each region are more similar to each other than the rural to urban area of the same region are. The regions as a whole are more similar to each other than each one is to another region. The biggest difference I notice is religion and expression thereof. Also the differences start getting fuzzy along the common border where areas start exhibiting mixes of views or combinations of views.
I think psulions2007 put it well. I've lived in both the Midwest and the South, and while there are numerous superficial similarities, there are also many deep differences. Midwesterners, at least in my experience, tend to be less inclined to stab you in the back, less fair-weathered, less glad handing. Class hierarchy is at least somewhat less important and more permeable, religion is a part of life rather than the center of it, and there is a flat-footed stoicism to Midwesterners that can make Southerners seem infantile and histrionic by comparison. But maybe that's just my Midwestern bias talking...
Go to places like Chicago, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, and the Great Lake coasts. Then go down South to places like Richmond, Charleston, Montgomery, and the Gulf Coast. The Midwest and the South are 2 very different places.
That is a terrible comparison. Way to pick the biggest Midwestern cities you could find and compare them to Southern cities less then half there size of them and not even remotely comparable in Chicago's case.
That stretch of I-75 is really boring, even up here in Michigan we dont like having to driving it. Unfortunately if your going down south, esp if your going to the Carolinas you have to go that way. We have a few dull roads in Mi, but that stretch of 75 in Ohio is mind numbing. I think all sterotypes of the boring midwest are confirmed in travelers minds as they drive through that part of western Ohio. In all fairness to Ohio, it is not as bad if you get off that ribbon of concrete. Lots of farms for sure, but they have some really nice small towns in western Ohio.
Hey! Don't put words in my mouth.
As a Michigander and a Midwesterner, I'm not going to apologize for the wide-open farmland along I-75 in Ohio. I like that drive a lot. It's not boring at all if you have an appreciation for farm scenery.
I would much rather drive I-75 in western Ohio than I-75 through most of Georgia or I-65 in Alabama. Those freeways go through miles and miles of dense forests. There's nothing to look at beyond the drainage ditch on the side of the freeway! Just mile after endless mile of trees that look exactly the same. At least in Ohio you can see for a mile or two and check out some of the cool barns and stuff, or maybe watch the farmers harvest corn in the fall.
Also: This is a very interesting thread, except for the 9 pages or so devoted to debating the Rebel flag. That debate was interesting to me in the first five CD threads that were devoted to it, but I could have done without it this time.
Last edited by michigan83; 10-06-2010 at 05:41 AM..
One nice thing about the South, at least from a young visiting Midwesterner's perspective, is that the college-age girls are super easy. It has something to do with the window of permissiveness that Southern girls are allowed between the time they leave their parents house until they themselves get married.
Only the rich owned slaves, most Southerners did have to do alot of hard labour on their farms.
Hitler took a Buddhist symbol and turned it around. That doesn't make the original symbol a symbol of hate, does it?
The Rebel Flag represents a failed political coup that was formed, at least in part, to preserve the vile institution of slavery.
That racial tension and bigotry live on in the South is well evidenced by the fact that the Republican takeover of the South is largely the result of the race-driven politics of George Wallace as refined and continued as the Southern Strategy of Richard Nixon, then Ronald Reagan, then Newt Gingrich et al, and on to Southern GOP machine and the Beck/Limbaugh/Fox organ of today. Is it a coincidence that today's most fervent Rebel Flag lovers tend to be whites who identify themselves strongly with the Southern conservative movement?
The DixieCrats are mostly all republican'ts these days... except Mary L.
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