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Kind of like how California's Central Valley is like an outpost of the South against the California that most people think of, which is more or less a narrow strip of coastline.
I am no expert on Idaho but to me Idaho is to me a typical Western state. Ranches in one area, mountains in the north and perhaps a bit nicer then the more populated western states.
But the point is what is Idaho really known for? What is the first thing you think of when you hear Idaho? For many Western states the answer might be a great city like Los Angeles or Seattle. Or a famous national park like Yellowstone or the Grand Canyon. But Idaho does not really have that to my knowledge. So what do people think of when they hear the word Idaho?
Anyway, where are potatos grown? That's right on farms. And what region do many people think of when they think of farms --- LOL you know where this is going ---- the Midwest!
So once again it comes back to the stereotype of the Midwest!
Yeah, that state made a big effort in the middle of the last century to brand it's biggest crop.
Lucky we avoided having our best areas made into national parks, and instead made them into protected wilderness areas which is lower profile and better managed.
I get that Idaho is a low profile state but I still see that as no excuse for being geographically illiterate. I could label every single state on a US map and probably correctly identify the state capitals in 45+ of them. Yeah, even the 12 or so states I haven't been to.
Then again, thats what we learned in our flyover, evolution teaching, one room school house on the edge of the potato plantation somewhere in the midwest. lol
I think one of the sources of misconceptions about the Midwest is that people go to one part of it and think the entire Midwest is like the part they visited. It is a varied region - Minneapolis, Detroit, Cincinnati, rural Indiana and the Santee Sioux indian reservation are all Midwest, but very different from each other.
And that explanation still doesn't support a Midwest designation. I would say Chicago is the center of transportation, but I don't consider that Midwest either.
Chicago is a Midwest city just because it doesn't have the stigma or the jacked-up reputation of Cleveland, Detroit, St. Louis doesn't mean it isn't Midwest.
I think one of the sources of misconceptions about the Midwest is that people go to one part of it and think the entire Midwest is like the part they visited. It is a varied region - Minneapolis, Detroit, Cincinnati, rural Indiana and the Santee Sioux indian reservation are all Midwest, but very different from each other.
I agree wholeheartedly. That would be me going to visit NYC and thinking that the whole East Coast is great just because I visited NYC, or going to L.A., San Diego or San Fran and thinking the whole West Coast is great just because I visited those places. Every place within a region is different nothing is the same if they were it would be boring and it'd get old pretty fast.
When I tell people I'm originally from Ohio I often get "oh, Iowa?" as a response .
Also, you would be amazed at how many people have no clue where Idaho actually is. Have you ever seen maps where clueless people try to label the states? For some reason, Idaho is usually placed somewhere in the Midwest.
Yes, I've seen videos of some very clueless Americans, trying desperately to label the midwestern states, with predictable results....
Quite a bit of variety in the Midwest, from industrial cities near the Great Lakes to sprawling wheat farms in Kansas, Nebraska, and the Dakotas. I have lived in Madison, and visited Milwaukee frequently, and still make trips to Chicago on a yearly basis. The Twin Cities are good, too, but I'm not wild about other sections..
A huge misconception is that I think many Americans don't quite realize the economic power and the amount of people who live here, especially in the Great Lakes Megalopolis.
You're talking about 60 million people all living within about 7-8 hours of each other in huge metro areas like Chicago (9.8 million) Toronto (6.5 million) and Detroit (5.3 million) - those three metros alone contain more people than every state except California and Texas, in a far smaller geographic area. Then you throw in smaller Midwestern metros like Cleveland, Indy, Columbus, Pittsburgh... some of these "smaller" metros are still have more economic power and population than probably a third of American states/Canadian provinces. Then there's the whole "depopulation" narrative, which is more of a stagnant population or population spreading thing. Metro Detroit is still as large as it was in 1960, it's simply everyone lives in the suburbs now and parts of the city have hollowed out as these areas haven't had large migrant populations to fill them as some other legacy cities such as New York and Los Angeles have benefited from.
I also sometimes think using the term "Midwest" as a generic catch-call for everything between the Rockies and Appalachians is confusing. The Great Lakes States are very different from the Great Plains States.
Lol, well, that's a pretty ignorant misconception.
Last edited by Enean; 03-14-2018 at 02:33 PM..
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