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Seattle has many transplants. A lot of people come and go to/from there, too. I know some of these people.
Seattle has transplants, but not nearly the amount that you will find in Atlanta. Most people you'll run across in Seattle were either born there or have lived there most of their lives. In Atlanta, 9 out if 10 people will not be from Atlanta. In Seattle 8 out of 10 people will be from Seattle. That's just the reality of it, Seattle has far less transplants.
A lot of people who do go to Seattle don't stay there long. There are contractors like me who may work with various tech companies, but many of them aren't there permanently. As for me, I'm still in the air about whether or not Seattle is my final destination
Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
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Quote:
Originally Posted by belmont22
I don't think it's so much a case of "TV and Twitter making us more the same" but rather, the Californian lifestyle, culture and accent is heralded as the "ideal" at the expense of the other regional cultures so the older people end up ashamed of their local heritage and do not pass it on to their children.
I mean England has had television for 60 years yet their regional cultures are still quite strong. Maybe even stronger than they were in say the 1970s since regional accents have gone back in vogue and RP is on the way out.
I think a lot of it has to do with America being molded into a homogenous "nation" so we can better serve the "Fatherland" rather than feel connected to our community or region. A similar phenomenon happened in France, Germany and Italy, 200 years ago those countries had dozens of different dialects and people did not think of themselves as French or German or Italian, but rather as residents of their nearest city or its hinterland.
Presently the same thing is happening in China with the imposition of the Mandarin language, and probably to a lesser extent in India as well.
I agree, there's something about American society which just seems to homogenise everything. When I visited the states, I went from LA to Boston and everywhere I went it felt the same: the same chains, the same look, the only thing different about the South was the accents, and in the big cities, even those weren't as noticeable as I thought. I actually feel the only areas that were that different were California, New Orleans/southern LA, and the Bos-Wash corridor. I agree that countries with very strong national identities or national pride, like America, China or Australia, tend to undermine regional identities. In the case of Australia and America, we're culturally uniform despite out Federal systems. In China's case, years of dynastic rule and a sense of unity has made the country a lot more uniform.
Has nationalism and communication made the whole US more or less approximately the same culture? Of course there are different ethnicities like Hispanics and Blacks who have distinct cultures, but are the differences between say California and Virginia or Oregon and Ohio pretty negligible nowadays?
Is the focus on national identity as an American much more powerful than any regional sort of identity no matter where you go?
Regional identity is extremely strong in the US. I would venture to say stronger than any other developed nation. For example, the area where I am from, the Mid Atlantic, has nothing in common with the overly religious, extreme right wing South. You have a senator from South Carolina claiming that background checks for gun purchases don't work. He wouldn't get elected to dog catcher in PA, yet in S. Carolina he is re-elected over and over. We are an extremely divided nation that simply does not belong together anymore. Personally I despise the US South, and I hate the fact that I am forced to have a govt with their idiotic elected Senators and Rep's ruling over me. I long for the day when the US breaks apart.
Seattle has transplants, but not nearly the amount that you will find in Atlanta. Most people you'll run across in Seattle were either born there or have lived there most of their lives. In Atlanta, 9 out if 10 people will not be from Atlanta. In Seattle 8 out of 10 people will be from Seattle. That's just the reality of it, Seattle has far less transplants.
A lot of people who do go to Seattle don't stay there long. There are contractors like me who may work with various tech companies, but many of them aren't there permanently. As for me, I'm still in the air about whether or not Seattle is my final destination
46% of Seattle residents lived in the same house 5 years ago.
Out of people who lived in different houses, 59% lived in this county.
Out of people who lived in different counties, 33% lived in Washington.
46% of Atlanta residents lived in the same house 5 years ago.
Out of people who lived in different houses, 52% lived in this county.
Out of people who lived in different counties, 47% lived in Georgia.
Regional identity is extremely strong in the US. I would venture to say stronger than any other developed nation. For example, the area where I am from, the Mid Atlantic, has nothing in common with the overly religious, extreme right wing South. You have a senator from South Carolina claiming that background checks for gun purchases don't work. He wouldn't get elected to dog catcher in PA, yet in S. Carolina he is re-elected over and over. We are an extremely divided nation that simply does not belong together anymore. Personally I despise the US South, and I hate the fact that I am forced to have a govt with their idiotic elected Senators and Rep's ruling over me. I long for the day when the US breaks apart.
Hey, you guys elected, then re-elected, Rick Santorum. He's a religious nutbag and very right wing.
Hey, you guys elected, then re-elected, Rick Santorum. He's a religious nutbag and very right wing.
No kidding--and the man has only been out of office for six years after having been elected to the Senate by Pennsylvanians not once but twice, with his fervent religiosity on constant display the entire time. Rick Santorum could never have been elected statewide in Maine, or New Hampshire, or Vermont, or New York, or Rhode Island, or Connecticut, or Massachusetts, or New Jersey, or Delaware; instead, he hailed from the Alabama of the Northeast.
The hilarity of Americans (almost always those from the South and Northeast) proclaiming the inherent superiority of "my region" or "my state" has been a source of constant hilarity here on C-D; additionally, it has shown that some Americans are actually dense enough to believe that this country could somehow peacefully break apart, thus allowing us all to form our wet-dream ideals for separate countries inhabited entirely by our own ideological ilk.
Also of notable hilarity is the notion of universal NICS background checks deterring the lethal actions of another mass-shooter or gang-banger, which would probably be just as effective as the 1994 AWB was in preventing Columbine.
^^I am a native Pennsylvanian myself and I don't like this "Pennsylbama" stuff. I just don't think any state has a corner on nutjobs. Look at Minnesota. Very liberal state, has elected whacks like Michelle Bachmann and Jesse Ventura, among others.
Christine O'Donnell got elected by the Delaware repbubs to run for senate. I could dredge up the names of nutjob pols in each of the states named above.
the difference is really between rural, suburban and urban areas.
Yeah that. From living/traveling all around the US...the cities are similar to cities of other regions. A city in the northeast is like a city in SoCal or Texas or the Pacific Northwest or Midwest. Slight differences can be noticed, but a city dweller could find plenty of common turf city to city. The suburbs across the US might as well be cookie cutter--from Anchorage to San Diego to Tampa, etc; they all look pretty similar--only real difference is the cold regions don't have as many swimming pools and the corner quicky mart might have a different type of sign for for the gas. A farm in the south isn't much different from a farm in the northeast or the west. A rural person can move around the country's rural areas and the main differences will be some climate and maybe some additional land use type regulations.
Much more difference between going from a city to a suburb/rural area 10 miles out than a city 1,500 miles away.
^^I am a native Pennsylvanian myself and I don't like this "Pennsylbama" stuff. I just don't think any state has a corner on nutjobs. Look at Minnesota. Very liberal state, has elected whacks like Michelle Bachmann and Jesse Ventura, among others.
Although I would definitely agree that no state has cornered the market on popularly elected whackos, I think that some people have a lot of trouble accepting this. The person you responded to in your post about Santorum, for example, has never shown a very apparent understanding of that.
As for my comment about Pennsylvania being the Alabama of the Northeast, well, it (along with, perhaps, NJ and DE) are quite sub-par with the rest of the NE in several categories. Is it really fair for a Pennsylvanian to think of their state as necessarily being the sociocultural/sociopolitical/socioeconomic equivalent of VT, MA, CT, RI, NY, etc.?
Also, in fairness to MN, Jesse Ventura was elected governor long before his days of Steven Seagal-wannabe-ism on national TV. He was, in fact, a quite popular governor who proved himself to have been very competent whilst holding executive office.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Katiana
Christine O'Donnell got elected by the Delaware repbubs to run for senate. I could dredge up the names of nutjob pols in each of the states named above.
Christine O'Donnell's campaign ultimately proved to be a laughable faceplant of epic proportions--we all saw it.
And I'm sure that there may be a political replica of Christine O'Donnell lurking about in Vermont or Rhode Island. It's not impossible, but I can't say that it's actually been visible (or that these people have been ultimately electable).
But, then again, on the other hand, when you consider whackos like Chuck Schumer, Elizabeth Warren, Andrew Cuomo and Richard Blumenthal (to name a few), it would appear that whackos are indeed viable candidates for statewide elected offices in the Northeastern states.
Last edited by Montguy; 02-17-2013 at 02:16 PM..
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