Thank You Massachusetts (Boston, Lowell, Cambridge: middle-class, credit, home)

[puffle]

I have been on and off of this site for about a year now and just wanted to take this time to thank everyone that have responded to my questions with kindness and patience. It's not easy moving at all, but especially cross country to areas you have never been to and may not have time to investigate in person. It is these kind people who have helped me along the way by answering my repetitive and maybe annoying questions and have helped me narrow down my choices and assure me that some people definetly are misinformed about how nice the people from Massachusetts really are. Thanks again.

[ontheroad]

It was a long time, ten years, that I left MA, but I've been in Western Ma, Woods Hole, and today Martha's Vineyard, and all I can say is everyone has been as nice as can be, accommodating, friendly, and a pleasure to interact with!

I hope you have nothing but the best experiences when you move here.

[Backcountry]

I don’t like to generalize about entire groups of people, and there are always exceptions, however; many New Englanders have been extremely rude to me in my life experience. I am originally from the northern part of New England. I have traveled extensively and lived in the Southern and Midwestern USA, as well as travel to Europe. I have a college degree.

Some New Englanders are not only rude to people from other regions of the country, whom they deem to be uneducated, or bigoted, but they are also rude to people from other New England states.

It is a very complex issue, but I feel it stems from some bad secular aspects of Puritanism and extreme Calvinism. The religious aspects were left behind in favor of a form of liberal secular humanism, but the social traditions of Puritanism, and the idea that material gain shows God’s favor from some forms of Calvinism were retained.

An example of this concept I have heard in other postings would be the idea that people who dressed in sport casual clothes, and who tried to act conservatively were in favor, but only if they exhibited socially liberal thinking and were at least middle-class economically.

There exists a conception that people from other areas of the country are not as well educated, and that they may be prejudiced against minorities for example. There is a general disconnect from the idea that stereotyping people from other regions is a form of bigotry in itself. Regionalism is considered a virtue by some New Englanders, and not a vice. The people generally ignore their own bigotry and lack of education. Some may even stereotype Southerners as being backwards while ignoring any backwards aspects of their own region. They can be suspicious of outsiders.

The nature and architecture of New England can be quite picturesque, but it can be spoiled by the rudeness. If one lives in a rural area, there tend to be many malicious gossips and troublesome pushy people who think that they know everything about you. There are also the walking encyclopedias who know every subject better than anybody, especially someone from another area. They also do everything better and they are the only people who know Winter sports or snow. If you don’t do every thing exactly like them, say you play an electric guitar instead of folk music; they will exclude you.

Generally I have found that if New England people don’t accept you, they never will, no matter how hard you may try. Remember, I am from New England. If you get into a region that has one predominate religious or ethnic group, they may even refuse to serve you in a public restaurant, all while believing that they are enlightened tolerant people. They may block you driveway and try to push you around on your own property while insulting you. Their faces look like this icon .

I am only trying to express my own life experience. Not all are unkind. Some are friendly. It is not a function of the climate, since Midwesterners and people from the country of Norway are very friendly.

[sinking]

Originally Posted by Backcountry

...

Some of your complaints sound like things that will go on everywhere. Other complaints sound like your own paranoia.

[lrfox]

I guess everyone needs a place to vent, right?

But I would like to point out that this....

Originally Posted by Backcountry

I don’t like to generalize about entire groups of people, and there are always exceptions, however...[snip]... Some New Englanders are not only rude to people from other regions of the country, whom they deem to be uneducated, or bigoted, but they are also rude to people from other New England states.

is the same as...

There is a general disconnect from the idea that stereotyping people from other regions is a form of bigotry in itself.

Yes, you kindly prefaced it by saying "I don't like to generalize" and "some," however, you followed it up with a generalization about people from the region as a whole (taking it further by trying to pinpoint the roots of the perceived flaws that we all have). There are roughly 15 Million people in the New England region. I don't care how well traveled you are, you've likely met fewer than 1% of them. Forming a "general" opinion of an entire region based on interactions with fewer than a single percent of the people is generalizing and stereotyping in its purest form.

You may not like it. You did use some cleverly placed words to hide; but your post is stereotyping New Englanders. You're entitled to your opinions, but don't go off on a rant about how New Englanders stereotype people when that's precisely what you're doing yourself.

[Jimrob1]

I've been all over in my life. Originally from Mass. I would say there are definitely differences in people from region to region. All in all though people are people, and there are good and bad no matter where you go. Still I would take most of the people in New England, over the baloney I have seen in the population here in Portland, Oregon.

[Backcountry]

Yes, but I am a New Englander who grew up in New England, so I can comment on New England people, just like it is usually socially acceptable to comment on one's own ethnic group.

Are you going to tell me you have not seen some New England people deride Southerners that they just met as ignorant bigots, only due to an accent? I did not say all New England people act like that. I have experienced it myself, since people thought I was from another area.

Some New England people have a thick accent, which is fine, but some think that they have no accent, but speak Standard English. This unawareness seems to stem from lack of travel. Southerners already know when they have an accent.

I have lived in Europe for a short while and in different regions of the USA before and I speak English and two other languages, so I have an accent. People in New England who were strangers have insulted me before and said to my face that I was ignorant, just due to my accent. I have a degree and I am not uneducated.

People in every region have problems and I am far from perfect myself, but are you seriously going to tell me you have not noticed that some New England people have a problem with xenophobia and regionalism?

I have noticed that some can dish out criticism, but then go all haywire when you criticize them. Again I did not say that all were like that, but I am not going to deny my experience. I have seen much worse treatment than this, in fact. The other post is correct, there are kind and unkind in every region.

[IDASpaceman]

I'm not sure I have experience anything identified above--I was born and raised in Boston. Perhaps these people are talking about things that go on in the deep woods of NH, Vermont, and Maine?

What's all this New England stuff?

Regardless, I am extremely happy for the OP.

[DoctorRain]

IMO Massachusetts is a friendlier place than people give it credit for. I tried to move back and build a life however, couldn't do it and one main obstacle was my relationship with my dad. Even if I did move on my own, it could still be a factor, but living directly with him was harder.

Mass is home to me, my immediate hometown I feel a disconnect and not a fan of it (Billerica), but as far as Boston goes, I love the area. Watertown, Brighton, Cambridge, Arlington, Medford. Cant get a lot better and anywhere comparable is in the NW or something. Even Lowell I can speak decently about, but I prefer Boston over all.

The thing it seems about MA is that over the yrs, people haven't really worshipped their homeland like say those in Oregon. Instead, they complain about it or complain the taxes have gone up when many themselves wanted these big government programs. Thats the thing about MA.. people seem to complain a lot about things like this. Otherwise, real good place to live on the whole. The burbs most of the time like the North Shore, have some pretty cool people (Better than Lowell burbs like Billerica or Tewksbury). Its almost like you are in Boston in the North Shore like Danvers area. Its not characterless for a suburban sprawl type place and has city characteristics like high traffic, individuality and so on.

[Backcountry]

Hello to all the people who posted here. I just wanted to apologize for criticizing New Englanders. I am Christian and Jesus never reviled people back. It is not good to complain. The only positive message in my post was not to be unkind to strangers, which is a concept I can learn from myself.

I also probably, as a Christian, believe in some of the same concepts that Puritans and Calvinists believed. I don't quite like the idea about material gain being God's favor, however: God can bless people by providing for their physical needs as well as spiritual.