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Grandmother of Five
May 9, 2008


I'm tired of hearing about money, money, money, money, money. I just want to play the game, drink Pepsi, wear Reebok.
I realize that most goons are US-based, so maybe this sounds like an extremely mundane topic, but a bunch of us are foreigners & the US is a weird, alien place, and both super interesting on its own, but also because your nation's cultural significance probably can't be overstated. I also imagine that, with the US being as large as it is, US-goons might also be interested in hearing about state-specific stuff, since I'm guessing most people aren't really familiar with all of the US states.

Anyway, some of the stuff I'd be interesting in hearing about is personal takes on the following;

Tiggum posted:

I really love hearing about regional differences, but especially from people who experienced them as outsiders, so if anyone moved to or from America (or even moved to a different part of America) I would love to hear about the things you noticed that were different, things that you had no warning of and just assumed that what you grew up with was the same everywhere. Even just little things like what words mean (eg. grill/broiler) are interesting, but bigger stuff would be great.

How is the political climate currently in the state and city that you live in?

What kind of food culture does your local area have? if you're into cooking, or simply know of some local delicacy, please share a specific dish, with a recipe if you have one, of something that you enjoy making or buying yourself that would be representative of your local food culture.

How is religious life and worship for you in the states? As an outsider, it appears as if religious life might vary pretty wildly from state to state, with some US areas having markedly different religious demographics than others. I'd be especially interested in whether people experience any prejudice or bias against their religious practice, or lack thereof, in their home states, or from US society at large.

Sharing what you work with or study for, or if you have any specialized knowledge, would imo also be interesting, because it would allow follow-up questions for specific fields, like, imo someone working with law or healthcare would probably have interesting insights on those areas.

If you belong to a minority group, do you experience harassment? If you do and you are willing to share personal anecdotes, and thoughts about how your state or city might differ from other areas in the US, then please do.

How familiar are you with other US states than the one you live in? Like, how many different ones have you lived in, or visited for a shorter or longer period of time. Are some states essentially as foreign to you, or even more, than some foreign countries might be? Do you feel as if there is animosity between your home state and other states?

Have you experienced any stereotypes against your nationality or state when travelling?

If someone was to visit the US for the first time, or your state or city in particular, what sights would you recommend?


Edited occasionally to add possible talking points and questions. Feel free to suggest any talking-points or questions that would fit the OP by PM or in the thread.

Grandmother of Five fucked around with this message at 18:23 on Feb 10, 2017

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dirby
Sep 21, 2004


Helping goons with math
I would recommend focusing the OP a bit more.

Some of the regional things you want to know can be found in threads for the region, like in:
Your City Sucks and Tourism and Travel and threads in D&D like California politics, Illinois politics,Pacific Northwest,...

And asking "so, if you're American, tell me about your job?" seems super-broad. Are there types of jobs you're particularly interested in?

Grandmother of Five
May 9, 2008


I'm tired of hearing about money, money, money, money, money. I just want to play the game, drink Pepsi, wear Reebok.

dirby posted:

I would recommend focusing the OP a bit more.

Some of the regional things you want to know can be found in threads for the region, like in:
Your City Sucks and Tourism and Travel and threads in D&D like California politics, Illinois politics,Pacific Northwest,...

And asking "so, if you're American, tell me about your job?" seems super-broad. Are there types of jobs you're particularly interested in?

Neat. I wasn't aware of the Your City Sucks subforum. I just seemed to remember the "Ask/Tell" me about Country threads being an Ask/Tell staple, but it'd make sense that kind of stuff got moved there. The catch-all Ask/Tell me about Country threads got shifted into more specific threads, like D&D about local politics and so on, I take it. The cooking forums is probably a better fit for cooking stuff, too, I guess.

& yeah, the job question is super broad & vague. I didn't intend for anyone to just write about their jobs a whole bunch, but rather that, if answering other stuff, then also dropping a line about any areas or fields of work that someone might be especially knowledgeable in being neat, since it'd open up for follow-up questions. You're right, though, it is broad & vague.

Anyway, I'll check out the Your City Sucks & the Tourism & Travel sub-forums. Thanks!

Neito
Feb 18, 2009

😌Finally, an avatar the describes my love of tech❤️‍💻, my love of anime💖🎎, and why I'll never see a real girl 🙆‍♀️naked😭.

Grandmother of Five posted:

How is the political climate currently in the state and city that you live in?

What kind of food culture does your local area have? if you're into cooking, or simply know of some local delicacy, please share a specific dish, with a recipe if you have one, of something that you enjoy making or buying yourself that would be representative of your local food culture.

How familiar are you with other US states than the one you live in? Like, how many different ones have you lived in, or visited for a shorter or longer period of time. Are some states essentially as foreign to you, or even more, than some foreign countries might be? Do you feel as if there is animosity between your home state and other states?

If someone was to visit the US for the first time, or your state or city in particular, what sights would you recommend?

I live in Boston, so it's probably much closer to a European political climate. We're, um... Bothered by the Cheeto-in-Chief.

I can't really think of any non-Dunkin Donuts foods that I'd really call "Boston-y", except for my habit of eating hot dogs with celery salt, which is more of an RI thing. I suppose in general the coffee culture around here is the strongest you'll find outside of Seattle, which makes sense considering we're one Gulf Stream shutdown away from being a frozen hellscape.

Tensions in America traditionally run North-South and Coasts-inland. While I may have a friendly rivalry with someone from say, New York, I'd have serious philosophical and political disagreements with someone from, say, Texas, or the rural parts of the Deep South, or some state that nobody's heard of, like North Dakota. While we wouldn't have a language barrier, my accent and word choice would definitely finger me as an outsider. There's definite ill will between various states.

The north and coasts tend more liberal, the south and midwest tend more conservative. Certain parts of the culture down south (such as the veneration of police officers, and the high stakes placed on High School football) would be completely foreign to me. That said, the ease with which I live with large, crowded areas and my obsession with the Red Sox would probably seem crazy to them.

As for tourism, go to Boston and walk in a random direction. Eventually you'll hit history. Or the river, which is also cool.

CaptainViolence
Apr 19, 2006

I'M GONNA GET YOU DUCK

I like the idea for this thread, US goons seem prone to making GBS threads their pants in confusion about regional differences in a lot of threads where it comes up, so I'm super interested to see all those things in a context where it's actually the topic of discussion and not a crazy derail.

I'm living in Montana (fourth largest state in the US by landmass, vaguely similar in size to Germany if I remember right, but we barely have a million people across the whole state). I'm in a college town that trends toward liberalism, but the state as a whole is conservative. Definitely some conflict, but for the most part it's a matter of city dwellers vs. rural folk, although our largest city is only just above 100,000 people so the line can get blurred once you get to smaller places. There's definitely some political tension, but for the most part we're insulated from major political conflict because conservatives stay out in the countryside where nobody bothers them and the outdoorsy places everyone else visits aren't near those areas. Also, unless you're on somebody's land way out in the middle of nowhere, everyone's pretty polite.

If you're not driving in a town, it's standard to wave at someone when you pass them coming the other way on the road. I travel a lot for work and don't really see that in too many other places. I went to a grocery store in Georgia a couple months ago and everyone was ignoring everyone else completely. It was weird to me, but I'm sure they thought the smiling bearded hipster who said "excuse me" when squeezing by was weird.

Food here is all over the place--we have some chains, but also a lot of diners. The town I'm in has a bunch of little artisanal-type places, too (curry, street tacos, a tamale truck) that they can really only get away with here because it's a college town. Most places just have cheap, divey diners. Oh, and lots of bars and microbreweries all across the state. Lots of drinking.

I currently work as a camera operator in reality TV (mostly house shows for HGTV), so I travel a ton for work. I'm actually writing this post from a delayed plane in Salt Lake City. I'm not much of a reality TV guy, though, so I'm definitely looking for ways out. Unfortunately, there's not a lot of film & TV work in Montana other than reality stuff, so I'm probably going to have to move to California at some point.

Montana doesn't have too many racial or religious minorities (Native Americans are the only real big group, and once you get out of the college towns people trend toward Christian pretty heavily). The minorities we do have get poo poo on a lot, though, unfortunately :( I work with a guy who's Jewish and is married to a woman of color, and the night of the election someone spray painted some awful stuff on their windows. Fortunately, outside of the fringe white supremacy groups in the sketchy, isolated parts of the state, people are usually nice if a little insensitive due to ignorance. Like I said, we don't have too many people of color outside of the college towns, so people tend not to understand what the big deal with racism is because they don't see it themselves. It seems like a generational thing, though, so younger people tend to be more sensitive to it (unless they grew up in one of the white supremacist areas).

I travel a ton for work and have spent at least a week in about 2/3 of the states in the US. It's mostly small differences, nothing I can't adapt to within a day. Certainly no major culture shocks that I can think of. Montana has sort of a friendly rivalry with North Dakota that's most just jokes about how dumb and flat their state is, and how the dumb, flat eastern part of our state should be given to them as West Dakota. Nothing serious, though.

Personally, I dislike most of the South--the "bless your heart"-type poo poo seems so transparently fake to me that it's just irritating, and it's been pretty prevalent every time I go. Like, if you want to say "gently caress you," just say it, you know? Pretending to be polite just makes you a bigger rear end in a top hat. I loving hate Florida with a passion (guess where I'm headed right now?), mostly because it's hot and sweaty and I'm not at all conditioned to it, being from a dry, frigid state.

Visitors should check out Glacier National Park. The mountains and lakes are beautiful. Or, if it counts even though it's mostly in Wyoming, Yellowstone National Park. The beauty of nature in those places is unsurpassed by anywhere else in the country I've been.

Plane's finally taking off, so I'll leave it at that. Hopefully something here is insightful for you!

Canine Blues Arooo
Jan 7, 2008

when you think about it...i'm the first girl you ever spent the night with

Grimey Drawer
I am one of what I assume are many of the goons who live in Orange County, CA. I grew up in the upper midwest though and the experience is radically different.

I grew up in rural North Dakota. Politically, it's hard right, but not so hard right that people won't call you out for racial slurs and such (most of the time...). It's also economically pretty hard right as well, except for a State-run bank (which everyone loves) and a State-run Mill (which everyone loves). This kind of political bipolar-ism is pretty common in ND, and I'll get to that in a bit.

Socially, any part of ND that isn't Fargo doesn't take kindly to minorities of any kind. This is especially true if you are Native American (The only racial minority that really exists in the state), which nearly everyone sees as second-class citizens. If you'd like to see this in action, you can read up on the Dakota Access Pipeline. The long and short of it is that they wanted to lay a pipeline across the state. Originally, it was planned to run across a city that's populated almost entirely by white people. They had a fit because if it'd leak, it'd damage their water supply and do other unpleasant things. The solution that has been planned since is to just lay it across the Indian Reservation instead such that if it leaks, it'll damage their water supply instead. I poo poo you not, this is a real thing that is happening and both the general population and the state leaders don't give a poo poo because 'who cares about natives?'.

Almost as bad as being a Native is being gay or transgendered or any kind of 'sexual deviant'. I'm gay, but didn't really come to terms with that until college because it was hammered into me so hard that being gay is wrong and against the Will of God and all that. It's not necessarily dangerous to be out as gay (unlike parts of the deep south), but it won't do you any favors and will generally bring a kind of shame upon your family. As a result, exactly one person in the state knows I'm gay and I intend to keep it that way because it'd be somewhat of a disaster for my family if it was well known.

Economically, the state is run very poorly. Oil is (was) the big thing there as of late, but the taxes and fees are set such that infrastructure to support the oil industry loses the state money every year unless oil is really expensive (which it is not!). The population doesn't understand math in general so where the state used to have a comfortable surplus every year, it is now facing major shortfalls because of piss-poor planning and a block of residents and state leaders who are relatively uneducated and fail to make good decisions.

The real problem with North Dakota, and the US in general is that I think wild partisanship between states is inevitable. For STEM/highly educated people, ND doesn't offer much. Fargo has some high tech/high skill industries, but ND generally bleeds people who have even a 4-year degree. Those that do exist almost exclusively in either Bismarck or Fargo. The remaining blue collar workforce makes up the majority of the population and no amount of education will fix it, because once someone has marketable skills, they tend to leave the state. To be clear, the rural residents of ND are not bad people and are more willing to help a stranger on the road or neighbor with problems than most. Whole communities operate successfully only because so many people put in a huge amount of volunteer time to make things better for everyone there. I've never seen anyone take so much pride in their community or population in CA as I have in ND. However, it does dictate politics and I fear that instability will forever be a part of the state because of it.

ND does have some neat regional food that's hard to find elsewhere in the US like Fleisch Kuechle, Shoop Noodla, and Knoeplha Soup. Also, if for some godawful reason you like fish preserved in lye, you can get lutefisk here pretty easily. It's absolutely disgusting (everything else is pretty tasty!)

------

Anyway, CA!

Lots of people live here! Everyone knows of my evil sexual deviancy here and no one cares. Brown/Black minorities don't have it *as* good as whites/asians, but they definitely are not nearly as socially marginalized as they would be in the midwest. I live in a relatively conservative and affluent area of Orange County, but 'conservative' here is still pretty drat liberal compared to the Midwest.

CA is very liberally socially and pretty liberal economically. We recently banned the use of plastic bags in grocery stores, raised taxes to pay for a school fund and moved to legalize weed and extended income tax on those who make more than $250,000. I like it a lot more here than I do ND.

Where I felt ND had some food dishes that really define it, CA seems to just have all the things. If it is a food, you can find it within 20 miles in Orange County and I absolutely love it.

------

Comparing the two, I very much like the politics of CA a lot more. I feel safe and secure here way more than I do in ND, where I constantly had a cloud hanging over my head. I do however miss the sense of community and the attitude of 'we're all in this together' that defines rural ND. They really are vastly different places.

Canine Blues Arooo fucked around with this message at 00:03 on Jan 30, 2017

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
Dec 28, 2007

Kiss this and hang

Some good questions and some good replies so I'll throw my .02 cents in.

I'm now living in Upstate New York in the Poughkeepsie area, but I was born and grew up in Kentucky and I lived in Louisiana and Connecticut both for several years before moving to where I am now. So I have a fairly unique perspective on the whole North South thing that has been brought up by some of the others.

When I lived in Kentucky I thought it was the most beautiful state, it has areas of grassy plains and farms in the west half and then gorgeous mountains in the East and then there is the "land between the lakes" in the little divot that makes up the left side of the state on maps. The people are friendly to a fault. You get the loud-type of friendly and the Quite-type of friendly. Except in Louisville and Lexington, to metropolitan to be friendly.

Food to try in KY: if you happen to go to Owensboro, Ky they have BBQ mutton. It's the only place in the US that makes this type and it's delicious. Moonlight BBQ brings in sheep and smokes 'em over hickory for something like 24 to 48 hours and it's just the best. Very unique and tasty. Also try the Burgoo. Which is basically a stew of whatever they can get a hold of. Traditionally squirrel or raccoon, or whatever was lying around. Now it's made with beef or pork or mutton. Derby pie is also delicious, it's basically a pecan pie with chocolate chips. but I'm not doing justice to how good it is.

Then I moved to Baton Rouge Louisiana for Graduate school and then later worked in the New Orleans area. When I first moved there, there was a bit of culture shock. You could have really rundown houses right next to mansions. It was pot luck what you'd get from block to block. There were also way more black people than I'd ever seen. I had always considered Lexington and Louisville very mixed with a broad spectrum of all sorts of individuals, but as I found out The Deep South was even more so. Everyone in Louisiana is very friendly and about the most laid back individuals I've ever had the good fortune to meet. Beer before noon? you bet. Huge lunches on the weekend? oh yes. Crawfish boils? when the they are in season! And if you venture into cajun country it just amps it up a notch. I would go to parties where zydeco would start playing and people would just get up and dance. Now this was all before Katrina, and from what I understand things have changed. For the better? I don't know, but it's different.

Food to try: get yourself invited to a crawfish boil. tiny lobsters boiled in blisteringly spicy boil and served with boiled potatoes, corn and whole boiled heads of garlic? yes please! Also go to their Drive-thru daiquiri joints. Nothing says America like getting a boozy frozen drink to "take home".

Jump ahead in time and I move to Connecticut. I moved to a quaint little town named West Haven, which is just to the, wait for it, West of New Haven. Did I say quaint? I meant it was once a beach town that the shittier parts of New York City and New Haven swallowed up. If you pull up a map It looks like it's nestled into an idyllic notch on the CT coast, that is deceiving. It is crushingly populated and miserable. The people are miserable and unfriendly (at first 'til they get to know you...in a year), they are rude and snobby, and they seem incapable of using a trash can. I was shocked at the amount of loving trash these people would leave everywhere. And while it can be pretty when it snows, when it starts to melt and is all black..it's like the loving DMZ. But the most unforgivable thing about Connecticut? Their Blue Laws. They are more backward than most Southern states i've been to. When we moved there you couldn't buy alcohol after 8pm during the week and couldn't but it at all on Sunday or Holidays. They may have changed it since I moved, but seriously. gently caress CT. And OMG the Taxes. Talk about sticker shock. they taxed everything they could and at twice the rate of anywhere in the south. With nothing to show for it, the streets were lousy, the services basic at best. and when the recession hit it was like a bomb went off. There must have been 5 to six houses for sale on every block. No one could afford their mortgage with the taxes the town imposed. It wasn't all bad though, once we got to know some people we made life long friends and there are a few beautiful and fun places to go: like Silver Sands beach, and Mystic Aquarium, and Mystic Seaport. But this is also the first place we experience "the smugness". We'd tell somebody we were from the south and they'd say something like "I bet you're glad to get out of that poo poo hole!" and we wouldn't know how to respond. The closer to NYC the stronger these statements would get..it's like they were convinced that all people from the south were C.H.U.Ds just waiting to slit their throats if they stepped out over the county line.

Do you know what people from the south think about people from the north? It's usually "Nice! What brings you all the way out here?" and they aren't "pretending" to be polite. They are polite. That fact that Captain Violence believes they are pretending says more about him than it does about southerners. I hate that someone started that joke that "bless your heart" means gently caress you. It doesn't, not even a little bit. It was a JOKE. it's stems from the 'If you can't say something nice Don't say it at all' thing most people were taught in the south. They are just trying to be nice. "bless your heart" is closer to "oh dear...no."

ANYWAY i'm getting off track. food to eat in Connecticut. nothing. I guess there is that famous pizza place in New Haven with the white clam sauce. but meh.

And then I moved to upstate NY. If there could be a place sculpted by god to be beautiful...this is it. Now when I go back and visit KY it seems flat and brown and boring in comparison. I live in the Hudson valley among apple orchards and craggy hills of old old granite. The people are as wonderful and friendly as any place I lived in the south. It is unbelievable it's only and hour and a half from NYC because it seems a world away. The only thing keeping this place from being paradise on earth is the taxes. You may pay more where you are, but this is high to me. we pay 6000 for our school tax a year and 4000 for our town tax. this comes out to more than our mortgage per month. We get nothing for our town taxes. We have a well, and we supply our own garbage collection. I think the only thing the town does for us is plow in the winter. The coal fired power plant got shut down and all the taxes they paid went poof. so now we have to shoulder it...and what happened in West Haven is happening here..lots of houses for sale and no buyers. This was also Trump country. Apparently only the city and a few surrounding counties went blue and you can tell. The people upstate really have a grudge against the city. They perceive (right or wrong) that the city folk make the rules and they have to live with the consequences. Gun laws? Popular in the city, hated out here. Lifestyle taxes like soda tax and salt bans? popular in the city and near revolt levels out here. Fracking? oh god. Its split between the hippie outposts up here and the city...and everyone else.
As for strange culture shock: everyone where I am is Italian. Or were generations ago. I'm not used to farmers being Italian or identifying that way. So it's not so much farmer Bubba as Farmer Vinnie. "You looking at my apples? They're good. You should get some. ey ey ey don't squeeze them tomatoes like that..they'll bruise."

As for food: it's NY you gotta have the pizza. Also apple picking if you are in my neck of the woods. Cherries here are amazing. And you need to stop at any of the roadside ice cream stands in the summer. A lot of them make their own ice cream on the premises from local milk. We also have a huge craft beer and cider scene. Although the state has been doing it's best to squash it with weird demands, like you need a certain percent local hops, never mind no one was farming hops up here. The culinary institute of America is just across the river, and if you need the city it's just a train ride to the south.


Sorry for all the mistakes, was kind of stream of consciousness writing.

As a closing thought I've always maintained that everyone in the south was gently neurotic and everyone in the north was gently psychotic. It's also fun when I go back to Kentucky and I get annoyed by how slow they drive and talk.

Khizan
Jul 30, 2013


Canine Blues Arooo posted:

The real problem with North Dakota, and the US in general is that I think wild partisanship between states is inevitable. For STEM/highly educated people, ND doesn't offer much. Fargo has some high tech/high skill industries, but ND generally bleeds people who have even a 4-year degree. Those that do exist almost exclusively in either Bismarck or Fargo. The remaining blue collar workforce makes up the majority of the population and no amount of education will fix it, because once someone has marketable skills, they tend to leave the state.

This tends to be true of small-town USA in general, regardless of state. The small towns are dying everywhere because there's no good jobs there and most of their young people leave.

CaptainViolence
Apr 19, 2006

I'M GONNA GET YOU DUCK

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang posted:

Do you know what people from the south think about people from the north? It's usually "Nice! What brings you all the way out here?" and they aren't "pretending" to be polite. They are polite. That fact that Captain Violence believes they are pretending says more about him than it does about southerners. I hate that someone started that joke that "bless your heart" means gently caress you. It doesn't, not even a little bit. It was a JOKE. it's stems from the 'If you can't say something nice Don't say it at all' thing most people were taught in the south. They are just trying to be nice. "bless your heart" is closer to "oh dear...no."

Just to clarify, since I think I came off as more harsh on the South than I meant to be and made you a bit defensive, but I just used the "bless your heart" thing as a stereotypical example. Southern hospitality is as genuine as I've ever had, and I've met some great people in the south--one person even taught me how to trapeze in her back yard! The point I was trying (and apparently failing) to make is that when you cross that line from welcome to unwelcome, it's different in Georgia than in Montana. I wasn't trying to imply everyone being polite in the south is disingenuous, but when they are rude it's distinctly different than anywhere else I've experienced. I personally prefer (likely because it's what I'm used to) saying nothing at all than saying something nice when you clearly don't mean it. The one time I got on someone's nerves in Georgia, the words were as polite as ever, but with a menacing/condescending tone that I didn't particularly like. I'd have rather had the "gently caress off."

It's super interesting to hear all these different perspectives, though. I had no idea the "bless your heart" bit was a touchy subject. It's probably about equivalent to how Montanans get when people ask us if we all ride horses to school as kids!

Noun Verber
Oct 12, 2006

Cool party, guys.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdDMrncAy4U

Tiggum
Oct 24, 2007

Your life and your quest end here.


I really love hearing about regional differences, but especially from people who experienced them as outsiders, so if anyone moved to or from America (or even moved to a different part of America) I would love to hear about the things you noticed that were different, things that you had no warning of and just assumed that what you grew up with was the same everywhere. Even just little things like what words mean (eg. grill/broiler) are interesting, but bigger stuff would be great.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
Dec 28, 2007

Kiss this and hang

CaptainViolence posted:

Just to clarify, since I think I came off as more harsh on the South than I meant to be and made you a bit defensive, but I just used the "bless your heart" thing as a stereotypical example. Southern hospitality is as genuine as I've ever had, and I've met some great people in the south--one person even taught me how to trapeze in her back yard! The point I was trying (and apparently failing) to make is that when you cross that line from welcome to unwelcome, it's different in Georgia than in Montana. I wasn't trying to imply everyone being polite in the south is disingenuous, but when they are rude it's distinctly different than anywhere else I've experienced. I personally prefer (likely because it's what I'm used to) saying nothing at all than saying something nice when you clearly don't mean it. The one time I got on someone's nerves in Georgia, the words were as polite as ever, but with a menacing/condescending tone that I didn't particularly like. I'd have rather had the "gently caress off."

It's super interesting to hear all these different perspectives, though. I had no idea the "bless your heart" bit was a touchy subject. It's probably about equivalent to how Montanans get when people ask us if we all ride horses to school as kids!

Yeah I did get a little defensive, sorry to take it out on you. I just find it weirdly insulting when someone from NYC or even that guy from Boston have these really strong opinions about "people from the South" without having been there and giving it a chance. I had a buddy who lived in NJ and commuted everyday into the city. He was a wreck both mentally and physically from the stress he would put himself through (he was wound pretty tight) but he always told himself "At least I don't live in a racist shithole in the south." And then his wife got a waaay better job in Texas. God, you would have thought he was going to be pushed out of a helicopter. He moved, and it basically took him a week to decide that not only was Texas "not that bad", but the city he was living in was "actually pretty progressive." As a bonus his wife kept her NY salary, which in Texas means he could stay home with the kids and they didn't *need* his income to stay afloat.

Also, I traveled through Montana as a kid, it really is a beautiful state. Sorry you didn't get to ride Horses to school, being from Kentucky I got that a lot too.

Grandmother of Five
May 9, 2008


I'm tired of hearing about money, money, money, money, money. I just want to play the game, drink Pepsi, wear Reebok.
Thanks for the in-depth and interesting replies! As an outsider, it is easy to think of the US as a whole, and it is neat to learn a bit about the cultural differences that people experience between the different states. As an outsider, the North/South rivalry pops up all over the forums, and in all kind of discussions, but I never noticed a coastal/in-land dichotomy, though that could be because of my poor knowledge of US geography. I could be wrong, but on the forums it comes across as if goons are often either based in Northern states, or goons tend towards political beliefs that makes them view the south and mid-western US as backwards or regressive, to an extent that it is hard to gauge as an outsider whether is mostly fair or exaggerated.

Neito posted:

I live in Boston, so it's probably much closer to a European political climate. We're, um... Bothered by the Cheeto-in-Chief.

I'm assuming that'd be like a northern / western European political climate, and not eastern or southern Europe :P I don't mean to make a talking point about Europe being oh-so-diverse, but I just figure it is sort of a mirror point on how there is significant difference between US states, too. When goons refer to Europe without specifying otherwise, I assume that it is mostly western Europe, and mostly Germany, France and the UK

CaptainViolence posted:

Hopefully something here is insightful for you!

It was! The rural versus urban cultural differences that you mention is always really noticeable, I feel, no matter where you are at. I've never been to the US, but rural & small town mentality and culture versus urban culture have a lot of the same characteristic no matter where in the world you are, I think.

Canine Blues Arooo posted:

Comparing the two, I very much like the politics of CA a lot more. I feel safe and secure here way more than I do in ND, where I constantly had a cloud hanging over my head. I do however miss the sense of community and the attitude of 'we're all in this together' that defines rural ND. They really are vastly different places.

Thanks for your reply as well. This quoted part stood out to me, because it seems like something that is vastly different depending on where in the US you are. Not feeling secure in the area you lived must have been massively unsettling.

As an outsider, this seems like an area where the cultural difference between areas in the US is significant enough to have a major effect on people's daily lives, but as an outsider, it is hard to tell how much of this impression is simply derived from the vitriol of goons discussing politics on-line, so it is interesting to read a personal experience on it.


You're making me hungry.

I don't know if it is fair, but Louisiana comes across as sort of an odd-ball state, with pretty strong continental European roots and influence compared to other US states, with a strong bent towards civil law compared to other states that are more common law. I don't know how true that is, but despite being a southern states which I'd guess most people would think of as being less culturally similar to Europe, my largely unfounded stereotype is that Louisiana probably resembles continental Europe the most, or at least France and Germany.

Tiggum posted:

I really love hearing about regional differences, but especially from people who experienced them as outsiders, so if anyone moved to or from America (or even moved to a different part of America) I would love to hear about the things you noticed that were different, things that you had no warning of and just assumed that what you grew up with was the same everywhere. Even just little things like what words mean (eg. grill/broiler) are interesting, but bigger stuff would be great.

Yeah, that stuff is interesting. All the big and tiny culture clashes is something it is interesting to hear about, both between states, but also between countries. I'm gonna add your remark to the OP as a suggested talking point. Feel free to suggest other questions or talking points, as the OP is perhaps a bit sparse.

KaiserSchnitzel
Feb 23, 2003

Hey baby I think we Havel lot in common
Every day I put on my MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN hat and drive my pickup truck around looking for minorities to run over as I drive from McDonald's to McDonald's to order Big Macs and chocolate shakes. I am fat and I love Jebus. The world is flat and the fundamental tenets of science are all clearly wrong.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
Dec 28, 2007

Kiss this and hang

Grandmother of Five posted:

I don't know if it is fair, but Louisiana comes across as sort of an odd-ball state, with pretty strong continental European roots and influence compared to other US states, with a strong bent towards civil law compared to other states that are more common law. I don't know how true that is, but despite being a southern states which I'd guess most people would think of as being less culturally similar to Europe, my largely unfounded stereotype is that Louisiana probably resembles continental Europe the most, or at least France and Germany.



And you would be correct! Louisiana is an oddball. Four years before Louisiana became a state in 1812, the former French and Spanish colony adopted a version of the Napoleonic Code. What also makes it an oddball is the language. In spite of the horrible practices of the public school system that not only discouraged speaking any form of French, Cajun or Creole but actively repressed it..the language is coming back. example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mL60ILVndzs
The architecture in New Orleans proper, and the French Quarter is very European. Which makes it a terrific tourist destination..all the charm of Not-America, while being in America.


Speaking of language (har). This is also a funny thing about our Italian speakers up here in NY. Most everyone who speaks Italian learned it from their Grandparents who came over in the early 1900's or so. So these guys will go back over to the village or city their family came from and people think they have the quaintest old person dialect. Or even funnier, they'll host high-schoolers from Italy for an exchange program and the kids won't understand a word they say and they have to resort to English.

Grand Prize Winner
Feb 19, 2007


Los Angeles, CA

Grandmother of Five posted:


How is the political climate currently in the state and city that you live in?

LA and environs has a population that is slowly getting angrily woke while the actual power positions are held by corporate shitheels. Anything progressive that happens down here is caused by statewide mandates or mass movements forcing our politicos' hands.

quote:

What kind of food culture does your local area have? if you're into cooking, or simply know of some local delicacy, please share a specific dish, with a recipe if you have one, of something that you enjoy making or buying yourself that would be representative of your local food culture.
Been working 60 hour weeks recently, so I live on cheap burgers. Given a choice, my favorite things to cook/eat are lasagne (my own recipe, nowhere near authentic but p. tasty), Indian food, and ramen (the kind you get at restaurants, not the lovely diy squares). I eat Mexican food a lot too, but I'm not very good at cooking it.

quote:

Sharing what you work with or study for, or if you have any specialized knowledge, would imo also be interesting, because it would allow follow-up questions for specific fields, like, imo someone working with law or healthcare would probably have interesting insights on those areas.
I'm an A/V technician/self-taught audio engineer; I've worked in theatre, film, and A/V for my entire (still short) career. The weirdest thing about it that I've noticed is that the trade slang is divided both by region and industry.

quote:

If you belong to a minority group, do you experience harassment? If you do and you are willing to share personal anecdotes, and thoughts about how your state or city might differ from other areas in the US, then please do.
Not a minority, but many of my relatives Latino (Mexico and Venezuela, primarily) and they get hosed with by the cops waaaay more than I do. I think the Venezualans catch less hell because they're paler.

quote:

How familiar are you with other US states than the one you live in? Like, how many different ones have you lived in, or visited for a shorter or longer period of time. Are some states essentially as foreign to you, or even more, than some foreign countries might be? Do you feel as if there is animosity between your home state and other states?
I've lived in Idaho while I went to school. The people were OK, the weather was hell, the politics were godawful. Mormons out the rear end, and most of the older people will ask which church you go to while you're introducing yourself. When the answer is "I don't" they look at you like you have two heads and many will immediately try to rack up a win for God by inviting you to their church.

quote:

If someone was to visit the US for the first time, or your state or city in particular, what sights would you recommend?

Wait a couple years; the exchange rate may be a lot better for you by 2018.

Grand Prize Winner fucked around with this message at 17:58 on Jan 30, 2017

Daikatana Ritsu
Aug 1, 2008

I have lived in various New England states all of my life, but primarily in Mass and RI so my focus will generally be there.

Politically, New England is what you would expect, with New Hampshire being the one outlier which sometimes goes red depending on its mood. I do want to emphasize something though. Yes, we tend to lean blue very hard up here, but the more you travel outside of the cities and into the more rural areas the demographic changes quite a bit. I saw 100 times more Trump signs this election season just because I spent most of my off times in these areas and the sheer number of support he received up here was surprising to me.

Another misconception is that New England (and the northeast in general) is a racist free haven that caters to all and treats all equally and is free of prejudice and injustice. Wrong. The racism up here is just different, that's all. It's more covert and institutionalized and just as prevalent as ever. As someone who is mixed raced and 'passes' as white, I only have a scant few racial incidents I've experienced first hand. To quote one of Boston's best comedians Patrice O'Neal, "I have never met a racist." And it's true, you won't ever run into an outspoken racist person up here, but that doesn't mean they don't exist.

Rhode Island gets the reputation of having the worst drivers in the country and it's the one stereotype I can say is absolutely true. But RI also has a lot of farmland and is really quite diverse for such a small area of land. You can drive from the ocean to a small horse ranch surrounded by miles of trees in about an hour, depending on traffic.

The food here is great. Mostly Italian and some British/Irish influences. I grew up eating home made spaghetti & meatballs, lasagna, meat pies, corned beef, etc. My family isn't even Italian but we love their food all the same. RI has more of a Portuguese/Hispanic population so their food reflects that as well. These days because my week is so busy I usually just make whatever is fast and easy. Usually chicken of some kind. If I'm thinking ahead I'll put something in the crockpot on Monday and eat that for a few days.

I work/study in the medical field so most of my days are spent around people who are not locals, most of whom weren't even born in this country, so there's definitely a switch between professional and social time. That's mostly because people who didn't grow up here find us to be very abrasive and rude, and that's true to an extent. We are assholes but we're funny about it. Black comedy (not the Chris Rock kind) is universal but I feel like in America it's centralized in and around Boston. I have extended family on the west coast and Texas who I have visited for several weeks at a time and it wasn't until then that I realized how nice everyone is outside of my home, lol. I love it here.

If anyone were to visit, first of all, you gotta go to a Red Sox game. I know baseball is boring, but if you're already here, just go. Also check out a comedy show in the city, you may catch a glimpse of the next Louie or Bill Burr. Other then that, I guess make sure you come during the fall to check out the foliage and beaches. Summer beaches are overrated, cold winter beaches are where it's at. Go camping up in Maine. There's a lot of cool poo poo to do here.

Grandmother of Five
May 9, 2008


I'm tired of hearing about money, money, money, money, money. I just want to play the game, drink Pepsi, wear Reebok.

CaptainViolence posted:

I'm living in Montana (fourth largest state in the US by landmass, vaguely similar in size to Germany if I remember right, but we barely have a million people across the whole state).

I meant to comment on this, too, because the vastness, and relative emptiness & wildness of the US is really something. Some dirty math puts Montana at nearly 10 times the size of Denmark, but with only about 1/6th of the population.

Despite shared language, the sheer size of the US, and the distances between large metropolitan areas perhaps make some US states more isolated from each other culturally than some nation-states are here. Like, if I drove to Germany, there wouldn't be long between the residential areas on the way there, with gradual local cultural changes all the way, like more and more people being fluent in German as you near the border and more loan-words and slang that crosses over from Danish and German speakers. If there was like a 4 hour drive through an uninhabited area, the destination might feel more markedly different, if that makes sense.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang posted:

Speaking of language (har). This is also a funny thing about our Italian speakers up here in NY. Most everyone who speaks Italian learned it from their Grandparents who came over in the early 1900's or so. So these guys will go back over to the village or city their family came from and people think they have the quaintest old person dialect. Or even funnier, they'll host high-schoolers from Italy for an exchange program and the kids won't understand a word they say and they have to resort to English.

Yeah, this kind of stuff is interesting & pretty funny imo. As an outsider, it sort of looks like many European US immigrants attempt to hold on to an European heritage, but creates something that is both distinct from, but also part of the American culture and their heritage culture, and becomes something newly unique. It isn't better or worse, but it is sort of funny when an area, like Solvang in California, which is big on Danish heritage apparently, serves what are traditional Danish dishes to them, but are dishes that were never served here in Denmark, but are unique to Solvang.


I mentioned this in another thread, but wanted to point out here, as well, that I thought your comments about the blue state racism were especially interesting. As an outsider who isn't familiar with domestic US issues, when blue versus red states stuff comes up in media, it often paints blue states in a very progressive light in that comparison, which is perhaps overly positive and worth being critical of.

Grand Prize Winner posted:

Been working 60 hour weeks recently, so I live on cheap burgers.

Finally someone who can confirm my stereotype about the US

Pellisworth
Jun 20, 2005

Grandmother of Five posted:

Yeah, this kind of stuff is interesting & pretty funny imo. As an outsider, it sort of looks like many European US immigrants attempt to hold on to an European heritage, but creates something that is both distinct from, but also part of the American culture and their heritage culture, and becomes something newly unique. It isn't better or worse, but it is sort of funny when an area, like Solvang in California, which is big on Danish heritage apparently, serves what are traditional Danish dishes to them, but are dishes that were never served here in Denmark, but are unique to Solvang.

Solvang is kind of a tourist trap, it's not particularly Danish, you're right. I spent a semester studying abroad in Copenhagen so I'm familiar with Denmark and much of the US, I grew up in the Midwest and now live in California.

Most ethnic groups retained some traditions or bits of language, even if they are unrecognizable to modern Europeans. The big exception are German-Americans, because of the World Wars it became very unpopular to identify as German, speak the language, etc.

American settlement and migration occurred in waves, so each region will have a distinct history and culture depending on when and by whom it was settled. My ancestors were mostly Germans and Scandinavians who immigrated in the 1860s, stopped to help rebuild in Chicago after the great fire, then continued on to become farmers in the Great Plains. Utah started out as a Mormon theocracy and basically remains that to this day. The Southwest and California used to be part of Spain/Mexico. Cajuns in Louisiana, etc.

twerking on the railroad
Jun 23, 2007

Get on my level
I spent a year in Copenhagen but I'm from the US so I can comment on some of the differences. There are obvious ones - the language, the humor, the flatness of the land, the role of marriage, the likelihood of seeing nudity in a given day's newspaper, etc. But there are a lot of small things that I think really get to the heart of it.

Of course I know Copenhagen is not most of Denmark. It's those outer bits where I think the difference gets really stark. For instance, I remember reading in the paper while I was there about towns full of old people where younger people moved out and the remaining people just have trouble getting the bare necessities. In Denmark the solution is obvious - close down the town and move the old people to a place where the government can more effectively take care of them. That would never ever fly in America. Not everyone has guns but the weirdo old folks out in the woods who have seen everyone move away? You bet they have guns and are not going to be too happy about government folks coming to take their house.

There was also the apartment waiting list scheme. Of course if you had money you could just find a place and call it a day. But most people had to be on that waiting list. Nothing like that is ever going to exist in the US except for very poor people. People in the US will just figure that no relief is coming and they're simply going to have to live further out and have a longer commute.

There's also the whole collective decision-making thing. Certainly Danes like a good heated discussion, but there does seem to be a good sense of agreement on when it's time to discuss things and when it's time to get things done. And they do! In my opinion, Copenhagen's cycle infrastructure is way better than Amsterdam's and the work that surely needed to get all that done must have been massive. I think this shows up even in little things. In the middle of the night people will wait patiently at a crosswalk for the light to turn because that is the agreed-upon walking time. I personally rather liked that much more than the relative free-for-all one finds in the US.

In spite of how much I liked the country though, I don't imagine I could have stayed. Denmark is not super-great at dealing with immigrants, even if they are white as snow and highly educated. I don't know what I would have done for a long-term job there, given that I work neither on shipping/oil nor on medical products.

Anyway, it was nice while it lasted. Good luck fending off the Danske Folkeparti!

Scudworth
Jan 1, 2005

When life gives you lemons, you clone those lemons, and make super lemons.

Dinosaur Gum

Tiggum posted:

I really love hearing about regional differences, but especially from people who experienced them as outsiders

I've spent many months in America staying at friends houses all over the map, getting more of a feel for day to day stuff than a usual tourist does, and I will tell you the #1 craziest poo poo about the USA -

They wear shoes indoors.
In houses.

No not all of them do, not 100%, and the small percentage that doesn't will be quick to say so, but most of America does, they don't think it's weird or repulsive. When I come back home (to Canada) each time no one believes me. They can't conceive of it. My friends in other countries go nuts when I post photos of this poo poo on facebook as proof.
I will never get used to it no matter how long I'm down there.

Kia Soul Enthusias
May 9, 2004

zoom-zoom
Toilet Rascal
This is from my experience travelling from the U.S. but I think if you've travelled across western Europe a bit you won't be in for a huge culture shock if you're visiting a large city. Stuff is different, but mostly understandable for "Westerners". Big cities have lots of different kinds of people generally or at least are used to visitors so don't be too apprehensive if you're nervous. My most recent travel experiences have been to Germany in a few places and two months in Prague and I didn't find it too difficult.

Of course I went around Stuttgart with a young US Army guy and he was amazed and astonished at just about everything. He had never been outside the U.S. and was from some southern state which I don't remember. It obviously was a culture shock for him. Also he was trying to say "hi" to people walking down the street. The Germans didn't realize they were being talked to (especially since he was speaking English, c'mon). Also people generally don't say hi walking down the street in any city I've lived in, haha.

My point is your experience will vary depending on how used to stuff being different is. It's not that much for someone who's travelled a bit but if you've never travelled at all you might be surprised.

Now if you were thinking of working / living here I can't really say. There are a lot of foreign workers here in Seattle for the tech companies so I guess they get by well enough.

In terms of politics actually inside the individual states it varies a lot. States are categorized as "red" or "blue" but may have large divisions within. The state I live in, Washington, is a "blue" state but is actually sharply divided between the more populous cities and the more rural / farmland areas. Many states are like this. The rest of the west coast (Oregon, California) are too.

Here's an image from November's election to give you an idea of what I mean.


I'm a white male so I don't have any big insight into racism.
I can say more but I'm tired now :P

Tiggum
Oct 24, 2007

Your life and your quest end here.


Scudworth posted:

I've spent many months in America staying at friends houses all over the map, getting more of a feel for day to day stuff than a usual tourist does, and I will tell you the #1 craziest poo poo about the USA -

They wear shoes indoors.
In houses.
That's interesting, because wearing shoes in houses is also the norm in Australia (or at least in Victoria, I can't speak for the whole country). Like you say of America, there are some people who'll ask you to take your shoes off when you visit, but it's pretty rare. I wonder what a map of the world colour coded by shoes-in-the-house or not would look like?

Kia Soul Enthusias
May 9, 2004

zoom-zoom
Toilet Rascal
I'll say it's OK, to be polite, but actually I really want you to take off your shoes. :P

Jeb Bush 2012
Apr 4, 2007

A mathematician, like a painter or poet, is a maker of patterns. If his patterns are more permanent than theirs, it is because they are made with ideas.

Scudworth posted:

I've spent many months in America staying at friends houses all over the map, getting more of a feel for day to day stuff than a usual tourist does, and I will tell you the #1 craziest poo poo about the USA -

They wear shoes indoors.
In houses.

No not all of them do, not 100%, and the small percentage that doesn't will be quick to say so, but most of America does, they don't think it's weird or repulsive. When I come back home (to Canada) each time no one believes me. They can't conceive of it. My friends in other countries go nuts when I post photos of this poo poo on facebook as proof.
I will never get used to it no matter how long I'm down there.

This is pretty standard in the UK too! (with the exceptions being about as common as they in the US, in my experience)

Mycroft Holmes
Mar 26, 2010

by Azathoth
I never wear shoes in the house.

Pellisworth
Jun 20, 2005

Tiggum posted:

That's interesting, because wearing shoes in houses is also the norm in Australia (or at least in Victoria, I can't speak for the whole country). Like you say of America, there are some people who'll ask you to take your shoes off when you visit, but it's pretty rare. I wonder what a map of the world colour coded by shoes-in-the-house or not would look like?

In my experience this is a huge deal in Asian-American households but really variable otherwise, it might be a cultural thing.

Neito
Feb 18, 2009

😌Finally, an avatar the describes my love of tech❤️‍💻, my love of anime💖🎎, and why I'll never see a real girl 🙆‍♀️naked😭.

Mycroft Holmes posted:

I never wear shoes in the house.

I never really thought about my logic, shoe-in-house-wise, before. I'll take them off if I'm staying the night (or planning to) or if I'm a regular visitor at your house, and I'll take them off in my own house unless I'm planning to go out again relatively soon. I'll also take them off (or at least ask) if a place has wall-to-wall carpeting.

I feel like, to an extent, taking off my shoes in your house assumes a certain intimacy of the friendship, and that in some ways it'd actually be rude to take off my shoes without your permission.

LogisticEarth
Mar 28, 2004

Someone once told me, "Time is a flat circle".

Neito posted:

I feel like, to an extent, taking off my shoes in your house assumes a certain intimacy of the friendship, and that in some ways it'd actually be rude to take off my shoes without your permission.

Ditto this. For regular shoes, anyway. If you have muddy/snowy shitkickers than obviously yes please take them off. But if you're an acquaintance or whatever, taking your shoes off indoors is moderately wierd unless you're hanging out for a long time.

Eastern PA for reference. Also we love our hotdogs with mustard-onion-pickle and fried. You can keep your goddamn flavorless boiled street cart dogs you goddamn New Yorkers.

P.S. New York sucks.

Neito
Feb 18, 2009

😌Finally, an avatar the describes my love of tech❤️‍💻, my love of anime💖🎎, and why I'll never see a real girl 🙆‍♀️naked😭.

LogisticEarth posted:

Ditto this. For regular shoes, anyway. If you have muddy/snowy shitkickers than obviously yes please take them off. But if you're an acquaintance or whatever, taking your shoes off indoors is moderately wierd unless you're hanging out for a long time.

Eastern PA for reference. Also we love our hotdogs with mustard-onion-pickle and fried. You can keep your goddamn flavorless boiled street cart dogs you goddamn New Yorkers.

P.S. New York sucks.

Let's tae a poll on how many sports teams have thrown snowballs at Santa

DISCO KING
Oct 30, 2012

STILL
TRYING
TOO
HARD
This is a cool thread idea.

If you want to know anything about the San Francisco Bay Area, I've lived there my whole life. I've lived mostly on the East Bay, San Jose/Oakland side. Like most people living in the East Bay, my parents worked across the bridge on the Peninsula, and eventually I went to school there. The people there were very different, and it's a trend I've noticed in the greater Bay Area, the significant cultural differences. You could drive a ring around the bay with an unbroken line of buildings, roadways, or man-made structures. I've done this several times; drive from the East Bay, take the freeway north, head up to Oakland. Stop there for lunch. Meet up with some friends in San Francisco, hang out at the beach, go back to their place for dinner on the Peninsula, go to a bar in San Jose, wrap up the night, head back north home in the East Bay. A full loop, and if it weren't for the signs, I'd never be able to tell you where one city started and another began. It is a fully urbanized ring around this body of water. From an outside perspective, these places are totally indistinguishable, so it may surprise you to know all of these places, are extremely different. The Bay has a ton of diversity, my great great grandfather was this Oregan-Trail settler who was a sheriff in the North Bay, and he was not alone. People from all over the world have made their place here, and it shows. There's a small commercial area near where I live that I end up at a lot, and it never seemed unusual until I traveled out of state. ramen (Japanese Noodles) and dosa (Indian... pancake... wraps) are just as common as any burger joint. There's this collection of businesses near the train station on the East Bay that's full of Afghani and Pakistani stuff. You can get a loaf of Afghani bread the size of a beach towel and as flat as a cracker, fresh out of the oven for 50 cents at one of the markets. It's like stepping into another world every five miles. I love it. I don't know what I'd do without it.

The whole of the Bay Area has undergone massive economic growth in a seriously short span of time. Let me tell you about Jack London. One place I used to hang out at is Jack London Square. It's a little place on the waterfront, a few blocks from Chinatown. It's a commemoration of the prolific writer Jack London, who is famous for writing White Fang and Call of the Wild, but really just wrote anything he saw or could think of. Most of his writings are about this place in the early 20th century, and there was absolutely nothing. I have next to me a copy of "The Valley of the Moon", a story where Jack London travels up the Pacific Coast. If you're interested in how different it was, you should check it out. The houses I grew up in were the first constructed on the land, without renovation, built in the 1960's or 1970's. The further you get from the epicenter of San Francisco, the newer and newer the structures become. There are houses a five minute walk from where I live now that used to be mustard fields, but is now an endless row of suburbia, already filled with out-of-towners, trying to make it in computer Mecca. Or make five cupcake Kickstarters, you never know. There are "Victorian" houses in San Francisco, highly coveted, but not as old as they seem. Most of what did exist burnt down in the fires after the earthquakes of 1906. A few notable historical sites remain, such as San Francisco's Old Clam House, but almost everything here is as new as it gets.

But anyways, that's a lot of rambling. I love this place. You can ask me anything about it. My history in the area started in the 90's, so unfortunately all I've got for Summer of Love or the Bathhouse AIDs Outbreak is secondhand, but I got to see the second bursting of the Silicon Valley bubble, the DotCom boom and bust, the rise and fall of AOL, the enormous changes to San Francisco as a city from the artist's haven to the rich tech guy's playhouse, The '08 economic collapse and the massive tent communities that exist all over the place now, anything you want to talk about really.

DISCO KING fucked around with this message at 08:57 on Feb 1, 2017

The Dipshit
Dec 21, 2005

by FactsAreUseless

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang posted:

Yeah I did get a little defensive, sorry to take it out on you. I just find it weirdly insulting when someone from NYC or even that guy from Boston have these really strong opinions about "people from the South" without having been there and giving it a chance. I had a buddy who lived in NJ and commuted everyday into the city. He was a wreck both mentally and physically from the stress he would put himself through (he was wound pretty tight) but he always told himself "At least I don't live in a racist shithole in the south." And then his wife got a waaay better job in Texas. God, you would have thought he was going to be pushed out of a helicopter. He moved, and it basically took him a week to decide that not only was Texas "not that bad", but the city he was living in was "actually pretty progressive." As a bonus his wife kept her NY salary, which in Texas means he could stay home with the kids and they didn't *need* his income to stay afloat.

Also, I traveled through Montana as a kid, it really is a beautiful state. Sorry you didn't get to ride Horses to school, being from Kentucky I got that a lot too.
Oh, well, I am from Louisiana, about as deep south as you can get and I grew up with "Black folk with pink gums are okay, but if their gums are purple, they are more like apes" and "to N*ggers have green blood" and "there was nothing wrong with slavery because black people can't take care of themselves".

Two of those three statements came from teachers growing up in small town Louisiana. Some of the vitriol is very deserved. There is totally racism up in Chicago as well, where I went to University, but there is nothing like that in your face cartoonish racism outside the deep south for the US from what I've seen.

Also, growing up there were semi regular lynchings of gay people (maybe one every other year?) But I think that changed.

The food is legit great. I miss po'boys and a good etouffe, but I won't raise my children there.

The Dipshit fucked around with this message at 15:48 on Feb 1, 2017

boner confessor
Apr 25, 2013

by R. Guyovich

Triangle Shirt Factotum posted:

Oh, well, I am from Louisiana, about as deep south as you can get and I grew up with "Black folk with pink gums are okay, but if their gums are purple, they are more like apes" and "to N*ggers have green blood" and "there was nothing wrong with slavery because black people can't take care of themselves".

Two of those three statements came from teachers growing up in small town Louisiana. Some of the vitriol is very deserved. There is totally racism up in Chicago as well, where I went to University, but there is nothing like that in your face cartoonish racism outside the deep south for the US from what I've seen.

this depends on two factors in my opinion

1) geographic proximity to the slaveholding south

2) economic and population growth that has taken place since the civil war

i grew up in rural north georgia (also a slave state and part of the rebellion for non-us folks) but slavery wasn't very common in the north georgia foothills, and practically unheard of as you went farther north into the mountains. the confederate rebellion had to deal with a huge internal cultural conflict, lowland coastal southerners vs. upland appalachian southerners.

the lowlanders were very invested in slavery and perpetuating a slave state. even if you weren't one of the scarce big plantation owners, or a moderately wealthy small-time farmer who owned a couple of slaves, you were still a white person in a racially inequal society and the constant threat of a slave revolt was always on your mind, which caused you to invest in the system even if you didnt' gain from it. also, the south was huge into scientific and religiously based racism, really sort of an anything goes approach to white supremacy

upland southerners were no less racist by the standards of the day, but slavery was more abstract to them. upland appalachians are and remain the poorest whites in amerca. slavery was scarce in appalachia because of the lack of money to buy slaves, as well as the lack of justification - most appalachians practiced subsistence agriculture at best, and hunted or raised livestock for a living, because the ground is uneven, rocky, and not very fertile

even during the war, this cultural conflict was present - the slave state of kentucky, a mountainous state, refused to take a side and eventially joined the union because its neutrality was violated by the confederacy. the state of west virgina broke away from the slave state of virginia during the war, because largely mountainous west virginia wanted no part in the "slave owner's war". east tennessee very nearly did the same. north georgia, north alabama, east tennessee, western north carolina, all of these regions had severe problems with desertion and internal revolt - it was frankly dangerous to travel the roads in appalachia during the later part of the war, as you could easily come across the wrong group of deserters, bandits, or quasi-bandit confederate officials hunting deserters. all of these groups would shoot first and throw you in a ravine without much thought

because of this, there's a variable level of white supremacy present in much of the south. places like louisiana , mississippi, south carolina, places where plantation ideology were strong tend to have more 'traditional' views on race relations. places where slavery was never as prevalent don't have that tradition to hold on to

further, the south is highly rural compared to the rest of the country. while we think of the west as having wide open spaces, those spaces are largely unpopulated and the west is suprisingly urban, simply because more people are concentrated in cities and medium sized towns. conversely, the south overall has a decently high population but a lower level of average density. this means there's a lot of old small towns in the south that haven't changed much over the years., where time has passed by and if you're still living there despite the opportunity to leave, it's either because of family/social ties or fear of moving to a growing southern city and having your values judged

so, the town i grew up in is both in a place where slavery wasn't really practiced, and is also younger than the war itself. roughly a third of the people who live in my hometown are black, about half are white, and the rest latino. there was some racism, but not much out in the open, because it definitely was not sanctioned or socially approved. if you wanted to be racist, you had to do so in secret. i totally buy the small town louisiana open racism, because outside of new orleans lousisiana is a bit of a backwater where old ideas can fester. racism still exists in the south, for sure, but it's increasingly seen as socially unacceptable

currently i live in atlanta and i'm going to raise my kid here, because atlanta is comfortably southern and low-key but also multicultural and cosmopolitan

of course all of this is more out in the open than northern or western american racism, which are their own different beasts

Git Mah Belt Son
Apr 26, 2003

Happy Happy Gators

Neito posted:

I live in Boston, so it's probably much closer to a European political climate. We're, um... Bothered by the Cheeto-in-Chief.

I can't really think of any non-Dunkin Donuts foods that I'd really call "Boston-y", except for my habit of eating hot dogs with celery salt, which is more of an RI thing. I suppose in general the coffee culture around here is the strongest you'll find outside of Seattle, which makes sense considering we're one Gulf Stream shutdown away from being a frozen hellscape.



How the gently caress are you from here and when someone says "Boston food" you don't immediately go with lobsters and clam chowder?

Legal Seafood has been the official seafood of the presidential inauguration for decades.

The Dipshit
Dec 21, 2005

by FactsAreUseless

boner confessor posted:

this depends on two factors in my opinion

1) geographic proximity to the slaveholding south

2) economic and population growth that has taken place since the civil war



Oh yeah, I'm sure Atlanta is totally more reasonable than anywhere in Louisiana, I personally favor number 2 (with a slight modification of calling it internal migration more so than just economic and population growth), over 1, however.

But yeah, the stereotypes of the rural deep south still live on in all-too-large swaths of the U.S.

Tony Montana
Aug 6, 2005

by FactsAreUseless
oh wow

Ok here we go

Are there really guns like loving everywhere? People walk around with handguns and poo poo? That can't be real.

How does having no healthcare as a national service reconcile with being a 'great country' or whatever the gently caress? Do you cringe when people stand up and say poo poo like 'the greatest country on earth!!'? Do you find it unbearably arrogant and self-absorbed?

How do you perceive the rest of the world sees you?

Where else have you been in the world? (this is a direct question to whoever answers my questions)

What is great about being American?

What was the last meal you had? In detail please

Thanks!
p.s. I actually love you stupid fucks and have a career parroting American poo poo and get all teary at the Apollo program and all that. It has to be a tough love though because sometimes, what the gently caress are you doing

KaiserSchnitzel posted:

Every day I put on my MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN hat and drive my pickup truck around looking for minorities to run over as I drive from McDonald's to McDonald's to order Big Macs and chocolate shakes. I am fat and I love Jebus. The world is flat and the fundamental tenets of science are all clearly wrong.

dad?

Tony Montana fucked around with this message at 02:01 on Feb 2, 2017

Canine Blues Arooo
Jan 7, 2008

when you think about it...i'm the first girl you ever spent the night with

Grimey Drawer

Tony Montana posted:

Are there really guns like loving everywhere? People walk around with handguns and poo poo? That can't be real.

There are certain regions where a lot of people have a lot of guns, but very few places do people 'open carry' as much as some might have you believe. Most people in the gun-happy areas are just gun collectors more than anything else.

quote:

How does having no healthcare as a national service reconcile with being a 'great country' or whatever the gently caress?

It doesn't! Blind nationalism from an ignorant populace makes that work. Healthcare in the US is great if you have a lot of money and a joke if you have none. It's really dumb.

quote:

Do you cringe when people stand up and say poo poo like 'the greatest country on earth!!'?

Yup.

quote:

Do you find it unbearably arrogant and self-absorbed?

Less arrogant, more ignorant and if I were to be frank, quite dumb.

quote:

How do you perceive the rest of the world sees you?

I'd imagine the rest of the world is quite sick of our bullshit, especially when it comes to dictating international politics in some really stupid ways. I'd imagine they perceive our internal issues as quite stupid.

quote:

Where else have you been in the world? (this is a direct question to whoever answers my questions)

Canada. I'd love to go to Europe.

quote:

What is great about being American?

When we eventually destroy our environment because of our incredibly stupid policies, we'll have enough guns, boats and planes to take someone else's without anyone else lifting a finger. I think I'm supposed to say, 'Freedom™' or something as well.

e: Also, being a native english speaker is very nice in this year of our lord 2017. Not exclusive to the US of course, but it's a nice perk.

quote:

What was the last meal you had? In detail please

Huge tofu burrito ft. avocado, tomato/red sauce, sour cream, cheese, rice in a wheat tortilla.

Canine Blues Arooo fucked around with this message at 03:20 on Feb 2, 2017

Neito
Feb 18, 2009

😌Finally, an avatar the describes my love of tech❤️‍💻, my love of anime💖🎎, and why I'll never see a real girl 🙆‍♀️naked😭.

Git Mah Belt Son posted:

How the gently caress are you from here and when someone says "Boston food" you don't immediately go with lobsters and clam chowder?

Legal Seafood has been the official seafood of the presidential inauguration for decades.

I guess I just think of that as "food". It's not really all that special. Lobster's the most boring seafood known to man, but clam chowder is pretty delicious.

Tar_Squid
Feb 13, 2012
Goon here from the *sigh* grand state of North Carolina, home to the whiniest pack of losers in our state legislature ever. However I live within the city of Charlotte, which is the biggest city in the state. Most people in the city actually moved here from somewhere else, and while my family did move from up north they did so when I was too little to remember anything about upstate New York. So the city is a lot different than much of the rest of the state.

-Are there really guns like loving everywhere? People walk around with handguns and poo poo? That can't be real.

What exactly do you mean by guns everywhere? I live in a city and the only people I've seen openly carrying guns are the cops. That having been said, my relatives that live outside of town do own guns, but that's kind of a needed thing when you're a good 30 plus minutes away from any 911 help. Also to take care of wildlife that either is after your animals/food or is injured and needing to be put out of their misery. My brother does own a handgun with a concealed carry permit, but I think that's just a frivolous purchase for him, I've certainly never heard him mention even going to a gun range.

-How does having no healthcare as a national service reconcile with being a 'great country' or whatever the gently caress? Do you cringe when people stand up and say poo poo like 'the greatest country on earth!!'? Do you find it unbearably arrogant and self-absorbed?

It makes perfect sense when you remember Americans work longer hours and get less pay/vacation on average than our other first-world peers. Basically its totally American to squeeze every last drop out of the working class, and there's just way too much money in the insurance game for it to go away without a ton of squawking and stupid ( for reference, see the past several years ).

-How do you perceive the rest of the world sees you?

I'd imagine they probably buy into the stereotype of the half-dressed redneck with a Confederate flag flying over my pickup truck, glaring at everyone that is trying to use a restroom. ( honestly around here only some of my more whacko relatives even care about that mess aside from cringing when its brought up ).

-Where else have you been in the world? (this is a direct question to whoever answers my questions)

I went to Europe once back in 2003, landed in Amsterdam and took the Rhine river through Germany until we ended up in Vienna, Austria. European cities seem a LOT more pedestrian friendly in layout, but I still don't know how they don't dehydrate given how tiny the glass or bottle would be if I asked even for just water.

-What is great about being American?

I can go to my job and openly complain about how stupid my President is and I won't get fired for it (yet anyway). Also less tacit approval of murdering people because they decided to change religion. Finally, there's plenty of reasonably priced food around, no famine or artificial shortages caused by extreme corruption/crappy economic system planning.

-What was the last meal you had? In detail please

Pan-fried boneless pork loin chops with a creamy spinach/pepper/mushroom sauce, served with mashed potatoes. I live alone but cooking is kind of a hobby for me, so even though I'm busy and not rich I can still eat fairly well on a budget. ( GASP no greasy hamburgers or late night tacos, how unamerican )

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Jeb Bush 2012
Apr 4, 2007

A mathematician, like a painter or poet, is a maker of patterns. If his patterns are more permanent than theirs, it is because they are made with ideas.

Tar_Squid posted:


-What is great about being American?

I can go to my job and openly complain about how stupid my President is and I won't get fired for it (yet anyway). Also less tacit approval of murdering people because they decided to change religion. Finally, there's plenty of reasonably priced food around, no famine or artificial shortages caused by extreme corruption/crappy economic system planning.


None of those are really things about being American? The first in particular is much less the case in America than in other rich countries.

e: As a US citizen who lives here now but grew up elsewhere, one of the weirdest things about America is the tendency for people to describe banal stuff like "the peaceful transfer of power" and "social mobility is not 100% absent" as if they were particularly American things

Jeb Bush 2012 fucked around with this message at 03:54 on Feb 2, 2017

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