• hungryphrog@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    2 years ago

    European here, these are what different states or areas of the USA remind me of (like what’s the first think I think of when I hear it’s name):

    • Southern states: right wing twats
    • Alabama: incest
    • Florida: gators and really, really weird news headlines
    • Texas: stupidly large trucks, guns and cowboys
    • Alaska: cold, that one goldrush
    • California: expensive, liberal
    • Ohio: those fucking memes
    • Hawaii: warm, colonialism
    • Mississippi: riverboats
    • Washington: why the hell is the city of Washington not in Washington?
    • Makeitstop@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      Washington: why the hell is the city of Washington not in Washington?

      There’s also Washington Island. It’s nowhere near Washington state or DC. It’s in Lake Michigan, and is part of Wisconsin, not Michigan.

    • Knightfox@lemmy.one
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      2 years ago

      On that last point, George Washington is still considered the most popular president of the USA. In his own time he would come to cities and people (all of them) would swarm the streets. When the Constitution was signed Washington was in retirement, but the writers of the Constitution assumed Washington would be the first President. There were roughly 8 candidates running for the position, Washington wasn’t one of them, and when Washington announced he would come out of retirement the other candidates dropped out of the running. Washington won the first election unanimously.

      A lot of Europeans don’t realize this, but the Constitution wasn’t the first government of the new USA. First there was the Articles of Confederation which went from 1777-1789 so Washington had been gone for quite some time and was still so popular.

      It’s not at all surprising that it’s one of the most popular landmark names in the US (street and city names).

      Some other popular names include Lafayette, MLK, Lincoln, and Jackson, Jefferson, and Madison.

      • Similar to the names Elizabeth and Victoria in the UK. The first being mostly named after Elizabeth I (daughter of Henry VIII) and the second being Queen Vic. Although we don’t tend to name towns after people since most of our town names stretch back to Roman/Saxon/Celtic/Norman times. But train stations, schools, pubs, etc commonly incorporate these names.

      • r3df0x ✡️✝☪️@7.62x54r.ru
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        2 years ago

        The confederation of states is the American version of people in Russia who think the USSR still exists. They go around trying to act like the Articles of Confederation still exist.

        • Knightfox@lemmy.one
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          2 years ago

          I’m not sure how you got onto this point, but you’re referring to Sovereign Citizens and they’re mostly crazy ultra libertarians.

          I wasn’t trying to make the point you brought out, I was simply saying that 12 years had passed with Washington being in relative retirement and he was still the most popular man in the country. Many Europeans might think that the US Constitution was right after the Revolutionary War and thus Washington went straight from General to President.

    • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      Washington’s name is everywhere because there was this guy named Washington and he did some cool things a couple hundred years ago.

    • ZzyzxRoad@sh.itjust.works
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      2 years ago

      Alaska: cold, that one goldrush

      Hawaii: warm, colonialism

      I think you know more about our history than we do

    • defunct_punk@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      You’re mostly on the nail with these but it’s worth mentioning that political leanings are split a lot closer to “rural vs urban” differences than they are regional. For example, the city of Austin, Texas, is a lot closer politically to somewhere like Seattle, Washington, than it is to Odessa, Texas. Similarly, somewhere like Redding, California, is closer politically to Decatur, Alabama than it is to Los Angeles. This is a pretty recent development.

      • 🐍🩶🐢@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        I grew up in Odessa. I left and I never want to go back. Ever. Last time I was there was to take the dog, my father’s ashes, and any remaining belongings back to a saner part of the country. I have seen and heard it has only gotten worse since and nobody should live there. Ever. Just leave. Run away. Scorched earth. Fuck Texas. Fuck Wasps. Fuck all of the hateful, bigoted, racist, sexist pieces of shit that live there and anywhere else.

        Sorry. I may have been a little triggered…I am going to smoke a bowl and chill out now.

    • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.works
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      2 years ago

      California: That other goldrush

      Hawaii: Funny you pick that state out of 50 for “colonialism.”

      Ohio: Home of the buckeye, a useless nut.

      Washington: The federal capitol city, Washington D.C. is on a small bit of land along the Potomac river sandwiched between Virginia and Maryland. It was founded in the late 1700s early in the nation’s history before we laid any claim to the West coast. The state of Washington–the top-left most of the lower 48–was one of the last settled and named. There were several plans drawn up to create several states in the region, and name them Washington, Jefferson, and possibly one or two other founding fathers. Washington was the only one that went through with it.

    • r3df0x ✡️✝☪️@7.62x54r.ru
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      2 years ago

      Texas used to be a huge fudd state until very recently, at least I assume that things changed.

      They required a permit for carrying hand guns but not long guns.

      • tocopherol@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        2 years ago

        I love that the world’s idea of Seattle could be mostly based on Frasier, a show not filmed in Seattle, starring no one from the state nor written or created by anyone from Seattle, with hardly any plot line that has anything to do with the area. Basically the only thing Seattle in that show is the Space Needle, and they way they show it isn’t even possible in real life.

  • viking@infosec.pub
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    2 years ago

    The incest region needs to be way larger and be labeled incest/religious nutcases. Rest is pretty much spot on.

    • doctorcrimson@lemmy.today
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      2 years ago

      Honestly, Religious Nutcases literally run the House of Representatives rn so maybe a little more widespread than we’re giving credit for.

      • asyncrosaurus@programming.dev
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        2 years ago

        That’s really only because the U.S. government is set up all stupid to give the religious nut jobs over-representation. The House is capped at 435. It should be way bigger so bigger states with bigger populations had significanrly more represtatives than the tiny ones.

        • RedAggroBest@lemmy.world
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          2 years ago

          Also abolish the Senate or remove them from legislative duties. They exist to preserve wealth and the current power structure.

    • WhiteHawk@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      Pretty bad comparison

      • size is irrelevant
      • american states are provinces, not countries. how many americans know the provinces of Germany?
      • identifying states when most of them are just rectangles is damn annoying
      • defunct_punk@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        Germany might be the worst European country for your example. I’m sure most Americans could name at least a few German provinces just from German prevalence in Western culture. France or Italy? No way.

        US states also have considerably more autonomy than most of their European counterparts. It’s not at all an exaggeration to say US states operate as their own nations while the federal government mostly just handles international matters.

        identifying states when most of them are just rectangles is damn annoying

        This is true. Even as an American I doubt I could properly name all the Midwest and New England states on my first try.

        • Taringano@lemm.ee
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          2 years ago

          I’m not American but I do live in Europe and I only know Bavaria as a province of Germany.

          Can’t compare all the 50 states to full blown countries as most of them have low population. California though has like 60 million people, so everyone should know that one (and people do, it’s movies)

          • Perfide@reddthat.com
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            2 years ago

            Can’t compare all the 50 states to full blown countries as most of them have low population.

            Sure you can. The least populated US state(Wyoming) has about 50,000 more people than the least populated EU country(Malta). Every single state absolutely can be comparable to at the very least small countries. California alone has one of the highest GDPs in the world.

          • defunct_punk@lemmy.world
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            2 years ago

            I feel like the majority of Americans could name at least Bavaria, Saxony, or Hamburg if asked.

            24 US states have populations of over 5 million, ten of which being over 10 million. Like you said, states like California, Texas, Florida, and New York all have populations in the tens of millions. It isn’t like they’re all just hollow areas of land

            • Knightfox@lemmy.one
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              2 years ago

              From the US: I know those names, I didn’t know they were provinces. I thought they were cities to be honest.

            • Solemn@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              2 years ago

              I think you’re really overestimating how much most Americans think about Germany. The first result on Google says only 20% of Americans can name all 50 of our own states, and a shockingly large amount of Americans really don’t know anything about the world outside of 100 miles of where they were born.

              I’m betting we’re gonna run into a selection bias issue here, but can you name any Chinese provinces? Or Argentinian ones? I’d guess most Americans think about China more than Germany these days, and couldn’t name any Chinese provinces besides the major cities at most, and even then I wouldn’t be surprised if they knew none of those. Germany really doesn’t come up in conversation any more than Argentina, other than many a few more people coming back from vacation in Germany.

              I’m admittedly terrible at European geography, but I’m not exactly ashamed of not being able to name all the countries in Europe, since it’s generally not relevant information for me. I’m sure I’ll learn more about it when I plan to travel there.

        • MonkderZweite@feddit.ch
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          2 years ago

          It’s not at all an exaggeration to say US states operate as their own nations while the federal government mostly just handles international matters.

          Part of the problem, yes.

      • III@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        It’s a fairly reasonable comparison.

        Just trying to throw away the concept of size is probably the most unfair thing here. You are trying to change the conversation so your argument appears valuable. Then you kind of piss that attempt at goal post moving by claiming that while size is irrelevant, somehow shape is. What a strange move.

        You make a good point on the US state vs Country comparison, I think that certainly plays a much larger part than size or even population. But if you wanted to argue that point, rather than dismiss relevant concepts or inserting ridiculous ones - you could rebut with a question like “can you name the subjects of the Russian Federation?” Or, if you are in a fighting mood (which…clearly), you could just respond that American exceptionalism has them overvaluing the relevance of US States on the global scale.

        • WhiteHawk@lemmy.world
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          2 years ago

          The shape thing wasn’t really meant to be taken seriously…

          You’re the one being defensive here, so I won’t bother arguing with someone that starts out as hostile as that

          • III@lemmy.world
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            2 years ago

            Haha, hostile. I merely pointed out your failed points then suggested a better means of sharing your valid point - going as far as agreeing with you… that’s hostile? Yeah, okay.

            • WhiteHawk@lemmy.world
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              That’s not the part that was hostile, but if you can’t see that yourself, I won’t be able to help you either

    • caesar_salad83@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      yeah, but for example: Luxembourg - the last grand duchy in the world, one of four institutional seats of the european union, capital city is an UNESCO world heritage site, has a 1000 years of history.

      Idaho - potatoes. wait… maybe it’s Iowa? or Ohio?

      edit: really seems like people can’t take a joke, lmao

      • DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe
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        2 years ago

        No one under a monarchy has actual pride in their people and country, why should we care that the city was founded from a royal whorehouse by people we’re also descended from anyways?

  • FluffyPotato@lemm.ee
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    2 years ago

    As a European who doesn’t know much about the states: This is pretty accurate. I would exchange gators for florida man and I don’t know what the cars and crime one is but otherwise it’s spot on.

    • elint@programming.dev
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      2 years ago

      Detroit Michigan, “motor city”, is home to a lot of car manufacturers and also much crime.

      • FluffyPotato@lemm.ee
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        2 years ago

        Ah, I have heard of Detroit from probably some movie but I didn’t know it was associated with cars or crime.

        • Roboticide@lemmy.world
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          Detroit was the setting of RoboCop. Crime was pretty bad there in the 70s/80s. It’s much better now and the city is turning around.

          However, worth noting that Detroit is in the lower peninsula of Michigan, and the blue “cars & crime” part here is the upper peninsula, which is basically super rural and low crime. I suspect this was done intentionally, lol.

        • Obi@sopuli.xyz
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          2 years ago

          I think it went cars -> crime -> house techno (in that order). Am also not American but maybe know a bit more than most. I was expecting great lakes in that blue part.

          • pirat@lemmy.world
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            2 years ago

            cars -> crime -> house techno

            House music has its origins in Chicago. Techno music has its origins in Detroit.

            Though the words are unfortunately being used almost interchangeably by unknowing people today, the genres are historically very different in terms of both technology, culture and other regional circumstances.

            Yes, they do indeed musically have some elements in common, but even to this day, after years of evolution and borrowing of ideas, the two movements are still very different to each other, attracting different crowds, and the sum of the general sound of techno+subgenres is much different to that of house+subgenres.

            To some people, everything with a 4/4 kick is the same. To me, it’s like not differentiating between e.g. reggae and funk, or rock and disco. However, I understand why so many get it wrong, because most people around them do the same. I just thought I’d let you (and other people) know.

        • Roboticide@lemmy.world
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          2 years ago

          Michigan has more automotive manufacturing facilities than any other state, nearly 1,000 if you count all the suppliers and distribution hubs. And despite Stellantis now being French-owned and abandoning their headquarters, Ford and GM are still present with many dozens of facilities as well as their respective HQs.

          Next closest is Ohio with only 600.

    • Rivalarrival@lemmy.today
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      2 years ago

      Give about 3/4 of the New York section to Incest, and it’s closer to reality. New York doesn’t make it across the Appalachian mountains, but Incest extends north at least to the Ohio river.

  • Feelfold@lemm.ee
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    2 years ago

    Sadly, Cowboy and New York are much smaller and incest is much larger.

  • paddirn@lemmy.world
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    To be fair, the incest is probably a bit more widespread than that. Also, potentially more popular in Appalachia than around that area. I think eastern Kentucky/West Virginia has the highest rates of inbreeding than any other part of the country, at least that’s what some other guy on the internet commented, so that’s a fairly trustworthy source.

  • Chessmasterrex@lemmy.world
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    I’m surprised anyone there knows that the UP of Michigan exists. It’s a sparcely populated area with low crime. Hunting, fishing, snowmobiling and drinking.

  • fsxylo@sh.itjust.works
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    2 years ago

    I’d change Florida to Disney World because that’s the main reason anyone would get a passport to go to Florida.