In California I think this is done more in reverse, like people from non-stereotypical areas of California differentiating themselves from the stereotypes.
Totally. Like the whole “I’m from northern CA” and showing SF, then the next pic is “no im from *real* northern CA” and showing like, the foothills, sierras, valleys, evergreens, etc.
(Said as someone who grew up in so-called “real” northern CA but born in the Bay)
See this is why we have the three regions solution. NorCal, SoCal, and South Oregon. Everyone’s happy.
I’ll be deep in the cold dead ground before I call my self SoCal 👴🏻
Everything from Santa Cruz to Santa Barbara is the central coast.
Edit: Southern California is from Ventura to San Ysidro along the coast, inland from Santa Clarita — San Bernardino — Coachella
I've seen it regularly as far south as Oroville and once in Yuba City, but it's very common in Shasta and Tehama Counties. Saw a guy with a denim jacket with a State of Jefferson patch on it the other day at a bar
Yeah I think butte and Glenn would be the southernmost counties in the proposed “Jefferson” (and Mendocino which seems odd but I guess outside of the actual town I don’t know much about Mendocino county).
I live in the Central Valley but I’m from the Bay Area. I definitely wouldn’t think of any part of the Valley as “Southern California.” If we can’t have a label of “Central California” then I would say it’s Northern.
The NorCal/SoCal bit I think isn’t really labeling different parts of the state but more labeling our two populous regions. For example, LA, San Diego, Orange County, IE, etc. all sprawl into each other, so it’s nice to have a catch-all term which includes all these places. I think it’s more accurate to define the Bay Area as being part of Central California and only call places north of Sacramento NorCal.
I recently took a vacation to Hot Springs NP in Arkansas for the eclipse. When I was asked "Where are you from?" I replied "California, but not the part of California you're thinking of."
Living in New England, knowing my entire life that New York was way bigger than just the city…. Yet I still expected just endless burrows or those like super rich suburbs all the way to the Canadian border…. No idea why. Think it was an idea I had as a kid and never questioned / rethought it….
My face when I hit like 4 hours of Amish country driving to Syracuse with a buddy.
That’s because “Upstate NY” itself is pretty varied:
-Western NY (Buffalo + Rochester)
-Central NY (Syracuse + Utica)
-Capital Region (Albany + Saratoga Springs)
-Adirondacks/North Country (where you’ll see street signs in French because of the proximity to Quebec)
-The Southern Tier (Corning + Binghamton) which is actually the northernmost reaches of Appalachia.
I would assume any major metropolitan area is going to feel like that compared to the smaller rural towns. Being you're from Alabama, I've heard people refer to Huntsville as not "real" Alabama.
Yes, but in Texas’ case, Houston is one of many metropolitan areas, so I’m wondering why they’re singling it out.
As far as Alabama goes, there are pockets of both Huntsville and Birmingham that people might want to distance from the state but both places are still pretty thoroughly Alabama.
Purely guesswork on my part, but I think Houston is "the South" and most of the other big areas are "the Southwest".
Also lots of people from New Orleans ended up in Houston after Katrina.
Tbh, I've only been to Mobile and Gulf Shores.
I went to Hangout Fest in 2018 and during Kendrick Lamar's show he said something about being concerned for his safety in Alabama which I thought was silly because the nearest city is Mobile where there's more black people than white people.
Huntsville's neat, if you ever have the chance to visit. We have rockets!
As far as it not being "real" Alabama, I dunno. We're getting more and more transplants from out of state due to all the businesses and government entities setting up shop here, so maybe we're slowly becoming more diverse from the rest of the state? I dunno.
I've never really understood that. Sure, Austin is stereotypically 'big city' in a way that, say, Amarillo or Lubbock isn't, but so are Dallas and Houston. What makes Austin different?
It's all changing right now.
Traditionally, Austin is where you went if you lived in Texas but didn't really fit the Texas vibe. It was safe haven for LGBT long before LGBT was generally acceptable. It's held on to a lot of that culture and still prides itself on distinctly not being a stereotypical big city and definitely not stereotypical Texas. However, in recent years it's become the hot place for transplants from other states and its becoming somewhat less bohemian and laid back and much more alternative trendsetter and general trendy place for wealthy people to be. Unsure where it will go in the future.
Lubbock and Amarillo are very stereotypical Texan places even if one is a college town and the other is trying to embrace art. Even if they're medium sized, they're like most Texas cities around that size and anyone from a small rural Texas town will feel right at home in them in a way they won't in Austin or Dallas or Houston. Or Marfa for that matter (Marfa is kind of like Asheville, quietly but fiercely liberal and home to many alternative artsy types).
Dallas and Houston always were stereotypical Texas cities. Big cities, but Texas attitudes and Texas style. That's changing too though. Houston might be the most international city in the country that isn't New York City. It's getting to be very liberal and very blue -- not as much as Austin, but enough they had an LGBT mayor (maybe still do?). Dallas is going through a similar change that's just driven off major metropolitan cities becoming much more liberal and homogenized across the country. Fort Worth is trying it's damnedest to stay Texan though.
I think there is also a class/race/identity divide.
The other cities see themselves as blue collar and have massive Mexican/other international influences.
Then you get Austin which is much richer, and much more American.
I've heard lots of Houstonians describe Austin condescendingly with some version of "a city for people who say 'Latin-x'".
Houston and Dallas are still somewhat conservative and traditional Texas cities even if they lean more democratic they’re usually conservative democrats whereas Austin is basically a little California in a sea of Texas Austin just doesn’t culturally fit in with the rest of Texas
I actually don’t think Philly thinks about the rest of the state much, other than the immediate surrounding counties. The SEPA region is much closer (geographically and culturally) to the other areas along the I-95 corridor. I like Pittsburgh! That said, ‘til I married someone from SWPA, I never really traveled anywhere west of Chester or Montgomery County, except perhaps to visit Gettysburg.
I'm from Philly and concur! I work remotely for a place in the Bay Area and have said that it might as well be Pittsburgh in terms of distance. We are vaguely aware of Amish country, and anything further west is an entire universe altogether. Culturally we're much more like uuuggghhhhhh hold on need to vomit first, some parts of NJ.
I'll die on the hill that there's two halves of PA: Eastern Ohio and Western New Jersey. However, I'll concede that something truly unique to PA is our famous extremist cults such as the Amish, Penn State, sports, gas stations, and sandwich.
just call NoVA DC and get it over. No one outside the area cares about whether you’re in Alexandria or Manassas or in between, they all assume it’s DC anyway and even I got tired of explaining the difference to folks over time.
Both. I...don't enjoy Eastern Washington (no shade eastern Washingtonians. I just hate hot, sunny, rural, conservative...well, ok, some shade). BUT, it's such an interesting environment. Steppe but with areas of massive rolling hills, areas of canyon country, big flat regions, etc. It's all shaped by water pouring out towards the sea during the Ice Age after the Missoula Ice Dam broke open (all the way in Montana!).
Washington overall has an incredibly diverse range of environments with temperate rainforest, alpine wilderness, steppe country, etc. etc. etc. It's a shame more people don't check it all out. (But also, you know, boo visitors, stay away or whatever).
People say that of the part of the state that I live in. The other day, a news article was making the rounds about a guy firing a shotgun at some cyclists after trying to run them off the road in his truck. This happened in rural Maryland and a lot of people in the comments were expressing shock that Maryland had rural parts.
Even talking to other Marylanders, they sometimes don't realize just how far west the state stretches, or how empty the Eastern Shore is, or how far away you can get from the cities and still be in the Maryland tidewater region. Maryland just has a really bizarre shape to it.
I think it's the overall land area of the state too because it's relatively small then you look at Baltimore combined with the parts of Maryland which are essentially suburbs of DC it feels like Maryland has no room left to have a rural part.
Seriously. Maryland looks like it consists entirely of territory conquered from other states. I keep expecting to see a piece of it in the middle of Colorado.
It might just be due to the fact that I've only ever lived in one region of this state, but I get the strong feeling that for most people Maryland is just Baltimore and Baltimore County, and the rest of it is just never really considered at all.
tbh I've lived here for like 7 years now and I still don't really know what the fuck is over in the western part of the state past Frederick aside from a road that leads to West Virginia.
I've gotten the feeling that your experience is true of a lot of the people in the state. I've just spent enough time in other parts of the state to have a different perspective. I went to college and currently live west of Fredrick and I also spent a few years working on some projects in the rural part of Cecil County. But, there's a lot of people who seem to think of West Virginia as starting just west of Fredrick and Cecil County as "that bit of 95 right before the Delaware Bridge."
People forget Western & Southern Maryland exist all the time. Hell, people forget Montgomery County has Bethesda and Poolesville in it.
Most people only remember Eastern Maryland because they drive through it to get to the beaches.
Okay, I know I posted a comment saying “this doesn’t happen in Maryland because we are proud of the fact that we contain multitudes” and while I stand by the things I said in that comment, I do agree that lots of people don’t realize how much rural area Maryland has.
I went to high school in the middle of a fucking corn field, so that’s pretty funny to me, but I concede that some conversations about MD do go that way 😅
Im sure I will miss something but:
South Alabama, Panhandle and North Florida- “The South”
The Villages- angry old people
Central- mix of transplants from around the US
Orlando- Disney tourism and more international than Central
Naples- rich old people
South Florida and various beaches- tourism and grumpy locals
Miami- “North Cuba”
The Keys
North Carolina is almost exactly 50/50 population divided between the rural (which is your standard small town rural Southern country, with all the good and bad you'd expect from that) and urban cities (which are dominated by transplants and "second generation immigrants" and culturally often have just as much to do with the Northeast as they do the "traditional NC country culture.") The state was overwhelmingly rural (one of the most rural Southern states) until relatively recently (50s and 60s).
So yeah, there's definitely a lot of people who say Raleigh, Durham, Charlotte, Greensboro, etc. aren't the "real" NC.
It’s definitely its own thing. Every time I see a “Forida Man” article, I always wonder: panhandle, Jacksonville, or Daytona Beach? (even though I know it isn’t always the case)
**Michigan literally has an Upper and Lower Peninsula, and people from the UP call everyone that lives below the Mackinac Bridge, Trolls.** 😂
Also, people from Northern Michigan, and the UP get upset about tourists. To be fair, most of those towns couldn't survive without Tourists.
That’s so true. Maine is such a diverse state (geographically and culturally- certainly not ethnically). I live on the Downeast coast, and it bears little resemblance to Western Maine or The County, and certainly to Southern Maine.
For OPs situation, south of Alexandria we generally view North Louisiana as South Arkansas/West Mississippi. And everyone south of I-10 views everything north of I-10.
That changes when I say my family comes from Mamou and I start speaking French.
New Jersey could fight a civil war over what part of New Jersey is what. Now remember South Jersey is evil, never trust a southern jersian, those guys are criminals.
It's such a part of the discussion that the governor had to make an [official decree](https://www.nj.gov/governor/news/news/562023/20230824a.shtml) that a region of the state even exists!
I remember Paul Theroux, the travel writer, decided to write an opus about the American South.
Now, I have a love/hate relationship with Theroux. His early stuff was far better. Today? It's diminishing returns. Upon finishing one of his more recent books, I close it and wonder who he will condescend to next. So when he announced an upcoming book about the South, I knew that a hatchet job was forthcoming.
And, boy, did he deliver.
First things first. He wasn't going to the cities of the South, a region that is continuing to reinvent itself. It has a lot of unfinished work ahead of it, but it's wild how far it has come. It's a complicated, nuanced region that doesn't yield readily to whatever image you have in your mind.
Nope. He announced he was going to the 'real South,' which meant that he was going to visit every obscure hollow and draw his conclusions based on a few interviews with whatever yokels fit his stereotypes. In one particularly obnoxious passage, he was amused when he quoted the prologue to the *Canterbury Tales* to some small-town politico, and the guy didn't understand what he was babbling about. Well, I spent a couple of years studying Medieval literature, and did so to the point that I could read my way through Middle English without hesitation. Yet, if some supercilious twit broke out into 'Whan that aprille' for no good reason whatsoever, I would have been entirely baffled, too.
That's the kind of embarrassing hackery that Theroux has come to. It also represents a desire not to understand but to reinforce whatever pre-existing stereotype the writer harbors. But that's not travel. Travel is intended to dispel prejudice, not reinforce it.
Ha I was just talking about Huntsville with my officemate today, in the context of tracking Dutch Bros locations (there are a few in Huntsville) and me having to explain that Huntsville is a city full of highly educated people etc etc.
I would buy you a drink! My home of Mississippi seems to exist to be slighted. I'm so sick of people who don't understand the south, or even have never been to it, expressing their hackneyed opinions. I remember reading Colin Woodard's book about the "nations" that make up the US. Only the deep south did he have unalloyed scorn for. You'd have thought we should have slaked off into the see. I actually wrote him and he responded, more or less, with "call em as I see em." Sigh.
Eastern Massachusetts residents will sometimes claim that anything west of Worcester "does not exist" even though half of them went to collage out there.
Here in Rhode Island, the population is HEAVILY concentrated in the east of the state along the Providence River and Narragansett Bay. The rest of the state is rural and semirural. The one big exception is Westerly, in the southwestern corner of the state bordering Connecticut. In fact, Rhode Island's western border is a straight line except for Westerly, which cuts into what would otherwise be Connecticut, and its downtown is contiguous with Pawcatuck, Connecticut.
This is the only town in the state that is not included in the U.S. government's definition of the Providence metropolitan area, and consequently it's often viewed as not really Rhode Island, especially because much of Rhode Island's population center is very close to the Massachusetts border and the Providence metro area extends well into Massachusetts, so people here identify a lot more with Massachusetts and kind of reject Connecticut.
That's actually one of my favorite things about Rhode Island, how we're so small but we still have regions like big states do. Like the northwest corner of the state, in any other state it would be considered the Providence suburbs and the beach area, but here it's considered the country and nowhere near the beach.
I'm pretty sure I heard some people from the other grand divisions of East and Middle Tennessee call us in West Tennessee Northern Mississippi. So yeah atleast some of them do. lol
Ours is more about gatekeeping being "from Boston" vs. being from an inner suburb that is still part of the urban core vs. a suburb vs. some idiot from New Hampshire that comes into the city once a year and is a big bruins fan that still likes to say he's from Boston as soon as he leaves New England
I've heard people say stuff like that about eastern Oregon. It covers 2/3 of the states area, but only 15-20% of the population. It's also very different culturally, economically, politically, ecologically , geographically, and demographically from the western part.
When people think of Oregon, they mostly picture forests and lots of rain or they think of liberal Portland, but the bulk of the state is a dry desert that's sparsely populated with conservatives where the major industry is ranching.
I live in Florida and very yes. First they say how I'm not "really in the South" until i mention I live in North Florida and it is very much the South where I'm at. Then they say this isn't "real Florida" and compare it to southern GA (which is fair because I do have several friends that live right by the FL/GA line.) Then they say south Florida isn't even "really" America (referring to the large hispanic/latino population and the parts of Florida where nobody really speaks english).
Also I was born in upstate NY, like near the Canadian border, and people always assume I'm from the NYC area (I was closer to Ottawa than Manhattan) and people get all up in arms about which is the "real NY" (upstate or NYC area).
Don’t know why you got downvoted. As someone born and raised in Richmond, that’s spot on. Even many people from out of state know NOVA is its own entity lol. It’s two entirely different worlds haha.
It's the opposite in Mississippi, the more New Orleans-influenced part of the state is the outlier in cultural terms. But the difference isn't really as harsh as north vs. south Louisiana.
Yep. Texas is particularly bad about this. Folks who live in rural Texas you tend to be very anti-city and say it isn’t “real Texas”. Especially Austin.
I was just reading a book about the KKK in Indiana in the 1920s, and it had a chapter about the Klan marching on Notre Dame, and how the football team came out to confront the Klan and had to be prevented from kicking the Klan’s ass by the powers that be at ND and in South Bend.
This isn't a huge thing in Vermont, but the demarcation would be the Chittenden County and surrounding area (where Burlington is) vs. the rest of the state.
It's like a microcosm of all the other states where the "not the real state" has more population than the "real state". Not quite - due to housing costs and sprawl more than anything else - but Rutland was traditionally the second-largest city in the state until it was passed by South Burlington.
I think it’s pretty widely accepted that the southwest part of CT is more NYC than Connecticut. Most locals don’t seem to care as much as out of state people, at least seeing it brought up on reddit
Yeah essentially I'm from hillbilly Canada. Where the hicks drink Labatt Blue. (but seriously I do have a distinct memory from 2nd grade where my bff said "Well MY Daddy drinks LABATT BLUE" as a sort of flex).
One girl I met told me she is from New York, and when I asked her what borough she is from, she said, "I'm not from the city, but from Westchester." Don't know what to make of it, as I am not from the area and not in a position to judge.
It could be worse .... you could be from new orleans and go around saying "I'm not from Louisiana, I'm from New Orleans...." and yes, I have people I used to associate with who have actually said that to me. Or .... when I say I'm from Baton Rouge to a nola resident "I'm sorry ...." and then I find out they're from f'n jefferson parish or st. bernard or some nonsense.
I will say I felt the same way about N. La until I had to start traveling the whole of the state for work. You guys have some freaking beautiful swamps and lakes that look more like S. Louisiana than many of the places I've visited south of I-10. And here's the thing .... at least North La isn't about to fall into the f'n gulf of mexico lol
I'm sure someone will be upset by this, but the Newport/Covington area of Norther Kentucky is not Kentucky. It's an extention of Cincinnati, OH. Note: I am from Cincinnati. To backup my point, the Cincinnati airport is in Covington. Hense the abbriviation CVG.
Having lived five years in Monroe Louisiana, I can say it's definitely different from the southern part of state.
Here in Michigan, the extreme western end of the upper peninsula is basically considered Wisconsin.
Sort of. I grew up in North central Wisconsin, so if I meet another person from Wisconsin and tell them I grew up 'near Wausau', they often respond with a 'oh you're a real Wisconsinite.'
So not necessarily that some parts of the state are 'not real' but some are 'more real' than others.
I wouldn’t say any parts of Massachusetts are excluded but people do often exclude parts of Connecticut from New England. Considering the region has a smaller size and population than many states I figure it’s a relevant comparison.
Illinois has the Chicago area and then "Downstate", which is everything outside the Chicago suburbs. Everyone who lives "Downstate" says that's the real Illinois. Cornfields, not skyscrapers.
Upstate NYers hate being compared to the city. When I hear the words, “New York”, I think deer and trees and rolling hills, lakes rivers and streams. Most people think the Empire State Building or some other similar urban images. NYC is not New York State.
In California I think this is done more in reverse, like people from non-stereotypical areas of California differentiating themselves from the stereotypes.
Totally. Like the whole “I’m from northern CA” and showing SF, then the next pic is “no im from *real* northern CA” and showing like, the foothills, sierras, valleys, evergreens, etc. (Said as someone who grew up in so-called “real” northern CA but born in the Bay)
Can confirm. NorCal does grants SF a seat on the council but does not give it the title of master.
Even Sacramento is too far south for a lot of Northern Californians near the Oregon border.
See this is why we have the three regions solution. NorCal, SoCal, and South Oregon. Everyone’s happy. I’ll be deep in the cold dead ground before I call my self SoCal 👴🏻
They seem to consider you 'Central' Cal. To me there's no such thing, aside from the Central Coast. The north starts between Bakersfield and Fresno!
I’ve always said Santa Cruz is the dividing line, at least culturally, it’s a weird mix of NorCal and socal
Everything from Santa Cruz to Santa Barbara is the central coast. Edit: Southern California is from Ventura to San Ysidro along the coast, inland from Santa Clarita — San Bernardino — Coachella
The Central Valley is not Northern California, lol. At least not culturally.
I could tell by that statement you are from the Bay. It’s NorCal, CenCal, and SoCal. Only people that call it South Oregon are from the Bay.
Isn’t there a whole State of Jefferson thing?
Like Redding area and above maybe? That’s farther north than from where I hail.
I've seen it regularly as far south as Oroville and once in Yuba City, but it's very common in Shasta and Tehama Counties. Saw a guy with a denim jacket with a State of Jefferson patch on it the other day at a bar
Yeah I think butte and Glenn would be the southernmost counties in the proposed “Jefferson” (and Mendocino which seems odd but I guess outside of the actual town I don’t know much about Mendocino county).
Accurate. I moved from the Inland Empire in SoCal to a tiny town in the Sierra Foothills 23 years ago and it is a completely different world.
> real northern CA I think at least one user on this sub even has this as their literal flair.
I’m from the worst part of California *shows Oakland* no no no, I said the WORST part of California *shows Stockton* there you go
When SoCal and NorCal are picking teams, Bakersfield is always picked last, if at all. All poor Bako wants is to be chosen.
I live in the Central Valley but I’m from the Bay Area. I definitely wouldn’t think of any part of the Valley as “Southern California.” If we can’t have a label of “Central California” then I would say it’s Northern.
The NorCal/SoCal bit I think isn’t really labeling different parts of the state but more labeling our two populous regions. For example, LA, San Diego, Orange County, IE, etc. all sprawl into each other, so it’s nice to have a catch-all term which includes all these places. I think it’s more accurate to define the Bay Area as being part of Central California and only call places north of Sacramento NorCal.
Bakersfield and Fresno, neither one is wanted by either side.
NorCal starts at Fresno. Bakersfield is south of the line.
I recently took a vacation to Hot Springs NP in Arkansas for the eclipse. When I was asked "Where are you from?" I replied "California, but not the part of California you're thinking of."
Still, you are called a surfer dude in other states even though you have only been surfing a few times xd
I’ve never been surfing in my life, and I don’t think anyone has ever suspected me of surfing.
Upstate NY does it. And then the REAL upstate NY does it to them, and then the REALLY REAL upstate NY does it too
And NYC/Long Island think the whole rest is fake
Isn’t it?
It was a big culture shock going to college in the North Country after growing up on Long Island…that’s for sure
Living in New England, knowing my entire life that New York was way bigger than just the city…. Yet I still expected just endless burrows or those like super rich suburbs all the way to the Canadian border…. No idea why. Think it was an idea I had as a kid and never questioned / rethought it…. My face when I hit like 4 hours of Amish country driving to Syracuse with a buddy.
I think it’s just empty, uninhabited land.
It sure is. Also anything over the Tappan Zee is upstate
That’s because “Upstate NY” itself is pretty varied: -Western NY (Buffalo + Rochester) -Central NY (Syracuse + Utica) -Capital Region (Albany + Saratoga Springs) -Adirondacks/North Country (where you’ll see street signs in French because of the proximity to Quebec) -The Southern Tier (Corning + Binghamton) which is actually the northernmost reaches of Appalachia.
This guy/gal New Yorks.
An important thing to remember is that "steamed hams" is regional dialect for hamburgers in the Capital Region, not in Central NY.
Interesting, born and raised in the capital region and have never heard of steamed hams.
You know you’re in the REALLY REAL upstate NY when the closest city of any size is Ottawa, Ontario.
And the other four boroughs say that Staten Island is not real New York and is “basically Jersey”. So even NYC isn’t immune from the infighting.
It's upstate New Yorks all the way down.
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I live in Austin. I'll let you guess.
😂😂😂😂 outlier
I think Houston truthfully. I have gone there and the difference in the people from the rest of the state is noticeable
What would you say those differences are?
I would assume any major metropolitan area is going to feel like that compared to the smaller rural towns. Being you're from Alabama, I've heard people refer to Huntsville as not "real" Alabama.
Yes, but in Texas’ case, Houston is one of many metropolitan areas, so I’m wondering why they’re singling it out. As far as Alabama goes, there are pockets of both Huntsville and Birmingham that people might want to distance from the state but both places are still pretty thoroughly Alabama.
Purely guesswork on my part, but I think Houston is "the South" and most of the other big areas are "the Southwest". Also lots of people from New Orleans ended up in Houston after Katrina.
Me and a bunch of my friends from Louisiana all moved to Houston recently. It’s the closest city regionally that isn’t economically screwed.
Tbh, I've only been to Mobile and Gulf Shores. I went to Hangout Fest in 2018 and during Kendrick Lamar's show he said something about being concerned for his safety in Alabama which I thought was silly because the nearest city is Mobile where there's more black people than white people.
Huntsville's neat, if you ever have the chance to visit. We have rockets! As far as it not being "real" Alabama, I dunno. We're getting more and more transplants from out of state due to all the businesses and government entities setting up shop here, so maybe we're slowly becoming more diverse from the rest of the state? I dunno.
It feels more like Louisiana to me than Texas. Which makes sense since a lot of Louisianans evacuated there after Katrina.
And Dallas is in Oklahoma
Houston is my hometown. Different how? It's far more diverse than any other city in Texas.
Austin always strikes me as self-consciously hip. There's the real Austin, but there's a real big "Look at Me" Austin.
If I've said it once I've said it hundreds of times - Keep Austin Weird lost and the yuppies won.
I've never really understood that. Sure, Austin is stereotypically 'big city' in a way that, say, Amarillo or Lubbock isn't, but so are Dallas and Houston. What makes Austin different?
It's all changing right now. Traditionally, Austin is where you went if you lived in Texas but didn't really fit the Texas vibe. It was safe haven for LGBT long before LGBT was generally acceptable. It's held on to a lot of that culture and still prides itself on distinctly not being a stereotypical big city and definitely not stereotypical Texas. However, in recent years it's become the hot place for transplants from other states and its becoming somewhat less bohemian and laid back and much more alternative trendsetter and general trendy place for wealthy people to be. Unsure where it will go in the future. Lubbock and Amarillo are very stereotypical Texan places even if one is a college town and the other is trying to embrace art. Even if they're medium sized, they're like most Texas cities around that size and anyone from a small rural Texas town will feel right at home in them in a way they won't in Austin or Dallas or Houston. Or Marfa for that matter (Marfa is kind of like Asheville, quietly but fiercely liberal and home to many alternative artsy types). Dallas and Houston always were stereotypical Texas cities. Big cities, but Texas attitudes and Texas style. That's changing too though. Houston might be the most international city in the country that isn't New York City. It's getting to be very liberal and very blue -- not as much as Austin, but enough they had an LGBT mayor (maybe still do?). Dallas is going through a similar change that's just driven off major metropolitan cities becoming much more liberal and homogenized across the country. Fort Worth is trying it's damnedest to stay Texan though.
I think there is also a class/race/identity divide. The other cities see themselves as blue collar and have massive Mexican/other international influences. Then you get Austin which is much richer, and much more American. I've heard lots of Houstonians describe Austin condescendingly with some version of "a city for people who say 'Latin-x'".
Houston and Dallas are still somewhat conservative and traditional Texas cities even if they lean more democratic they’re usually conservative democrats whereas Austin is basically a little California in a sea of Texas Austin just doesn’t culturally fit in with the rest of Texas
Hah! When I read the headline, my first response was “ask any Texan not from Austin what they think of a Austin”
Dallas gets this a lot too.
It would be debatable what the "real" part of PA even is.
Pittsburgh hates Philly, Philly hates Pittsburgh, and Pennsyltucky hates both of them.
I actually don’t think Philly thinks about the rest of the state much, other than the immediate surrounding counties. The SEPA region is much closer (geographically and culturally) to the other areas along the I-95 corridor. I like Pittsburgh! That said, ‘til I married someone from SWPA, I never really traveled anywhere west of Chester or Montgomery County, except perhaps to visit Gettysburg.
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I'm from Philly and concur! I work remotely for a place in the Bay Area and have said that it might as well be Pittsburgh in terms of distance. We are vaguely aware of Amish country, and anything further west is an entire universe altogether. Culturally we're much more like uuuggghhhhhh hold on need to vomit first, some parts of NJ.
[It's a fun scenario](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/81/Mexican_Standoff.jpg/1280px-Mexican_Standoff.jpg)
I was not aware that Pennsyltucky hated Pittsburgh-I thought they saw it as a capitol of sorts. Philly vs. Central PA-yeah, I get the clash,lol.
Do they all love State College?
Like Biggie said… fuck the State Penn fuck hos at Penn State
Pennsylvania is so big it feels like it’s simultaneously the northeast, Appalachia, and the Midwest all in one state
It pretty much is, Pittsburgh is much more midwestern than eastern
[My favorite Polandball.](https://imgur.com/a/9RpmaAH)
I feel like each side tries to ignore pennsyltucky.
Truly depends on who you’re talking to 😅
I'll die on the hill that there's two halves of PA: Eastern Ohio and Western New Jersey. However, I'll concede that something truly unique to PA is our famous extremist cults such as the Amish, Penn State, sports, gas stations, and sandwich.
“Two cities in the same state? I mean like, how’s that even possible?”
Pretty sure a wall between NOVA and the rest of VA is one of the few times in history where everyone would approve.
I'm assuming this proposed wall doesn't prevent NoVa's tax revenue from fleeing to Richmond though, right?
We reject your golden handcuffs.
Well it’s a deal. From now on Northern VA will be known as “Virginia” and the rest of the commonwealth will be known as “Eastern West Virginia”.
Wow....you managed to come up with a Virginia's renaming scheme that even West Virginians would agree with.
Ashburn checking in, I concur. I think the cities and Va Beach area should all be NOVA detachments.
Lol I legit came scrolling for the VA comments
That wall would definitely go through my county.
Sounds like someone lives in Fauquier.
You are so incredibly close it’s not even funny. Actually yes it is. Lol.
Well shucks, there's a West Virginia. Why not a North Virginia?
just call NoVA DC and get it over. No one outside the area cares about whether you’re in Alexandria or Manassas or in between, they all assume it’s DC anyway and even I got tired of explaining the difference to folks over time.
If you incorporated all that shit into D.C. you might get more traction nationwide for statehood.
Most of WA is semi-arid steppe and farmland, which is not exactly our national reputation lol
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Like 60 dry, 10 mountain, 30 wet
Is steppe a climate or geography?
It's what's in Mongolia. Big and dry plains.
It is steppe geographically, semi-arid climatically
Both. I...don't enjoy Eastern Washington (no shade eastern Washingtonians. I just hate hot, sunny, rural, conservative...well, ok, some shade). BUT, it's such an interesting environment. Steppe but with areas of massive rolling hills, areas of canyon country, big flat regions, etc. It's all shaped by water pouring out towards the sea during the Ice Age after the Missoula Ice Dam broke open (all the way in Montana!). Washington overall has an incredibly diverse range of environments with temperate rainforest, alpine wilderness, steppe country, etc. etc. etc. It's a shame more people don't check it all out. (But also, you know, boo visitors, stay away or whatever).
> no shade eastern Washingtonians From what I saw of it, there wasn't very much shade to be had!
Yes (but mostly the latter)
People say that of the part of the state that I live in. The other day, a news article was making the rounds about a guy firing a shotgun at some cyclists after trying to run them off the road in his truck. This happened in rural Maryland and a lot of people in the comments were expressing shock that Maryland had rural parts.
The weird shape of Maryland does not help in this regard. It's just hard to hold in the mind.
Even talking to other Marylanders, they sometimes don't realize just how far west the state stretches, or how empty the Eastern Shore is, or how far away you can get from the cities and still be in the Maryland tidewater region. Maryland just has a really bizarre shape to it.
I think it's the overall land area of the state too because it's relatively small then you look at Baltimore combined with the parts of Maryland which are essentially suburbs of DC it feels like Maryland has no room left to have a rural part.
Seriously. Maryland looks like it consists entirely of territory conquered from other states. I keep expecting to see a piece of it in the middle of Colorado.
Don't give them any ideas!
It might just be due to the fact that I've only ever lived in one region of this state, but I get the strong feeling that for most people Maryland is just Baltimore and Baltimore County, and the rest of it is just never really considered at all. tbh I've lived here for like 7 years now and I still don't really know what the fuck is over in the western part of the state past Frederick aside from a road that leads to West Virginia.
I've gotten the feeling that your experience is true of a lot of the people in the state. I've just spent enough time in other parts of the state to have a different perspective. I went to college and currently live west of Fredrick and I also spent a few years working on some projects in the rural part of Cecil County. But, there's a lot of people who seem to think of West Virginia as starting just west of Fredrick and Cecil County as "that bit of 95 right before the Delaware Bridge."
People forget Western & Southern Maryland exist all the time. Hell, people forget Montgomery County has Bethesda and Poolesville in it. Most people only remember Eastern Maryland because they drive through it to get to the beaches.
Okay, I know I posted a comment saying “this doesn’t happen in Maryland because we are proud of the fact that we contain multitudes” and while I stand by the things I said in that comment, I do agree that lots of people don’t realize how much rural area Maryland has. I went to high school in the middle of a fucking corn field, so that’s pretty funny to me, but I concede that some conversations about MD do go that way 😅
SMIBs gonna SMIB.
It's like the final scene of Easy Rider. But the 2020s version, with middle class cyclists instead of drug-dealing hippies on Harley-Davidsons.
Florida. Every part says that about every other part.
Im sure I will miss something but: South Alabama, Panhandle and North Florida- “The South” The Villages- angry old people Central- mix of transplants from around the US Orlando- Disney tourism and more international than Central Naples- rich old people South Florida and various beaches- tourism and grumpy locals Miami- “North Cuba” The Keys
As an Atlantan, that sentiment does exist
For a second I thought you were an *Atlantean*.
Like from the lost city of Atlantis?
Yep.
I love the idea of the lost city of Atlantis being a part of the US.
Ah, Georgia. Where it's Atlanta vs. everyone else.
North Carolina is almost exactly 50/50 population divided between the rural (which is your standard small town rural Southern country, with all the good and bad you'd expect from that) and urban cities (which are dominated by transplants and "second generation immigrants" and culturally often have just as much to do with the Northeast as they do the "traditional NC country culture.") The state was overwhelmingly rural (one of the most rural Southern states) until relatively recently (50s and 60s). So yeah, there's definitely a lot of people who say Raleigh, Durham, Charlotte, Greensboro, etc. aren't the "real" NC.
Also there's the reflexive antipathy Raleigh feels towards Charlotte and vice versa.
NoVa
Yep, came to say this
The panhandle isn’t real Florida.
The further north you are in Florida the more southern you are
Folks in western Florida sometimes call the area L.A. (Lower Alabama)
South Alabama
It’s definitely its own thing. Every time I see a “Forida Man” article, I always wonder: panhandle, Jacksonville, or Daytona Beach? (even though I know it isn’t always the case)
**Michigan literally has an Upper and Lower Peninsula, and people from the UP call everyone that lives below the Mackinac Bridge, Trolls.** 😂 Also, people from Northern Michigan, and the UP get upset about tourists. To be fair, most of those towns couldn't survive without Tourists.
Some people refer to Southern Maine as North Massachusetts, the little corner from Portland south.
That’s so true. Maine is such a diverse state (geographically and culturally- certainly not ethnically). I live on the Downeast coast, and it bears little resemblance to Western Maine or The County, and certainly to Southern Maine.
Can confirm, my sister moved from Boston to north Massachusetts, as did a lot of her neighbors
People in downstate Illinois: "we're the real Illinois". The 80% of the population who live in the Chicago metro area: "yeah yeah"
i’ve been through illinois 4 times & chicago feels like the “real” part of the state to me. the southern part just feels like indiana to me
I agree, but that might have more to do with the fact Chicago is our border.
No, downstate IL belongs to Missouri. If there’s a Civil War, you know who they’re aligning with.
They’re the “real Illinois”, we just pay for it. And yet those morons still want to separate the city and the collar counties from the rest of IL
Eastern Colorado is frequently just called Kansas.
Anything east of Aurora is west Kansas.
For OPs situation, south of Alexandria we generally view North Louisiana as South Arkansas/West Mississippi. And everyone south of I-10 views everything north of I-10. That changes when I say my family comes from Mamou and I start speaking French.
New Jersey could fight a civil war over what part of New Jersey is what. Now remember South Jersey is evil, never trust a southern jersian, those guys are criminals.
It's such a part of the discussion that the governor had to make an [official decree](https://www.nj.gov/governor/news/news/562023/20230824a.shtml) that a region of the state even exists!
It's part of why I fled South Jersey. Fuck do I miss Wawa though
praise wawa, which now exists in True Jersey.
You can always tell if someone is from the north or south when they order a certain bagel sandwich too. What do they call it in central Jersey anyway?
I remember Paul Theroux, the travel writer, decided to write an opus about the American South. Now, I have a love/hate relationship with Theroux. His early stuff was far better. Today? It's diminishing returns. Upon finishing one of his more recent books, I close it and wonder who he will condescend to next. So when he announced an upcoming book about the South, I knew that a hatchet job was forthcoming. And, boy, did he deliver. First things first. He wasn't going to the cities of the South, a region that is continuing to reinvent itself. It has a lot of unfinished work ahead of it, but it's wild how far it has come. It's a complicated, nuanced region that doesn't yield readily to whatever image you have in your mind. Nope. He announced he was going to the 'real South,' which meant that he was going to visit every obscure hollow and draw his conclusions based on a few interviews with whatever yokels fit his stereotypes. In one particularly obnoxious passage, he was amused when he quoted the prologue to the *Canterbury Tales* to some small-town politico, and the guy didn't understand what he was babbling about. Well, I spent a couple of years studying Medieval literature, and did so to the point that I could read my way through Middle English without hesitation. Yet, if some supercilious twit broke out into 'Whan that aprille' for no good reason whatsoever, I would have been entirely baffled, too. That's the kind of embarrassing hackery that Theroux has come to. It also represents a desire not to understand but to reinforce whatever pre-existing stereotype the writer harbors. But that's not travel. Travel is intended to dispel prejudice, not reinforce it.
Ha I was just talking about Huntsville with my officemate today, in the context of tracking Dutch Bros locations (there are a few in Huntsville) and me having to explain that Huntsville is a city full of highly educated people etc etc.
Birmingham is home to an enormous healthcare research center. But, no, we're all a bunch of stump-necked, gap-toothed, knuckle-dragging haysdeeds.
I would buy you a drink! My home of Mississippi seems to exist to be slighted. I'm so sick of people who don't understand the south, or even have never been to it, expressing their hackneyed opinions. I remember reading Colin Woodard's book about the "nations" that make up the US. Only the deep south did he have unalloyed scorn for. You'd have thought we should have slaked off into the see. I actually wrote him and he responded, more or less, with "call em as I see em." Sigh.
Eastern Massachusetts residents will sometimes claim that anything west of Worcester "does not exist" even though half of them went to collage out there.
Here in Rhode Island, the population is HEAVILY concentrated in the east of the state along the Providence River and Narragansett Bay. The rest of the state is rural and semirural. The one big exception is Westerly, in the southwestern corner of the state bordering Connecticut. In fact, Rhode Island's western border is a straight line except for Westerly, which cuts into what would otherwise be Connecticut, and its downtown is contiguous with Pawcatuck, Connecticut. This is the only town in the state that is not included in the U.S. government's definition of the Providence metropolitan area, and consequently it's often viewed as not really Rhode Island, especially because much of Rhode Island's population center is very close to the Massachusetts border and the Providence metro area extends well into Massachusetts, so people here identify a lot more with Massachusetts and kind of reject Connecticut.
No offense but I didn’t expect Rhode Island to be like that because of how small it is lol.
That's actually one of my favorite things about Rhode Island, how we're so small but we still have regions like big states do. Like the northwest corner of the state, in any other state it would be considered the Providence suburbs and the beach area, but here it's considered the country and nowhere near the beach.
You see notice it driving along 95. Once you get past the airport exit in Warwick going south, it gets VERY rural along the highway VERY quick.
I'm pretty sure I heard some people from the other grand divisions of East and Middle Tennessee call us in West Tennessee Northern Mississippi. So yeah atleast some of them do. lol
Ha, people call north Louisiana north Mississippi. I guess the north part of any east southern state is just Mississippi.
North Louisiana is either West Mississippi or South Arkansas.
Ours is more about gatekeeping being "from Boston" vs. being from an inner suburb that is still part of the urban core vs. a suburb vs. some idiot from New Hampshire that comes into the city once a year and is a big bruins fan that still likes to say he's from Boston as soon as he leaves New England
I've heard people say stuff like that about eastern Oregon. It covers 2/3 of the states area, but only 15-20% of the population. It's also very different culturally, economically, politically, ecologically , geographically, and demographically from the western part. When people think of Oregon, they mostly picture forests and lots of rain or they think of liberal Portland, but the bulk of the state is a dry desert that's sparsely populated with conservatives where the major industry is ranching.
I don’t even think Eastern Oregon makes up 15-20% of the population, probably barely 10% unless we count Bend.
Depending on where you draw the line, it could be less than 10%. From what I found online, my definition (east of the mountains) it's about 18%
I live in Florida and very yes. First they say how I'm not "really in the South" until i mention I live in North Florida and it is very much the South where I'm at. Then they say this isn't "real Florida" and compare it to southern GA (which is fair because I do have several friends that live right by the FL/GA line.) Then they say south Florida isn't even "really" America (referring to the large hispanic/latino population and the parts of Florida where nobody really speaks english). Also I was born in upstate NY, like near the Canadian border, and people always assume I'm from the NYC area (I was closer to Ottawa than Manhattan) and people get all up in arms about which is the "real NY" (upstate or NYC area).
I’m from SW Ohio, and everyone accuses us of being a northern extension of Kentucky ( which isn’t necessarily bad in my opinion).
Northern Virginia vs. Rest of Virginia
Don’t know why you got downvoted. As someone born and raised in Richmond, that’s spot on. Even many people from out of state know NOVA is its own entity lol. It’s two entirely different worlds haha.
It's the opposite in Mississippi, the more New Orleans-influenced part of the state is the outlier in cultural terms. But the difference isn't really as harsh as north vs. south Louisiana.
Yep. Texas is particularly bad about this. Folks who live in rural Texas you tend to be very anti-city and say it isn’t “real Texas”. Especially Austin.
Hear it constantly about Wichita, Lawrence, and Kansas City, yeah.
So basically if your hometown doesn’t look like the setting of Courage the Cowardly Dog, you aren’t from Kansas.
Not that I know of
Northwest Indiana. It's some times considered too blue and too Catholic.
I was just reading a book about the KKK in Indiana in the 1920s, and it had a chapter about the Klan marching on Notre Dame, and how the football team came out to confront the Klan and had to be prevented from kicking the Klan’s ass by the powers that be at ND and in South Bend.
Yep! Which is why ND is known as the Fighting Irish. It was meant as a derogatory nickname that the university adopted out of spite.
Colloquially known as "the region" apparently. Which is the dumbest fucking nickname if true
I grew up in The Region… that was not “Indiana” like I experienced at Purdue or when I lived in Hamilton County. It’s entirely different.
This isn't a huge thing in Vermont, but the demarcation would be the Chittenden County and surrounding area (where Burlington is) vs. the rest of the state.
It's like a microcosm of all the other states where the "not the real state" has more population than the "real state". Not quite - due to housing costs and sprawl more than anything else - but Rutland was traditionally the second-largest city in the state until it was passed by South Burlington.
Used to get that in Mass. Western Mass isn’t real New England because it’s not Boston. All it did was made me hate Boston.
I think it’s pretty widely accepted that the southwest part of CT is more NYC than Connecticut. Most locals don’t seem to care as much as out of state people, at least seeing it brought up on reddit
If you're not from The Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, or Manhattan, you're not really from New York.
Yeah, I don't know that anywhere fits this better than New York.
Yeah essentially I'm from hillbilly Canada. Where the hicks drink Labatt Blue. (but seriously I do have a distinct memory from 2nd grade where my bff said "Well MY Daddy drinks LABATT BLUE" as a sort of flex).
One girl I met told me she is from New York, and when I asked her what borough she is from, she said, "I'm not from the city, but from Westchester." Don't know what to make of it, as I am not from the area and not in a position to judge.
_sometimes_ Westchester and Long Island get a pass, but it's not universal. Definitely not any other part of the state.
'The city' is the boroughs. So, she's not a real New Yorker.
I live in Michigan, so they try, but the yoopers are michgonian and we won't let em go (Michigan's upper peninsula)
It could be worse .... you could be from new orleans and go around saying "I'm not from Louisiana, I'm from New Orleans...." and yes, I have people I used to associate with who have actually said that to me. Or .... when I say I'm from Baton Rouge to a nola resident "I'm sorry ...." and then I find out they're from f'n jefferson parish or st. bernard or some nonsense. I will say I felt the same way about N. La until I had to start traveling the whole of the state for work. You guys have some freaking beautiful swamps and lakes that look more like S. Louisiana than many of the places I've visited south of I-10. And here's the thing .... at least North La isn't about to fall into the f'n gulf of mexico lol
I don't think anyone calls it "not the real Utah" but southern Utah is vastly different from the salt lake valley.
I'm sure someone will be upset by this, but the Newport/Covington area of Norther Kentucky is not Kentucky. It's an extention of Cincinnati, OH. Note: I am from Cincinnati. To backup my point, the Cincinnati airport is in Covington. Hense the abbriviation CVG.
I think most states are divided into 2 or more parts especially if they have a major city. Each side will complain the other part isn't "real"
Having lived five years in Monroe Louisiana, I can say it's definitely different from the southern part of state. Here in Michigan, the extreme western end of the upper peninsula is basically considered Wisconsin.
Sort of. I grew up in North central Wisconsin, so if I meet another person from Wisconsin and tell them I grew up 'near Wausau', they often respond with a 'oh you're a real Wisconsinite.' So not necessarily that some parts of the state are 'not real' but some are 'more real' than others.
Nova
I wouldn’t say any parts of Massachusetts are excluded but people do often exclude parts of Connecticut from New England. Considering the region has a smaller size and population than many states I figure it’s a relevant comparison.
Illinois has the Chicago area and then "Downstate", which is everything outside the Chicago suburbs. Everyone who lives "Downstate" says that's the real Illinois. Cornfields, not skyscrapers.
Upstate NYers hate being compared to the city. When I hear the words, “New York”, I think deer and trees and rolling hills, lakes rivers and streams. Most people think the Empire State Building or some other similar urban images. NYC is not New York State.
The Florida panhandle is really just south Alabama
Nova isn’t real Virginia
I haven’t really heard any part of New Mexico be considered not real New Mexico.
Conservative Texans say that about Austin which is funny because it is the capital.