[Monty Brown]

There is a lot of talk about how different the northern and southern states are from one another.
For example:
-----------------
Brash vs. Southern hospitality
Intelligent vs. Dumb
Fast talkers vs. Slow talkers
Pop vs. soda
Iced tea vs. Sweet tea
Fried everything

The list goes on and on. But is there really that big of a difference between the two?

[Screwston]

Pussy shit talkers vs. Ass kickers

[Alpharius]

Hard to say, California is technically southern state but is probably more culturally in line with the north. The opposite is true for states like the Dakotas.

South:
Generally lower taxes
Higher rates of obesity, smoking, and inactivity.
More likely to own a firearm. Though some of the north-western states (the Dakotas, Montana, Wyoming) have the highest gun ownership per capita.
More likely to vote Republican.

North:
More likely to have higher educational attainment.
Generally higher taxes.
More likely to have a larger economy.
More likely to vote Democrat. I'm not citing a source on this one.

[loveblondes]

Northeners tend to be dishonest and closet racists. Some people might be outspoken racist in the south but at least they will be honest with you.

[Yeti]

(03-30-2014 06:30 PM)loveblondes Wrote:  

Northeners tend to be dishonest and closet racists. Some people might be outspoken racist in the south but at least they will be honest with you.

Everyone lives by racism to some extent, and anyone who tells you otherwise is either lying, or doesn't understand himself (or others) well enough.

Southerns are racist, northerners are too, just in different ways. And, for that matter, Asians, Europeans, and Africans - everybody. What does racism even mean? In the States, our understanding of the word 'racism' carries a negative image, mainly the KKK in Alabama in the 1960s. But the word can be understood to mean simply understanding the world through the prism of a person's race, which we all do to a certain extent.

Anyway. As for differences between the north and the south. The two really aren't that different. I reckon that they've become more similar to the other in the past thirty or so years. Claiming that the south is like its own country is hyperbole. It's like the difference between Europeans and Americans - they're different, but aliens landing on Earth would see them as remarkably similar - capitalist, materialist, multicultural (though mostly white), democratic societies whose obesity rates have ballooned in the past 20 years.

Yeah, people are fucking huge in the south, but in another 20 years that's what northerners will look like. Even here in NYC, where people are generally fitter and walk everywhere, a section on the subway that used to seat three people now seats two big motherfuckers. People are fat here too - in the most liberal, attractive (in some ways) city in the U.S.

People drive everywhere in the south - as in the north. We're all obsessed with fucking Twitter and other malicious ephemera. We're more similar than most northerners would care to admit. The west coast fails to escape this phenomenon, too.

You know who's a pretty hot bitch from the South? Jaimie Alexander (South Carolina)

[TonySandos]

Mississippi is the fattest and dumbest state I've ever been to, but the casinos by the coast are awesome.


People who aren't from here may think Memphis is racist, ass backwards, dumb etc. Really it's just a rough city containing a small mix of hippies and hillbillies. Generally most people get along, but it's true that the educational system is slacking and our government is corrupt.

Half of my family resides in the north and the other half is in the south. I don't see much of a difference except that up north it's more common to find ethnic conclaves specific to areas of a city. Down here the equivalent may be an Arabic or Korean neighborhood, but rarely a community center.

Up north women are generally thinner and the men seem more beta compared to life down here

[buja]

I think the West (west of the Rocky Mountains) is a separate area (both physically and culturally) from what is typically characterized as the North and the South regions of the US.

As Osiris alluded to, there are "Northern" and "Southern" characteristics in the West depending on the area.

[vinman]

The south has the highest percentage of white dudes that can and WILL scrap. As opposed to the north where someone will call the law.

[TonySandos]

News personalities tend to call any states south or west of Michigan the "fly over states" which sounds pretty offensive if I were from there. California is the exception of course. People from the east coast assume that there's nothing out there lol. I've never been, but those who have told me better that to believe that

[Vitriol]

(03-30-2014 07:47 PM)TonySandos Wrote:  

News personalities tend to call any states south or west of Michigan the "fly over states" which sounds pretty offensive if I were from there. California is the exception of course. People from the east coast assume that there's nothing out there lol. I've never been, but those who have told me better that to believe that

Regardless of the region, most of the U.S. outside of the big cities is "flyover country" in terms of being a place devoid of culture or even interesting things to do. You have areas that are big suburbs with maybe some strip malls, pawn shops, and fast food places between. Other regions have corn fields for miles and miles where you see a gas station every so often.

It's not an exaggeration to say that for most people in the U.S. getting out and doing something means going to a local TGIFriday's or hanging around a shopping mall.

[nomadicdude]

Yeah, this is not just North v. South divide. Drive 1.5 hours east out of SF or LA and you will be in super redneck ville with nothing but Christian radio blazing on about abortion, gun control, and the Muslim Marxist Obama. The fact is that outside major US cities the US is pretty backwater. It is like going to a different country. Non-urban culture in America is basically driven by guns, race, and religion with an even larger indifference to eating properly or having any knowledge of the outside world (all Americans blow at this). It creates a huge difference from the urban areas. When people say stuff like "why do people waste money living in SF when they could get a McMansion in XYZ redneck place" I'm always like yeah but then you have to live in that place.

[TonySandos]

I like living in both the city and the country. There are many misconceptions behind the people of the far out townships. Careful what you let the news spoon feed you. The most intelligent young male I met before 22 years old was raised more than 30 miles away from the next major city. Life signs may be homogenous, the personalities may yield gold. You know how those folks in the stick are though, so dumb that they fall prey to sweeping generalizations [cough].