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Just to help a foreigner facinated by US politics etc, I hear a lot about Northerners and people coming from "The South" but somehow california seems to gravitate depending upon circumstance.

So, US citizens & residents which are you, does it make any difference and where, in your oppinion is the dividing line. Is it that line drawn by my compatriots Charlie Mason and Jerimiah Dixon?

having lived much of my adult life in california we/they consider it "the west" then you have the North West, Mid West , south(banjos playing) and north and North East Washington up i guess.

doesnt get much more north than me(it does, but not much) :thumb:

south here.

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Wrecent think of it like this, you were born in a confederate state. So you are in fact American by birth and by the grace of god a Southerner.

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I live and surf in California, where I live we consider anything east of the 101 Freeway is "Out East" and dont spend much time over in that direction. Californians are really divided though, we have Northern Californians and Southern Californias. Those up in the North we consider "pot growing dread lock wearing liberals",  while those in the southern part we think of as "mad dashing hollywood chase their tail types". It is so bad we even drive differently. Our freeways are hell out in southern California. California is like a magnet, I joined the Marines to see the world and ended up getting stationed 65 miles from my home town. Someday I hope to free myself, but for now I am stuck chasing my tail on a southern california freeways. :thumb:

I'm so far south that Kentucky is way North :laugh:

Not as far south as Houma La. I had a couple a friend from there. The response would have been, "politics whats that?", Gorum was one of the nicest people I had ever met but you couldn't undestand a damn thing he said, especially not after a couple of beers.

I was born in South Carolina,USA.I have lived in North Carolina.North Carolina is just above South Carolina.We are in the south east US.I'm a southern belle.  :laugh:

Out here in California and in most other states west of the Missippi, nobody really thinks about the Northerner/Southerner difference because we were all either very young states or territories during the Civil War.  When you hear Californians argue about Norcal vs Socal, this has a very different context.

Well, I live in Missouri, which was a slave state.  But the only one north of the Mason Dixon (as party of the Missouri Compromise).  But most people from northern Missouri (north of Interstate 70, St. Louis, and Kansas City) consider themselves Northerners.  Those from the south are more Southerners. 

Kansas Citians would be offended if someone considered them a southerner.  People from St. Louis think they are actually from Boston.  They even mimick the Bostonian accents for some reason. 

It's a little more complicated than North/South...

The areas are:
West Coast (Also known as "The Best Coast")
East Coast (Also known as "New York and some other people")
South (Also known as "If you weren't born there, you won't like going there")
The Great Lakes Region (Also known as, "Colder than hell in the winter" or "You can shower with air in the summer")

... and what I call "The Middle States" or "The states that nobody likes" or "The states that nobody cares about" also known as "The Bible Belt" and "The part of the country where the average weight is over 200 lbs" and "The Heartland" or "Not very smart land."



Even within those areas, there is a political division. 

If it's on the West Coast or the East Coast, it's a high population city where the average income is higher than the national average, they will probably vote Left Wing.  Usually Liberal, Democrat, ghey, Pot Smokers.   :flipoff: :laugh:

The Great Lakes area is usually divided (known as swing states) and tend to vote with the guy that spent the most time up there during the summer (it's a respect thing... If you can make it up there in the summer, you're bad-ass).

Now...  The rest of the country will probably vote Right Wing.   Usually Republican, Racist, ghey-Bashing, Cross Worshiping, Sexist, Undereducated, sheep. :flipoff: :flipoff: :flipoff:  HA HA HA HA :flipoff: :flipoff: :flipoff: :flipoff:


So, the areas that pay the most taxes and provide support to the rest of the country are usually the ones not getting their way.  If you run down the list of the biggest, richest (meaning high average income, highest level of middle to upper-middle class, and highest federal taxes paid) cities in the US....................  You'll find a trend.   ;)

The Mid-west is also known as "a great place for a kitty cat from Seattle to get is ass beat by some kid who spent his developmental years bucking hay bales." 

Good thing I'm from the Bay Area huh?  Fists may hurt, but my shank will leave a mark.   :flipoff:


Besides... If that guy is my age, he's already 300 lbs and too busy  burning down gynecological clinics and trying to stop gheys from marrying to notice me.

There is no limit to the misconceptions a person from the west coast has about the mid-west.  And if you're from the bay area, you'll be too busy smelling up all your own farts (so as not to damage the environment with the hydrogen sulfide from your arse) to notice a strapping lad like me. 

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My favorite place in the U.S. in the south (Memphis). 

Holy shaZam! guys...  Did you not notice that I called everyone from the east and west coast ghey pot smokers?   :dunno_white:  I was pointing out the stereotypes from every area...  

If your from Seattle, you're a vegetarian lesbian that rides a bicycle up to hiking trails.

If you're from San Francisco, you're ghey.

If you're from LA, you're either a gang-banger or a ghey, Jewish actor.

If you're from NY, you're an @$$hole that only wears black.

If you're from the south, your wife is also your first cousin.

If you're from the mid-west, you're fat.

If you're from Texas, you're Mexican.


Is there anyone I missed?


And yes, WW...  I was trying to ruin this thread...  Is it working?  How's your cousin/wife doing?   :flipoff:



My favorite place in the south is West Hollywood.   :laugh: 

I HATE YOU!!!!

I have the right to be a pot smoking lesbian vegetarian!  Your hateful ways will never stop me!

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Quote from: Wrecent_Wryder on July 23, 2007, 12:18:15 PMIs that supposed to make it Ok?

Yes.

Quote from: Wrecent_Wryder on July 23, 2007, 12:18:15 PMAnd, btw, I'm in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC, not SC, and not currently married, to blood relatives or otherwise.

Or...  Sorry...  I can't think of a good stereotype for you...  I guess you have to be a ghey potsmoker with me.   :dunno_white:

Quote from: Wrecent_Wryder on July 23, 2007, 12:18:15 PMInsulting people takes no skill, wit  or talent at al...

Who's Al?   :icon_rolleyes:  I thought there was some wit in there...   :dunno_white:  I thought it was funny too...   :dunno_white:

For someone from England to understand why we all hate each other so much, they have to understand what we think of each other.  And...  Go ahead and say that we don't all hate each other....  K... Done with that now?  If you think it's true, then you must have missed the last 7 years.

Democrats hate me 'cause I'm too conservative.
Republicans hate me 'cause I'm too liberal.

So, I screw with both sides...  A friend of mine works for the King County Democrats (or something like that)...  So, after the last election, I told her that I voted for Bush.  I swear it took all of her strength to keep from punching me.   :laugh:

Another buddy said to me, "It doesn't matter if you like him...  A vote for anyone other than Kerry is a vote for Bush."  I told him that I voted Green Party.   :laugh:




Really...  To understand US Politics, you have to get WHY, not just where.  If you know a better way to accurately describe this mockery we call our government, please go ahead.

Our current political state is so far from what our founders intended that I don't even see the relevance of mentioning what we're "supposed" to be...  Our own VP says he's not part of the Executive Branch...  That's reinventing our government.   :cookoo:

The last two presidential elections were designed, by both sides, to divide this country...  It's worked, they've created a bitter division between Moon Bats and Wing Nuts...  Great, good for them.   :icon_rolleyes: 

If the current presidential candidates are any clue, on the next presidential election, I'm voting for a can of creamed corn.

Oh my I have a turn for the better and look at what happens. Hmmmm...... My wife is no relation of mine, guess I can't be from the south. So if we are talking stereo types does this make RV a typical left coast better than the rest of us know it all. :dunno_white:

Seriously a Brit actually had an interesting question and an attempt was made to satisfy his curiousity and this happens. Maybe I should degenerate and begin frothing at the mouth...... oooohhhh noooo her it comes my Mr. Hyde personality is about to take over.

Survey says your an assclown.

Quote from: bettingpythondoes this make RV a typical left coast better than the rest of us know it all.

It must!   :thumb:


This is what modern politics are all about.  It's not about stances and policies...  It's about retelling the same joke with a new name in it...   It's about photoshopped pictures making politicians look even more stupid...   It's about throwing insults (Anti-American, War Monger, Thief)...  It's about name calling (Flipflopper, Liar, Ignorant Bigot)...  It's about starting rumors (Swift-Boats, Cocaine usage and drunk driving).

What were the REAL topics?  War?  Well, both sides had a "plan" that involved us staying there for a loooong time...  Education?  Again, both sides had the same plan with a different name...  ghey marriage?  Oh yeah... That one was the REAL platform...  One side was against ghey marriage and the other side was against it too... 


What's the difference any more?  Flip a coin...  You can pick one "wing" extremist idiot or the other.  And...  The so-called "third option" isn't an option...  Ever...

It may have brought up a better question about regional prejudices in the U.S.

Now, those that were brought up in the South know the Civil War as the War of Norther Agression.  This is how it is taught, from what I am told.  At least a friend from Atlanta GA told me that is what they were taught.  It has a lot to do with how history is taught and it has a lot to do with when our ancestors settled in a certain area.  For example, the area my family is from was settled by European immigrants for the most part.  So we don't think of ourselves as being from a southern state.  But if a family has been in say, Georgia for 5 generations, that family probably considers themselves southerners.  

Can some of you southerners confrim that the Civil War was taught to you in school as the "War of Northern Agression"?  Or is that a BS rumor used to scare Yankees?  

^

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Quote from: Wrecent_Wryder on July 23, 2007, 12:56:38 PMI think you're missing a pretty huge point here... the only reason we're NOT in a civil war again, right now, is that those divisions DON'T correspond cleanly with geography.

Not that it can't happen anyway...

I think about a new civil war in our country...  I didn't miss that point (or was there some other point that I am missing).

I don't know that it would have to be divided by geography.  Here's a pretty interesting look at maps of the last election:  http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/election

In King County (where Seattle is), we have a HUUUUUUGE majority of Liberals.  In fact, across the entire state of WA, there are more Democrats in King Co. than there are Republicans in the rest of the state...  Now, that doesn't mean there aren't lots of Republicans.  Spokane (the 3rd or 2nd biggest city in WA (depending on how the Tacoma population is doing)) is almost entirely Republican...  And they hate Seattle...  Our little city makes the rules for every other little town in the state.


I don't think our next civil war will be the red states vs the blue states...  I don't see armies marching from AL to WA...  I don't see the "Liberal Armies" of Hollywood invading Arizona...

But, I do see our states being divided by political views, boiling over, starting out as isolated hate crimes and ending up as riots.  In general, cities (and nearby urban sprawl) vote more liberal (even in the Conservative South)...  I can see city dwellers getting tired of the outlying suburban and rural areas.  And I can see the suburban and rural people getting sick of the cities making all the rules...


If there is anything like a civil war, I really think it will end up being cities vs rural...  If the cities changed the way public funding is distributed and made our state and federal government into a Money In, Money Out system...  There would be a war.

Wrecent: Not really a surprise.  Not when you put it that way, especially.   But if it seems shocking to some northerners, that isn't really the point.  If you're from the south, you'll have been socialized in a very different way than someone who is from the north.

There are really noticable difference in attitudes toward race in the south, I've noticed.  They aren't offensive to me.  But it is glaring when someone from the north first visits the south.  Maybe somebody else from the north has noticed this as well. 

Edit: and RV: if there ever was a war between blue states and red ones, the liberals are screwed!!!  No rifles!  Plus all the cry babies on the west coast would just pass out from shock, like fainting goats.

having attend school in TX and Alabama I can say no, we were not taught it was the war of Northern aggression.  That is a myth.  We were taught that many other factors contributed to the war, i.e. not just slavery.

CAL: I forgot to tell you one important thing.  Here in the U.S. we drink Iced Tea, as opposed to the tea you drink.  If you order an Iced Tea in the U.S. and it comes out to you sweetened, you are in the south.  If it is Unsweetened, you are in the North.  Doesn't really matter what side of the Mason Dixon you're on.  

Yeah if there was a Civil war now, the Conservatives would win on account of waging a Christian Jihad on the rest of the secular godless infidels. I mean, the exact opposite of terrorists.

But yeah, there is a huge difference between the North and South in America. I can do things in NY that people in Alabama would be appalled by and vice versa. Our country is bigger than Europe- do the cultural differences really shock you?

Quote from: Jake D on July 23, 2007, 01:33:33 PMIf you order an Iced Tea in the U.S. and it comes out to you sweetened, you are in the south.  If it is Unsweetened, you are in the North.

Damn...  Denny's is the South?   :icon_confused:

Quote from: Jake D on July 23, 2007, 01:24:31 PMEdit: and RV: if there ever was a war between blue states and red ones, the liberals are screwed!!!  No rifles!  Plus all the cry babies on the west coast would just pass out from shock, like fainting goats.

Well, all they'd have to do is drop leaflets with a math problem and a reading test...  Everyone in the red states would surrender.

Quote from: CasiUSA on July 23, 2007, 02:12:02 PMdo the cultural differences really shock you?

What's shocking is that our Federal Government thinks it's in charge of the States' Government...  Strong arm tactics work every time...  Easy example:  Drinking Age

Quote from: RVertigo on July 23, 2007, 02:18:23 PM

Quote from: CasiUSA on July 23, 2007, 02:12:02 PMdo the cultural differences really shock you?

What's shocking is that our Federal Government thinks it's in charge of the States' Government...  Strong arm tactics work every time...  Easy example:  Drinking Age

Agreed- another one I think is actually gun control. That has made its way to being state regulated. The only reason I agree with that is because I live in NYC. I would understand if you were in a Rural town in Idaho and police were always 20 minutes away. Would I want everyone in my city packing? Helllls no. But like I said, some people live in placews where they need them.

I like guns...  If everyone had one (and knew how to use 'em), no one would need one.  :thumb:  The cause of the number of shooting deaths in this country is not the number of gun owners.  It's much more of a systemic problem than that.



Oh, Jake...  I just thought about this one...  The most liberal guy I know owns two assault rifles, two hunting rifles, and something like 5 handguns.   :laugh:  I'm too cheap to own so many guns, but I have lots of knives and big pokey sticks. :icon_mrgreen:

Oh well, I really wish I could say "that's cleared that up then" but it has given me food for thought. I supposed I should have seen it coming, this tiny little (but crowded)country has some vast regional differences, and that's just England, take into account Scotland, Wales and across the Irish sea, well say no more.

Sometimes I wonder why William the Conquerer bothered. (Or William the Norman if you come from where-I-do 'cos he never conquered us)

Sweetened iced tea huh ?  Nononononnoooooooooooooo

Ok Cal I have a question for you. I have heard it said that the surest way to start a fight on St. Patricks day is to wear the color orange. Is this true?

I am of course referring to William of Orange's bloody defeat of the Irish in 1690.

Unfortunatly that may well be true, a lot of people in Ireland talk about the battle of the Boyne like it was last Tuesday.  :cookoo:

Hopefully for the future the "Orange marches" and the nationalists ritualistic parades and celebrations will not die out but become part of a historic tradition and heritage shared by all, that could take a while but a good start has been made.  :cheers:

The hottest political issue in the north of Ireland at the moment is probably water charges and and, mercifully, it is hard to see a sectarian divide over water charges yet alone one side of the argument shooting those on the other.  :thumb:

It's not often that I can praise politicians but a lot of people from all over put in a lot of effort to stop the slaughter. Tony Blair stands out but a lot of others too.

Quote from: Jake D on July 23, 2007, 01:33:33 PM
CAL: I forgot to tell you one important thing.  Here in the U.S. we drink Iced Tea, as opposed to the tea you drink.  If you order an Iced Tea in the U.S. and it comes out to you sweetened, you are in the south.  If it is Unsweetened, you are in the North.  Doesn't really matter what side of the Mason Dixon you're on.  

haha...I agree.

North Carolina by birth, but Californian is what I consider myself (I've been here since I was around 3).

Northern and southern California could be two different states...heck, it could be two different countries!  :laugh: Having just returned from Los Angeles, I can confirm that the drivers there are INDEED crazier (crazIER..the drivers here in n. Cali are crazy, too). The most grumbling I've heard recently is how s. Cali steals all of n. Cali's water.  :o

I was raised in s. Cali, but I live in n. Cali now, so I have loyalty to both the n. and the s. here.  ;)

P.S. And another vote here for UNsweetened tea!  :icon_mrgreen:

Quote from: pandy on July 26, 2007, 02:15:17 PM
North Carolina by birth, but Californian is what I consider myself (I've been here since I was around 3).

Northern and southern California could be two different states...heck, it could be two different countries!  :laugh: Having just returned from Los Angeles, I can confirm that the drivers there are INDEED crazier (crazIER..the drivers here in n. Cali are crazy, too). The most grumbling I've heard recently is how s. Cali steals all of n. Cali's water.  :o

I was raised in s. Cali, but I live in n. Cali now, so I have loyalty to both the n. and the s. here.  ;)

P.S. And another vote here for UNsweetened tea!  :icon_mrgreen:

wow...something I didn't know about pandy....born in good ole North Carolina....same here, you should've stayed-it's great.

Birthplace doesn't count for much if you don't stay there...  Born in Tucson, AZ.   :dunno_white:

I consider myself a Northerner, mostly because the women down south want a man to woo them and the women up north want to take things into their own hands.  Just an observation from personal experience, other's may differ.