Surprisingly accurate.
Yea not sure what’s up with the upper peninsula. I feel like it’s someone who actually knows Michigan and just wants to irritate Michiganders
Could still be a real European perspective. I’ve found a lot of people who are only casually familiar with North America will be able to tell you the broad cultural strokes and then one or two bizarrely specific facts. Like, “Oh yeah, America is all New York, Texas, California, Florida, and who could forget the iconic Egyptian Theatre of Boise, Idaho.”
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?
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.
Aside from the island, Wisconsin has 7 different towns named Washington, though most of them have a population in the hundreds.
Of course they have nothing on Indiana, which has 46 towns named Washington, or Iowa, which has 49.
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.
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.
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.
Washington’s name is everywhere because there was this guy named Washington and he did some cool things a couple hundred years ago.
Alaska: cold, that one goldrush
Hawaii: warm, colonialism
I think you know more about our history than we do
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.
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.
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.
The blue one just needs to be switched to alcoholism and drugs. Then it’s perfect.
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.
Possibly my favorite Lewis Black sketch is about drinking in Wisconsin.
"You are not alcoholics - you are professionals
They put Detroit in the wrong spot
The Incest area is way too small. The Cowboy area is way too big.
Honestly seems too small to me. I’ve driven to every state in the US and I’ve met self-identified cowboys from western NY state to Montana and New Mexico to north Florida. Shit, Kid Rock called himself a cowboy while he was living in Detroit lol.
Conclusion: most American men identify as cowboys
