
American Nations Today (2013) - colinprince
http://www.tufts.edu/alumni/magazine/fall2013/features/up-in-arms.html
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SCAQTony
Los Angeles is listed as part of "El Norte" which on their map is mostly all
Mexico. That is absolute hyperbole. Though Los Angeles (GDP $800-billion)
along with the rest of Southern California have a huge immigrant population
the GDP of the area as a whole is well over $1-trillion. The cultures in
Southern California and L.A. are remarkably diverse.

To associate Southern California with nothing but Latino and Mexican culture
itself is a mighty broad brush stroke. The San Fernando Valley is way
different Than Malibu. Hollywood is a polar opposite of Orange county. San
Diego ($202-billion GDP) compared to Beverly Hills is laughable. The culture
in Long Beach as compared to West L.A. is like comparing Mars to Moon.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_by_GDP](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_by_GDP)

~~~
joshAg
I think you're overstating how much the author associates socal with only
Latino and Mexican culture:

"Before I describe the nations, I should underscore that my observations refer
to the dominant culture, not the individual inhabitants, of each region. In
every town, city, and state you’ll likely find a full range of political
opinions and social preferences. Even in the reddest of red counties and
bluest of blue ones, twenty to forty percent of voters cast ballots for the
“wrong” team. It isn’t that residents of one or another nation all think the
same, but rather that they are all embedded within a cultural framework of
deep-seated preferences and attitudes—each of which a person may like or hate,
but has to deal with nonetheless."

~~~
SCAQTony
Thank you for the reminder. If culture framework is defined as traditions,
value systems, myths and symbols that are common within a given society. (I
cheated and looked it up) Then I double down on my opinion. ;-)

An interesting exercise I just did was to go to Google Maps and pick various
locales in L.A, San Diego etc, and virtually "drive down the streets" and see
if the cultural difference. The symbols and systems are definitely not
consistent: YMMV :-)

Hollywood Blvd & Vine; Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills; Van Nuys Blvd & Sepulveda
(lot of pot shops) ; Gaslamp District San Diego, Huntington Beach, CA, Santa
Monica, 4th street; Long Beach Harbor; Juarez, Mexico.

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jessaustin
Obviously there are numerous problems with this, but I'll just point out a
couple. First, what is up with "Midlands"? Do we really see much commonality
among Clayton NM, Aberdeen SD, Joliet IL, East Steubenville WV, and Baltimore
MD? [For non-USAsians, these cities are nowhere near each other and are in no
respect similar.] This looks like gerrymandering: something about these
counties would have destroyed the narrative had they been included in adjacent
Yankeedom, New Netherland, Tidewater, Greater Appalachia, El Norte, or Far
West, so they weren't, because reasons. Unconvincing.

With respect to the other focus of TFA, violence, we see more of the same
"ignore-all-nations-except-for-Northern-Europe-Japan-and-New-Zealand" crap
that is typical in trendy "comparisons" of USA to "the rest of the world". The
difference between USA and the short list of nations this sort of "analysis"
deigns to consider is that USA is a nation of colonial origin. [EDIT:
whoops... NZ is too.] Look at all other nations that were colonized, in Latin
America and Africa. They all struggle with violence to an equal or greater
extent than USA. Ahistoric pap like TFA perpetuates political bias more than
it promotes understanding.

~~~
sdrothrock
> USAsians

This is the most confusing new demonym I've seen in a while. As an Asian-
American, it took me a moment to figure out why this would be knowledge only
Asian-Americans would be expected to have.

Edit: It's not referring to Asian-Americans, by the way. It's apparently?
(guessing from context) a new? way of referring to Americans, for some reason.
I'm not really sure what's going on.

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douche
The area labeled as Yankeedom in reality has a lot more variation than
presented. There is a huge difference in attitudes between the coastal elites
and the inland, more rural populations. You can see this somewhat in the
repeated mention of New Hampshire as an outlier - it's a small enough state,
with few enough urbanesque areas that they don't reliably dominate.

~~~
nhdev
There is a circle around Boston (that include Manchester and Nahsua, NH) that
is very different than a lot of the rest of New England.

I moved from Boston to Nashua, NH (a 90k+ person city less than 50 minutes
from Boston) and was right at home; yet there are rural parts of New Hampshire
I would feel entirely out of place like it is a different country. But at the
same time, I feel there is a sense of unity in most of New England. A shared
heritage and creativeness ("Yankee Ingenuity") that binds the region together.

Sometimes I think about moving to the West Coast (usually around the fourth
foot of snow in the Winter) but I do like it here.

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protomyth
"Of late, Far Westerners have focused their anger on the federal government,
rather than their corporate masters."

The whole Far West part is a bunch of bunk and actually ignores quite a bit of
history and settlement waves, but this line is the dumbest thing I've read in
a while. Our corporate masters? I get the feeling the folks in "The Left
Coast" have to deal with corporate masters a whole lot more than anyone in
"The Far West". The thought that anti-federal feelings are anything new is
just foolish, heck there have been historical articles posted on HN that point
to the exact opposite.

~~~
kemiller
That's not what he's saying. He's saying they have disliked both from the
beginning, but anti-govt sentiment predominates now. Which seems true as far
as it goes.

~~~
protomyth
What I'm saying is that I have never heard this corporate master garbage. I
know of a dislike for some farm companies but that is about the same degree
other people complain about cell and cable companies. Anti-government
sentiment was predominate in the old days, its nothing new.

~~~
thrownaway2424
Your own ignorance of history is on you alone. If you wish to relieve it you
could research railroad settlement of the American West, specifically land
grant subsidies thereof and abuse by the railroads of their power over
settlers.

~~~
protomyth
The railroads screwed with everyone including the Left Coast, how is this
unique to the section? Hell, some of the stuff they pulled on the east coast
was pretty bad.

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bahmboo
"It isn’t that residents of one or another nation all think the same, but
rather that they are all embedded within a cultural framework of deep-seated
preferences and attitudes—each of which a person may like or hate, but has to
deal with nonetheless."

It certainly paints a more nuanced picture than grouping people by state. In
this case the unit is a county.

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learc83
For some reason they've split Metro Atlanta in two, which makes absolutely no
sense. I move half a mile down the road, I'm in Greater Appalachia instead of
the Deep South.

People in Metro Atlanta don't identify with Appalachia more than they do with
"The South", and the northern half of Metro Atlanta definitely didn't side
with the Union in the Civil War (which is what the blurb about Greater
Appalachia says).

Obviously non-geographic borders are going to be a bit arbitrary, but
splitting a major population center like this is particularly bad.

~~~
Expeditus419
Any idea how this was actually mapped? It looks like census tracts.

~~~
douche
It appears to be broken down by counties, I assume. At least, those are the
divisions in the New England states.

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PeterWhittaker
Fascinating. As a Canadian, I certainly appreciate the commonalities between
areas north and south of the border. (Of course, I am unsure whether I agree,
but it is food for thought. Quebec, e.g., labelled as part of New France, may
be liberal in some areas but is decidedly us-or-them in others, straining to
wholly intolerant of those who even appear to be anything other than "pure
laine" (pure wool).)

