Speaking also as a Midwesterner, I would disagree. I was born and raised in Michigan, and have not really left much other than to couch hop and envy the lives of my friends who've moved out to the coast. I feel that the contempt the author descends into is self-inflicted, and may representative of the culture and authors midwestern upbringing. From what I've observed, midwesterners are brutally humble, almost to a fault, probably stemming from the deeply rooted conservative values. Being midwestern, to me, is not its own identity, but rather a lack of the other negative identities of the regions. Speaking in terms of stereotypes I hear here (not trying to discredit these regions) the vibe is: I'm NOT a no-patience jerk like on the east coast, I'm NOT lazy and pretentious like on the west coast, I'm NOT shallow and two-faced like in the south, therefore, as a midwesterner my strongest identity is defined by a lack of those negative associations. Midwesterns choose not to be defined by what they are, which I see as no-nonsense and generally pretty authentic and genuine, but rather by what they are not. "We are not all of those bad things those other people in those other places are, and that's our best quality." But through my travels I've learned that not all people in those places are like that, and not all midwesterners are nice, but in general they prefer to be viewed as collective lack of bad things, rather than a collection of good things. This, plus an underlying more conservative and humble perspective, I feel gives light to the lack of regional identity that is perceived by people both inside and outside of the Midwest.