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Comment by ph33t | Hacker News Reader

An observation ... just the fact that many here treat the "midwest" as one place in their comments speaks of maybe misunderstanding/ignorance or even arrogance. As a person who has lived in Wisconsin (suburban and rural), Minnesota (urban and suburban), and Chicago, there is an absolutely astounding difference in people, attitude, and culture in all 3 areas. Granted none are really like the east or west coasts, but they are all vastly different places to live.

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I'm deeply offended that you decided to lump in my town in the Bay Area with the rest of the West Coast. There's an astounding difference in culture between it and San Diego. /s

Seriously, though, at some point we have to group regions together. All American cities have more similarities than differences. Regions do share some commonalities.

I'm not sure what you expect from this piece. The author mentions that there are differences between the various cities in the region, contrasting Detroit with Cleveland. Should he have gone into more detail?

I have lived in Minnesota, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin.

They are very different to us, but they are more like each other (and Ontario) than they are like the other places I have been. I can definitely see how outsiders might consider them to be indistinguishably similar without actually living in multiple regions of the Midwest.

As someone who grew up in rural WI and went to school in Minneapolis, I can attest to this. The culture differences are pretty huge.

Yeah, the whole idea of "midwest" is pretty flawed. Like a lot of places you really need to look at the migration patterns that made up the communities (including what tribes got shoved where). I've often said that all these scifi maps about the breakup of the US that have ND and MN in the same country just don't get how far the area has diverged. Heck, the difference between St. Cloud MN and Minneapolis MN is amazing.

Well yeah, because St. Cloud is the armpit of Minnesota.

St. Cloud actually has nice people who get mighty offended when you won't let them help you. I reserve derogatory comments for some of the Twin City suburbs.

ironic how in the same sentence that you complain about people calling it the “midwest” you limp the coasts together

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