What states do you consider to be part of the Midwest?

xpost to harbl

Yeah, that's what this jerk said. I mentioned Great Mount Tom Sauk, tallest peak in the country imo, and the Ozarks, but this guy refused to listen

WV is a weird case too, I don't think of it as the midwest, but I'm not really sure what region you could put it in. According to wikipedia it's in the mid-atlantic, which seems wrong.

i don't really want the dakotas to be there but i always think of them as part of the upper midwest with MN and WI

i think of WV and KY as appalachian states. is that a category?

Appalachia isn't really a category like "midwest" or "new england" becaause, with the exception of wv, only portions of states can be said to be in it e.g. western north carolina

yeah, it's more just how i place them in my brain

askance ur map seems OTM to me w/ exception of kentucky. people who say OH isn't midwest are usually from plains states ime (and are totally and completely wrong)

fuck yes MO is midwest

I consider Kentucky as part of the South.

yea me too

side question:

what are the plains states?

(we will keep going in this manner until we get to island states)

the plains states are ND, SD, NE, and KS. what's OK though?

def plains

those are the quintessential plains states imo, even tho the plains overlap onto other midwest & western states

yeah that's why it's hard to categorize like that, same as using appalachian like i do. they should have a different name like "the middle"

like you could include montana and wyoming and colorado but i don't want to. those are "rocky mountain states"

http://www.unl.edu/plains/CGPS_images/main/egpmap2.gif

btw i'd just like to add that st louis is fucking rad, one of my fav cities for sure

saskatchewan and alberta are canada states

Kentucky is like another country compared to the Midwest. And I say this as a fan.

cross-examination

harbl,

you listed the ND and SD as part of the Midwest. Minutes later, you stated that the plains states are ND, SD...

Is there overlap between the Midwest and the Plains states? or are you LYING?!?!

yes

ohio
indiana
michigan
wisconsin
illinois
minnesota
iowa
missouri

From Newshour:

http://www-tc.pbs.org/newshour/images/convention/plains.gif

RONG

the great plains are a helpful contributor to everything between chicago and the west coast being pretty boring imo.

newshour claims those as plains states, btw

that drive is just....damn.

no i think "the midwest" you hear about in the news as a broad general category includes the plains states xposst

parts of KY are distinctively southern but then you have to realize that Cincinatti is less than a 90 minute drive from either Louisville or Lexington....

I think the same dual-identity could be applied to Missouri. KC vs. STL vs Springfield... all radically different cities and culture.

every non-coastal state that is not part of the South or Southwest

ohio
indiana
illinois
missouri
kansas
nebraska
wisconsin
michigan
minnesota
wyoming
iowa
colorado
n dakota
s dakota
idaho
montana

yeah ohio has like 4 different types of states within it too

yea midwest encompasses the plains states. u can be a midwestern state but not a plains state, but all plains states are midwest (i'm not counting western states that have plains as 'plains states' tho)

great lakes is a region too - minnesota, wisconsin, illinois, indiana, michigan, ohio, PA, western NY

sarahel you cannot be serious with that

wherever R. Kelly and Nelly be at

i've heard buffalo lumped in as a midwestern city which is totally ??? except for the accent.

sarahel's definition actually seems kind of rational and consistent, but I'm not sure that such things have much to do with how regions are perceived.

ohio and indiana are wild cards -- they're not not midwestern but i tend to lump them in with the rust belt northeast.

yeah, I've heard Pittsburgh referred to as a midwestern state, which kind of makes sense...Buffalo and Pittsburgh might have more in common with e.g. Cleveland than they do with Philly or NYC

(xpost) same with buffalo really -- it's rust belt northeast but the case for spiritual midwesternness could be made.

xp harbl: yeah, you're right, i'm kidding. Maybe I should've been more obvious about it and said, "The Midwest is everything east of I5 until you hit the East Coast."

http://www.overmorgen.com/weblog/files/2009/01/09/nine_nations_of_north_america.gif

the only midwest states are the states with big ten schools. shit, except for pennsylvania.

western 2/3 of penn are basically midwest imo

clinging to their guns and religion

core states are: indiana, michigan, ohio, wisconsin, illinois, minnesota

iowa is a toss up b/w midwest & plains (mostly plains)

missouri is a weird mutant hybrid of midwest, plains & south

This is blowing my mind. To me, Iowa was always the very definition of Midwest.

indiana, michigan, ohio, wisconsin, illinois, minnesota, iowa.

The rule: Midwestern states are the ones which were free states during the Civil War and which don't have a border with the Atlantic or Pacific. Except Vermont, which is obviously not Midwestern (but which is, I would say the most Midwestern of the NE states.)

And except Kansas. But again, I'd say Kansas is MORE Midwestern than Missouri, Kentucky, Nebraska....

J0rdan, where do native Missourians categorize mo?

I lived there from age 3-22, and I always thought of it as midwest.

a co-worker who kept saying that the Midwest ended at Illinois

the correct response to this assertion is WISCONSIN

grew up in western NY state which I thought of even as a kid as part of the midwest

i don't want to discount your lived experience out of hand, but also you are a literal madman

great lakes, yes. rust belt, yes. some shit about the erie canal, yes. midwest tho? c'mon

how many pronunciations of 'bagel' and 'Mario' can one midwest hold?

one

https://mario-lemieux.com/wp-content/uploads/Mario-Lemieux-2-04.jpg

Also looking at that made me realize I always think of KS, NE, IL, and IA as the Midwest but never Missouri for some arbitrary reason. I’ve never been to Missouri though.

in many ways, literal and psychedelic, but also anti-psychedelic, missouri is the combination of all those states

thank you for not suggesting a radius around touchdown jesus

― mookieproof

and thank you for mentioning touchdown jesus.

For some reason I think of Missouri more as “the south” than any of the places that surround it on three sides. Or at least more south than north and nothing that is the south can be the Midwest.

Missouri is Midwestern, but not 100% Midwest.

You can't ever have owned slaves or started a catfish farm in the Midwest. They just had a machine-gun shooting governor resign over a weird S&M episode – that ain't the Midwest I know!

But they do call Coke "Pop," so that kinda tips it back to Midwest.

Sorry I wasn't here originally, but my son was born the day before this thread was started.

They just had a machine-gun shooting governor resign over a weird S&M episode

too true -- that's more of a razorbacks ball coach thing

S&M governor seems like an incredibly midwestern thing to me - is it just that it went public and he resigned instead of just having a sex dungeon until he died?

Like it's on brand for Texas to have a governor talk about secession but if one resigned because of that, shit would be weird.

Dallas feels like the midwest

I lived in east central kansass for a number of years and I don’t think it is midwest. It definitely sucks though!

Maybe it is a Midwestern thing to resign over that. It'd be a southern governor who' d go, yeah I tied her up, took her picture and wore blackface throughout the whole thing. What you gonna do about it?

Every month, we publish this regular report from Creighton University, and every month, my editor and I just look at each other and go, Welp...

https://i.imgur.com/J4aeRxi.png

You can't ever have owned slaves or started a catfish farm in the Midwest. They just had a machine-gun shooting governor resign over a weird S&M episode – that ain't the Midwest I know!

― pplains

excuse me are you familiar with the political career of ex-cincinnati mayor jerry springer

also, sorry about your slower economic growth

Every month, we publish this regular report from Creighton University, and every month, my editor and I just look at each other and go, Welp...

― pplains, Saturday, August 31, 2019 9:03 AM (three hours ago)

I guess ND, SD, NE, KS, and OK are the pplains states.

https://i.imgur.com/Ekxncoy.png

Cool map, but I think using the label "Cultural Areas" shows a misunderstanding of what is required to make a distinct culture.

not quite sure how to break it up, but i don't think you can put new england all in one

also aimless otm

"Resides within Cultural Area #27" is pretty much all that a Las Vegas casino owner, a west Texas oil rig mechanic, a Scottsdale tax attorney, a Navajo sheep rancher, a Santa Fe pottery thrower, and a Yuma lettuce farmer have in common culturally except for the fact that they all smoke hella weed.

Deep South too big. You need some sort of Delta region in there too.

I get that this is a "Cultural" map, but c'mon. Sallisaw, Oklahoma, ain't the Deep South.

listen everybody, i did the best i could on this map

i'm open to feedback but let's keep it constructive

after 2 years, the washington post study we commissioned is finally done! here are the results:

https://i.imgur.com/tht9XVl.png

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/07/29/airbnb-the-most-midwestern-things/

additionally, the team at the post was able to come up with the definitive list, so there should be no need for any more disagreement on this subject until new states are added or subtracted to the united states

Note: The 12 Midwestern states are Iowa, Indiana, Wisconsin, North Dakota, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Illinois, Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio and South Dakota

Finally, all of these states have been ranked by midwesterness. sorry South Dakota, you have been relegated, and Ohio you are *this* close to getting the boot:

https://i.imgur.com/6h0NjG3.png

that's right

I question the methodology of that last list. Notice that it’s the states with bigger cities that place nearer the bottom of the list. Maybe if you’re listing an Airbnb in a place like Detroit or Chicago or Cleveland you don’t have to add the descriptor “Midwest” bc everyone knows what those places are like. Also the Midwesternness of those areas is not in question, whereas a more borderline case like some town in Iowa, which is not obviously Midwestern, would call for “Midwest” in the listing to sort of suggest to renters what they’re getting into.

You'll never convince me that Iowa's Midwestern status is a "borderline case."

https://i.imgur.com/FKkonnE.png

xp I would make the same case, Josefa. Nobody in even southern Minnesota is going to post about Midwestern ambience, it'll be about lakes, fishing, or proximity to Minneapolis. And the vast majority in Illinois are in Chicago and they'd mention local amenities

also Iowa is insanely midwestern, what are you talking about

I've previously mentioned my corn index for Midwesterness (you can argue historical standards and the midwesterness of the rust belt as alternatives) but imo the more corn planted, the more midwestern. So you get Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, eastern Nebraska, etc etc

not-xp: corn sweat is real, 38% humidity today and 100 degrees outside

Pretty sure these points are made in the article itself iirc

38% humidity today

OH POOR YOU.

In my state, the humidity is so high that the air smells like corn sweat ... and we don't have any corn.

More like soybean sweat.

the humidity wasn't terrible, the 100 degrees on top of it was a bit more irritating