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Well, it asks the question, at least. Sometimes I wonder how much the average human is prepared to answer questions about the culture of their birth region, th

Well, it asks the question, at least. Sometimes I wonder how much the average human is prepared to answer questions about the culture of their birth region, though. The USA is huge and comprises at least 11 drastically different cultures. I know other countries also have similar "yeah, same country, different culture" circumstances. I'm not sure how many people realize this.

permo-w 3y ago
at least 11 drastically different cultures, but what percentage of the population is covered by the 3 largest?
- Zambyte 3y ago
  Honestly it's probably more evenly distributed than you may think. I grew up in one state in the North East, currently living in another, and I've been to two states in the South East, South mid, South west, North West, and every single time has been a very noticeable difference in culture.
  - permo-w 3y ago
    I'm sure it's different, but is it as different as say, Italy is to Germany? or Portugal to England? or Estonia to France? I have no trouble believing that American states have noticeably different cultures, but drastically?
    - Zambyte 3y ago
      What would you say is drastic? In each of these regions, I've noticed different architecture, different cuisine, different accents, different social expectations, different political values that are widely accepted, different popular activities for leisure, different distributions of spoken languages... I haven't actual been outside of the US myself so I don't have a frame of reference for that, but different regions in the US really are quite different from my limited perspective.
elliotec 3y ago
Why did you pick the number 11? I don’t disagree but I could see it being a lot more. Just wondering if that’s some sort of agreed upon number or something.
- Armisael16 3y ago
  Probably from/related to https://colinwoodard.com/books/american-nations/ https://colinwoodard.com/books/american-nations/
  - bovermyer 3y ago
    Yes, I was referencing that book.
- jackcosgrove 3y ago
  It's probably some variant of this argument https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nine_Nations_of_North_America https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nine_Nations_of_North_Am...
waffletower 3y ago
There are well more than 11 different, geographically differentiable cultures in Los Angeles County alone.
makeitdouble 3y ago
> I know other countries also have similar "yeah, same country, different culture" circumstances I'd argue most countries fall into that description. It would need to be either extremely small (Luxembourg, Andora, Iceland ?), have a very strong drive towards unity (South Arabia, North Korea ?) or be so poor/inhabitable that not much people movement ever happens. Otherwise any viable country that's not trying to kill anyone different from them will see a vast number of drastically different cultures coming in and staying for the long run.
verbify 3y ago
One thing that strikes me travelling in America is the homogeneity. I'm from the England and I've been to places in England where I genuinely couldn't understand the accents (I used to find the Geordie accent the hardest until I lived up north for awhile). But I took a road trip from Michigan down to Florida (through the 'deep south') and then back up to New York and although accents changed, I never had the same kind of communication problems. And that's without counting the places in the UK where they natively speak Welsh or Scottish. The dialects (which is a massive part of culture) are mutually intelligible without a huge struggle. I'm however broadly aware that there are many Spanish speakers in the US, and that in parts of Louisiana they speak Louisiana French...
- WoodenChair 3y ago
  > One thing that strikes me travelling in America is the homogeneity. The only thing your comment spoke to is the homogeneity of accents and language. There’s a lot more to culture than just that.
  - candiddevmike 3y ago
    [flagged]
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
  - drewcoo 3y ago
    > The only thing your comment spoke to is the homogeneity of accents and language. There’s a lot more to culture than just that. There's Walmart. There's the universal decay of the small town. There's the stark difference between rural and (sub-)urban populations that's exactly the same across the country, south to north, west to east. Other than sports there is no more local culture. And the biggest teams are part of national organizations. There is the vast gap between the haves and have nots wherever you go. We're a consumer society, so consider how marketing defines us. That's US culture.
- 3y ago

permo-w 3y ago

at least 11 drastically different cultures, but what percentage of the population is covered by the 3 largest?

Zambyte 3y ago
Honestly it's probably more evenly distributed than you may think. I grew up in one state in the North East, currently living in another, and I've been to two states in the South East, South mid, South west, North West, and every single time has been a very noticeable difference in culture.
- permo-w 3y ago
  I'm sure it's different, but is it as different as say, Italy is to Germany? or Portugal to England? or Estonia to France? I have no trouble believing that American states have noticeably different cultures, but drastically?
  - Zambyte 3y ago
    What would you say is drastic? In each of these regions, I've noticed different architecture, different cuisine, different accents, different social expectations, different political values that are widely accepted, different popular activities for leisure, different distributions of spoken languages... I haven't actual been outside of the US myself so I don't have a frame of reference for that, but different regions in the US really are quite different from my limited perspective.

elliotec 3y ago

Why did you pick the number 11? I don’t disagree but I could see it being a lot more. Just wondering if that’s some sort of agreed upon number or something.

Armisael16 3y ago
Probably from/related to https://colinwoodard.com/books/american-nations/ https://colinwoodard.com/books/american-nations/
- bovermyer 3y ago
  Yes, I was referencing that book.
jackcosgrove 3y ago
It's probably some variant of this argument https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nine_Nations_of_North_America https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nine_Nations_of_North_Am...

waffletower 3y ago

There are well more than 11 different, geographically differentiable cultures in Los Angeles County alone.

makeitdouble 3y ago

> I know other countries also have similar "yeah, same country, different culture" circumstances I'd argue most countries fall into that description. It would need to be either extremely small (Luxembourg, Andora, Iceland ?), have a very strong drive towards unity (South Arabia, North Korea ?) or be so poor/inhabitable that not much people movement ever happens. Otherwise any viable country that's not trying to kill anyone different from them will see a vast number of drastically different cultures coming in and staying for the long run.

verbify 3y ago

One thing that strikes me travelling in America is the homogeneity. I'm from the England and I've been to places in England where I genuinely couldn't understand the accents (I used to find the Geordie accent the hardest until I lived up north for awhile). But I took a road trip from Michigan down to Florida (through the 'deep south') and then back up to New York and although accents changed, I never had the same kind of communication problems. And that's without counting the places in the UK where they natively speak Welsh or Scottish. The dialects (which is a massive part of culture) are mutually intelligible without a huge struggle. I'm however broadly aware that there are many Spanish speakers in the US, and that in parts of Louisiana they speak Louisiana French...

WoodenChair 3y ago
> One thing that strikes me travelling in America is the homogeneity. The only thing your comment spoke to is the homogeneity of accents and language. There’s a lot more to culture than just that.
- candiddevmike 3y ago
  [flagged]
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
- drewcoo 3y ago
  > The only thing your comment spoke to is the homogeneity of accents and language. There’s a lot more to culture than just that. There's Walmart. There's the universal decay of the small town. There's the stark difference between rural and (sub-)urban populations that's exactly the same across the country, south to north, west to east. Other than sports there is no more local culture. And the biggest teams are part of national organizations. There is the vast gap between the haves and have nots wherever you go. We're a consumer society, so consider how marketing defines us. That's US culture.
3y ago