I live on the border of Missouri and Kansas. While most of Missouri is Midwestern, the southern part is definitely southern. And while Kansas is Midwestern the western part of the state is well western. So what state to you is the most Midwestern?

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[–] 31 points 3 weeks ago (1 child)

Sorry to the rest of the Midwest but for me it's Minnesota, Wisconsin, half of Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and like 1/4 of Ohio. The rest doesn't Midwest hard enough lol

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  • [–] 19 points 3 weeks ago (1 child)

    For me it's probably Minnesota, because of MST3K.

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  • [–] 9 points 3 weeks ago

    I will always upvote MST3K. When Joel first started on the show, they did a small university circuit. I was fortunate enough to get tickets. They did a little Q&A and then did their show live on some old educational videos from the 1960s or '70s. I've never laughed so hard in part because it was a rated-R show and many of the jokes were completely inappropriate for TV.

    10/10!

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  • [–] 9 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

    The rust belt is a big constituent in my definition of the Midwest, though perhaps in reality only a Venn diagram. As such I'd place Illinois or Michigan as most Midwestern.

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  • [–] 9 points 3 weeks ago

    To me, a state is midwestern if it had a school in the B1G before Penn State joined.

    Among places meeting that criterion, I think Iowa counts as the most midwestern.

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  • [–] 7 points 3 weeks ago

    I see people mentioning Ohio and similar, and I've never been completely clear on it. The Great Lakes kinda have their own thing going on, but I guess it's still a subdivision of the midwest.

    For me, it's going to be minnesota/wisconson, probably. "Hot Dish" existing as a term and common food might also have an impact.

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  • [–] 6 points 3 weeks ago

    MinnesooooooooooOooOoOOOtah

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  • [–] 4 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

    While most of Missouri is Midwestern, the southern part is definitely southern.

    🤔 What about the southern part makes southern Missouri southern?

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  • [–] [S] 8 points 3 weeks ago (1 child)

    Culturally it is Southern and supported the South in the American Civil War. And you start to see some southern cuisine.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 weeks ago

    Definitely a blurry line, being a border state. The American literary tradition also sometimes lumps Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn in with other novels about the antebellum South, though both take place in Missouri.

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  • [–] 6 points 3 weeks ago

    Technically Kansas, since it's literally in the middle, I guess

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  • [–] 8 points 3 weeks ago

    Unfortunately Ohio is the central cross roads intersection of the Midwest and the most culturally melted mix pot of the Midwest.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 weeks ago (6 children)
  • [–] [S] 5 points 3 weeks ago*

    As someone who was born and raised in Kansas I generally agree, but it gets put on the maps as Midwest. And being raised on the Eastern side of the state we grew up eating a lot of Midwestern dishes.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

    It’s the Great Plains for sure. I think when your end the Great Plains, you think of the Great Plains as the Midwest and the Rust belt as the rust belt instead of the rust belt

    To be honest the plains folk hold up the friendly midwestern stereotype a lot better than the rust belt does

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  • [–] 2 points 3 weeks ago* (2 children)

    Having lived in both places, I don't think the midwest-nice stereotype holds up for either unless it is use as a pejorative.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 weeks ago (1 child)

    "iowa nice" is specifically a thing. It's not actually nice. They're friendly and polite, but will talk mad shit as soon as you're out of hearing range. Wisconsin and Minnesota are actual nice.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 weeks ago

    Kassel? Arnhem?

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  • [–] -2 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

    Colorado. All those "Midwestern" states are clearly in the Mideast not the Midwest

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  • [–] 9 points 3 weeks ago (1 child)

    If you're just measuring distance on the map, one could make that argument. But keep in mind that the concepts of the eastern and western US center on the east as the origin point. Therefore everything west of the "East" is the "West", and the Midwest is where that boundary begins.

    Having spent a lot of time in Colorado, I'd say it's very much culturally and historically where the West proper begins.

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  • [+] -6 points 3 weeks ago (1 child)

    Yeah, this. Like yeah sure back in 700 BC or whatever, when people assumed that 'it ain't gonna go on much longer, so this must be west', but it's almost like new developments and information change things. But you discover, pillage and trade the country to double the size, and west sure as fuck isn't west anymore. I don't care what anyone's grand-grand-grand-grandpappy said about it.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 weeks ago

    If the primary argument was that the term is historical, I’d be a lot more sympathetic. But the term “the Midwest” originates in 1926, and the explanation is very explicitly that demographically, socially, culturally, etc. everything west of the Mississippi is a rounding error, and so it makes sense to declare the Appalachian mountains the spiritual center of the country and I hate that.

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