Post by Spirit Bomb on Dec 20, 2019 1:04:45 GMT
For those of you outside of the US, the midwest is a region in the USA that encompasses all states east of Rocky Mountains to every state bordering the eastern shore of the Mississippi river. The Great Plains region (i.e. all states located between the rockies and the Mississippi river) makes up the majority of the midwest's land area; this is important to note because of how the population density, social structure and political climate differs significantly from other regions of the US.
As someone who has lived in the midwest most of his life, I have developed a hatred of it over the years for numerous reasons. My complaints about the midwest include:
-Atrocious redneck culture. This is easily one of the most iconic, defining features of midwest culture. Seemingly every other citizen here is a pro-gun hunter or an avid fisherman. These kinds of folks usually drive large trucks and often have no respect for the land and chuck whatever garbage they have right out their truck window, filling every roadside ditch with empty beer bottles, mountain dew cans and plastic wrappers.
-Atrocious gun culture. I don't know the exact statistics, but I'm willing to bet that the midwest is second only to the south for the world record of having the highest rate of gun ownership. Just about every time of the year you can step outside where I live and hear gunshots off in the distance from some guy doing target practice in his backyard. I would say the only other US region that is a potential contender for having the second highest rate of gun ownership would be the south west.
-Atrocious booze culture. My state (Wisconsin) holds the distinction of having the second greatest level of alcohol consumption per captia of any US state, South Dakota (another midwest state) having the first. My mother is an alcoholic, and I am the only teetotaler in my immediate family as well as within my father's entire side of the family.
-Atrocious levels of racism.
-Conservative politics. Almost every midwest state is politically red (right), and although a couple states have historically either been swing or blue, their recent political climate has been right-wing; a good example of this is my state, as Wisconsin has historically been democratic but in the last presidential election Trump won the state. As a global democrat, I feel very uncomfortable with the recent shift in this state's politics.
-Too much private land ownership. Most of the midwest is rural and sparsely populated, but surprisingly the federal reserve owns barely any of the land. This is a huge problem for environmentalism and outdoorsmen like myself, since private land owners are not required by law (to my knowledge) to maintain any sort of ecological balance by culling invasive plants, control sediment runoff, etc. This results in a lot of unkept swaths of invasive flora and polluted property. It also makes finding good hiking areas very difficult, because private land owners are allowed to forbid trespassers from stepping even a foot into their property, which can be HUGE; 5,000 sq. acres is not at all uncommon for areas of private land.
-Too many dairy farming. Dairy farms are absolutely disgusting, usually composed of mud holes where cows loiter all day that smell strongly of rancid bullshit. They are a total eye sore and make biking very unpleasant due to the strong stench.
-Too much agriculture. This is mostly related to my above complaint about the overabundance of dairy farms, since the majority of corn grown in the US is used to feed cows. Even though the great plains region of the US was the largest temperate grassland biome on Earth prior to European settlement, over 99% of that land which was once prairie has now been converted to cropland (just check Google Earth if you don't believe me).
-Crop Dusting, AKA the most inefficient form of applying pesticide ever.
-Too much pesticide
-Too much herbicide
-Too much fertilizer
-Horrible water quality. The midwest holds the distinction of having the most polluted water table of any US region (source: middle school environmental science), due to the immense fertilizer runoff, pesticide runoff and soil erosion thanks to being the agriculture capital of the US. In fact, the Gulf of Mexico's dead zone is almost entirely created by runoff exclusively from the great plains region. This is one of the main driving forces behind my decision to go vegan.
-Lack of green forms of public transportation. Despite the sheer size of most midwest states, railway and busline services are extremely limited at a local level. It's very un-green and frustrating for those of us who are tired of being forced to drive everywhere and just want to take a bus or train instead.
Overall I'm completely fed up with having to put up with all this crap and I long to return to the East coast where I was born. I would love to move to New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, or New Jersey, but that is impossible for me at the moment and in the foreseeable future.
As someone who has lived in the midwest most of his life, I have developed a hatred of it over the years for numerous reasons. My complaints about the midwest include:
-Atrocious redneck culture. This is easily one of the most iconic, defining features of midwest culture. Seemingly every other citizen here is a pro-gun hunter or an avid fisherman. These kinds of folks usually drive large trucks and often have no respect for the land and chuck whatever garbage they have right out their truck window, filling every roadside ditch with empty beer bottles, mountain dew cans and plastic wrappers.
-Atrocious gun culture. I don't know the exact statistics, but I'm willing to bet that the midwest is second only to the south for the world record of having the highest rate of gun ownership. Just about every time of the year you can step outside where I live and hear gunshots off in the distance from some guy doing target practice in his backyard. I would say the only other US region that is a potential contender for having the second highest rate of gun ownership would be the south west.
-Atrocious booze culture. My state (Wisconsin) holds the distinction of having the second greatest level of alcohol consumption per captia of any US state, South Dakota (another midwest state) having the first. My mother is an alcoholic, and I am the only teetotaler in my immediate family as well as within my father's entire side of the family.
-Atrocious levels of racism.
-Conservative politics. Almost every midwest state is politically red (right), and although a couple states have historically either been swing or blue, their recent political climate has been right-wing; a good example of this is my state, as Wisconsin has historically been democratic but in the last presidential election Trump won the state. As a global democrat, I feel very uncomfortable with the recent shift in this state's politics.
-Too much private land ownership. Most of the midwest is rural and sparsely populated, but surprisingly the federal reserve owns barely any of the land. This is a huge problem for environmentalism and outdoorsmen like myself, since private land owners are not required by law (to my knowledge) to maintain any sort of ecological balance by culling invasive plants, control sediment runoff, etc. This results in a lot of unkept swaths of invasive flora and polluted property. It also makes finding good hiking areas very difficult, because private land owners are allowed to forbid trespassers from stepping even a foot into their property, which can be HUGE; 5,000 sq. acres is not at all uncommon for areas of private land.
-Too many dairy farming. Dairy farms are absolutely disgusting, usually composed of mud holes where cows loiter all day that smell strongly of rancid bullshit. They are a total eye sore and make biking very unpleasant due to the strong stench.
-Too much agriculture. This is mostly related to my above complaint about the overabundance of dairy farms, since the majority of corn grown in the US is used to feed cows. Even though the great plains region of the US was the largest temperate grassland biome on Earth prior to European settlement, over 99% of that land which was once prairie has now been converted to cropland (just check Google Earth if you don't believe me).
-Crop Dusting, AKA the most inefficient form of applying pesticide ever.
-Too much pesticide
-Too much herbicide
-Too much fertilizer
-Horrible water quality. The midwest holds the distinction of having the most polluted water table of any US region (source: middle school environmental science), due to the immense fertilizer runoff, pesticide runoff and soil erosion thanks to being the agriculture capital of the US. In fact, the Gulf of Mexico's dead zone is almost entirely created by runoff exclusively from the great plains region. This is one of the main driving forces behind my decision to go vegan.
-Lack of green forms of public transportation. Despite the sheer size of most midwest states, railway and busline services are extremely limited at a local level. It's very un-green and frustrating for those of us who are tired of being forced to drive everywhere and just want to take a bus or train instead.
Overall I'm completely fed up with having to put up with all this crap and I long to return to the East coast where I was born. I would love to move to New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, or New Jersey, but that is impossible for me at the moment and in the foreseeable future.
