What is the "midwest"?
any state i mistake for ohio when looking at a map of the US is part of the midwest
This answer but Indiana not Ohio. Ohio is barely midwest.
Ohio is only Midwest because it can't be classified as anything else.
"great lakes", an overlapping region shared with some of the midwest and parts of canada
Idk where Ohio is so I just poke around at states that look like desolate hell holes based on their shape and ask if they're Ohio or not, and if I do it for long enough I build up a complete map of the midwest
Real response to get some shit started:
Core Midwest: Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa
Upper Midwest: Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin
Outer Midwest: ND, SD, Nebraska (parts at least)
I will never recognize: Missouri
Everything else below Nebraska is "Plains" IMO.
South of the Ohio River is upper south.
Western PA and Pittsburgh can be "Midwest" if it wants, but the rest of PA isn't and the majority of the state doesn't qualify, so we'd have to balkanize.
Agreed Missouri doesn't count, (former) slave states can't be midwest
Does John Brown’s Kansas territory get to be in the Midwest club?
Ohio’s often an is or isn’t it inclusion in the Midwest for good reason. We’re kinda split between Appalachia, the Great Lakes/Northeast, the Midwest, and the South. And, with all that the Midwest is probably the dominant bit by landmass, but one of the weaker areas by population.
(Also an original mostly-lurker hexbearite, and probably primarily responsible for midwest.social starting to see our communities. 👋)
how can iowa be part of the core, but not wisconsin or michigan??
the core midwest are the great lakes states: wisconsin, michigan, illinois, minnesota. i’ll typically put indiana in there too
then, there’s the peripheral midwest, which i typically consider part of the midwest: iowa, ohio, nd, sd
finally, there’s the not-really-midwest: nebraska, western PA
Iowa is the paradigm midwest state, how the fuck can it be peripheral??
that’s fair - i’d be comfortable moving iowa into the core. i left it on the periphery because western iowa is very much great plains-esque
regardless, if iowa is in the core, then so is wisconsin and michigan
This but I think eastern Ohio is more the East than it is Midwest.
interesting, that makes sense in a way but also implies anything east of California/Oregon/Washington is midwest till you get over to the original colonies.
Except when you go souther or norther of the west, tho, because we have the southwest (Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma), and the northwest (a couple Dakotas, Idaho - which sounds like it should be Midwest, Montana, others?).
idk oaklahoma is stretching it a bit don't you think? At least in terms of "west".
Does the midwest only include the US? I'm wondering if Toronto counts as part of the midwest.
Fuck if I know I'm from California lol, and this is just the kind of questions and debate I hoped to spur from this shitpost.
The Canadian and American prairies run smoothly into eachother. Way before borders used to be a real thing people would move freely, Metis homeland includes both sides. Before the Metis, Niitsapi (blackfoot confederacy) was on either side and even now Kinai FN still is, I think the Sioux were too.
Is Buffalo Midwest? I feel like it makes no sense to call Toronto Midwest unless northern NY state is.
Windsor is kinda Midwest because it's Canada Detroit in that it used to have manufacturing but doesn't have as much anymore, and it's literally next to Detroit.
Is Midwest a vibe? A geographic area? Both? As someone Canadian it seems to be the flyover states that have cities with the vibe of a large town rather than a real city. I've also never been to that part of America so idk either.
calling anywhere in New England midwest is the sort of nuclear hot take I hoped to unearth with this post.Calling any part of New York part of New England is sure to piss people off too.
I'm willing to advocate for Burlington to be an honorable Midwest city. It's on a controversial great lake, has lots of redneck attire, and the folks aren't as friendly as they claim. What's holding them back is the naval history, too much war during early American history to get that 'new territory' moniker.
Chicago is basically the capital of the Midwest and it is most certainly a real city. Unless if part of the criteria of being a real city like NYC is smelling like trash, then Chicago isn’t a real city since they hide trash in the alleys rather than leaving it everywhere
Does Chicago have a decent transit system? If I was rich and lived in Chicago is it conceivable that I don't own a car? To me a city without trains or a subway is a large town
Also I didn't know Chicago was Midwest because I forgot where it is lol. Illinois sounds like a state that is in the middle of nowhere in my head so I guess that makes sense.
Also weird that Midwest emo is a music genre, but there's no Midwest rap even though Kanye and Chance the Rapper are from there.
I’ve only been to Chicago a couple times but I never felt like I was missing out on not having a car there
Toronto and southern Ontario is definitely Great Lakes and would be part of any balkanized Great Lakes Commune. Northern Ontario is just too different. The St Lawrence plus its watershed is its own thing too, maybe Maine or northern bits of Vermont could in it but it's different from New Engalnd and Acadia.
Maritimes would obviously envelop Newfoundlound but would resist New England. New Brunswick MAYBE might be part of Quebec remnants or St Lawrebce Watershed. Northern Quebec would split off the St Lawrence watershed.
There already is a thing in northern Alberta and BC called the Peace Region and it was a thing all the way back before the settlers came. Southern Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba would probably be in some confederacy depending on if Alberta could chill enough. Southern BC obviously just aligns with Cascadia.
Unfortunately that is somewhere in the Southeastern Pacific. And the antipode for the Midwest is probably in the Southern Indian Ocean somewhere.
I've heard it as upper midwest also but I guess that still counts
Iowa also has hills. I don’t know if we’re officially consider Missouri Midwest or Southen, but it also has hills.
Ontologically, the Mid West is the polar opposite of the Middle East.
No further questions.
The "midwest" is more than a region. Maybe it is an idea, a world-historical landmass, light itself. North America is too small for it.
Yup! As far as I know (and I've lived in almost every Midwestern state), "hotdish" is a Minnesota-only thing. Everywhere else it's just casserole.
My family would do Shepard's and pot pies, but the only hotdish we ate was the infamous tater tot. I was lucky to avoid most of the disgusting crock pot style casserole or hotdish. The strangest I can recall was essentially a cold tuna casserole that we referred to as 'salad' instead.
I love the "salad" that bears no resemblance to a salad aside from the fact that it's a jumble of things and it's served cold. Also I love every casserole. I'm beyond shame
The Old Nothwest became known as the Midwest as the US expanded further westward. The heart of the Midwest is therefore Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. This is objective fact.
Iowa gets in on a corn and casserole-based technicality, but the Dakotas, Nebraska, and Kansas are wheat-growing plains states. Missouri is the south.
Missouri is the south.
Damn you Henry Clay. Damn you straight to hell.
Any place where hot dogs have every single veggie in the food pyramid loaded on top.
Is it true a state can be partially Midwest? And what is upper Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan? Technically Canada…?
Oh yeah, that makes sense actually.
Dafuq is Kansas and Nodak being midwest but not the Yupper?
It's like Wisconsin and Ontario had a baby and left it in the woods to grow up weird.
