Just returned from a long weekend visit to Austin Texas for a nephew’s wedding. I had always heard of people saying things like “Texas Proud” and such, but I was impressed by how frequently I saw such things on T-shirts, bumper stickers, and the like. And even images of things like horns, lone stars, or outlines of the state without any words.
Is there any other geographic location you can think of that is as demonstrative of their pride of place?
And, if folk care to take it there, do you think Texans’ high opinions of themselves and their state is warranted?
In Austin, it might be a bit mixed since you might be seeing state of Texas proud but also University of Texas pride. I went to Florida State University, I’m proud of the school and my degree and I wear FSU clothes at times, but I’m certainly not proud of the State of Florida and I’d never live there.
Californians certainly rank up there, although perhaps in a more muted way - i.e., not so much expressed in bumper stickers, but in online Facebook posts.
Yeah - I see people wearing Uof I gear - and same for other colleges. But I don’t know that I see the word “pride” written out as much. Maybe the only other type of situation where I see it is “Proud parent of a (military service member).”
This doesn’t quite fit the wording of the OP, which asked for pride in a geographic area. North Koreans are not proud of being North Korean; they don’t want you to refer to their country as North Korea and you will almost never see a map of North Korea in public. (The only place I saw one was at the border at Panmunjeon, in a display that illustrated the “regrettable” division of the territory.) North Koreans are all about unification, and as such the political and geographic manifestations of pride concern the Korean peninsula as a whole (naturally, with the caveat that their Juche government is the sole legitimate one for the entire territory). Outlines of the entire, undivided peninsula are festooned everywhere.
Nope. I had a friend who tried to get a new drivers license at a Texas DMV office, and was told about all the extra insurance, documentations, and driving tests she had to take. When she asked why it was so complicated the clerk told her that a license from another country was not accepted.
The license was from Alaska.
How can the state employ someone in a position like that, who is so ignorant and stupid?
State pride is inculcated in Texas, starting with the school system in which we learned that we are a superior state because everyone we had defending the Alamo was killed, followed by Sam Houston saving the universe by defeating the evil Mexicans, who were trying to take the land we had taken from them.
Is there any other place in the world so proud of a battle they lost? Particularly a battle lost to the last man, which was only even fought in the first place because the opposing commander was an idiot?
Almost every word from a Canadians mouth on the internet is how they’re from Canada and how superior Canada is to the United States despite the fact the topic has literally nothing to do with Canada.
When the former Republic of Yugoslavia broke up one of the nations formed was named Macedonia. It was part of the larger geographic region associated roughly with the former Kingdom of Macedon and a leader who the Greeks still think is pretty great. The population in the intervening centuries had become dominantly Slavic not Greek, though. Greece was not happy about the name. When Macedonia was admitted to the UN Greece required that they enter under the provisional name “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.” Worse Greece prevented them from joining NATO or the EU over the issue. Greece literally affected the security arrangements and economic prospects of an entire nation because they didn’t like the name. Last year both countries finally reached a compromise that became official in Feb. of this year. There is now officially the Republic of North Macedonia. There are people in both nations that are still pissed about that deal.
Do they have for sale, corn chips in the outline of the state? Because that’s one of the things that weirded me out when I moved here. I have seen a bunch of cars with Hawaii outlines on them, slogans like “Island Girl,” etc…
Do people from other states—Californians don’t do this, IME—when asked by people in another country where they’re from, answer, “(Sir/Ma’am), I’m from Texas.” Because I’ve seen that. A few more years living here, and I might start doing it.
Edit: How was Austin? Did you have fun? See the bats?
I knew someone who always found a way to bring up in his public speeches that he had placed a small tin of genuine Texas dirt under the bed where his wife was giving birth so that he could claim his child was born in Texas. Apparently this was/is a thing for Texans. I have never heard of anyone else trying that.
As for the Texan not “knowing” about Alaska, I suspect it has more to do with the Alaskan claim that if Texas gets too uppity Alaska will split into 2 states and make Texas the third biggest state in the union. With a dig like that, I can’t imagine Alaskans are popular in Texas.
Texas is the only place that I have made waffles in the motel included breakfast where the waffles were in the shape of the state!
And that is just one of the sillier examples of “pride”
When folks tell me how much California sucks, I mention quietly that they seem to be doing OK. Their criticisms seem to originate from Fox News sources, where California seems to be some sort of whipping boy. Disclaimer - I don’t live in California.
Seems to me that there are folks that want to raise the image of one place and lower the image of another place for some reasons other than the actual merits of the place.
Jingoism is found in many places around the world, and seems to be a way of self promoting ones situation.