# The US really has 11 separate 'nations' with entirely different cultures **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 1, 2019, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-really-has-11-separate-nations-with-entirely-different-cultures/844221 "2019-12-01T01:25:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2019, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-really-has-11-separate-nations-with-entirely-different-cultures/844221/61 "2019-12-02T22:40:46Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > It does, however, expose a fundamental flaw in the concept behind the whole book, one that effectively renders the idea of “11 nations” meaningless. That it does, yes. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2019, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-really-has-11-separate-nations-with-entirely-different-cultures/844221/62 "2019-12-03T00:54:59Z")
> [@CelticKnot](#): > > I know from experience that very, very few places are as homogeneous as this map implies. > [@Acsenray](#): > > It does, however, expose a fundamental flaw in the concept behind the whole book, one that effectively renders the idea of “11 nations” meaningless. Yes to both of these. I could identify at least four distinctly different cultures within my county alone – none of them adequately described by any of the supposed eleven; and all of them together still leaving a batch of people out. And this is one of the smallest-by-population counties in the state; and by standard demographics one of the most homogeneous. ---
**Author:** ![RioRico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f04885/32.png) [@RioRico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RioRico)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2019, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-really-has-11-separate-nations-with-entirely-different-cultures/844221/63 "2019-12-03T10:04:05Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > I could identify at least four distinctly different cultures within my county alone – none of them adequately described by any of the supposed eleven; and all of them together still leaving a batch of people out. And this is one of the smallest-by-population counties in the state; and by standard demographics one of the most homogeneous. You’re in upstate NY. I’m in central California. My county sounds much like yours - tiny, homogeneous, and yet with several distinct societies unlike any of “the eleven”. Curious. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2019, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-really-has-11-separate-nations-with-entirely-different-cultures/844221/64 "2019-12-03T14:52:18Z")
It’s certainly interesting and I think true to an extent, but I think the greater divide in the US is urban v rural, regardless of the region. I’m here in Yankeedom in a suburb of a college town so it’s in line with what the description of Yankeedom is all about, but if I go 30 miles north it’s rural Michigan where guns trump all and the biggest concern come people have is who doesn’t stand for the national anthem. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2019, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-really-has-11-separate-nations-with-entirely-different-cultures/844221/65 "2019-12-03T15:30:04Z")
It’s whimsical and seems tongue-in-cheek (but probably isn’t intended to be). Even within a given geographical area (e.g., Washington, D.C., only 68 square miles) there are multiple subcultures so that whole exercise is just silly. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2019, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-really-has-11-separate-nations-with-entirely-different-cultures/844221/66 "2019-12-03T16:53:19Z")
For the area I know, they couldn’t be more wrong. Arizona’s northern counties - Coconino, Apache and Navajo - are not “the conservative far west”. If anything, they are First Nations. They are almost exclusively Native American, and they are empty! More people attend a single NFL game than live in Apache county, but it is the third largest in area. And Maricopa (includes Phoenix) may have a lot of Hispanic culture, but it is as red and bigoted as the worst of America. If the voting majority could get their way, every trace of Hispanic save for Taco bell would be removed, and English would be the only legal language. Same for the area south of Tucson, full of American “patriots” fearlessly defending our border. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2019, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-really-has-11-separate-nations-with-entirely-different-cultures/844221/67 "2019-12-04T17:55:57Z")
> [@RioRico](#): > > You’re in upstate NY. I’m in central California. My county sounds much like yours - tiny, homogeneous, and yet with several distinct societies unlike any of “the eleven”. Curious. I suspect it’s not so much ‘curious’ as ‘very common’ – and even more so for large and/or non-homogeneous counties. Which is a very large problem for the argument being made in the article in the OP. ---
**Author:** ![Kovitlac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/2bfe46/32.png) [@Kovitlac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kovitlac)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2019, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-really-has-11-separate-nations-with-entirely-different-cultures/844221/68 "2019-12-04T22:06:33Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > Not the First Nation, which is entirely in Canada on the map. Uh, and much of Alaska? ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2019, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-really-has-11-separate-nations-with-entirely-different-cultures/844221/69 "2019-12-04T22:15:23Z")
Fenway Park smack dab in the middle of Yankeedom? I don’t friggin’ think so. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2019, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-really-has-11-separate-nations-with-entirely-different-cultures/844221/70 "2019-12-04T23:09:53Z")
I can come up with eleven different “nations” just in New York City. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2019, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-really-has-11-separate-nations-with-entirely-different-cultures/844221/71 "2019-12-05T02:26:28Z")
Nm ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2019, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-really-has-11-separate-nations-with-entirely-different-cultures/844221/72 "2019-12-05T02:27:35Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > Fenway Park smack dab in the middle of Yankeedom? I don’t friggin’ think so. Except when it comes to baseball, Yankees are New Englanders, not New Yorkers. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2019, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-really-has-11-separate-nations-with-entirely-different-cultures/844221/73 "2019-12-05T02:56:06Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > The fact that of the 11 nations of North America, none of them is based on African-Americans’ culture? The influence of African-American culture on the mainstream popular culture has been so pervasive that I don’t think it varies much from one “nation” to the next. I don’t think you could identify any of these so-called “nations” as being particularly influenced by it, although possibly a few are rather _less_ influenced by African-Americans’ culture. Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2019, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-really-has-11-separate-nations-with-entirely-different-cultures/844221/74 "2019-12-05T03:29:04Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > The influence of African-American culture on the mainstream popular culture has been so pervasive that I don’t think it varies much from one “nation” to the next. > > I don’t think you could identify any of these so-called “nations” as being particularly influenced by it, although possibly a few are rather _less_ influenced by African-Americans’ culture. > > Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk I think you’re missing the point. If African-Americans as a group aren’t at least one of the nations of North America, then the whole concept behind 11 nations is bunk. The problem isn’t that African-American culture doesn’t dominate any one of those regions. It’s that this shows that if there are different nations in North America, they’re not regional. ---
**Author:** ![divemaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/divemaster/32/78_2.png) [@divemaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/divemaster)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2019, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-really-has-11-separate-nations-with-entirely-different-cultures/844221/75 "2019-12-05T15:12:57Z")
Not commenting on the overall concept, but at least they carved out South Louisiana from the rest of the south (and the rest of Louisiana). Too many people just lump this region in with the rest of the state, when in fact it is \*completely \*different. Food, religion, politics, language, culture. It’s night and day. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2019, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-really-has-11-separate-nations-with-entirely-different-cultures/844221/76 "2019-12-05T17:02:48Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > Fenway Park smack dab in the middle of Yankeedom? I don’t friggin’ think so. Still a bit touchy about The Babe, are we? 😃 Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2019, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-really-has-11-separate-nations-with-entirely-different-cultures/844221/77 "2019-12-05T18:15:58Z")
It is a weird grouping that doesn’t make much sense, and the division between rural and urban areas is generally a lot stronger than the difference over these arbitrary geographical regions. Also I have to outright laugh at characterizing the Deep South as a region that “fights against government regulation that threatens individual liberty”. The Deep South seceeded in the 1860s precisely because they were worried that the federal government was going to increase individual liberty for blacks, and in the 1960s fought hard the federal government increasing liberties for blacks to do things like ride at the front of the bus, attend school, vote, buy houses, and visit lunch counters. The characteristic stance today is opposed to individual liberties on major issues like marriage (notably gay marriage), abortion, recreational drug use, protection against search and seizure, and limits on police behavior. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2019, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-really-has-11-separate-nations-with-entirely-different-cultures/844221/78 "2019-12-06T03:44:10Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > In my town (Melbourne), the traditional question was “What school did you go to?”. Because the answer to that enable us to slot you into your culture and tribe. You can slot people into bigger or smaller groups: it’s a natural human characteristic. That’s a common question in Honolulu and for the same reason. Top of the heap is [Punahou School](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punahou_School), which counts Barack Obama among its alumni. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-us-really-has-11-separate-nations-with-entirely-different-cultures/844221.md?page=3)