# What I hate about the Midwest. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 25, 2007, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-hate-about-the-midwest/401599 "2007-04-25T15:36:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Duke\_of\_Rat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Duke\_of\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_Rat)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-hate-about-the-midwest/401599/21 "2007-04-25T17:51:32Z")
[QUOTE=tomndebb] Wait a minute. Isn’t the OP actually living in Texas? When did they move Texas to the Midwest? [/QUOTE] Amarillo, by the sound of it (flat, windy, nuclear bomb factory). Oh, and Stanley Marsh 3, the guy with the signs (also did the Cadillac Ranch). ---
**Author:** ![bannerrefugee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c68b51/32.png) [@bannerrefugee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bannerrefugee)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-hate-about-the-midwest/401599/22 "2007-04-25T17:53:25Z")
[QUOTE=tomndebb] Wait a minute. Isn’t the OP actually living in Texas? When did they move Texas to the Midwest? [/QUOTE] It is the Texas Panhandle so perhaps it would be more accurately described as the High Plains, and the other posters are correct, it is largely a rural VS urban thing but a lot of it is also a cultural. I only posted this here at all because obviously I don’t want to talk about it with any of the fiends I have made from Amarillo. They would be offended and rightly so. To those that responded, thanks. I know that the Midwest is a varied region with varied people. Sadly not many of them live around here. And even if they did, the wind, cow shit, crappy food, the senile drivers and nuclear bomb factory would still make it tough. ---
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-hate-about-the-midwest/401599/23 "2007-04-25T17:59:54Z")
[QUOTE=fluiddruid] As much as I am an East Coaster at heart, I can’t agree with most of what you said (other than about the weather). Where are you living? Des Moines isn’t bad at all, but unless you get into a pretty small town I’d say the Midwest is livable. Also, I don’t find it “overwhelmingly conservative” … several states in the Midwest, including Iowa, were blue states in the last election and are more centrist than anything. [/QUOTE] It’s kind of moot now, but I think the OP meant “conservative” in the personal or cultural sense, not in the red/blue state/county sense. For example, many poeple think George McGovern is the most liberal candidate the Democrats ever had, and he has never been to a foam rave. ---
**Author:** ![scotandrsn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@scotandrsn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotandrsn)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-hate-about-the-midwest/401599/24 "2007-04-25T18:00:12Z")
[QUOTE=Duke of Rat] Amarillo, by the sound of it (flat, windy, nuclear bomb factory). Oh, and Stanley Marsh 3, the guy with the signs (also did the Cadillac Ranch). [/QUOTE] Oh Lord, I drove through Amarillo about 25 years ago on a family trip. That’s the last I ever saw of that burg and the last I hope to ever see. If you must be in Texas, stick with Austin. ---
**Author:** ![Duke\_of\_Rat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Duke\_of\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_Rat)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-hate-about-the-midwest/401599/25 "2007-04-25T18:10:51Z")
[QUOTE=scotandrsn] Oh Lord, I drove through Amarillo about 25 years ago on a family trip. That’s the last I ever saw of that burg and the last I hope to ever see. If you must be in Texas, stick with Austin. [/QUOTE] Thanks for your concern, but _gasp_ some of us still live here. ---
**Author:** ![Carol\_the\_Impaler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Carol\_the\_Impaler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carol_the_Impaler)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-hate-about-the-midwest/401599/26 "2007-04-25T18:20:47Z")
[QUOTE=OneCentStamp] BTW\< OP, where are you? Nebraska? [/QUOTE] Hey, now! :mad: (I’m in Omaha. We have three quarters of a million people here! And sushi!) But if you’re talking small town Nebraska, well, yeah, then you’re fucked. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-hate-about-the-midwest/401599/27 "2007-04-25T18:25:46Z")
[QUOTE=niblet\_head] (I’m in Omaha. We have three quarters of a million people here! And sushi!) [/quote] Perhaps, but do you know most sushi is supposed to be served raw? [QUOTE=niblet\_head] But if you’re talking small town Nebraska, well, yeah, then you’re fucked. [/QUOTE] 😕 Isn’t all of Nebraska just one small town really, really spread out? 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![August\_West](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/august_west/32/18069_2.png) [@August\_West](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/August_West)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-hate-about-the-midwest/401599/28 "2007-04-25T18:26:15Z")
I agree! The rural Midwest is cold, stinky, and windy and the only thing to break the monotony is the occasional TGIFriday’s! Stay safe in your large coastal cities! Don’t move here! ---
**Author:** ![Zabali\_Clawbane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecd19e/32.png) [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-hate-about-the-midwest/401599/29 "2007-04-25T18:35:42Z")
And yet, somehow, a person from the Midwest coined a phrase that has spawned a tongue in cheek religion. I give you: [The Flying Spaghetti Monster](http://www.venganza.org/). Kansas, and other parts of the midwest have witty people to stand up for them. [Bill Kurtis](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Kurtis) is one, for example. (He calls himself a proud Midwesterner.) I think you need to retune your eyes. All you’re looking for is “boring, bland conservatives” and so that is all you are seeing. I think if you move to the most exciting coastal city in the balmy south that you can find, you’d still complain. This is because you can’t escape from your inner problems via a scenary change. So, why not address them? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![AHoosierMama](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/258eb7/32.png) [@AHoosierMama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHoosierMama)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-hate-about-the-midwest/401599/30 "2007-04-25T18:36:41Z")
[QUOTE=bannerrefugee] It is the Texas Panhandle so perhaps it would be more accurately described as the High Plains, and the other posters are correct, it is largely a rural VS urban thing but a lot of it is also a cultural. I only posted this here at all because obviously I don’t want to talk about it with any of the fiends I have made from Amarillo. They would be offended and rightly so. To those that responded, thanks. I know that the Midwest is a varied region with varied people. Sadly not many of them live around here. And even if they did, the wind, cow shit, crappy food, the senile drivers and nuclear bomb factory would still make it tough. [/QUOTE] So are you incarcerated? Move then. Is it just me or does anyone else consider Texas the south - not the midwest? ---
**Author:** ![Zabali\_Clawbane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecd19e/32.png) [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-hate-about-the-midwest/401599/31 "2007-04-25T18:37:06Z")
Texas is the South. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-hate-about-the-midwest/401599/32 "2007-04-25T18:44:16Z")
[QUOTE=August West] I agree! The rural Midwest is cold, stinky, and windy and the only thing to break the monotony is the occasional TGIFriday’s! Stay safe in your large coastal cities! Don’t move here! [/QUOTE] We also have giant flying carrion eaters! Beware! Beware! Their flashing eyes, their floating hair! ---
**Author:** ![bannerrefugee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c68b51/32.png) [@bannerrefugee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bannerrefugee)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-hate-about-the-midwest/401599/33 "2007-04-25T18:49:59Z")
[QUOTE=Zabali\_Clawbane] Texas is the South. [/QUOTE] I am 150 miles from Oklahoma. Is Oklahoma the south? I am from South Carolina. I promise you the Texas Panhandle is not southern. It does have some minor similarities. It has a lot of Baptists and many small towns. On the other, hand relative to the south it very few African Americans. Houston or Dallas maybe ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-hate-about-the-midwest/401599/34 "2007-04-25T18:50:18Z")
[QUOTE=Qadgop the Mercotan] We also have giant flying carrion eaters! Beware! Beware! Their flashing eyes, their floating hair! [/QUOTE] and shun the frumious Bandersnatch! ---
**Author:** ![Zabali\_Clawbane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecd19e/32.png) [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-hate-about-the-midwest/401599/35 "2007-04-25T18:52:06Z")
[QUOTE=Stranger On A Train] But hey, some people like it. And, as **Long Time First Time** notes, **there are spots of variety and tolerance here and there, usually found in college towns that also have the virtue of supporting a wide variety of restaurants, museums, bookstores, and other amenities one won’t find in central Kansas.** Stranger [/QUOTE] Not entirely true. Take a [look](http://www.wichita.gov/Visitors/) at [Wichita](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wichita,_Kansas) Kansas, as just one example. (It’s in south central Kansas.) [Hutchinson](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hutchinson%2C_Kansas) Kansas has the [Cosmosphere](http://www.cosmo.org/), which has the largest collection of space artifacts in the world. (It has kindly loaned a large amount out to the Smithsonian.) No one else thought to preserve them, but CENTRAL KANSANS. Even Great Bend Kansas has a museum, and the college has very nice art exhibits. Great Bend also holds (or did) band concerts regularly in the summer on the courthouse lawn, so there! Not to mention their Cinco de Mayo celebrations complete with talent contests they have held. Hoisington’s Labor Day parade pulls quite a crowd from all over the state. ---
**Author:** ![Zabali\_Clawbane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecd19e/32.png) [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-hate-about-the-midwest/401599/36 "2007-04-25T18:54:09Z")
[QUOTE=bannerrefugee] I am 150 miles from Oklahoma. Is Oklahoma the south? I am from South Carolina. I promise you the Texas Panhandle is not southern. It does have some minor similarities. It has a lot of Baptists and many small towns. On the other, hand relative to the south it very few African Americans. Houston or Dallas maybe [/QUOTE] Ask any Texan, they will tell you their state is a proud southern state. This isn’t geographically speaking, it’s cultural. Texas is southern, and proud of it. Kansas, is a mix of North and South. Some parts have a bit more southern than others. Central Kansas is a little more northern than SE Kansas. ---
**Author:** ![bannerrefugee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c68b51/32.png) [@bannerrefugee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bannerrefugee)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-hate-about-the-midwest/401599/37 "2007-04-25T18:57:43Z")
[QUOTE=Zabali\_Clawbane] And yet, somehow, a person from the Midwest coined a phrase that has spawned a tongue in cheek religion. I give you: [The Flying Spaghetti Monster](http://www.venganza.org/). Kansas, and other parts of the midwest have witty people to stand up for them. [Bill Kurtis](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Kurtis) is one, for example. (He calls himself a proud Midwesterner.) I think you need to retune your eyes. All you’re looking for is “boring, bland conservatives” and so that is all you are seeing. I think if you move to the most exciting coastal city in the balmy south that you can find, you’d still complain. This is because you can’t escape from your inner problems via a scenary change. So, why not address them? 😉 [/QUOTE] You know I have tried to find positive things here. I read a few books about the place, I on the board of a cycling club, my wife and I have friends from her work ect. However the town, and basically the region sorrounding it is exactly as I descibed in the OP (with the exception of Beelzebub). ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-hate-about-the-midwest/401599/38 "2007-04-25T19:01:46Z")
[QUOTE=Zabali\_Clawbane] Ask any Texan, they will tell you their state is a proud southern state. This isn’t geographically speaking, it’s cultural. Texas is southern, and proud of it. Kansas, is a mix of North and South. Some parts have a bit more southern than others. Central Kansas is a little more northern than SE Kansas. [/QUOTE] I think Texas is simply too big to make this kind of generalization about. Now Houston, where I live, is definitely Southern. When I moved here in 2005, I expected big cowboy hats and belt buckles, and long white cars with bull horns on the hood. Turns out the only cowboy hats I really see around here are on Mexicans. 🙂 Houston has a lot more in common with Louisiana than it does with Lubbock or El Paso. ---
**Author:** ![Duke\_of\_Rat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Duke\_of\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_Rat)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-hate-about-the-midwest/401599/39 "2007-04-25T19:02:09Z")
[QUOTE=bannerrefugee] I am 150 miles from Oklahoma. Is Oklahoma the south? I am from South Carolina. I promise you the Texas Panhandle is not southern. It does have some minor similarities. It has a lot of Baptists and many small towns. On the other, hand relative to the south it very few African Americans. Houston or Dallas maybe [/QUOTE] Amarillo is at basically the same latitude as Memphis, TN, but I wouldn’t call it “The South”, it’s Texas. And it’s only about 100 miles to Oklahoma if you head East, it’s closer to Oklahoma if you head North 😉 Says Duke, who’s never been to church a day in his life (although I have been in a couple for weddings/funerals). And there are plenty of African Americans in Dallas, takes one hour to get there on SW. ---
**Author:** ![Zabali\_Clawbane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecd19e/32.png) [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-hate-about-the-midwest/401599/40 "2007-04-25T19:03:21Z")
[QUOTE=bannerrefugee] You know I have tried to find positive things here. I read a few books about the place, I on the board of a cycling club, my wife and I have friends from her work ect. However the town, and basically the region sorrounding it is exactly as I descibed in the OP (with the exception of Beelzebub). [/QUOTE] I’m not doubting that you are observing such things at all. If it really is as you say, and the place just isn’t compatible with you, then find a way to go somewhere more amenable to you. Living here in Kansas, I do get what you are grouching about. We have them here too. There are also very open minded, witty, pragmatic people here as well though. Any place is going to have two sides to it, and if all you look at is one side that you don’t like so well, you won’t ever be content. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-hate-about-the-midwest/401599.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-hate-about-the-midwest/401599.md?page=3)