Fun fact. John Denver was writing about West-Virginia as in the western part of Virginia.
Less fun fact, explaining this to people is one of the reasons I will die on the hill that Cardinal directions shouldn’t be part of a proper noun like a state name. Looking at you too Dakotas…
I will die on the hill that “the midwest USA” means Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, etc. rather than fucking Illinois. Nobody knows the internal or historical politics of another country. When you refer to Midwest on the Internet, people from other countries automatically assume it’s an actual direction. There’s zero reason in this day and age to refer to a region by an outdated, historical term that has no basis in reality, especially when that term is absolutely harmful to understanding.
Midwest is more like north Central, it stretches from Ohio in the east to the states in line with Nebraska on the west side and from Missouri on the southern end up to the Canadian border.
Fun fact. John Denver was writing about West-Virginia as in the western part of Virginia.
Less fun fact, explaining this to people is one of the reasons I will die on the hill that Cardinal directions shouldn’t be part of a proper noun like a state name. Looking at you too Dakotas…
That’s why I call them Top and Bottom Dakotas.
I will die on the hill that “the midwest USA” means Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, etc. rather than fucking Illinois. Nobody knows the internal or historical politics of another country. When you refer to Midwest on the Internet, people from other countries automatically assume it’s an actual direction. There’s zero reason in this day and age to refer to a region by an outdated, historical term that has no basis in reality, especially when that term is absolutely harmful to understanding.
Thank you for listening to my TED Talk.
Midwest comes from when the East Coast was the only heavily populated part of the US, and the rest of it was just called “The West.”
I understand where it came from. It has been incorrect for over a hundred years. It was actually called the North Central Region up until 1984, so we’ve literally regressed from the 80s. https://web.archive.org/web/20240926043523/https://www.census.gov/history/www/programs/geography/regions_and_divisions.html
Hang on, where is the… er, theoretical Midwest if it’s not in the west…?
the term as used by the Census Bureau is the Mideast by actual geography.
Midwest is more like north Central, it stretches from Ohio in the east to the states in line with Nebraska on the west side and from Missouri on the southern end up to the Canadian border.
I’m with you, and Ohio and whatever other states are near it (I don’t know because I don’t care about them) are the Mideast.
Like imagine if we referred to the South of France as the area from Paris to the northwest corner. That’s how dumb it is. It’s so stupid.
North South Dakota, Mountain Mama just doesn’t have the same ring to it.
Even more fun fact he was writing about a road he was driving on in Maryland.
Then why didn’'t he say “western” Virginia? That would have even worked.
Instead he wrote it in a way that 10000% guaranteed that people thought he meant the State.