I hate the midwest!! !!

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I live in the Cedar Rapids, Iowa area which is in the midwest. I work at a call center for a major retailer and have come to realize that there are jerks and nice people no matter what city or geographic region of the country that you are from. I have had only moderate trouble with my AS here, I have found people that are more than welcoming, tolerant and understanding. Strangely enough, the older and more educated here exhibit these traits of tolerance more than younger people.

To be honest with you, I also notice a lot more tolerance in college towns toward people with AS (an Iowa City, Madison or Ann Arbor as an example). There are enough offbeat and quirky people, that people don't bat an eye if you stick out for whatever reason a little bit.

I know that this is also going to sound controversial, but a community that also has a decent sized GLBT demographic, also has a tendency to to be very understanding and tolerant of someone who is a little eccentric, quirky, or different. Strangely enough, I have made a lot of acquaintances and built comradre with our local GLBT community.

I currently live in St. Louis. I'm originally from Springfield, Missouri and have also lived in Chicago which is considered a big city whereas some people debate as to whether St. Louis is or not (one person I work with going so far as to insist that it was a small southern town). I was the most miserable in Springfield which is very religious and conservative, although I don't mind visiting it now. I like both St. Louis and Chicago. The thing is is that all places have good things about them but no place is miraculous. I've run into some real dicks in Chicago and St. Louis but there are nice people as well. It doesn't help that I have huge trouble making and maintaining friendships due to aspergers and certain negative qualities,and ever growing misanthropy, but I have the same issues to confront wherever I go. There's racism everywhere, including Chicago, though some cities are going to have larger groups of tolerant people than others. Sometimes I still feel like an alien amongst the most tolerant people because when it comes down to it I'm a weirdo asphole adult child of alcoholics, and some other people who have found themselves ostracized from time to time are more socially apt. Certain Gay people can sometimes be as conceited and apathetic as any other group of people, humans are complex afterall. A lot of the nicest people I have met have come from Latin America and Ireland. By the way I really like K.C.'s art museums. I haven't spent enough time visiting that city to get a genuine portrait of it. It wouldn't hurt to move somewhere else especially if you have never moved before.

Last edited by Shadwell on 15 Aug 2010, 12:16 am, edited 1 time in total.

I am from Minnesota and I had the same problem that Miss Construe is experiencing when it comes to people. They were just too cold up there and inconsiderate when someone had issues. People from that region are just plain cold in general while the area that I now live in people are more caring down here in the sunny South..

West Michigan (where my parents live and where I grew up) isn't so great either. It's the land of dour conservative republican fundamentalist Calvinists. A lot of the local communities center around church so if you don't go to church you feel left out.

I am actually living in West Michigan right now (grew up here as my parents live here). Grand Rapids is pretty much exactly how you described lol

I have trouble fitting in as a Democratic Agnostic theist. lol

Actually I'm in Grand Rapids right now at my parents house. They live on the NE side, by the E Beltline. Don't mind what my avatar says, I'll have to change that whenever I get around to it. I'd rather people think I'm from Maryland.

Most of my family is very religious and I've been agnostic since I was about 14. At least my mom and dad vote for Democrats. 90% of the people who go to their church are 100% Republican and probably still think Bush was the greatest president ever just because he was a fundamentalist Christian.

I don't really fit in anywhere I've lived. I'm not hip enough for Seattle and I'm not ghetto/gangsta enough for DC/Baltimore area. I don't buy 100% organic and I don't listen to rap music on the radio.

I'm from Hickville, Ohio orginaly and I know extactly how you feel.

So what parts of the mid-west have you been in?

That's why I usually stick to the Lakeshore. I live in Coopersville, but all my friends are in out near Grand Haven or Muskegon...

I did go to school at Michigan Tech for a year, and I sorta fit in there in Houghton...

I second that. Here in Norman, OK people are pretty understanding. We have a decent local artist culture and people just chalk all the weirdness up to "oh, students". Plus there are a lot of interesting things to do for very little money. (Like museums and music and stuff like that.) The rest of Oklahoma blows. Lots of conservatives and homophobes. But Norman is cool.

Are there any places in the Midwest that are considered middle of the road? (meaning not too conservative or not too liberal).

I thought Oklahoma was more southern than Midwest. Incidentally, I lived in Wichita Falls, Texas for a year (across the river from Lawton).

I have a friend I met while she was studying here in London who came from Rolla Missouri. From what she described of the place it would sound like my idea of hell. TO be fair I don't think I would have survived your school system over there regardless of what part of the states I was in.

It's strange anyone I meet who comes from that part of the world has usuallly turned up at my end of the world to try and escape from it.

I think most of Wisconsin is pretty middle of the road. It's far enough north to be outside the bible belt but it's still very midwest. The winters will be colder than you can believe compared to Texas though.

Michigan is pretty segregated in terms of political leanings. The western side is very conservative and religious, the eastern part is mostly UAW blue-collar democrats but not really socially liberal, and then you have Ann Arbor and East Lansing which are college-town liberal/progressive.

It's funny that you say that because I did some genealogy about a year ago and found out that part of my family comes from Hertfordshire and Hampshire. Rolla would be a pretty terrible place to live. There is an engineering school that a lot of smart people attend. I have a friend who went there and described it as a sausage fest. But as terrible and stupid as rural, conservative, America can be I also sort of feel sorry for the rural, in this country its been screwed hard economically in a way it probably hasn't, at least completely, in England yet and liberals sort of like to talk about how stupid these people are but they fail to try to extend any compassion and the Glen Beck's pop up with a multitude of scapegoats in the absence of any constructive populism. Not that its always easy to have compassion especially when you run into ignorant bullies. As for the US I like it because I was born here and it is my home but the government makes me feel terribly ashamed, it is a terrible empire that does terrible things to people in one way or another and it's way more degrading to live in the states than a lot of other countries. That said the agenda of rich people everywhere is to dick little people.

Last edited by Shadwell on 16 Aug 2010, 4:14 am, edited 1 time in total.

What about Indiana and Ohio?