Do you feel most attached to your country or to your region?

[The Snazzylands]

I feel most attached to my American identity, unless I've recently interacted with another American who isn't from NorCal.

[Cannot think of a name]

I feel most attached to my American identity, unless I've recently interacted with another American who isn't from NorCal.

As someone raised in NorCal and so loyal I handicapped career for years trying to stay there I have observations about NorCal.

First, there is a distinct difference between those that were born there and those that came there. The key factor, intensity. Newcomers are intense and they want you to know all about where they are with whatever it is they're on about. If they're into the hippie dippie stuff, they're way into the hippie dippie stuff, if they hate the hippie dippie stuff, they suuuuper hate the hippie dippie stuff. They're performatively weird instead of just weird (this is a distinction that became super clear to me when I moved to the LA area. Here weird craves an audience. In NorCal weird does not care about you. You're either in or your not but the train is leaving the station so comb your beard and put on that wedding dress because it's Tuesday.)

Four and a half (fuck you, Fresno...you know what you did) of the top ten most diverse cities in America are in Northern California with the top three all being NorCal cities. So if you grew up here, you're just use to variety and it doesn't work you up as much. There's enough here that even guessing would be a minefield.

But ultimately I think that it's long term exposure to Northern California gives you a chill that is hard for some people to understand and that chill makes everyone else seem super intense and in need of some chill.

I'm sure it's a controversial opinion for some, but those people need to chill.

[Dylar]

I'm mostly attached to Indiana since I've grown up and lived here my whole life, but I'm also very attached to the Midwest region because every state I visit in the Midwest pretty much feels like home (minus St. Louis and Chicago). But, I'm starting to get more open about living in the South. Nowhere else though. Not really a fan of states on either Coasts, or the Southwest.

[Diaboland]

I don't call myself an American. I'm just a person that happens to live in America.

[North Macaronesa]

I feel most attached to my American identity, unless I've recently interacted with another American who isn't from NorCal.

As someone raised in NorCal and so loyal I handicapped career for years trying to stay there I have observations about NorCal.

Politics aside, NorCal and California in general is a great place to live. It has two major airports (SFO and LAX), ski slopes, deserts, beaches, forests, and farmland all compressed into one state.

[Terra dei Cittadini]

I like my state. I abhor the state of the nation (although I'm optimistic we can democratically revitalize it eventually).

Thank goodness the governor is Democratic, or else we'd have another fu**ing neofascist state in the U.S.

Thanks, Roy Cooper.
You've probably kept Republicans from screwing us over than we already are.

[Xmara]

Region, probably. For all of its flaws, I couldn’t imagine living anywhere other than West Virginia (or Appalachia in general).

[Kubra]

Newfoundland is the best place to ever live in ever, Canada everywhere else is shit except a select few places.

Objectively wrong. Come west newfie, the street's aren't clean and there's nothing green and the dust will fill your noses
But you'll be free and just like me, and idiot, I suppose

[Stellar Colonies]

…

But ultimately I think that it's long term exposure to Northern California gives you a chill that is hard for some people to understand and that chill makes everyone else seem super intense and in need of some chill.

I'm sure it's a controversial opinion for some, but those people need to chill.

Too much of that currently, though…shivers.

[USS Monitor]

I'd argue the South has more differences from the general American culture than Western Canada has with Ontarian or Maritime culture

I live in northern New York and I would argue that the American South has more difference from us than we have from Ontario or the Maritimes. My town has 2 Tim Hortons and half the restaurants serve poutine. It's great.

I actually moved to NY in search of affordable housing and I am still getting used to it. If I did not have to worry about money I would probably move back to New England, or across the border to Canada. But still somewhere northeastern. I'm definitely more of a regionalist than a nationalist.

Even with the language difference, I still felt more at home visiting Quebec than I have felt in some US states.

[Kubra]

I'd argue the South has more differences from the general American culture than Western Canada has with Ontarian or Maritime culture

I live in northern New York and I would argue that the American South has more difference from us than we have from Ontario or the Maritimes. My town has 2 Tim Hortons and half the restaurants serve poutine. It's great.

I actually moved to NY in search of affordable housing and I am still getting used to it. If I did not have to worry about money I would probably move back to New England, or across the border to Canada. But still somewhere northeastern. I'm definitely more of a regionalist than a nationalist.

Even with the language difference, I still felt more at home visiting Quebec than I have felt in some US states.

Whoa whoa whoa you're not getting off easy. You're gonna have to specify how that poutine is served. We gotta know the cheese and the gravy used.
From Manitoba onwards, poutine standards grow more and more lax until it's *any* cheese poured with *any* gravy over fries. Some places will even use *crinkle cuts* for their abomination of poutines, even with the blood of les coureurs des bois flowing through their veins. A truly shameful thing, I assure you.

[Andronya]

Country, but in a weird way: I'm more attached to a country I don't even belong to (yet).
Mexico and the USA are deffinetly parts of the same region, but we're considerably different, I'm more akin to the US' values and culture than Mexico's.

[Cannot think of a name]

I live in northern New York and I would argue that the American South has more difference from us than we have from Ontario or the Maritimes. My town has 2 Tim Hortons and half the restaurants serve poutine. It's great.

I actually moved to NY in search of affordable housing and I am still getting used to it. If I did not have to worry about money I would probably move back to New England, or across the border to Canada. But still somewhere northeastern. I'm definitely more of a regionalist than a nationalist.

Even with the language difference, I still felt more at home visiting Quebec than I have felt in some US states.

Whoa whoa whoa you're not getting off easy. You're gonna have to specify how that poutine is served. We gotta know the cheese and the gravy used.
From Manitoba onwards, poutine standards grow more and more lax until it's *any* cheese poured with *any* gravy over fries. Some places will even use *crinkle cuts* for their abomination of poutines, even with the blood of les coureurs des bois flowing through their veins. A truly shameful thing, I assure you.

I had fries with some white stuff poured over them at whatever it is they call Carl's Jr on the other side of the country...Hardee's? Hardee's. I assume that was completely authentic.

When I was actually in Canada I never ate anything especially 'Canadian' but my ex, ever the more thoughtful of the two of us, bought all the people we stayed with on the way up gifts for the way back which included of course maple syrup which kinda made me mad. It really was better, but that shit comes from the other coast so it's traveling as far to get to Vancouver as it would be San Francisco. But then maybe I've just been cheaping out on my syrup over the years.

[Cannot think of a name]

I actually moved to NY in search of affordable housing

My brain shorted for a second before I remembered State, New York State, that weird shaped thing next to Manhattan.

[Bahrimontagn]

Slightly more regional, since I live in a fairly large country and quite far away from the capital, but I do recognize the importance of having a strong national identity too.

[USS Monitor]

I live in northern New York and I would argue that the American South has more difference from us than we have from Ontario or the Maritimes. My town has 2 Tim Hortons and half the restaurants serve poutine. It's great.

I actually moved to NY in search of affordable housing and I am still getting used to it. If I did not have to worry about money I would probably move back to New England, or across the border to Canada. But still somewhere northeastern. I'm definitely more of a regionalist than a nationalist.

Even with the language difference, I still felt more at home visiting Quebec than I have felt in some US states.

Whoa whoa whoa you're not getting off easy. You're gonna have to specify how that poutine is served. We gotta know the cheese and the gravy used.
From Manitoba onwards, poutine standards grow more and more lax until it's *any* cheese poured with *any* gravy over fries. Some places will even use *crinkle cuts* for their abomination of poutines, even with the blood of les coureurs des bois flowing through their veins. A truly shameful thing, I assure you.

LOL I have not seen anyone around here using crinkle cuts. Some places in northern Vermont or NY actually do use classic poutine fries. Other places use more Americanized fries that are not as greasy and brown.

People use cheese curds, not just totally random cheese, but I have noticed that some people have different opinions about how much you should melt the curds and the gravy together. Our local Italian place melts them together so it's practically just one sauce. It tastes good, but the presentation is a little eccentric.

[USS Monitor]

I actually moved to NY in search of affordable housing

My brain shorted for a second before I remembered State, New York State, that weird shaped thing next to Manhattan.

Yes, that thing. It is a big weird shaped thing. I am about 7 hours drive away from Manhattan.

[Greater Roman Republic]

Not attached but also not hating on my country and region

[-Astoria-]

I ask NSG a simple question: do you feel most attached to your country or to your region? Or do you feel attachment to neither of those things, but instead feel some sort of attachment to your continental trading bloc, your ethnicity, or more idealistically, the human race over either of those things?

None of the above: neither the states (of origin & present residence) nor the country. I suppose it'd be best summed up by the following:

[...] wherever I go, I don't fit in and I don't have any attachment to any society because I've always been an outsider.

[Stellar Colonies]

Whoa whoa whoa you're not getting off easy. You're gonna have to specify how that poutine is served. We gotta know the cheese and the gravy used.
From Manitoba onwards, poutine standards grow more and more lax until it's *any* cheese poured with *any* gravy over fries. Some places will even use *crinkle cuts* for their abomination of poutines, even with the blood of les coureurs des bois flowing through their veins. A truly shameful thing, I assure you.

LOL I have not seen anyone around here using crinkle cuts. Some places in northern Vermont or NY actually do use classic poutine fries. Other places use more Americanized fries that are not as greasy and brown.

People use cheese curds, not just totally random cheese, but I have noticed that some people have different opinions about how much you should melt the curds and the gravy together. Our local Italian place melts them together so it's practically just one sauce. It tastes good, but the presentation is a little eccentric.

Over here in California, I once had "poutine" with minimal gravy over wedge fries and cold, unmelted cheese curds sprinkled over the mess.

If I ever visit Québec, I intend to have a proper introduction to the dish.

[-Pashtunistan]

Newfoundland is the best place to ever live in ever, Canada everywhere else is shit except a select few places.

Ayyy Newfoundland gang

[The Blaatschapen]

I don't feel attached to tracts of land. I don't own them.

Unlike my cats.

[Experthady]

Brazil, my country, but I sincerely appreciate more São Paulo than the south

[Geonomia]

As a person living in the Greater American Empire (The USA) I feel much more attached to New England and the New England identity more so than any "American" one as I am a New England native.
Even then I identify more with Vermont and New Hampshire than Boston or Connecticut
I don't see much in common with West Coasters, Texans, New Yorkers or Southerners and definitely don't view them as American as New England is. Much less view them as common Americans

Their cultures are far too divergent from the New England one for me to recognize them as American

[Bewaffnete Krafte]

As a person living in the Greater American Empire (The USA) I feel much more attached to New England and the New England identity more so than any "American" one as I am a New England native.
Even then I identify more with Vermont and New Hampshire than Boston or Connecticut
I don't see much in common with West Coasters, Texans, New Yorkers or Southerners and definitely don't view them as American as New England is. Much less view them as common Americans

Their cultures are far too divergent from the New England one for me to recognize them as American

New England culture isn't American culture though. American culture doesn't exist.