Opinion of Idaho

[TheDeadFlagBlues]

Eh, I think the US is homogeneous enough that the environment certainly can delineate states. It's not like we're talking about North Korea or Yemen here.

I suppose you are a white man who has traditional, socially conservative viewpoints that probably idealize small town values so I can see why you'd appreciate Idaho. As a Mexican-American who belongs to a broad "cosmopolitan" umbrella and who exists within an obscure subculture of that umbrella characterized by PhDs, developed taste in art, film and literature that is both post-modern and classic, I cannot stand Idaho. It is a cultural wasteland.

I think it's important to note for a particular subset of Americans, flyover country is as almost as foreign as Yemen. I have friends who grew up in Manhattan, Malibu, San Fransisco, Austin, Cambridge and Madison who don't understand why anyone would own a gun or what American racism actually feels like. Urban whites with degrees fear places like Wyoming, West Virginia and Idaho. Imagine how an African-American from the southside of Chicago feels or an Indian-American from Berkeley feels when confronted with the lily white hick towns of Idaho that are dying and feel anachronistic in 2013. I really want to hammer this point home because it's a crucial aspect of America's polarized political culture: it's not just about race, class divisions have become more stark than ever as the cosmopolitan elite invest tremendous amounts of effort into obtaining human capital while rural American doesn't really care about college. It's pretty alarming and it makes me fear for our nation's future to see America's "Tale of Two Cities"* simply by driving a quick thirty minutes outside of Portland and into an entirely different cultural environment.

*caveat: it's obviously more complex than that.

FWIW, I don't particularly idolize small towns as they feel isolated and restrictive to me; in fact, I'm quite the urban/suburban elitist. I'm also working on a PhD right now, so I certainly value education. I wouldn't want to live in Idaho for any length of time, but having lived in the Spokane area and visiting Idaho a number of times, I'd much rather visit Idaho than some hot, humid, flat, redneck state in the South. Almost anywhere in the West is better than almost anywhere east of the Rockies, IMO, even Idaho. As such, I voted a narrow "FF" status to the state.

Word, I will rep Idaho till I die for its beauty and its history.

[PJ]

Eh, I think the US is homogeneous enough that the environment certainly can delineate states. It's not like we're talking about North Korea or Yemen here.

I suppose you are a white man who has traditional, socially conservative viewpoints that probably idealize small town values so I can see why you'd appreciate Idaho. As a Mexican-American who belongs to a broad "cosmopolitan" umbrella and who exists within an obscure subculture of that umbrella characterized by PhDs, developed taste in art, film and literature that is both post-modern and classic, I cannot stand Idaho. It is a cultural wasteland.

I think it's important to note for a particular subset of Americans, flyover country is as almost as foreign as Yemen. I have friends who grew up in Manhattan, Malibu, San Fransisco, Austin, Cambridge and Madison who don't understand why anyone would own a gun or what American racism actually feels like. Urban whites with degrees fear places like Wyoming, West Virginia and Idaho. Imagine how an African-American from the southside of Chicago feels or an Indian-American from Berkeley feels when confronted with the lily white hick towns of Idaho that are dying and feel anachronistic in 2013. I really want to hammer this point home because it's a crucial aspect of America's polarized political culture: it's not just about race, class divisions have become more stark than ever as the cosmopolitan elite invest tremendous amounts of effort into obtaining human capital while rural American doesn't really care about college. It's pretty alarming and it makes me fear for our nation's future to see America's "Tale of Two Cities"* simply by driving a quick thirty minutes outside of Portland and into an entirely different cultural environment.

*caveat: it's obviously more complex than that.

As a incredibly white guy from Utah/Washington State (mostly Utah), I completely agree with you, even if I don't agree with your anti-Mormonism (one point; many of the Hispanic folks who are in Utah are Mormons). Also, most of Utah outside of Salt Lake County (and Ogden) is basically Idaho.

You should visit Salt Lake City/County though; there's tons of diversity there. Especially with all the refugees that come here.

I'll join the club of pale white people that don't like Idaho.

[MATTROSE94]

Despite its faults, lean FS overall. Idaho was a better state years ago when Glen Taylor and Frank Church were its Senators though.