In the Wikipedia article, it presents the area as the most, historically and presently, progressive part of the country. Is that true? What are the downsides?
Earliest industrial areas and not saddled with the historical brainworms of southern plantation slavery or manifest destiny coloniaist mindset
Why were they pro-abolition, or against "manifest destiny"? What made them different?
The economy of the northeast centered around commercial trade, finance, and manufacturing, while the south developed an economy around plantation agriculture. This meant that northerners had a preference for Whiggish internal improvements over land-grabbing expansion. But this had its own problems and contradictions- the northern oligarchy made a lot of money from the southern political economy, and had an interest in keeping the two of them enmeshed together, which is basically why they kept bending over backwards to appease the increasingly-unappeasable Planter class. Although, as craven as the Yankee oligarchs were, they were ultimately a lot smarter than the Planters when it came to seeing the big picture of their class interests. Anyway, that's basically why abolitionism arose in the northeast first.
I mean they physically weren't where those things were happening, so the culture of the area didn't develop in a way that was steeped in those ideologies.
I'm dumb and am blanking on why the north/south divide was a thing in the first place, probably just the industrialization again, but it happened and that has lasting effects
So, they didn't need slavery or settler colonies? I guess #NotAllAmerica was bad.
It's all pretty bad and based on stolen land, but I think it's unfair to discount the differences between the earliest northeastern settlers actually having some difficulty surviving and having some need to interact with the native people, and then being the area that developed into an industrialized/non-slave economy which is the exact nexus Marx predicted would form the proletariat. Vs the psychotic racist/classist divide instilled by the slave economy of the south, and the explicitly settler-colonialist westward expansion of an established state (and killing all the natives in the way)
Thanks for this explanation. I didn't know these northeast colonies didn't expand westwards at all. That's pretty interesting and does make them different, in addition to industrialization, of course. I guess they still carry some of that cultural history.
I mean the country as a whole expanded westard from that starting point, but obviously not everyone went west. The people who went vs the people who stayed are going to have different material interests and as a result, cultures.
Woah! No. The upper class of the area were anti-slavery in appearance but their businesses and finance still heavily benefited from the slave trade for quite some time. And most of the abolitionists were of the 'free the black people and kick them out' variety.
I've seen enough jokes about the r pronunciation. Chowwdah, pahk, cah, watah... my God the repetition of this joke is painfully unfunny.
read the name again. NEW England. was the first one something that needed a fucking sequel? :think-mark:
We might reach a turning point when England 3.1 comes out.
The infrastructure is literally falling apart , lots of military contractors and the associated suburban compounds/suburban assault vehicles (all office workers are legally mandated to drive either Teslas, Jeeps, or F-150s). Martha's Vinyard is where all the demons live- island enclaves surrounded by shark-infested waters.
So New England is the heart of America's remaining industrial sector, i.e., military and intelligence?
Got it. Makes sense, in a way. There is no reason for it to be well off if it didn't serve American capital in some fashion. In return for their service (in keeping American hegemony alive) they get some benefits.
When money gets spent on weapon systems it generally ends up in the suburbs, Hanscom AFB has been involved in a lot of research stuff, and as a result there's a high density of aviation-related defense contractors, ie Raytheon, Lockheed, BAE, but also tons of much smaller players employing large sons across the region. The social services are better in NE than in other parts of the US, but the rent is awful and only getting worse.
And given that America is unlikely to export these industries (being vital to national, i.e. capitalist, security), it seems this will keep the NE alive for a time.
The rent cannot be worse than major cities, though, right? Compared to NY, LA, Silicon Valley, maybe even major cities in places like Texas.
There's tons of colleges so there's a massive seasonal demand for housing across the state, it's pretty common for people to be renting with multiple roommates. In the depths of Cambridge students often come with parents with much deeper pockets that tend to really make the rent abnormally high.
This is from 2021 , but you get the idea. There's plenty of people just sleeping outside and in cars.
The Libs are the libbiest, the Chuds the Chuddiest
The MIC is huuuuge out here, 1 in 10 people I meet work for some aspect of it, Raytheon, BAE Systems, and Saint Gobain to name a few
Not to mention the obsession with the founding fathers runs deep here, even the most dyed in the wool progressive is still gonna talk about George Washington and the rest of the powdered wig gang like they're Jesus Jr.
It's a lot different than living in the Midwest I can tell you that
yes. grew up in that part of the country. there’s some really cop-y suburbs and a troubling amount of suburbanite white identity groups that are increasingly active, but if you stick to the cities you’ll almost never run into trouble.
it’s also one of the densest areas of the US— less urban sprawl on average, with the cities even being legitimately walkable/bikeable. very special part of north america. i really cannot recommend it enough for queer/POC trying to get out of the areas that are going whole-hog on the evangelical zealotry
In the cities it's like anywhere else. The rural areas are maybe more libertarian than fascist but I wouldn't call them progressive.
the downsides are the segregation of minorities into urban enclaves, the prohibitive housing prices, and, in some cases (Connecticut), the extreme racial disparity in public education funding.
if the US was not a homogenous imperial core, but rather a cluster of regions subject to uneven development due to minority exploitation, new england would be the administrative district of the metropole. so it has treats and elite educational institutions, museums, infrastructure and it's full of people who think they are better than everyone else by virtue of proximity to the extracted and hoarded wealth of hinterlands and internal colonies.
but, as in america, the snake has been eating itself for a while, so the wealth of the district is contracting further to megawealthy fortress enclaves while the rest of it degrades and is stripped of assets.
but hey. lots of passenger rail.
Don't drink the worter. They put something in it to make you forget. I don't even remember how I got here
Lot of deindustrialization here in the cities. Places like Waterbury CT or Holyoke MA. Even Harford to a certain extent. A lot of people think of boston, Portland, New Haven etc but they’re in the minority. There’s a lot of old leftover industrial buildings, and a lot of pollution too from back in the paper milling days.
Rural areas can be quite charming, lots of nice small historical towns, farmland etc. and they split 50/50 lib:chud which is a dramatic improvement over the rest of amerikkka. Our hogs are just as dangerous though. Lot of back to the land types in Vermont that give it a very crunchy vibe. It is very beautiful there. Little development, lot of nature. I hear great things about Burlington but I’ve never been there.
New Hampshire is straight up a chud state as is Maine for the most part but it’s so sparsely populated that Portland dominates it culturally. And it is truly a spectacular city. If I could pick anywhere to live between the cities in New England I would pick Portland.
Boston is a great place to live but can be surprisingly racist and the townies are fight prone which is annoying.
New York is not part of New England nor is its disgusting pulsating leech Fairfield county CT. New England starts at I-84. Nothing to say about NYC it’s a world class city and comes with all the perks and trappings therein.
It's where I would live if it didn't get cold since if has real cities
