this post was submitted on 22 Oct 2023
962 points (97.2% liked)

Mildly Interesting

20301 readers
85 users here now

This is for strictly mildly interesting material. If it's too interesting, it doesn't belong. If it's not interesting, it doesn't belong.

This is obviously an objective criteria, so the mods are always right. Or maybe mildly right? Ahh.. what do we know?

Just post some stuff and don't spam.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] AgentGrimstone@lemmy.world 58 points 2 years ago (4 children)

Why is "west" in "midwest"? Can't we just call these states mid?

[–] Something_Complex@lemmy.world 54 points 2 years ago (3 children)
[–] kirby@discuss.tchncs.de 24 points 2 years ago (1 children)

So living on the line would be living in the Midmid?

[–] Whimsical@lemmy.world 34 points 2 years ago (1 children)

"Middle of nowhere" is the accepted term for that region

[–] blanketswithsmallpox@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

You have forgotten the face of your father.

We go by Midworld.

[–] gothicdecadence@lemm.ee 7 points 2 years ago
[–] joel_feila@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago

Oi get those linea out of Texas its Southwest

[–] Perfide@reddthat.com 39 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Because the US expanded from the east coast towards the west. The midwest is west of the OG colonies, but not as far west as, well, the west.

[–] jballs@sh.itjust.works -2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Yeah, living in Colorado has always been weird hearing that we're "the west". We're about as middle of the country as you can get. 3 states to our west to get to the Pacific, 4 states to the east to get to the Atlantic.

Edit: lol at people downvoting geography

[–] VikingHippie@lemmy.wtf 11 points 2 years ago
[–] KaedanJarret@lemmy.world 7 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I believe it's because these states are west of the Mississippi River and something something Louisiana Purchase (high school history was decades ago).

Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan are east of the Mississippi. We couldn't reliably cross the Appalachian Mountains until shortly before the American Revolution. Expeditions before Daniel Boone forged the Wilderness Road had to go around so the most direct route between NY and where Chicago is now went about halfway down Alabama. The Appalachians were the original western frontier and the Midwest was the Northwest Territories. As the country expanded westward and new territories were established and the Northwest Territories gained statehood they became the Midwest.