• bach37strad @lemmy.world
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    12 hours ago

    Fun fact. John Denver was writing about West-Virginia as in the western part of Virginia.

    Less fun fact, explaining this to people is one of the reasons I will die on the hill that Cardinal directions shouldn’t be part of a proper noun like a state name. Looking at you too Dakotas…

    • tyler@programming.dev
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      6 hours ago

      I will die on the hill that “the midwest USA” means Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, etc. rather than fucking Illinois. Nobody knows the internal or historical politics of another country. When you refer to Midwest on the Internet, people from other countries automatically assume it’s an actual direction. There’s zero reason in this day and age to refer to a region by an outdated, historical term that has no basis in reality, especially when that term is absolutely harmful to understanding.

      Thank you for listening to my TED Talk.

      • Dozzi92@lemmy.world
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        4 hours ago

        I’m with you, and Ohio and whatever other states are near it (I don’t know because I don’t care about them) are the Mideast.

    • ripcord@lemmy.world
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      8 hours ago

      Then why didn’'t he say “western” Virginia? That would have even worked.

      Instead he wrote it in a way that 10000% guaranteed that people thought he meant the State.