Those are not my experiences talking to people throughout the US. No one has ever snobbed me for never visiting a large city like New York or even Chicago or even for not knowing something obvious or speaking funny. But, I generally avoid talking to shitty people, so perhaps that is where I went wrong.

I have had other Midwesterners shout slurs out of their car windows at my friends. Multiple times! I went to a school that had real problems not drawing swastikas on synagogues. I’ve been asked weird questions by complete strangers about my black friends. To have those experiences would also suggest to them that the Midwest contains bigoted idiots, and they’d be right.