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Phormicidae t1_j6hw5t5 wrote

NJ for sure. We definitely have our share of conservatives who don't like the social progressiveness that they see as a threat to culture. We definitely also have left fringes who are uncomfortable with any shred of conversation or notion that can be interpreted as persecution or even chastisement of minority groups.

But my favorite type of New Jersey person is the person that just wants to let everyone else do their own thing if its not hurting anyone. This country, this world, has enough real problems for people to spend any time worrying about what a book at a library might imply to a young reader, whether or not a teacher might say that gay people exist, etc. Traveling for work, I used to think there were easy going "live-and-let-live" types everywhere, but over time I've realized that it usually comes with caveats. Here, at least in the Middlesex area, I find closer common ground with people who save their worries for issues that actually might affect the future of the country, and leave everyone's personal views and lifestyles to themselves.

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TheSultan1 t1_j6ixhpz wrote

> the person that just wants to let everyone else do their own thing if its not hurting anyone

That's why I love

> Middlesex

I think I identify as "Central Jersey" more than anything else. And seeing as some parts of NJ are very different, and that certain people (not in this thread, in other places on the web and in print) have come up with multiple "NJ identities" - none of which I really identify with - I can't say I "identify" as a New Jerseyan, neither on a superficial nor on a personal level...

...at least not more than I identify as an American, which I do, in an idealist sense (y'know, the stuff they taught us in elementary school about freedom and equality and all that). Probably comes from being an immigrant who came here at that age.

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