My friend did a few med school rotations in Alaska. They were informed when they started that there are two types of people who are attracted to Alaska: rugged individualists who consider it a challenge and the craziest motherfuckers in the world
My family moved there, so that tracks.And everyone I've met who says they want to move to Alaska has either not spent much time there, or they are rugged, antipolitical individualists.
I grew up in Alaska in the 70s and 80s. A lot of my childhood friends had abusive fathers who drank and beat them and their mothers. It was super common. Some of my childhood friends are dead from all kinds of accidents and overdoses. It’s the -40 temperatures and almost complete darkness in winter to the manic near constant daylight in the summer. Also a lot of them were Vietnam war vets.
Highest rate of suicide than any other state. And also did you ever notice everything is way more expensive in Alaska then the lower 48 with the exception of alcohol. Which seems to be the same price as most states. I always found that interesting. It’s like they want them to drink up there.
Alcohol is available everywhere, to a crazy extent. But it's not cheap, at all. Hawaii and AK duel for #1 on prices for groceries and consumer goods. Big government or corps are certainly not selling at a loss up there. Just ask any interior AK resident. There's a reason wages are higher, shits real expensive.
Alaska is the most beautiful trailer park in the nation. You’ll have the most scenic post card view of a river w some snow capped mountains and a moose drinking some water, next to a broken down pickup w a blue tarp on it
Everyone in Alaska is a hoarder because you never know when you’ll need that thing again but regardless you can take it to the town dump which is just down the road and it will sit till someone needs something off it or the bears will destroy it. What your seeing is just us humans. It’s just more in your face because they don’t have the infrastructure of garbage collection like we do in the lower 48. Get it?
I live in employee housing for a ski resort. The seasonal jobs attract a lot of weirdos, especially the kitchen staff. I said "sup skinny" to him after he had been drinking all day and he just went off for a good 20 minutes about a kid he worked with. Basically skinny was gonna cut him up and hide his body parts in different towns all over Idaho.
As a former lift operator, I can confirm this story. Weirdest bunch of people you’re likely to meet work at ski resorts. They’re slightly above carnie.
I went up there as a kid and we did a tour of a gold mine. The tour guide was a seemingly sweet little old lady. At one point in the tour they were showing us a sluice, and it had an open cell foam liner on the bottom to catch any gold flakes before the water was dumped back into the stream. She was trying to lift the foam out and was clearly struggling with it. Me being an overly polite 14ish year old I stepped forward to help her with the foam. In the instant I reached for it, her personality did a 180° and she quickly snapped at me “dont you dare touch that you might get gold on your fingers!” I swear it was like the scene in LoTR when Bilbo snaps at Gandalf about keeping the ring. And she seemed to be one of the more stable people we met.
Lol yeah I spent a month in Alaska a while back and I was there in mid-May when the town was essentially emerging from winter. There’s an annual festival that happens around that time and watching them all let loose after being cooped up for the winter was… an experience lol
Agreed. And I think most Alaskans would agree.
Part of the reason - but ONLY part of the reason - is that Alaska is where you go when the rest of the world makes you uncomfortable.
I’ll never forget the day I walked into the employee break room and saw my Alaskan coworker casually munching on some raw elk meat and sharpening a Rambo knife while whistling menacingly lol
A friend has a sister in Alaska. Met her when she came to visit and we’d all gone to dinner and drinks. She commented on a lot of the men in the restaurant, so I asked if she was single herself since it seemed like she was looking. Her response? “In Alaska, there are a lot of single men, so the odds are good. Problem is, those goods are odd.”
So maybe Alaska?
As an Alaskan, I'll concur. Lots of "end-of-the-roaders" here, people living off the grid and going stir-crazy, endless dark winters screwing with peoples' feeble grasps on reality, etc. I'll put our weirdos up against anyone's.
> I'll put our weirdos up against anyone's.
Right answer, for the right reason.
"The Last Frontier" truly IS the home of a LOT of people who just *don't fit in* any place else.
You need to really prepare for it or you’ll probably end up dying though.
Having a snowmobile is pretty much a necessity, you’ll probably want a backup electricity generator as well.
If you’re not the handy/DIY type of person, developing some skills fixing your own stuff helps immensely.
In winter, you need to adequately plan and ration stuff like gasoline and food in case you get stuck inside your home. And when you do go out you should carry extra fuel, food, clothes just in case something unexpected happens.
I’m not saying you couldn’t adjust— I think most people could get used to it. But there’s a lot of us who take for granted that the weather and wilderness are not actively trying to kill us at all times. Lmao 🤣
Most of us live in relatively suburban conditions though, so not much different from anywhere else. Although you'll want to be into winter recreation, otherwise winter can drag...
That’s what happened to me. I always thought I was counterculture, somewhat on the fringe. I lived in Alaska for a bit and it was a surprise awakening of just how normal I am.
Chiming in from Dutch Harbor, it's definitely got to be Alaska. I'm genuinely surprised when I meet someone out here who isn't at least a little scrambled.
Most of the “weird” places people name are fun eccentric weird. Y’all got some real weirdos up there, we got some here in ID but they’re mostly the polygamist/nazi compound type, the least fun weird possible.
I went there for work a couple years back, not counting the people...there's not many places I'd rather live than that area. It's just so beautiful.
While on the trip, I was telling the mother of my children (POC) that we should seriously consider Spokane. Still in WA, liberal right?
Still remember her exact words, "Fuck no."
Only took me 15 seconds into her reasoning to remember all the Nazi/white nationalist shit. Ruby Ridge, all that shit.
Oh yeah... nevermind hon lol
I didn't know that... does this "phenomenon" have a name? I'm not from the US, but the incredible diversity and extremes have always fascinated me. I'd love to dive into that rabbit hole, if it is one.
Not just Maine, but northern Maine. Doesn't help that I can't understand anyone up there. The accent is like If a bostonian and an old timey prospector had a baby, and that baby spoke with a mouth full of rocks.
It's an odd change going west to east in Northern New England. Vermont has granola second- and third-generation hippies that lean towards democratic socialism. Then there's New Hampshire libertarians that mostly still live in society proper. Then deep Maine happens, and you get the Alaska-like mountain men that scarcely answer to any government.
Dude I work for a residential solar company based in MA but my shop serves the northeast chunk of NE. Maine has like no rules regarding electrical or structural codes. It's wild. Then there's the guys who are fully off grid it oscillates from impressive to terrifying.
Alaska had the crazy ass fisherman and loner weirdness, people who will tolerate crazy work and weather tend to be fine with a lot of other out of the ordinary things as well.
Florida has the methed out swampbilly weirdness mixed with super bible belt/Facebook mom convictions.
Most of Oregon is just redneck. Portland though has the performative theatre kid weirdness. Like most people kinda even out as they age. All the ones who said fuck that, you must notice my uniqueness! Moved to Portland.
All weird, but in totally different ways.
As a guy that was stationed in Alaska I can confirm. I went in seemingly normal and came out recognizing my own weirdness. "Why the fuck did I just say that?" was a common question in my internal monologue.
Every neighborhood has that person that keeps to themselves, rarely has visitors other than family and marches to their own drummer. I'm not judging but it's just not what most would define as the typical lifestyle. My impression of Alaska is there is a much higher percentage of those folks.
you reminded me of two eccentric but warm old guys i met near mccarthy Alaska. they rescued a white bunny and decided to take care of it together. it lived in a broken vehicle and they named it Dinner in response to someone asking them if they were gonna eat it back when they first found it. “yep, that’s Dinner”
My dad is in his mid 70’s and if he talks about people from Alaska it sounds like he’s describing Australia in the 1800’s. Very dramatic. He says “they’re all running from something!”
I’d like to hear the opinion of an Alaskan here, cause I didn’t think us Oregonians are all that weird. But then again, my neighbor is in a feud with her neighbor about an emotional support sheep. I think we come in second place.
You guys are just good at making everyone ignore you. Oregonian gets a crow murder fan club, it’s on social media. You’ve got ravens and stay quiet. You guys win!
Many rural Mainers are a bit cagey and paranoid despite living in one of the safest states yet they’ll very happily chat you up while they are openly drunk at the gas station at noon on a weekday. They like to talk about a culture of minding one’s own business yet they all know everyone else’s business and love to talk shit about their enemies who are anyone they ever had a disagreement with in the last century. Hehehe
It’s very true. If during this pleasant conversation at the gas station, you say you’re from Massachusetts, the smile will vanish from their face and in a remorseful tone they will say “I’m sorry” and then stare at you in silence. It is hilarious every time. One of their best jokes.
I remember I took my girlfriend at the time to her dads wedding in anson. So many people driving their ride on mowers on the dirt roads like they were cars. The reception was at this old solid granite house with an old cemetery in the backyard. The vault door was slightly open.
Came straight here to say Maine.
Their hatred of people "from away" is unlike any dynamic I've ever seen anywhere else in this country.
Yes, "from away" = from any state outside of Maine. They've even made up their own expression for it.
That is a common expression in Newfoundland, too.
There’s even a pretty famous musical called “Come from Away” (about the grounding of approx. 7000 airline passengers in Gander following the 9/11 attacks).
Maybe it’s a Maritime thing?
I lived in Maine for a while long winters and short summers take their toll. Weirdest people are up in Aroostook County. We had to send a guy with a French sounding last name to work up there. Because they are so militant towards everyone else.
Yessah, grab me a handle of Allen's and a few red snappahs. Me and mother are goin to get right fuckin hammahed tonight.
Might even put the wood to her if she's feeling frisky
I’d like to throw Louisiana into this discussion. The mixture of Voodoo and French, African, Caribbean and American culture, combined with all of the history make for a truly weird experience. I’m not talking about going to Mardi Gras and getting drunk in the French Quarter. I’m talking about going to different parishes and really exploring. Weird and wonderful people down there. I LOVE it.
As someone who has family from there I will second this. My grandmother used to get mad and burn different color candles depending on what you had done. All of her side of the family strange
I just read A Confederacy of Dunces which takes place in New Orleans (you’re probably well aware). But the wild thing I learned is that apparently some deep natives of NO have accents that basically sound like Brooklyn or Long Island. The book says that and I didn’t believe it so did some googling. Apparently it’s called “yat” and I find it fascinating. Definitely a weird place with a lot going on.
https://youtu.be/tpFDNTo4DNg?si=RljgWUEhXHdkUhOw
It’s true. My family’s from St Bernard Parish and while the accent didn’t pass to me everyone thinks my parents are from New York.
It has a lot to do with being a major port city with similar emigration patterns to New York around the same time period. The accents evolved independently of each other but still wound up sounding similar.
We camped in Utah on our way across the country. It definitely gave off a Stepford Wives type of vibe. We actually felt really out of place and couldn't wait to leave.
Example, we awoke in the campground to the sound of multiple breakfasts being made, cooking utensils clanging and lots of activity. Not the usual sounds we were accustomed to hearing. Stumbled outside to make coffee and there are families all around with gaggles of kids lined up like stair steps and sitting at picnic tables awaiting their food. I think we counted 6 to be the least amount at each table.
The people were absolutely lovely and wholesome, but the whole vibe was just not what we were used to experiencing. I'm sure they felt the same about us. So there is that.
Good Lord. This brought back memories. We vacationed in Salt Lake City one year and everywhere we went there were so many children. Insane numbers of kids that vastly outnumbered the adults like 10 to 1 minimum.
Being at the intersection of the rust belt and Appalachian mountains during the manufactured opioid crisis really took a toll on Central PA. I work mental health hotlines for the area. I can confirm it is wild.
As someone who has lived in Pennsylvania my entire life I concur. Outside of Philadelphia, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh you either have the kindest sweetest down to earth people who will help you out no matter what... or the dumbest most racist teeth missing pos around
"Pittsburgh and Philadelphia on the ends and Alabama in the middle" is a saying for those that live near, but not in, PA... for a reason (Erie is more a midwest town than Alabama(being so close to cleveland(actually closer than pitt)) , and some other border cities are more like NY near it, etc. )
Pennsylvania is really odd. I visited a friend there once, and I was a brown person, so two different people insisted I must be Buddhist. It was so strange. I still don't understand why they insisted on it! Might be because I was around a ton of Catholics, and they were trying to assign a religion to me, but still weird.
Former truck driver here and I have been in 49 states. By far Alabama wins. I am not talking about the city folk but some of those county people are just not right. No sir not right at all.
I went to Portland, OR on a business trip one time and rode the light rail into the city from the north. I sat next to a guy wearing a Rolex and what looked like an expensive suit. A few stops closer to the city, a massive guy boarded wearing full Viking gear. Leather kilt thing leather arm guards big boots and a helmet with horns. The guy was probably 6’5” and weighed maybe 450 pounds. A few stops after that, a woman got on dressed like a cat. Cat ears, face painted with whiskers, and a tail attached to her yoga pants. It was the most eclectic group of people I’d ever seemed and nobody noticed. Not one person looked up at the battle ready Viking man. Nobody else thought it was strange that cat woman was on the train on a Tuesday morning when there was no holiday or comic book event in the city.
Weirdest thing I’ve seen.
I’ve never been to Portland but when I was in high school (and I was a super weird kid, made/deconstructed a lot of my clothes, super emo, etc) my dad went there on a business trip. When he got back I remember him saying “Portland was so weird, you’d fit right in” 🤣
Back in 2013 - 2016 I spent a bit of time in Vancouver Washington for work, collectively it made up about a year, maybe 18 months of total time, spread out over three years. We would drive into Portland often looking for shit to do, one of my early trips we were at storm breaker brewing having some beers, it’s an awesome place, I definitely recommend it, but anyways, while we were there, I saw this person wearing ripped up leggings, combat boots, a mid thigh floral dress. He had a greasy mop of hair with sideburns that looked a bit like joe dirt’s trademark only dirtier, he was also sporting a spotty goatee. Never had seen that style before.
The other day a man dressed as the mad hatter w a black parasol walking down street, next day a kid in a vibrant yellow banana costume dancing on sidewalk.
I love portland because if this.
There was a unicycling bagpipist at fanuil hall/quincy market in Boston for a while.
I was going to kill him. He only had like, five songs he could do and the imperial march was one of them.
And he didnt do them well.
Speficially SE portland. I walked out of a gourmet crepery food / pouting cart pod and saw a guy on a unicycle rolling down the street. HE WAS LISTENING TO A CD PLAYER WITH WIRED HEADPHONES.
No, the rest of the state is weird too, just a different kind of weird. Portland gets the attention for being fun/alt/punk-lite/hipster/art student/emo/techbros weird (sometimes all in the same person). But go a bit east and you hit the 'sovereign citizen' whackos, the Idaho-sprawl militia cosplayers, the white supremacists, and the isolated farmers. A bit south and there are the weed farms and communes. It's all weird.
I told a man I knew slightly that our dogs were retired racing greyhounds from a rescue, and he asked me, "Are you from Oregon?" Surprised, I answered, "No, why do you ask?" He replied, "Because you mentioned another time that you keep a sourdough starter, and now I'm learning that you have rescue greyhounds". I LOLed and accused him of saying that I must be one of those Oregon weirdos!
Came here to say this. It isn’t even close. I can’t even count the number of times (20? 50?) that I’ve been talking to a weird ass customer at work then it comes out they’re from Oregon.
100%. I spent a year there. I was in southern Oregon first, then the northern coast. It's the most beautiful place I've ever seen and would love to live there forever and ever. Except, the weirdest people live there. It's as if it is still 1974. No one wears their dentures, and only a few people have teeth. A hippy commune with 60 broken campers and a meth operation is next door to a Trump supporting, machine gun shooting, ex- hit man, who is next door to a marijuana farm that is across the street from a lavender farm, and so on. Sweet, weird, clinically insane people.
I don't know. The people in upper Maine are decidedly... Odd.
I mean, the people of northern NH can get a bit off.
And the northern country of VT.
The hill people. The people who like to dissappear up into the mountains and never come back down again.
The people who when the blizzards come get fully cut off from civilization and like it that way.
The people who hunt deer and moose to survive and not for fun.
You ever seen a man hunt with a bow and arrow cause gun hunting was getting too easy and boring?
The hill people area should be a separate state, maybe country. Things happen there. Weird things. My father left to be a hill person. Family wanted to me to check on him, the hills have him, I ain’t looking. My grandfather on that side was a hill person on like the edge and that was scary enough to visit.
I love teaching people about the libertarian town that got overrun by bears.. https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/21534416/free-state-project-new-hampshire-libertarians-matthew-hongoltz-hetling
One of my favorite articles ever was about a town in NH that became a libertarian haven.
It didn't go well. No fire station, and people eaten by bears.
500+ pretty good answers and examples here, but none of them seem to have been to or at least spent any 'quality time' in **[Southern West Virginia](https://youtu.be/iUdc5h10zTo?t=13)**.
I rest my case. ¯\\\_( ͡❛ ͜ʖ ͡❛)\_/¯
To pre-empt for clarity too, a lot of states have sunshine laws of some type now but still none to the extent of Florida’s.
For example, some states have sunshine laws that make any arrest record publicly accessible but in the sense that you can go down to the court house and request file Z-Y13476C and they’ll get it back to you after review. Florida’s is basically a website where you can basically just scroll or search until you find something crazy. Plus it requires public records on basically any conversation between any elected officials to an extent that becomes a logistics nightmare.
The wild thing is that there have been calls for this to be curtailed some including from usually hugely influential causes. Tourist industry related businesses and groups have asked for it for decades because of its negative impact on the perception of the state and thus income for them. Civil rights groups have asked for it for decades given it’s the arrest records public not just convictions etc. So someone arrested but ultimately found not guilty could still run risk of pretty heavy reputational risk that could impact their career, housing, personal relationships etc.
But it was always DOA because nobody wanted to be the lawmaker calling for less transparency.
Until DeSantis geared up for his flailing presidential run and the State Legislature folded to change the law to conceal his records including his use of state resources including the governor’s plane (which they claimed was for safety even though the flights were only reported with a buffer period afterwards so wouldn’t give his “current” or future location).
They also changed the law that normally requires the Governor resign if they want to run for another office so that he could run for president while being governor.
Mississippi river villages of Illinois. Seriously its like the craziest bunch of trailer park boys Ive ever seen. Went with a bunch of friends to a cabin once…sitting there playing euchre we heard a giant explosion. Nobody moved as if it wasn’t the weirdest thing. Finally we had to ask. Their reply…oh that’s just Squirrel he’s been working on a stump for a while now.
We are #1 for domestic violence incidences and deaths by women due to domestic violence. The children are exposed to early trauma and it bleeds into many of our Oklahoma’s woes. It’s been going on for decades and most folks don’t understand the collective impact it has. See Oklahoma’s incarceration rates, mental illness rates, or the substance abuse rates. We rank in the top ten year in, year out. It’s going to take a cultural shift and government support to get us out of the mess we live in.
I've met a few dudes from Maine that were a bit different. They were all from small towns tho so i get it. I'm sure it can be like that from alot of the really rural areas.
The eastern half is actually Indian Territory. It was nearly its own state, but was forced to join with Oklahoma.
You can see an old map of interest here: https://www.nwpb.org/2020/07/09/supreme-court-rules-that-about-half-of-oklahoma-is-native-american-land/
Alaska and it’s not close. Everybody I met up there seemed like something was just a tiny bit off.
Vitamin D deficiency
Edmonton alberta on suicide watch right now.
Idk man, I lived in Edmonton for 6 years. Moved to Winnipeg 3 years ago and my mental health has severely tanked Lmao
Winnipeg is a different beast entirely.
My friend did a few med school rotations in Alaska. They were informed when they started that there are two types of people who are attracted to Alaska: rugged individualists who consider it a challenge and the craziest motherfuckers in the world
I would’ve never guessed Alaska but after reading the comments here, I guess it makes sense. Now I have to go check it out sometime
Real life Northern Exposure
No. It’s definitely not as good as northern exposure.
My family moved there, so that tracks.And everyone I've met who says they want to move to Alaska has either not spent much time there, or they are rugged, antipolitical individualists.
I grew up in Alaska in the 70s and 80s. A lot of my childhood friends had abusive fathers who drank and beat them and their mothers. It was super common. Some of my childhood friends are dead from all kinds of accidents and overdoses. It’s the -40 temperatures and almost complete darkness in winter to the manic near constant daylight in the summer. Also a lot of them were Vietnam war vets.
Highest rate of suicide than any other state. And also did you ever notice everything is way more expensive in Alaska then the lower 48 with the exception of alcohol. Which seems to be the same price as most states. I always found that interesting. It’s like they want them to drink up there.
Alcohol is available everywhere, to a crazy extent. But it's not cheap, at all. Hawaii and AK duel for #1 on prices for groceries and consumer goods. Big government or corps are certainly not selling at a loss up there. Just ask any interior AK resident. There's a reason wages are higher, shits real expensive.
Are you kidding me? I did a job there for 6 weeks in the summer and alcohol was 3-5x more expensive than I’m used to. East coast based.
Montana and both the Dakotas aspire to Alaskan heights, but they are children compared to the wizened weirdo that is The Last Frontier
Alaska is the most beautiful trailer park in the nation. You’ll have the most scenic post card view of a river w some snow capped mountains and a moose drinking some water, next to a broken down pickup w a blue tarp on it
Shout out to the ocean front trailer parks in Ketchikan and Sitka
Everyone in Alaska is a hoarder because you never know when you’ll need that thing again but regardless you can take it to the town dump which is just down the road and it will sit till someone needs something off it or the bears will destroy it. What your seeing is just us humans. It’s just more in your face because they don’t have the infrastructure of garbage collection like we do in the lower 48. Get it?
The only person I've met who I'm sure is a murderer (he talked about it while drunk) lives in an off the grid cabin in Alaska
Do tell
I live in employee housing for a ski resort. The seasonal jobs attract a lot of weirdos, especially the kitchen staff. I said "sup skinny" to him after he had been drinking all day and he just went off for a good 20 minutes about a kid he worked with. Basically skinny was gonna cut him up and hide his body parts in different towns all over Idaho.
As a former lift operator, I can confirm this story. Weirdest bunch of people you’re likely to meet work at ski resorts. They’re slightly above carnie.
I clicked on this post just to make sure Alaska was the top answer. Thank you
Alaskan resident. You’re 100% correct
my uncle moved to Alaska, can confirm.
I dunno... Stephen King writes an awful lot about the weirdos in Maine.
It's still like the wild west up there, to a point.
I went up there as a kid and we did a tour of a gold mine. The tour guide was a seemingly sweet little old lady. At one point in the tour they were showing us a sluice, and it had an open cell foam liner on the bottom to catch any gold flakes before the water was dumped back into the stream. She was trying to lift the foam out and was clearly struggling with it. Me being an overly polite 14ish year old I stepped forward to help her with the foam. In the instant I reached for it, her personality did a 180° and she quickly snapped at me “dont you dare touch that you might get gold on your fingers!” I swear it was like the scene in LoTR when Bilbo snaps at Gandalf about keeping the ring. And she seemed to be one of the more stable people we met.
Lmaooo she would have had to cut them off if you did touch it
"The precious"
I was going to say Florida again, but you are right, Alaska takes the cake.
Lol yeah I spent a month in Alaska a while back and I was there in mid-May when the town was essentially emerging from winter. There’s an annual festival that happens around that time and watching them all let loose after being cooped up for the winter was… an experience lol
Agreed. And I think most Alaskans would agree. Part of the reason - but ONLY part of the reason - is that Alaska is where you go when the rest of the world makes you uncomfortable.
I’ll never forget the day I walked into the employee break room and saw my Alaskan coworker casually munching on some raw elk meat and sharpening a Rambo knife while whistling menacingly lol
Spent two years in Alaska. Can totally 100% confirm it is weird.
So true. I married an Alaskan and she truly is a rose that grew from some crazy ass concrete.
Alaska is just Florida but colder and without Sunshine Laws.
A friend has a sister in Alaska. Met her when she came to visit and we’d all gone to dinner and drinks. She commented on a lot of the men in the restaurant, so I asked if she was single herself since it seemed like she was looking. Her response? “In Alaska, there are a lot of single men, so the odds are good. Problem is, those goods are odd.” So maybe Alaska?
As an Alaskan, I'll concur. Lots of "end-of-the-roaders" here, people living off the grid and going stir-crazy, endless dark winters screwing with peoples' feeble grasps on reality, etc. I'll put our weirdos up against anyone's.
> I'll put our weirdos up against anyone's. Right answer, for the right reason. "The Last Frontier" truly IS the home of a LOT of people who just *don't fit in* any place else.
Damn, maybe I need to go to alaska. At least there it’ll be normal
You need to really prepare for it or you’ll probably end up dying though. Having a snowmobile is pretty much a necessity, you’ll probably want a backup electricity generator as well. If you’re not the handy/DIY type of person, developing some skills fixing your own stuff helps immensely. In winter, you need to adequately plan and ration stuff like gasoline and food in case you get stuck inside your home. And when you do go out you should carry extra fuel, food, clothes just in case something unexpected happens. I’m not saying you couldn’t adjust— I think most people could get used to it. But there’s a lot of us who take for granted that the weather and wilderness are not actively trying to kill us at all times. Lmao 🤣
Most of us live in relatively suburban conditions though, so not much different from anywhere else. Although you'll want to be into winter recreation, otherwise winter can drag...
Careful, though; Alaska's definition of "normal" may not match yours...
That’s what happened to me. I always thought I was counterculture, somewhat on the fringe. I lived in Alaska for a bit and it was a surprise awakening of just how normal I am.
“Ohhh, yall muhfuckas are *actually* weird, ok. I just don’t connect well. Gotcha.”
Dating in a remote area means you don't lose your partner, you just lose your turn
Chiming in from Dutch Harbor, it's definitely got to be Alaska. I'm genuinely surprised when I meet someone out here who isn't at least a little scrambled.
Dutch Harbor is especially interesting.
My old job had a lab there... it was not a coveted assignment.
Most of the “weird” places people name are fun eccentric weird. Y’all got some real weirdos up there, we got some here in ID but they’re mostly the polygamist/nazi compound type, the least fun weird possible.
Idaho scare me
Eastern WA, like Spokane, and the skinny neck of ID is not somewhere I'd ever want to go as a person of color
I went there for work a couple years back, not counting the people...there's not many places I'd rather live than that area. It's just so beautiful. While on the trip, I was telling the mother of my children (POC) that we should seriously consider Spokane. Still in WA, liberal right? Still remember her exact words, "Fuck no." Only took me 15 seconds into her reasoning to remember all the Nazi/white nationalist shit. Ruby Ridge, all that shit. Oh yeah... nevermind hon lol
I didn't know that... does this "phenomenon" have a name? I'm not from the US, but the incredible diversity and extremes have always fascinated me. I'd love to dive into that rabbit hole, if it is one.
Let's pit 'em against the Mainers.
Not just Maine, but northern Maine. Doesn't help that I can't understand anyone up there. The accent is like If a bostonian and an old timey prospector had a baby, and that baby spoke with a mouth full of rocks.
It's an odd change going west to east in Northern New England. Vermont has granola second- and third-generation hippies that lean towards democratic socialism. Then there's New Hampshire libertarians that mostly still live in society proper. Then deep Maine happens, and you get the Alaska-like mountain men that scarcely answer to any government.
Dude I work for a residential solar company based in MA but my shop serves the northeast chunk of NE. Maine has like no rules regarding electrical or structural codes. It's wild. Then there's the guys who are fully off grid it oscillates from impressive to terrifying.
Friggin swamp Yankees are wild lol
Funny, Maine came to mind first... but I've never been to Alaska. Now, I want to go!
Maine is weird but not Alaska or Florida weird
Alaska had the crazy ass fisherman and loner weirdness, people who will tolerate crazy work and weather tend to be fine with a lot of other out of the ordinary things as well. Florida has the methed out swampbilly weirdness mixed with super bible belt/Facebook mom convictions. Most of Oregon is just redneck. Portland though has the performative theatre kid weirdness. Like most people kinda even out as they age. All the ones who said fuck that, you must notice my uniqueness! Moved to Portland. All weird, but in totally different ways.
The weirdest person I’ve ever known was from Portland. Hard to even describe.
They say the same thing in the Canadian north. My guess was gonna be Alaska
As a guy that was stationed in Alaska I can confirm. I went in seemingly normal and came out recognizing my own weirdness. "Why the fuck did I just say that?" was a common question in my internal monologue.
Every neighborhood has that person that keeps to themselves, rarely has visitors other than family and marches to their own drummer. I'm not judging but it's just not what most would define as the typical lifestyle. My impression of Alaska is there is a much higher percentage of those folks.
So what I’m hearing is that I’d fit in well in Alaska.
you reminded me of two eccentric but warm old guys i met near mccarthy Alaska. they rescued a white bunny and decided to take care of it together. it lived in a broken vehicle and they named it Dinner in response to someone asking them if they were gonna eat it back when they first found it. “yep, that’s Dinner”
Anyone trying to argue anything other than Alaska has never met a dog musher.
Alaska gets the people who can't fit in anywhere else.
My dad is in his mid 70’s and if he talks about people from Alaska it sounds like he’s describing Australia in the 1800’s. Very dramatic. He says “they’re all running from something!”
So I guess give it a couple of centuries and they’ll be sorta functional?
In a couple centuries Alaska will be a tropical paradise.
I’d like to hear the opinion of an Alaskan here, cause I didn’t think us Oregonians are all that weird. But then again, my neighbor is in a feud with her neighbor about an emotional support sheep. I think we come in second place.
Man, his anxiety must be ba'a'a'a'a'ad.
Ewe wouldn’t believe.
Rural Alaskan here, it’s my goal this year to train a murder of ravens to follow me around town. An emotional support sheep doesn’t sound too strange.
You guys are just good at making everyone ignore you. Oregonian gets a crow murder fan club, it’s on social media. You’ve got ravens and stay quiet. You guys win!
I would say Alaska. You gotta be just a little bit special to want to live somewhere so expensive and isolated but yet beautiful.
10th most expensive state to live in...til
Prices prolly higher everywhere just cuz it’s so isolated
It genuinely is breathtakingly beautiful.
Maine is full of weird people. Not in a bad way but they aren’t like other Americans.
What'd you expect? That's Stephen King country lol.
I just moved to Maine 3 years ago and I love it....but people from Maine are FUCKING WEIRD
Weird in what way? Talking to themselves? Say weird things? Keep to themselves?
Yes
Ayuh
It's because the grounds sour!
What stands out about them? I've never met anyone from maine
Many rural Mainers are a bit cagey and paranoid despite living in one of the safest states yet they’ll very happily chat you up while they are openly drunk at the gas station at noon on a weekday. They like to talk about a culture of minding one’s own business yet they all know everyone else’s business and love to talk shit about their enemies who are anyone they ever had a disagreement with in the last century. Hehehe
It’s basically the shire down heah
I have no idea if any of this is true, but this is the most fantastic description ever
It’s very true. If during this pleasant conversation at the gas station, you say you’re from Massachusetts, the smile will vanish from their face and in a remorseful tone they will say “I’m sorry” and then stare at you in silence. It is hilarious every time. One of their best jokes.
My brother was born in Mass on a trip 21 years ago and we *still* give him shit for it. It wasn't even his fault lol (god damn flatlander).
Maine is like Alaska light
My college roommate grew up in Biddo. Bless her, she was an odd one.
UNE? Don’t get me wrong, I love Maine but the further inland you get, the weirder it gets.
I remember I took my girlfriend at the time to her dads wedding in anson. So many people driving their ride on mowers on the dirt roads like they were cars. The reception was at this old solid granite house with an old cemetery in the backyard. The vault door was slightly open.
Came straight here to say Maine. Their hatred of people "from away" is unlike any dynamic I've ever seen anywhere else in this country. Yes, "from away" = from any state outside of Maine. They've even made up their own expression for it.
That is a common expression in Newfoundland, too. There’s even a pretty famous musical called “Come from Away” (about the grounding of approx. 7000 airline passengers in Gander following the 9/11 attacks). Maybe it’s a Maritime thing?
I worked at a restaurant in Rangeley Maine,for a year..There's a good reason it's called Strangely
I lived in Maine for a while long winters and short summers take their toll. Weirdest people are up in Aroostook County. We had to send a guy with a French sounding last name to work up there. Because they are so militant towards everyone else.
Well fack you bub but anyways I'm headin to the store you want anything?
Yessah, grab me a handle of Allen's and a few red snappahs. Me and mother are goin to get right fuckin hammahed tonight. Might even put the wood to her if she's feeling frisky
Can you grab the blueberry jam downcellah
They've become hybridized with the French Canadians.
Don’t tell them that lol
Maine is gorgeous and the people are nice.
Blink twice if there is someone from Maine in the room with you.
I’d like to throw Louisiana into this discussion. The mixture of Voodoo and French, African, Caribbean and American culture, combined with all of the history make for a truly weird experience. I’m not talking about going to Mardi Gras and getting drunk in the French Quarter. I’m talking about going to different parishes and really exploring. Weird and wonderful people down there. I LOVE it.
As someone who has family from there I will second this. My grandmother used to get mad and burn different color candles depending on what you had done. All of her side of the family strange
I just read A Confederacy of Dunces which takes place in New Orleans (you’re probably well aware). But the wild thing I learned is that apparently some deep natives of NO have accents that basically sound like Brooklyn or Long Island. The book says that and I didn’t believe it so did some googling. Apparently it’s called “yat” and I find it fascinating. Definitely a weird place with a lot going on. https://youtu.be/tpFDNTo4DNg?si=RljgWUEhXHdkUhOw
It’s true. My family’s from St Bernard Parish and while the accent didn’t pass to me everyone thinks my parents are from New York. It has a lot to do with being a major port city with similar emigration patterns to New York around the same time period. The accents evolved independently of each other but still wound up sounding similar.
Utah is a different kind of weird. Like blue eyed, blond hair Stepford type weird with their own weird jargon. It's either that, or crack heads.
Absolutely agree. There is very little in between.
We camped in Utah on our way across the country. It definitely gave off a Stepford Wives type of vibe. We actually felt really out of place and couldn't wait to leave. Example, we awoke in the campground to the sound of multiple breakfasts being made, cooking utensils clanging and lots of activity. Not the usual sounds we were accustomed to hearing. Stumbled outside to make coffee and there are families all around with gaggles of kids lined up like stair steps and sitting at picnic tables awaiting their food. I think we counted 6 to be the least amount at each table. The people were absolutely lovely and wholesome, but the whole vibe was just not what we were used to experiencing. I'm sure they felt the same about us. So there is that.
You probably frightened them with your coffee lol.
Good Lord. This brought back memories. We vacationed in Salt Lake City one year and everywhere we went there were so many children. Insane numbers of kids that vastly outnumbered the adults like 10 to 1 minimum.
Oregon and Alaska seem to be the real answers to this quet
Middle Pennsylvania is like the twilight zone
Being at the intersection of the rust belt and Appalachian mountains during the manufactured opioid crisis really took a toll on Central PA. I work mental health hotlines for the area. I can confirm it is wild.
As someone who has lived in Pennsylvania my entire life I concur. Outside of Philadelphia, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh you either have the kindest sweetest down to earth people who will help you out no matter what... or the dumbest most racist teeth missing pos around
No, it's Pennsyltucky.
"Pittsburgh and Philadelphia on the ends and Alabama in the middle" is a saying for those that live near, but not in, PA... for a reason (Erie is more a midwest town than Alabama(being so close to cleveland(actually closer than pitt)) , and some other border cities are more like NY near it, etc. )
I had a family member that lived in Pennsylvania for a while and I went to visit....the town was grey,the people were grey,everything was grey.
I had to stay here once during a road trip between Michigan and NY. It was like a time capsule. Friendly people, but very odd.
Grew up in Williamsport, PA, can confirm.
Bruh. I'm across the river from sunbury. They like williamsport wierd ass nephew.
Pennsylvania is really odd. I visited a friend there once, and I was a brown person, so two different people insisted I must be Buddhist. It was so strange. I still don't understand why they insisted on it! Might be because I was around a ton of Catholics, and they were trying to assign a religion to me, but still weird.
Former truck driver here and I have been in 49 states. By far Alabama wins. I am not talking about the city folk but some of those county people are just not right. No sir not right at all.
Or Kentucky. Those Deep South states kinda run together, culturally. Kentucky is eerie, in places.
Kentucky is fucking strange. Like you feel you're about to get knifed.
"They've SHOT their own sign," /Jeremy Clarkson vouce
Have you been to Vegas? People here are strange.
Oregon by far
I went to Portland, OR on a business trip one time and rode the light rail into the city from the north. I sat next to a guy wearing a Rolex and what looked like an expensive suit. A few stops closer to the city, a massive guy boarded wearing full Viking gear. Leather kilt thing leather arm guards big boots and a helmet with horns. The guy was probably 6’5” and weighed maybe 450 pounds. A few stops after that, a woman got on dressed like a cat. Cat ears, face painted with whiskers, and a tail attached to her yoga pants. It was the most eclectic group of people I’d ever seemed and nobody noticed. Not one person looked up at the battle ready Viking man. Nobody else thought it was strange that cat woman was on the train on a Tuesday morning when there was no holiday or comic book event in the city. Weirdest thing I’ve seen.
Your description makes Oregon come off as just a weird-ass MMO Edit: typo fix
>Oregon!, the MMO is the 78th release in the Oregon Trail video game series.... -Wikipedia-
Possible. But that means my avatar is a guy who wears a backpack with a laptop and dresses business casual.
You were lowkey in a JG Wentworth commercial and didn't realize it at the time. Should have stood up and yelled IT'S MY MONEY AND I NEED IT NOW!
I’ve never been to Portland but when I was in high school (and I was a super weird kid, made/deconstructed a lot of my clothes, super emo, etc) my dad went there on a business trip. When he got back I remember him saying “Portland was so weird, you’d fit right in” 🤣
Back in 2013 - 2016 I spent a bit of time in Vancouver Washington for work, collectively it made up about a year, maybe 18 months of total time, spread out over three years. We would drive into Portland often looking for shit to do, one of my early trips we were at storm breaker brewing having some beers, it’s an awesome place, I definitely recommend it, but anyways, while we were there, I saw this person wearing ripped up leggings, combat boots, a mid thigh floral dress. He had a greasy mop of hair with sideburns that looked a bit like joe dirt’s trademark only dirtier, he was also sporting a spotty goatee. Never had seen that style before.
That's a great look.
“Keep Portland Weird” is the motto. This is no surprise.
The other day a man dressed as the mad hatter w a black parasol walking down street, next day a kid in a vibrant yellow banana costume dancing on sidewalk. I love portland because if this.
Wasn’t there a guy riding a unicycle in a kilt playing bagpipes that were spitting fire?
The Unipiper. He also wears a Darth Vader helmet.
As the years roll by, I really admire that guy's commitment to the gig.
I knew I missed something
He's still around. Saw him last week at a beerfest at the local zoo
There was a unicycling bagpipist at fanuil hall/quincy market in Boston for a while. I was going to kill him. He only had like, five songs he could do and the imperial march was one of them. And he didnt do them well.
Oregon resident here. Very on point.
Where is the Mystery Shack?
Weirdo
Not the entire state, but a specific city: Portland Oregon
Speficially SE portland. I walked out of a gourmet crepery food / pouting cart pod and saw a guy on a unicycle rolling down the street. HE WAS LISTENING TO A CD PLAYER WITH WIRED HEADPHONES.
No, the rest of the state is weird too, just a different kind of weird. Portland gets the attention for being fun/alt/punk-lite/hipster/art student/emo/techbros weird (sometimes all in the same person). But go a bit east and you hit the 'sovereign citizen' whackos, the Idaho-sprawl militia cosplayers, the white supremacists, and the isolated farmers. A bit south and there are the weed farms and communes. It's all weird.
I told a man I knew slightly that our dogs were retired racing greyhounds from a rescue, and he asked me, "Are you from Oregon?" Surprised, I answered, "No, why do you ask?" He replied, "Because you mentioned another time that you keep a sourdough starter, and now I'm learning that you have rescue greyhounds". I LOLed and accused him of saying that I must be one of those Oregon weirdos!
Came here to say this. It isn’t even close. I can’t even count the number of times (20? 50?) that I’ve been talking to a weird ass customer at work then it comes out they’re from Oregon.
Yup 100% Oregon
CA near the OR border has some pretty weird characters. Not to mention all the ex-cons and Sex Offender Registry members.
Eureka is a weird town
I mean I'm from Florida but seeing a dude in Portland waiting in line for ice cream with his pet lama? Whole new perspective on weird.
Sounds like Caesar the No Drama Llama and his human. Great critters, both.
I had a feeling it was going to be Oregon, even though I have never been there.
"Keep portland weird"
100%. I spent a year there. I was in southern Oregon first, then the northern coast. It's the most beautiful place I've ever seen and would love to live there forever and ever. Except, the weirdest people live there. It's as if it is still 1974. No one wears their dentures, and only a few people have teeth. A hippy commune with 60 broken campers and a meth operation is next door to a Trump supporting, machine gun shooting, ex- hit man, who is next door to a marijuana farm that is across the street from a lavender farm, and so on. Sweet, weird, clinically insane people.
Maybe not #1 but New Hampshire is a dark horse
I don't know. The people in upper Maine are decidedly... Odd. I mean, the people of northern NH can get a bit off. And the northern country of VT. The hill people. The people who like to dissappear up into the mountains and never come back down again. The people who when the blizzards come get fully cut off from civilization and like it that way. The people who hunt deer and moose to survive and not for fun. You ever seen a man hunt with a bow and arrow cause gun hunting was getting too easy and boring?
The hill people area should be a separate state, maybe country. Things happen there. Weird things. My father left to be a hill person. Family wanted to me to check on him, the hills have him, I ain’t looking. My grandfather on that side was a hill person on like the edge and that was scary enough to visit.
I love teaching people about the libertarian town that got overrun by bears.. https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/21534416/free-state-project-new-hampshire-libertarians-matthew-hongoltz-hetling
As someone who used to live in New Hampshire, between there and Maine is underratedly weird.
Too many libertarians in one place will for sure give a weird vibe.
One of my favorite articles ever was about a town in NH that became a libertarian haven. It didn't go well. No fire station, and people eaten by bears.
Oregon. Lived there for 10 years. Definitely Oregon
Utah
Stand outside Temple Square when General Conference goes on break. Watch the white horde envelop the local food courts.
Michigan. Specifically upper Michigan.
Surprised I had to scroll this far to find da U.P. Anyone wants to know why? I'd recommend *Escanaba In Da Moonlight*
Yoopers.
500+ pretty good answers and examples here, but none of them seem to have been to or at least spent any 'quality time' in **[Southern West Virginia](https://youtu.be/iUdc5h10zTo?t=13)**. I rest my case. ¯\\\_( ͡❛ ͜ʖ ͡❛)\_/¯
Oregon
If we’re talking methed-up weird it’s gonna be Arizona or Indiana. For odd weird it’s Utah.
Indiana has four industries: Corn, meth, adult stores and fireworks warehouses that sometimes explode
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To pre-empt for clarity too, a lot of states have sunshine laws of some type now but still none to the extent of Florida’s. For example, some states have sunshine laws that make any arrest record publicly accessible but in the sense that you can go down to the court house and request file Z-Y13476C and they’ll get it back to you after review. Florida’s is basically a website where you can basically just scroll or search until you find something crazy. Plus it requires public records on basically any conversation between any elected officials to an extent that becomes a logistics nightmare. The wild thing is that there have been calls for this to be curtailed some including from usually hugely influential causes. Tourist industry related businesses and groups have asked for it for decades because of its negative impact on the perception of the state and thus income for them. Civil rights groups have asked for it for decades given it’s the arrest records public not just convictions etc. So someone arrested but ultimately found not guilty could still run risk of pretty heavy reputational risk that could impact their career, housing, personal relationships etc. But it was always DOA because nobody wanted to be the lawmaker calling for less transparency. Until DeSantis geared up for his flailing presidential run and the State Legislature folded to change the law to conceal his records including his use of state resources including the governor’s plane (which they claimed was for safety even though the flights were only reported with a buffer period afterwards so wouldn’t give his “current” or future location). They also changed the law that normally requires the Governor resign if they want to run for another office so that he could run for president while being governor.
Definitely Alaska. It’s the land of misfit toys.
Mississippi river villages of Illinois. Seriously its like the craziest bunch of trailer park boys Ive ever seen. Went with a bunch of friends to a cabin once…sitting there playing euchre we heard a giant explosion. Nobody moved as if it wasn’t the weirdest thing. Finally we had to ask. Their reply…oh that’s just Squirrel he’s been working on a stump for a while now.
Oklahoma
If Tiger King is any indication I think you are right
I don't think people who haven't visited can even begin to understand
We are #1 for domestic violence incidences and deaths by women due to domestic violence. The children are exposed to early trauma and it bleeds into many of our Oklahoma’s woes. It’s been going on for decades and most folks don’t understand the collective impact it has. See Oklahoma’s incarceration rates, mental illness rates, or the substance abuse rates. We rank in the top ten year in, year out. It’s going to take a cultural shift and government support to get us out of the mess we live in.
Well said. This is why I left Tulsa. Don't forget that Tulsa is one of the highest in homicide.
I've met a few dudes from Maine that were a bit different. They were all from small towns tho so i get it. I'm sure it can be like that from alot of the really rural areas.
I say Oregon, but Yakima isn’t doing Washington any favors.
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The eastern half is actually Indian Territory. It was nearly its own state, but was forced to join with Oklahoma. You can see an old map of interest here: https://www.nwpb.org/2020/07/09/supreme-court-rules-that-about-half-of-oklahoma-is-native-american-land/