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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   32956 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of May 1, 2023

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I think the geographical distribution of German-descended Americans does a lot to explain that.

The more conservative areas of the country are and have been the South and the Midwest, with the latter full of Germans and the former full of British Islanders. Southern conservatives were anxious to beat the Hun again, while Midwestern conservatives still had a lot of residual sympathy for the Fatherland.

I think it’s worth noting that German-Americans mostly spoke German at home until WWI and so in 1942 a lot of elders in German communities were still not very assimilated.

Not just the elders either. One of my parents’ next door neighbors was born in the mid-1930s; he didn’t speak a lick of English until he started the first grade. His family, neighbors, and fellow church members all spoke mostly German.

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