#Not denying American centricism but it is a really weird and unfortunate part of the way the country is.

[fvckw4d]

When USAmericans try to convey that America is a bunch of countries pretending to be united they tend to focus on culture, which is important, but all countries have regional cultural differences. What I think they're actually trying to explain is that the policy divide is so different between states you kind of cease to have rights the moment you leave your home state, even for vacation. Everyone has their state on their ID and license plate and birth certificate and if you move states you temporarily lose a lot of benefits as a citizen until some of those documents get changed, which is really weird if you think about it. So telling people which state you're from is a reflexive part of a conversation, even if it's meaningless to anyone outside of the US. There's a lot of places where the north and south part of the country are different, there are fewer places where you have to have special state medical insurance that only works in your state so if you cross a border in your own country and go to another town you just stop having healthcare.